Best of College Hunter

I'm leaving to take my children to summer programs at Earlham College and Franklin and Marshall tommorrow (June 17). I won't be adding to College Hunter until my return on July 4. I am hoping to visit a few campuses along the way and will take photos to post here, so please check back then!

In the meantime, you might want to read some of the previously posted information here on College Hunter --- here are a few links to some of my favorites to get you started! See you on July 4th!!!

Best,
Carolyn

Bottom Up college planning

Free student guide to federal financial aid resources

When it comes to picking colleges, know thyself

How to read a college website

Great websites for future science majors

Summer College Visits

Ideally, campus visits should be done when school is in session and you can talk with students and sit in on some classes. But, that's not always possible - especially when you are looking at schools in distant locales. So, is it still worth it to visit colleges during the summer months? Absolutely!

A summer visit can be a good introduction to the school, its culture, and the surrounding area. Try to sit in on an admissions presentation, if possible, and definitely take a student led tour. If you schedule ahead with the admissions office, you may also be able to meet with a few faculty members in your area of interest. As with all visits, ask plenty of questions --- and keep an open mind.

Want to know more? Read my previous College Hunter post on this subject. Another good article on summer visits is available here.

Happy hunting!

Financial Aid Eligibility May Be Changing

Students and families may find their eligibility for financial aid will change over the next two to three years, thanks to new rules on how the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) is computed. The Federal Government has changed the rules for deducting state taxes when completing the EFC, which may reduce financial aid eligibility for some students. Most likely to be affected by the EFC formula change: middle class families. For more information read CNN's article Students face aid eligibility woes

Religion at Colleges & Universities

What's it like to be a Jewish student at Columbia? An evangelical Christian at Harvard? A Muslim at the University of Virginia? How do you find a college that will offer an atmosphere supportive to your religious beliefs? For many students, these questions are a valid - and important - part of picking a college. Luckily, there are many online resources that can help you track down information.

If you're Jewish, for instance, the Hillel Guide to Jewish Life on Campus. This searchable database details religious and social activities for Jewish students on over 500 campuses. The guide also provides information on the number of Jewish students at each school and which schools have Kosher kitchens. Want to know more? The guide also lists a contact person for each campus Hillel so you can get the inside scoop.

Evangelical Christians can access lists of "Christ-centered" campuses at either the
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities website and the Christian College Consortium. If you're wondering what life is like for evangelical Christians at non-religious schools, the ministry locator for Campus Crusade for Christ makes a good starting point. Find the school you're interested in, click on the ministry, and you'll find contact information and often details about related activities and services. A similar resource is the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

Catholic students can find a list of Catholic colleges and universities at the National Catholic College Admissions Association The NCCAA also offers an excellent guidebook on Catholic schools, which includes detailed profiles and color pictures of many of the campuses. Find out about Catholic services and activities at non-Catholic schools by visiting the website of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association.

Religiously-affiliated colleges exist for a variety of faiths. Lutheran? Check out the Lutheran Colleges. Lists of Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, and Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) schools.

If you're Muslim, the Muslim Student National Association can connect you with MSA chapters on many campuses across the U.S. Although many campuses also have a Buddhist Student Association, there is no national database online. To track down which schools have BSA on campus, go to google, and do a search for "Buddhist Student Association" (be sure to use the quotation marks) to turn up a list of schools.

Telling Your Story: Admissions Essays Part II

As I said yesterday, the secret to an effective admissions essay is simple: tell a story that no one else but you can tell. Today, I'll focus on ten tips to help you make your essay sing.

1. Focus. Don't try to do too much or tell too many stories in your essay. You have limited space and time to catch the interest of the admissions committee so zoom in on the core story that conveys the most important thing you want them to know about you that they can not find elsewhere in your application.

2. Answer the essay prompt. There are literally hundreds of different essay prompts used by different colleges. Don't try to squeeze an essay that you wrote for one college's essay prompt into a different prompt for a different college. By the same token, pay attention to any limitations on length. While it's Okay to go a few words over the limit, ignoring the word limit entirely is a bad idea. Yes, it's hard to say everything you want to say in 500 words, or 1,000 words...But admissions reps are busy people. Respect their time constraints.

3. Use your own voice. You may have been told in English class not to use the "I" word in your writing. That's true for academic papers, but not for the very personal college essay. Keep this excellent advice from the Carleton College admissions office in mind when you're writing: "Be yourself. If you are funny, write a funny essay; if you are serious, write a serious essay. Don't start reinventing yourself with the essay."

