College Visit Advice

College visits don’t have to be cookie-cutter

By Jenna Johnson, Washington Post Published: March 23 | Updated: Saturday, March 24, 1:15 PM

It was a gorgeous spring day at American University, the quad dotted with students playing Frisbee and studying on blankets, when I tagged along on a campus admissions tour led by an energetic student guide who peppered her listeners with school stats and personal stories.

As we passed three students camped out with their laptops, the guide called out to them: “Do you love AU?”  “Yes!” they all shouted in response, laughing. The guide turned back to us: “See, they love AU!”
A couple of parents laughed out loud, and a dad standing near me rolled his eyes dramatically at the exchange. But most of the prospective students barely reacted. They just stayed in the polite trance they’d maintained throughout the tour, the result, I had no doubt, of visiting too many campuses in too short a time.



It’s that time of year again, when thousands of parents pack their high-schoolers onto a plane or into the SUV and set off on road trips across the nation to a half-dozen colleges or more, hoping to find that one special school that’s the right fit for their student.
These visits are often the deciding factor for many juniors figuring out where to apply and for seniors picking where to enroll. And colleges know this. The admissions tours they offer are nothing more than a sales pitch — their last chance to nab you with a dazzling display of their offerings.

So universities go to great lengths (and lots of expense) to ensure that their campuses, their dorms and their students stand out from all the rest. Often that means locating the admissions center next to the most convenient parking, providing free coffee and casting the friendliest students as tour guides. Even the music you hear in admissions offices as you wait for your tour has probably been carefully selected — maybe even by students — to set the tone for your visit.

But as a higher education reporter for The Washington Post who has taken lots of campus tours with kids trying to make that big decision, I’ve learned that most of this is just window dressing. The only way to get a true feel for the culture of a university and its students is to simply hang out. My best advice? If you’re heading out on a college visit, give yourself enough time to pretend to be a college kid for a day: Lounge in a coffee shop near campus, read the student newspaper, attend a women’s softball game or an a capella concert, go jogging across the campus, have dinner at a bar with sticky floors, or simply ride the campus bus for a different kind of tour.

Food for thought

                    

Andrew S. Doctoroff

Former journalist; Detroit lawyer

Dear Eighth Grader: So You Want to Apply to Harvard? Some Words of Advice...

Posted: 02/21/2012 5:27 pm

Dear Eighth Grader:
College interview season is drawing to a close. Hundreds of thousands of high school seniors would like to believe that they have secured admission to prestigious colleges by impressing alumni like me with their sterling credentials and conversational aptitude.

Our meeting will not take place for four years. I hope you don't think it too presumptuous of me to give you some things to think about now, at this early juncture -- to help you prepare.

I have three kids of my own, including an eighth grader like you. My house will still be pretty noisy in 2016 -- so, let's meet at Einstein's, the bagel place. I'll be the one doing the crossword puzzle.

I've been conducting Harvard interviews for many years. Even though I graduated from Harvard, I feel somewhat like a poser. I know to a moral certainty that, if I were to apply to the college today, the chances of my getting in would be less than zero. Admission standards have grown more rigorous over the last quarter century. Sometimes, it's good to be older.

I interview applicants because it's fun. I like hearing about what's going on in your youthful world, one that is now largely foreign to me. And, unlike my own kids, when I ask questions, applicants have to answer. I like that, too.

A friend recently asked me whether I interview because I like to wield power -- like Commodus in Gladiator, whose "thumbs up" gesture in the Coliseum meant life or death.

But my powers are hardly imperial. I am not a gatekeeper. A lot of kids about whom I write enthusiastic recommendations do not get in to Harvard. Some people say that the whole interview process is just an elaborate ruse intended to increase alumni donations. Still, my reports must count for something, because, when they are late, I receive testy emails admonishing me.

The first thing you should know is that great test scores and grade point averages do not, standing alone, excite me. If I had one candy-coated chocolate for every kid I've interviewed with an ACT score of 34, I could fill an industrial-size bag of M&Ms that Costco sells for $8.99. High grades? These days, in this era of hyper grade inflation, who doesn't get a four point gazillion GPA?

Facebook & College Admissions

(Due to copyright issues, the following 9/21/11 USA Today article cannot be reprinted. Click on the link to read a very timely and informative warning.)

LINK:  "More college officials learn about applicants from Facebook"

Food for Thought...

reprinted from Newsweek/The Daily Beast 3/29/2011

10 College Admissions Trends

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Ivy League schools notified their lucky applicants—the precious few admitted in the toughest admissions year ever. From soaring waitlists to a Southern boom, Kristina Dell on 10 trends.

by Kristina Dell | March 29, 2011 9:7 PM EDT

The toughest college admissions year on record reached its apex this week as nervous seniors obsessively checked their email or a website to discover their fates. (Waiting for the fat or thin envelope? So 2005.) The hotter-than-ever Ivy League schools, which all had a record number of applicants this year, notified the lucky ones at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Getty Images

