My apologies to George Gershwin for adapting the title of one of his famous songs for my article today. The reason that summertime is a good time to write … yes, college application essays … is because the pace of livin’ (to borrow the original Gershwin song title word) is slower for most rising high school seniors. Thus, in order to get a significant jump on those Common Application essay(s) (there will be more than one if your college requires a Common App supplement), you should plan ahead and use the summer to your writing advantage.

In case you’re not familiar with those Common App prompts, here they are:

• Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?
• Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
• Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
• Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

As Veritas Prep interestingly points out: “The people behind The Common Application have just released the new essay prompts (PDF link) for college applicants who apply in the 2013-2014 admissions season. As noted in The Common Application Board of Directors’ announcement, these new prompts are the result of two years of discussion about where essays fit in the overall college admissions process. This is the first big change to the essays in years (including to the word counts!), and it’s clear that the Common Application Board didn’t take the task of reworking these essays lightly.”

One has to wonder why it took two years to make these changes. At least it won’t take you two years to write your Common App essay!

Summertime is also the time for reruns on TV. So, in that spirit, I’d like to do a rerun here of a very popular article (actually, a series of articles) that I wrote for College Confidential. It’s all about writing essays and uses real-life samples to inspire your writing skills. So, get out your notebooks and get ready to capture some thoughts that will propel you to Common App essay success! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s all about ROI. That’s Return on Investment, for those of you not financially minded. The question seems to boil down to: Will I get a positive return on the time and money I put into a college education?

I saw an interesting article about this. Why College Isn’t Always A Good Financial Investment makes a challenging statement: “Given that fewer than 60% of college students obtain a degree in six years, some people may be throwing money away — and piling on student loan debt.” Ah, there’s the rub. The four-year college degree is NOT a given. The report at the core of this article comes from the Brookings Institution: Should Everyone Go To College? It contains this dramatic proclamation:

While the average return to obtaining a college degree is clearly positive, we emphasize that it is not universally so. For certain schools, majors, occupations, and individuals, college may not be a smart investment. By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a disservice.

Whoa. Say what?! That should give the higher education mavens something to think about. Reading that “By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a disservice” makes me think about my mother serving tuna and rice casserole for dinner when I was in grade school and telling me that it was “chicken and rice.” I hated tuna when I was a kid (maybe it was the smell), so she told me her little white lie so that I would think I was eating something that was both enjoyable and good for me. That, at least in my mind, makes the “Everyone should go to college” concept the chicken-and-rice menu item at the higher education restaurant.

Let’s take a look at some of the rationale behind these contentions. If you are unsure about your motivation or need for a college education, perhaps some of this wisdom will help you make your decision.  Read the rest of this entry »

Many high school juniors wrapping up their school year now will be heading out for college visits over the summer and early fall. One thing that may happen during these visits is an admissions interview. We’ve discussed interviews before, but one of the most important issues frequently overlooked is appearance. You know the old saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Well, that’s especially true for college interviews. Then, later in life, once you’ve graduated from college and hit the job market, interviews become a major factor again. The stakes may be a bit higher for job interviews because a livelihood hangs in the balance.

For both situations, you’ll be putting your best foot forward. (I’ve often wondered if, indeed, we have a “best” foot. It seems to me that one would have a “better” foot, since we have only two. Anyway, why don’t we care to put our “better” hand forward, which is what we do when we shake hands during a greeting? Just random, meaningless, inane observations from the mind of Dave.) I recall a story related to me by a former tennis buddy of mine. He and his family were on vacation when they decided to visit the campus of one of his high-school-rising-senior son’s candidate colleges. It was a spur of the moment idea to visit. They had not planned a formal campus visit, but the school wasn’t that far out of their way. So, they arrived and began strolling over the grounds by themselves, not with the official tour group. They became so enthused by what they saw, they thought this might be a good time to visit the admissions office. They did and Dad suggested to his son that he may want to ask if he could get an interview.

The son agreed, although reluctantly, and asked the office secretary if it was possible to get an interview, even though he had not called ahead and formally scheduled one. The secretary made a few calls and, since it was summer and things were at a slower pace, an admissions officer agreed to speak with the young man. And he did. According to the son, all went well and things seemed positive. At this point in our conversation, I asked the Dad about the impromptu, impulsive nature of the interview. I knew that the son was a good student and the college was a decent match for him. I asked what eventually happened after the son applied to that school. The answer was that he was denied, which came as a big surprise to the applicant and his family. I was also surprised to hear this and asked a few other questions. My first was to ask about the wisdom of making an off-the-cuff decision to get an admissions interview while passing through on vacation. My friend chuckled and said, “Yeah, Ben [the son] didn’t have time to change out of his tee-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops!” Well . . . I didn’t say anything, but my my heavy suspicion was that Ben’s first impression upon the admissions officer was less than ideal.