4. Tell your own story. A big problem I see in many essays is that students aren't telling their own stories; rather, they're talking about something that happened to someone else. A good example: a student sent me an essay about tutoring a mentally disabled peer. The problem? About 90% of the essay was spent describing the problems and challenges faced by the peer. By the time I got to the end of the essay, I felt like I knew a lot about him --- but absolutely NOTHING about the person who wrote the essay. I suggested that the writer start at the beginning again, focusing in on what he personally experienced and felt while helping his peer and how he grew or changed in the process.

5. Show, don't tell. This goes back to what I said yesterday about gathering your material. Don't just give us facts: Pull us into the event, experience or emotion you are trying to convey by using story-telling techniques instead of bland statements. If you need help doing this, I highly recommend the excellent chapter on just this topic in College Admissions Essays for Dummies. The author, a high school English teacher does a great job of explaining the differences between telling a story and showing a story.

6. Look for the real beginning. Time and time again, I've read essays where the real beginning lay buried deep in the body of the essay. Start your essay with the kernel of the story - the sentence or example that best captures the story you're trying to tell. Remember, you have limited time to catch the attention of your reader. So, after you've written your first draft, ask yourself which sentence in the essay is the one you most want the admissions committee to read. If it's not at or near the top, move it.

7. Give yourself enough time. Good essays need time to percolate; they shouldn't be written at the last minute. "Some of my friends' kids labor over their AP English assignments and whip off the college essay as if it's not going to be graded," Mike Sexton, Dean of Admissions at Lewis & Clark College told the Princeton Reviewarticle about how admissions committees look at essays. "We read your essays with a pen in hand; it's our job to point out the good, the bad, and the ugly for the next reader."

8. Don't use a dollar word when a nickel one will do. Don't try to impress the admissions committee by pulling out your dictionary and peppering your essay with huge words. Use words appropriately, not to impress. And, while you're at it, avoid using cliches to tell your story. Remember - your essay should sound like you, not someone you think the admissions committee wants you to be.

9. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Then ask someone else to proof your essay again. There is simply no excuse for poor grammar, typographical errors, or spelling mistakes. They will be noted by the admissions reader.

10. Get help if you need it, but choose wisely. I've put this tip last because I honestly believe that only YOU can tell your story. While it may be tempting to use essay writing services (or essay editing services that do more writing than editing!), or ask everyone you know to comment on your essay and suggest changes, the danger is that YOU and your story will get lost in the process. So, don't hesitate to ask for help if you're truly stymied, but do so only after you've taken a solid stab at writing the essay yourself, and choose someone you know and trust. Anyone who offers help should not re-write the essay entirely or make substantial changes but instead should gently lead you to make corrections and revisions on your own in your own voice.

Want to know more? Here are some excellent resources to help you write your essays.
As I've already mentioned, an excellent book on writing college essays is the unfortunately-named College Admissions Essays for Dummies. Written by Geraldine Woods, a high school English teacher, this book starts with an excellent section on the prep work necessary to figure out the story you want to tell. It also has an excellent and thorough discussion about how to understand what different essay prompts are really asking for. Finally, the tips on structure, writing style, and grammar are worth the price.

I also like Harry Bauld's On Writing the College Admissions Essay. Bauld devotes a good section to the importance of knowing and understanding your audience, and also has many good suggestions for how to find your own unique voice and story. Bauld includes more actual essays than the Woods' book.

If you're looking for a shorter and more concise guide to writing college essays, check out Essays that will get you into College by Dan Kaufman, Chris Dowhan, and Adrienne Dowhan. This book covers the highlights of effective essay writing and provides many sample essays.

100 Successful College Application Essays is just that: 100 actual college essays with brief comments from college counselors and admissions officers. Seeing how other students have tackled the college essay can be useful BUT remember, your essay must be YOUR story. The best use for this book is to expose you to a wide variety of essay writing styles to help you uncover what works for you.

Good luck!

Telling Your Story: Admissions Essays

I've been asked to read and edit many college admissions over the past few years. Several in particular stand out in my memory, including one written by a girl named Mandy to answer a question about diversity. Her essay vividly described how she discovered during a visit to her grandfather's house in China, that he was a life-long communist, and how she came to terms with the emotions this knowledge evoked in her. It was short, sweet, and extremely well-written. A few grammatical touch ups and I knew Mandy had a winner. Later, Mandy wrote to thank me for my editing help and confided that the admissions representatives at both Harvard and Yale had told her that it was one of the best essays they had ever read. I agreed. (By the way, Mandy is heading off to Harvard in the fall.)

