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Prospective college students who have remained unaware of the fact that January 23rd’s SAT results are up at CollegeBoard.org are waaaaaay too relaxed. Or possibly relaxed just enough…
Posted by Alexa Harrington
While high school juniors and seniors are in full-on panic mode because the college application and acceptance process is hitting the fan in earnest for both groups of students, I’m hopeful everyone can manage to remember that college is not a life or death situation. Every adult involved in the life of an upperclassman tends to make it seem as though it is, but I promise you it’s not.
Breathe, people, and read this post in the NY Times education blog, Mom U. Regular columnist, Caren Osten Gerzberg, had her daughter write the post. Nicole is a high school junior and makes some excellent points with regard to the college admissions process and how it relates to the grand scheme of things.
Seriously, you are a single, unimportant speck in the universe. No one actually gives a rat’s ass which institution of higher learning chooses you for matriculation. And in ten years, neither will you. Perspective is a priceless tool.
Further Reading:
Community College vs. University
College Comparison Tool
Awesome Parent
The Coolest College Application Essay Ever
How To (Not) Screw Up the College Apps
Avoiding Six Common College Application Slip-Ups
College Admissions Testing: For and Against
Taking Your Personality Into Account When Making Major Decisions
Media Frenzy Around High Pressure College Admissions
College Admissions—Looking Good Only On Paper
Posted by Alexa Harrington
(image source*)
Kay M. McClenney, whose day job involves being the director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, is a contributing writer for the NY Times blog, The Choice, which focuses on college admissions advice. Dr. McClenney just posted part 5 of a week-long series answering readers’ questions about community college.
Guidance Office Posts:
Answers About Community Colleges, Part 1
Answers About Community Colleges, Part 2
Answers on Community Colleges, Part 3
Answers on Community Colleges, Part 4
Answers on Community College, Part 5
Further Reading:
Too Much Enrollment, Not Enough Funding
The Community College Guide
Community College Before the Four-Year School
Community College vs. University
Posted by Alexa Harrington
(image source*)
Let’s hope it never actually comes to this.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
Setting really far over to the side the fact that I think everyone (even the humans I don’t particularly want to hang out, drink coffee, and chat about politics with) is entitled to an affordable college education, here’s a new take on calculating students loan factors. U.S. News and World Report has a piece about the different tools available for students to use for figuring out their potential future earnings and what that might mean vis-á-vis paying back their student loans.
Included in the list of future-salary calculators is the soon-to-be-launched Human Capital Score. It’s in beta right now, and can therefore currently be accessed for free by anyone who’s interested. (Once it’s officially launched, I’m assuming it’ll cost you in some way, shape, or form). Unlike traditional FICO scores, the Human Capital Score figures out a given student’s future ability to pay back the money they borrowed for college using the student’s SAT scores, their high school GPA, their undergraduate major and their undergrad GPA.
It’s interesting in so far as HCS is utilizing a different set of variables when calculating student loan factors. However, while I do appreciate it when the system tries new and exciting approaches to measuring people’s potential, I still tend to take issue with the obsessive need to measure people in the first place, especially when it comes to deciding who deserves how much education based on test scores and possible future earnings. Again with the standardized test scores meaning more than they should and the in-it-for-the-potential-to-do-good careers getting shafted.
Sampling of Salary Calculators:
SalaryExpert.com
Salary Wizard
Glassdoor.com
PayScale.com
National Association of Colleges and Employers (usually free at college career centers)
Posted by Alexa Harrington
While I’m usually one to veer away from technology, I have always maintained that it does have its place in the education realm. Kids these days (is there any way to avoid sounding like my grandmother when I use that phrase?) rarely separate themselves from technology, and as much I adore a Ticonderoga #2, they tend to see paper and writing implements as inefficient and old-fashioned. It’s fortunate that I’m a confident enough girl to not take umbrage at what that may imply about me and my doddering 35-year-old-ness.
Technology is not my favorite item on the menu, but I absolutely see its usefulness, especially in terms of educating the tech-savvy younger generations. Kaplan has just launched a Facebook application for their SAT prep tools that melds nicely with the whole education/technology/whippersnappers-glued-to-their-laptops era. It saves trees, and users can challenge each other with the “Challenge a Friend” feature.
I’m not a proponent of standardized testing, but as long as the tests are being used, the technologically adept teenagers of today may as well have access to as much digital test prep as possible.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
An article in The Boston Globe describes quite nicely how the admissions panels at Amherst College and Tufts University sit down and choose which student will be matriculating at their institutions. It’s not all numbers and robot-like perfection that the panels are searching for; a student’s whole picture is pondered.
All the successful applicants to Tufts and Amherst, two highly selective liberal arts colleges, boast impressive academic credentials, but so do most of their competitors. What they share is a spark that makes them stand out from the crowd, whether through singular talents and values, fierce determination in the face of hard circumstance, or force of personality.
For high school seniors aspiring to the nation’s top colleges and universities, the inner workings of admissions offices seem shrouded in mystery, a murky process that fuels endless angst and speculation. As students nervously await their decision letters, the two highly selective colleges invited a Globe reporter to observe admissions deliberations firsthand. The sessions reveal a complex, nuanced system that is at once analytical and intuitive, rigorous and forgiving, impartial and deeply personal.