Which brings me to an interesting article that speaks directly to this issue of excessive casualness among the younger generation. Managers to Millennials: Job interview no time to text, while targeted toward job interviews, is equally applicable to admissions interviews. Here’s the scoop.  Read the rest of this entry »

There has been a nice convergence of circumstances. First, this is my 500th Admit This! post. A milestone of sorts for me. Second, Eric Hoover of The Chronicle of Higher Education has posted a long, informative, and sometimes amusing article, profile really, about the history, development, and state of the art of College Confidential. In “College Confidential: a Field Guide,” Hoover covers much of the college-angst specter that is so prevalent among high schoolers and families today and how that has fed CC’s wild popularity. He also reveals some CC backstory, of which I’m proud to be a part. Perhaps the most impressive information he reveals is this:

Nevertheless, College Confidential is more popular than ever among prospective students and their parents. In March the number of visitors was up 31 percent from the year before. From April 2012 to this March, it attracted nearly 44 million visitors, receiving more than 281 million page views. Its hundreds of active forums are testaments to the appeal of crowdsourcing and citizen-experts. Year after year, the site informs how families all over the world talk about college admissions.

Speaking of those hundreds of forums, I just posted this thread on the CC forum: The CC Forum: 1,221,385 Topics (And Counting). That’s a true number, one that has probably risen since my posting. It seems unlikely that with so many topics discussed, posters could come up with new ones. They do, though, and you can see examples of that in the comments in that thread’s comments.

As The New York Times once said about CC, it contains “A wealth of information!” Our original goal back in 2001 (I was a co-founder) was to provide the Web’s best and most comprehensive source of free information about the oftentimes intimidating and confusing college admissions process. I’m not sure if there are adjudication services that could quantify CC’s subjective rank in that regard, but those 1.2 million forum topics might offer a clue as to how successful CC has been over the past dozen years. If you’ve never perused CC, check out its home page. The cool box over on the left scrolls hot forum topics for your edification. There’s also a plethora of articles, interviews, and book reviews, among other enlightenment, to help you get started on or refine your (or your child’s) college process. Check out Ask the Dean, a treasure chest of expertise that I’ve highlighted here before. If you’re in the hunt for prospective colleges, look no further than SuperMatch (TM), the Web’s most comprehensive and easy-to-use college search tool. Even all this just scratches the surface of what you can discover about the college process. And I haven’t even detailed the CC forum the way Eric Hoover has. Let’s sample some of his findings.  Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard the answer to the question, “What are the three most important considerations when dealing with real estate?” — Location, location, location.

Sometimes the same goes for college selection. In that situation, the question might be, “What is your most important criterion for picking a college in which to enroll?” Again, the answer might well be, “Location, location, location.”

In dealing with many high school seniors over the years, I have always been surprised about the power of home. Maybe it’s because of Mom’s influence and her reluctance to see her bird fly from the nest. On the other hand, there are also economic considerations, as I have discussed here in the past. It’s not good form to generalize, but there seem to be two polarized mindsets when it comes to high school seniors (and sometimes their families) making their college enrollment decisions. First, for lack of a better phrase, there is the “I can’t wait to get away from home!” crowd. These tend to be the teens who have, for whatever reason, pretty much had it with the strictures of a “disciplined” home life and the associated parental oversight. I’ve actually had high schoolers tell me that “too far” isn’t far enough away from home. Accordingly, these Northeastern college aspirants fill their college candidate lists with schools from the mountain states and Left Coast.

The flip side of that group is what I call the “Homebounders.” These are the young people who give only a perfunctory nod to considering any school more than a 20-minute car ride from their home. In fact, some of these Homebounders are heavily enabled by Mom and or Dad who reinforce a homebound decision with the lure of a high school graduation package that includes a car. In other words, a bribe that begs “Stay close to home!” The negative side effect of homebounding, in my view, is missing out on the chance for developing a sense of independent living. Sooner or later, Mom and Dad won’t be around to tend certain needs, such as laundry, meals, and money. Of course, like most Bell Curve situations, the bulk of high schoolers considering where to go to college are somewhat open to multiple choices, depending on their ability to get into a wider variety of schools. This group comprises most college applicants. Granted, there’s a huge number of candidates from which to choose, assuming that you can gain admission to them. Plus, many in out-of-the-way places go begging for enrollments.