Then there was the essay sent to me that began, "The motivating force which is coaxing me to get admitted into a renowned academic institute is the tenuous and adamant desire to acquire my goals, to augment the pace and standard of my life, in order to fuse my life with felicity and alacricity..." I kid you not: this is the beginning of an actual admissions essay I was asked to review. My advice to this student: start by throwing away your dictionary of words you think will impress an admissions committee, and then find a real story about your life to tell.

That really is what college admissions essays are all about: telling a true story that gives the admissions committee a glimpse of who YOU are. It should be a story that no one else can tell because you are unique. Find that story, write it in an interesting and focused manner, and your application comes alive as something more than a list of courses taken, test scores and grades, and extracurriculars. In short, a well-written essay puts a human face on your application.

However, here's the catch: the English curriculums in most schools aren't focused on teaching students how to write in this personal way. Instead, they're focused on academic writing, on standardized formats, and on keeping the "I" word out of school papers. There's nothing wrong with that --- in college, good academic writing is a strength. But, many students find they freeze up when they are finally asked to write about themselves in a way that looks deep into who they are, and how they became that person.

So, the first step most students need to take before they sit down to tackle the admissions essay is simple: Write in your own voice, not the academic voice that your English teacher has demanded all these years. It may take several starts and stops to find that voice, but it is in there, so let it out!

As a writer myself, I know that finding the story to tell is often the hardest part.
When I'm tackling an assignment, I often end up with literally hundreds of pages of notes about the people I've interviewed, background information on the topic, facts and figures that may or may not make it into the final story, and my own reactions to what I've learned. I read through this pile of words asking myself one question:
"What is the most important thing I want my readers to learn from this story?" Often, the answer surprises me -- and my editors!

Over the years, I've learned that the times I struggle most with getting started is when I immediately jump into writing, when I don't allow time to gather and review all of the relevant material, when I rush to start writing without really answering the question of what I want my readers to know.

It's the same with writing the college admissions essay: if you simply look at the essay prompt and then dive into writing you will often find yourself stymied because you haven't yet decided where you want to take readers (in this case the admissions committee). For this reason, when students ask me how they should answer a particular essay question, I tell them: gather your material first, then mull it over, and finally ask yourself: "What is the most important thing I want my readers (the admissions committee in this case) to learn from this story (essay)?"

So, how do you start gathering material? Brainstorm. Here's one way: Write down five adjectivites, positive and negative, that describe who you are. Ask your best friend, a parent, even a sibling to do the same. Take those adjectives and think of events in your life that demonstrate their truth - or their falsehood. But don't stop there. Make a list of the ways you have changed or been challenged in the past four years. What events or personal encounters illustrates that change? How? What defines who you are as a person? What experiences have shaped you? Don't worry how this brainstorming will work for a specific essay question at this point, just spend some time thinking about who you are and why. If you're looking for more brainstorming ideas for essay material, I recommend College Admissions Essays for Dummies. The appendix of this book is filled with memory-jogging prompts to help get you started.

With your "material" in hand, you'll be set to sort through the stories that define your life...And answer the question "What is the most important thing I want my readers to learn from my story?"

TOMORROW: Ten best tips for essay writing.

More suggestions for weighing specific departments

In response to my previous post, someone anonymously posted an excellent addition to my first post. I hope that person doesn't mind, but I feel the suggestions are strong and that they might get lost as a comment - so I am pulling them up here. Thank you "Anonymous" --- it is sharing information like this that helps us all!

Here is the comment:

"Thank you for addressing this topic. You really should write a book--your suggestions are much more thoughtful and useful than
others I have read! Your post is a tough act to follow, but I will plunge ahead anyway. <* Warning--long comments ahead *>

I have tried to tackle this topic from a different perspective--how good
are learning opportunities within specific departments? For freshman and sophomores, do introductory courses provide a survey of the field with assignments stressing analytical reasoning and effective communication? For juniors and seniors, do advanced courses address specific topics in depth and ask students to clarify and resolve problems through extended individualized projects?

I don't know of many ready statistics which measure these things. So I have been sifting through college web-sites and publications looking
for indicators of educational quality like these:


1. Do required courses in major provide a good survey of field or do they ignore some areas and concentrate on hot academic topics?