The article goes into detail about what happens during the process—what the admissions panel sitting in the meeting room together go through to decide which 3,300 applicants out of 15,000 will be attending their school in the fall. It seems to be an excruciating process.
Here’s the cool advice blurb that was included in the article:
Like Dartmouth College, Amherst also has a need-blind admissions policy. Don’t they have enough good karma built up?
Posted by Alexa Harrington
image credit: Nancy Palmieri for The Boston Globe
Many smart, powers-that-be types in the realm of higher education are having an open-to-the-public conference on April 15th and 16th, 2009 to discuss building a better College Admissions mousetrap. It’s been somewhat biased and lacking over the past few decades or more, and it would be grand if they could make it a little spiffier.
One of the items on the agenda is standardized testing and the good, the bad, and the ugly wrenches it throws into the college admissions works. See? Happy Dance. Progress, forward thinking, and not putting everyone into boxes—all good stuff.
On April 15 and 16, 2009, Wake Forest University will host top admissions officers and leading researchers from Berkeley, Duke, Harvard, Ohio State, Princeton, Texas, Virginia, Yale and other universities along with the director of data research for U.S. News & World Report for the Rethinking Admissions conference. Participants will present papers and discuss the latest research on standardized testing, diversity, creativity, college ratings and how to evaluate success in college. The two-day event will be followed by a public lecture on April 21, featuring Robert Sternberg, Dean of Tufts University, who will report on Tuft’s experiment with essay questions as predictors of success in college.
Further Reading:
Beyond the SAT: Rethinking Admissions
The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Previous Posts:
College Admissions Testing: For and Against
“College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs”
The SAT Is Not Good
Wake Forest University Drops SAT Requirement
An Excellent Argument for Abolishing the SAT
The Newly Unfabulous SAT
Awesome Parent
Testing Season Begins
Posted by Alexa Harrington
Dartmouth College just announced that out of an applicant pool of 18,130 hopefuls, they’ve admitted 2,134 for the incoming class of 2013. Dartmouth’s admissions battle plan is to admit students based solely on academic achievement, which means it’s a “fully need-blind admissions process.” The college admits the best of the best, and then figures out with the students afterward the financial aid package they’ll be requiring.
“The academic credentials of admitted students are very strong, particularly in the number of students ranked in the top 10 percent of their class as well as students ranked first in their class,” said Maria Laskaris, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid.
Of those who were ranked by their secondary schools, 95 percent of students admitted were in the top 10 percent of their secondary school’s graduating class, including 42.5 percent who were valedictorians and 10.8 percent who were salutatorians. The mean SAT scores for students admitted this year are: 729 Verbal, 733 Math and 732 Writing.
Dartmouth strengthened its financial aid program last year, offering free tuition for students who come from families with annual incomes at or below $75,000. Dartmouth has a need-blind admissions policy, accepting students, both domestic and international, regardless of ability to pay. Once admitted, the College meets 100 percent of the student’s demonstrated need for all four years through a combination of scholarships and campus employment.
Fairly impressive. I’m a big proponent of looking at a given student’s whole picture when deciding whether or not to admit them to a school; I always want the kid from the family that can’t possibly afford to pay for admissions coaching and SAT prep courses to get into a great school anyway, just because they want it and they’ve done the best with what they have and will work their ass off once they’re admitted.
That being said, I also have to confess that I’m impressed with Dartmouth for not shying away from students who may require an extreme amount of financial help. They want the best, they clearly get them, and they’re not afraid to pay for the privilege. Did I mention that there are no loans involved? It’s all scholarships and campus employment.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
image credit: jon gilbert fox for the ny times
The National Review Online has an illuminating article up pointing out the illogicality (and foolishness) of putting too much faith in the warped college rankings system. I’ve said about all I can say (using professional language) about the rankings, so I’ll hold back and let Frederick M. Hess and Thomas Gift from NRO speak wisely (and way more professionally) instead:
Some of the schools with higher rankings may truly have improved, but the most significant factor is that two of the Barron’s criteria — high-school grades and percentage of applicants accepted — don’t mean what they did a decade ago. Grade inflation, and students’ applying to more schools than they used to, have juiced the numbers to make students look more qualified and schools more selective.
Grade inflation, dubbed “high schools’ skeleton in the closet” by Lehigh University education professor Perry Zirkel, has been a creeping phenomenon for two decades.
Also, whereas college-bound students used to limit applications to a few top choices, it is not unusual for students today to apply to many more. UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute has reported that the percentage of high-school seniors who applied to four or more colleges increased by more than a quarter from 1996 to 2006 and now stands at over 60 percent….. when students in general submit more applications, colleges in general get to reject more applicants — making schools across the board more “selective” by the Barron’s criteria.
And that is why trusting the evil genius rankings machine is a mistake. Be aware of who’s in charge and make decisions accordingly.
Previous Posts, Venting Language Included:
Acceptance
College Rankings
Unigo.com
New System for Ranking Colleges
Posted by Alexa Harrington