I’ve mentioned College Confidential’s Ask the Dean writer, Sally Rubenstone, in previous articles here. In discussing with her the issue of why applicants choose to enroll at the colleges they do, Sally gave me some Dean-like wisdom about that. I’d like to share her thoughts with you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over my many years as an independent college admissions counselor, I’ve often wondered about what motivates high schoolers to apply to certain colleges. Certainly, there are practical reasons, like legacy. If Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Auntie, or Uncle Fred went there, then that’s good enough for some, especially if a legacy connection can result in some slack during the admissions process. The so-called “prestige” factor looms large, too, sometimes even more for parents than for the applicants themselves. I recall overhearing one proud parent pull the old bait-and-switch routine one evening at an after-concert reception. Two fathers who hadn’t seen one another in a long time were catching up on family affairs. The one father was obviously proud of his daughter’s collegiate status and boasted, “Oh, yeah, Emily is at Penn State in the Schreyer Honors College! [certainly something to be proud of]. How about your boy?” Like a mountain lion stalking its prey, the other father smiled and quietly answered, “Billy’s very happy at a small private school in New Jersey.” Of course the desired reaction was curiosity. “Great!” responded Penn State Dad, “What school is that?” New Jersey Dad wound up like Nolan Ryan going for a perfect game and calmly answered, “Princeton.” To paraphrase George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf … and that’s how you play Pass the Prestige, Please.

Of course, economic considerations make many college-choice decisions by default. If a “prestigious” school doesn’t offer as much sorely needed financial aid as a decent lesser-known private school, then the decision becomes clear. This happens frequently. Speaking of prestige and the various shadows that the “top” so-called “elite” schools cast (I use quotes a lot because in some cases these “prestigious” schools may not always be thoroughly “prestigious”), I have sometimes pondered the names of colleges, especially the Ivies. So, really, what’s in an Ivy name?

Well, there are The Big Three: Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. When I have thought about the names of the Ivy League schools, various images appear in my brain. Take Princeton, for example. The name oozes royalty: PRINCEton. It kind of rolls off the tongue and that hard “P” demands attention. I’ve even imagined “a ton of princes.” That’s heavy royalty. No wonder that the Princeton Dad I overheard at the reception was so delighted to drop his princely bomb. In a less regal mood, I’ve been known to conjure “Priceton” due to the dollar freight. A princely price comes with the “prestige.”

So what about Harvard? Well, with the way my mind works (who can figure that out?) I sometimes find myself pondering beets. Really. When I was a young boy, my mother would occasionally (far too frequently, unfortunately) proffer Harvard beets for dinner. “They’re good for your blood,” she would rationalize. “So is a transfusion!” I would retaliate. Anyway, my character has been permanently stained with the deep purple (or are they dark blue?) dye of Harvard beets. From a humor standpoint, I’ve fantasized about this headline: Harvard Beets Yale! If that’s been used, I’ve not seen it.

Speaking of Yale, I’ve imagined it as Yell. “Mom! Dad! I’m going to Yell!” Of course, the natural parental comeback would be,”Well, go ahead, but not too loud!” I sometimes see padlocks, too. That’s not entirely inappropriate because that’s pretty much what New Haven’s admission office keeps on their main gate doors. A BIG one. If you’ve seen the admission percentages from recent years, then you’ll know what I mean. Yale also rhymes with “shale.” I’ve thought that the road to Yale is paved with shale. Certainly a sensitive, poetic musing, and most applicants trod that pathway barefoot. Ouch! How about that classic Beatles hit: “She loves you, Yale, Yale, Yale!” Endless (and mindless) cerebral ramblings.

Enough about The Big Three. How about the other Fab Five?  Read the rest of this entry »

This information is targeted mainly at high school juniors. Granted, you’re busy right now with school’s year-end requirements. You’re thinking about next month’s Advanced Placement exams, maybe some Subject Tests, and/or another SAT. Maybe you’re also conducting a summer job search, now that school is winding down. If you’re a spring-sport athlete, you’ve got practices and games to contend with, plus you’ve got a life, right? I hope so. Spring weather offers opportunities to get out there with that boy or girl of your dreams and get away from thinking about differential equations and the Laws of Thermodynamics.

Well, let me throw something else onto your pile of important thoughts — college choices. In just a matter of months, you’ll be a high school senior. You’ll be amazed at how fast you can go from spring to fall. Summers are usually a blur, so start thinking ahead now. Maybe you can do some quality thinking during the summer blur, but human nature, being what it is, usually sidetracks advanced planning for teenagers. So, the challenge I’ll issue to you today is to start thinking about which colleges best suit your higher education needs and which ones will see your application roll in.

Of course, if your parents are willing and you have the time (probably not), you may want to squeeze in a couple college vists now before students leave campus. As I’ve said before, visiting a college while the student body is in residence is unquestionably the best time to visit. You’ll feel the energy of the students, experience the atmosphere of a “live” college campus, and maybe even get to sit in on a class or two. Plus, don’t forget those college tours (pictured) where you get to see how accomplished some people can be at walking backward. Okay, here’s a dumb riddle: Why is college-candidate selection like a Christmas song? Read the rest of this entry »

The written word and sheets of paper are starting to look over their shoulders, and what do they see gaining on them? The inevitability of high technology.