- inspect recommendations or accreditation requirements of professional associations
- consider personal recommendations of graduates majoring in field


2. Are introductory courses taught by experienced faculty who have personally explored a range of issues, including senior faculty at large schools, or are introductory courses taught by less experienced faculty with more specialized research interests?

- inspect course catalog, teaching assignments, faculty bios


3. Do introductory course include small faculty-lead discussion groups and multiple assignments which develop evidence-based reasoning, quantitative analysis, and effective writing?

- consult course descriptions, syllabi, department web-sites;
question instructors, department chairs, majors


4. Are advanced courses taught by intellectually active faculty, including younger faculty at small colleges?

- inspect faculty biographies to evaluate faculty which have recently published, exhibited at meetings or galleries, served as journal editors, received grants or special recognition, mentored
undergraduates, or offered new courses

5. Does the department actively promote junior and senior research projects, internships, or other off-campus learning opportunities to
all of its majors by sponsoring scholarships, outreach programs, and exhibitions/symposia, etc.?

- read department web-sites, student newspapers


6. Does the department include at least three advanced courses of high interest to student which will be taught sometime during junior and senior years?

- inspect course descriptions and teaching assignments, consider course scheduling regularity and faculty sabbatical period


7. Does the department require a senior project which results in a serious paper or portolio?

- inspect department web-sites and institutional publications


8. Does the department include at least three faculty members currently sponsoring undergraduate projects who might serve as mentors for a
student?

- identify advisors for senior projects, undergraduate research papers


9. Are some members of department actively engaged in redesigning and testing effectiveness of introductory courses?

- inspect department web-sites and institutional publications


10. Does department regularly seek and react to feedback on student
success?

- consult department web-sites, Office of Institutional Research


11. Does institution require students to take pre-approved courses which stress development of quantitative reasoning and effective writing skills?

- consult course catalog, graduation requirements


12. Has institution implemented strong academic advisement,
advocacy, and placement programs to make student aware of options and opportunities?

- inspect institutional web-site and publications


13. Do administrative staff run an institutional monitoring program which provides feedback, rewards teaching and mentorship, and affects
institutional budgetary emphasis? Office of Institutional Research

- read Office of Institutional Research web-pages, student newspaper, institutional publications


As you noted earlier, students often change their majors. So I
understand folks may be wary of a department-focused evaluation
of colleges. However, most students seem to change majors either to a related department or to another pre-existing interest area. If so, then most potential changes can be anticipated. Do you know of any research cataloging patterns of major changes in college?

These criteria reflect particular notions about features of a good college
education. Others may disagree. I also expect different academic fields require different approaches. The thirteen criteria above may work best for science and possible social science majors. Potential arts majors may emphasize department characteristics more than
individual faculty mentors or related departments--hard to see a visual arts-oriented person finding 3 potential mentors or shifting to a music major! A humanities major might use a different mix. I even have doubts that different approaches align with the academic pigeon-holes of arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

As you noted earlier, college web-sites (and publications) differ in quality. That is why I call these criteria "indicators". Their presence indicates concern for educational quality, while their absence requires more investigation. Hopefully these criteria are more useful for evaluating academic fit (and less susceptible to marketing manipulation) than institution-wide measures of 'academic quality'.

Enough with this over-wrought contribution to the the search for college 'fit'!. You are much more knowledgeable about these matters than I. I am curious to hear what you think, but please feel free to pick and choose as the muse strikes.
"

How Can I Determine if a School is Strong in a Particular Department?

Recently, I received a message from a reader asking:

"In your summaries you often mention strong academic departments. Can I ask how you determined these programs are strong? I have been pulling together a preliminary list of 20+ schools which match my daughter's interests. It is very time-consuming. Originally I relied upon departments highlighted in the Rugg and Fiske guides, but I often find myself disagreeing with them after studying specific web-sites and course catalogs. More recently I have paid closer attention to Ph.D origins data, but it is hard to interpret data for majors which may not lead to graduate school. Thanks for any suggestions."

This is an excellent question and I felt it deserves a full entry rather than a brief summary. First, I believe that it is important to start with a school's overall academic quality before looking at any individual department or major. For this, I use numbers like graduation rates (I personally prefer 4 year rates), class sizes, the stats of enrolled students, percentage of students going on to graduate school, the overall curriculum emphasis (GE requirements, etc.). And, yes, guides like Fiske, Princeton Review, and US News & World reports rankings. I believe that overall academic quality is the place to start because so many students change their mind about their majors. The decision to choose school A over school B should not begin and end with a particular department, but rather with overall academic quality. While every school has stronger and weaker departments, in a school with strong overall academic quality you are more likely to find consistency even in smaller departments.