It has been an especially stressful process this year. The weak economy and a wider acceptance of the common application—Columbia used it for the first time this year and had a 32 percent jump in applicants over last year—has meant the competition is steeper than ever. Over the past five years, applications to the eight Ivy League schools plus MIT and Stanford skyrocketed from just over 200,000 applications to almost 300,000 early and regular applications, for a total increase of more than 40 percent, according to Michele Hernandez, president of Hernandez College Consulting.
While most final decisions won’t be made until May 1, when most school deposits are due, The Daily Beast spoke with admissions officers, guidance counselors, and college consultants to hear about the most surprising trends from this year’s applicant pool and what to look for in the next six weeks.
1) 2011 Was the Hardest Year to Get into College—Ever
“We already know this will be the hardest year in history for college seniors,” says Hernandez. She cites more kids applying, while most schools aren’t increasing their class size. It’s an unforgiving formula. “A few years ago, kids were applying to four or five schools,” says Greg Roberts, dean of admission at the University of Virginia. “But now it’s not uncommon to apply to 10 or 12 or in the extreme even 20 or 30.”
A number of trends are at play this year to make things extra difficult for applicants. Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia got rid of their early-admission programs in 2006. In the meantime, college applications at selective schools have risen dramatically, reaching a pinnacle this year, as top-notch seniors started applying in droves to non-binding early-admission programs like Yale, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Chicago. In order to save themselves for a stab at Harvard or Princeton, many students decided to forgo the binding early-decision programs at the other Ivies, making the admissions process less efficient. Next year should be much calmer, as the number of high school seniors in certain parts of the country is dwindling and Harvard, Princeton, and University of Virginia will reinstate early-admission programs—getting the brainiacs out of the regular admissions pool. “The kids who want to apply to Harvard and Princeton will apply early-action,” says Hernandez. “That alone will change things.”
2) College Applicants Are More Interested in Southern Schools
Independent college counselors are noticing that more and more students are talking about heading south for the winter. “I have heard anecdotally from students and parents that they are starting to pay attention to what Tulane looks like in February compared to Dartmouth,” says Sally Rubenstone, a senior adviser at College Confidential. “They might not want to go where they have to scrape snow off their windshields.”
Vanderbilt, William & Mary, Emory, and Wake Forest, among other schools, are garnering more attention than usual for their pleasant climates. “Kids want sun and are looking for better weather,” says David Montesano, an admissions strategist with College Match Inc., a college consulting service. “Stanford and USC are among the most popular schools in the country for my kids.” Then there’s Occidental College, which is benefitting from the Obama bump—the president went there for two years before transferring to Columbia.

Food for Thought...

5 tips for shedding college anxiety

By Jay Mathews, Published: April 24  Washington Post

It’s the last week of April, college crunch time. You may be both recovering from the disappointment of rejection and worrying about which school that accepted you is best. Here are my five mental-health tips for surviving this moment:

1. Those rejections aren’t your problem.
University of South Florida education Professor Sherman Dorn says the greatest barriers for college-bound students “will not be the inability to be admitted into every place you apply” but the challenge of getting the money for college, dealing with university budget cuts and surviving the daunting academic demands of the first semester. Dorn chides education writers such as me who bemoan great students getting rejected by their first choices but ignore the fact that they almost all got into good places.

2. If you don’t like the college you chose, it’s easy to get another one.
We have a former college transfer student in the White House. He moved from Occidental College to Columbia University his junior year. About 20 percent of students who start at one four-year college graduate from another four-year college. Many more start at two-year colleges, then move to four-year schools. People who say picking a college is as important as picking a spouse are wrong. It’s more like buying a house. If you discover the bad soil ruins your to
matoes, sell it and buy another one.

Food for thought...

Picking a College 101

By Jen Miller Marketplace Money, Friday, April 15, 2011

Listen to this Story

Students are deciding what college to attend. So here's some advice: Choose the one that's cheaper.

Tess Vigeland: Many families across the country had to make a tough decision this college acceptance season. They had to tell their kids that they just couldn't afford their first-choice school. Maybe not even their second-choice.

Commentator Jen Miller has some advice for dealing with that dilemma.

Jen Miller: Pick the cheap school.

I had my heart set on Boston University. I was going to study marine biology, then move to Australia to study the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. I saw this as my only path to success and happiness.

That same year, my parents were divorcing. There was no money for BU unless the school offered scholarships or grants. And they didn't. The University of Tampa, however, did. My parents told me I had no choice: I was Florida-bound. I was incensed with all the rage a 17-year-old can muster. My parents hated me. The world hated me. I was doomed. I'd never be a successful, coral-studying, Australia-living marine biologist because my parents decided to get divorced instead of letting me go to my dream school.

Did I mention I was 17?

Well, guess what? The world didn't collapse. The sky did not fall. My life, of course, was not ruined. I picked another major, and graduated with a budding writing career. Plus, I had no guillotine of massive student loans hovering over my neck.

So I could take a risk. I pursued a career as a freelance journalist and author. Yes, it was my passion, but it's so much easier to follow your passion when you don't have the equivalent of a mortgage payment for a monthly student loan. My parents forcing me to go to the cheaper school was the best thing they could have done. Today, I still see so many of my peers in their 30s struggle to get out from under the financial obligations of expensive, old degrees.

If there's no way you can afford $50,000 a year in tuition and fees without jeopardizing your retirement or setting your child up for a life of repayment, there is only one thing you need to know: Pick the cheaper school, even if that means your 17-year-old rants and screams that his or her life is over.
I promise you, they'll thank you for it.

Eventually.

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Vigeland: Jen Miller is a freelance journalist in Philadelphia.