It seems that these days we’re all possible candidates for some type of video performance, whether it’s our deliberation in a supermarket aisle as we choose between this or that brand of spaghetti sauce, caught on a security camera, or maybe we star in a covertly executed recording at a baseball game, beating our chest as the home team makes a double play. Cell phones are everywhere and they record the pulse, both good and bad, of life on earth. Thus, the ubiquitous video has become an everyday, almost mundane, aspect of our lives. But what does this have to do with college admissions?

Well, more and more colleges are entertaining so-called application videos, or “video essays.” These mini-cinemas are one-to-two-minute videos produced by applicants (although professional production services have been used) as addenda to their applications. The purpose is to explain aspects of the applicant that don’t appear elsewhere on the application. It is also an opportunity for the applicant to exhibit his or her creativity and personal appeal. In older days, a photograph of the applicant clipped to the paper application could reveal a small insight into who was applying. Today, though, pictures pale in comparison to a well-conceived video. It’s like the difference between silent movies and IMAX.

Anyway, if you’re a high school junior looking ahead to this fall’s application season (and challenge), you may want to start storyboarding your own application video essay. If so, you may be wondering how to find out about application videos and see what others have created in admission seasons past. There’s good news and even better news. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that college admissions decisions have been rendered, many high school seniors and some of their parents will be making campus visits to help make another decision — where to go to college. A considerable portion of the cost of running a college or university comes from making the grounds and buildings look beautiful. You can imagine how much the landscaping alone can cost. There’s all that grassy acreage to keep cut and tons of trees, shrubs, and flowers to maintain, not to mention fresh paint on buildings and even clean windows. The labor crew to do all this sometimes looks like a small army, and that’s just for the external views. How about the housekeepers and custodial force needed to keep the students from destroying it all?

Anyway, let’s talk about beautiful campuses (no, I just checked, and I’m using the plural “campuses,” not “campi”). I’ve visited a number of campuses in my day, but the one I’ll never forget is Princeton University. Our son was accepted there back in the ’90s, so Mom, Dad, and son visited, with our son doing an overnight in one of the residence halls. My wife and I refer to Princeton as The Magic Kingdom. The Gothic architecture and pristine grounds can transport you into a completely different world. Adding to the magnificence of the campus during our visit was some of the most perfect spring weather imaginable: deep blue skies, crisp morning air, and brilliant sunshine.

Enough about Dave in The Magic Kingdom. I though that I would write today about what others think about beautiful campuses. Of course, the easiest way to discover where beautiful campuses are is to use your favorite search engine to find “America’s most beautiful colleges campuses.” I just did that and found this page of links on Google. Another great resource is, of course, College Confidential’s discussion forum. Let’s see what posters there have to say. Read the rest of this entry »

D-Day has come and gone. I’m talking about Decision Day for the Ivy League schools. Those applicants holding their breath for their Regular Decision decisions on March 28 this year were sufficiently nervous to cause server slowdowns on the College Confidential discussion forum. That’s a tribute to their anxiety, eagerness, and just plain curiosity. If you have the time and want to see just how competitive admission has become at the Ivies, click through some of the Ivy schools’ “results” postings to discover (or marvel at) how some of these high school seniors were denied admission. Their profiles read like fiction, in the positive sense. Some of the comments are quite moving.

Several days ago, I did an interview with a reporter from Princeton University’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. The thrust of the reporter’s questions centered around the final acceptance rates for all the Ivies this year, not just Princeton’s. The main question was, “Do you think acceptance rates can get any lower?” Well, in light of the results at Princeton this year, I’d have to say, “It’s possible, but seems unlikely.” Take a look at Princeton’s numbers for the Class of 2017 (“SCEA” = Single Choice Early Action” (December notification); “RD” = Regular Decision (April notification)):

Total Applied: 26498 ; Total Accepted: 1931 ; Acceptance Rate: 7.28%
SCEA Applied: 3810 ; SCEA Accepted: 697 ; Acceptance Rate: 18.29%
RD Applied: 22688 ; RD Accepted : 1234 ; Acceptance Rate: 5.54% (last year: 5.90%)

Okay, you can pick yourself up off the floor now.

Going back to my comments for The Daily Princetonian interview, one of the things I mentioned, in regards to the possibility that Ivy acceptance rates could go even lower was that the rates could actually rise. I said,  “The number of applicants may indeed go down this coming year because of the tremendous discouragement that [students] see with a five or seven percent admissions rate.” By this, I mean that prospective Ivy applicants might view applying to the Ivies the same way a high school gymnast and hopeful future Olympian would feel after watching the competition at the Olympics. Yes, getting into the Ivies appears to be something of an Olympian challenge these days. So you want to go to the Ivy League? As Pink Floyd says, “Welcome to the machine.”   Read the rest of this entry »