If I am looking at specific departments, I use several methods. Before I detail them, let me just say that this is NOT a science but more of an interpretive art!

First, depending on the major, I check to see if the program has met any related accreditation standards. I've detailed some resources to do this in other posts, so I won't repeat them here. If no accreditation standards exist, I do like to check to see whether a school is affiliated with any associations related to that major. Finding these associations is simple enough with a google search - just type in "subject association" and see what turns up. The benefits of tracking down accreditation standards and associations is that they often have valuable information and research about what education in a particular subject. This is useful background for when you actually look at the specific schools because it gives you some idea of what exactly DOES make a good program or department. Depending on the major, I also frequently use a variety of paid research databases to dig up scholarly research and discussion on various types of subject education. I also find the Chronicle of Higher Education archives to be a good source of discussion and information on education in various subject areas. Sometimes related industry journals are also useful for discussions of what employers expect from educational programs in specific areas.

Next, I like to get the basics of the program. I turn to the IPEDs database (also covered in past posts) to find out the number of graduates in that particular department in an average year. This is important information to have because it puts the size of the department in some context. When I look at department faculty sizes, class scheduling, department resources, etc. I can have a raw number of graduates to use to determine if all of these are adequate or not.

I then turn to the school's website. Before I go to the department website, however, I make a different stop: the school's public affairs website. I do a search for the particular department in the archives. This gives me a handle on any recent awards made to the department from out side sources, any specific grants or new facilities given to the department, even areas of specific research or activity being done. Obviously, the press releases tell part of the story. They are meant as marketing vehicles --- but they do tell something about which departments the school itself sees as its lead departments and wishes to market.


Next, I turn to the department website itself. As I said, there is a wide variety of quality in department websites so it is important not to pre-judge a department by the type of information available or the glitziness of the presentation. I first see the number of full time faculty, and jot down their last names (I'll tell you why in a second). I then read the faculty bio's. Where they received their PhD's is an interesting data point. Obviously, I'm looking to see if they received their PhD's from top-ranked graduate schools in the subject area, but I am also looking to see if the school is pulling faculty for that department from a wide geographic area, or only from a small area or even, in some cases, from the school in question itself. My belief is that the "best" departments are able to attract faculty from a wide academic range, not just the same two or three doctoral programs.

For subjects that end in master's degrees -- such as MFA programs --- I do still look to see where faculty received their terminal degrees from, but I also pay close attention to what type of "real world" experience they have in the field.

Next, I look at how the department describes itself - is the emphasis on playing up its "national reputation for research" or is it on "providing quality undergraduate education?" How much department space is dedicated to describing graduate programs? How much to undergraduate? What types of resources does the department list? Special libraries/collections, research facilities, gallery space, etc.? Do they discuss internship and research opportunities available to undergraduates? Do they mention any special undergraduate advising programs? Have their been recent faculty changes?

I then look through the course descriptions and/or catalog. I pay attention to see if there is a specific curriculum focus in the department, but also to the way course descriptions are worded.

However, I believe that catalogs are basically useless beyond this overview because they do not tell you how often all those great sounding classes are offered or who actually teaches them! So, my next step is to see if the school has its registration online. If so, it's a goldmine. You can find out exactly how many courses are typically offered by that department each semester as well as how big the classes are and whether they are typically oversubscribed. You can also - by using the list of faculty names done earlier - see who is actually teaching the classes. Are those impressive faculty teaching undergrads on a regular basis? How many names are not on the faculty list - are they TA's or visiting faculty?

As a journalist, I often interview faculty at many different colleges and universities. I never miss a chance to ask about their departments and other departments. College and university faculty are surprisingly forthcoming when asked what makes a good department in a particular subject area, which programs they consider to be outstanding or unique, and how their own programs compare. While students and parents may be shy about contacting faculty members on their own, I believe it is worth a try. There have been many occasions when I have done so via email and been surprised with the wealth of information that is shared.

There are other things I look at and compare and, yes, it is time consuming! However, I actually believe this is all just the beginning because there is no substitute for actually visiting, sitting in on classes in the department, and talking to faculty members on a one-to-one basis. That is what puts all of the preliminary information gathering into true focus because it helps determine if a school is the right fit for a particular student.

Hope this helps! Happy hunting!

How Generous Are Your Potential Schools?

Which schools are the most generous with financial aid and merit scholarships? According to a new article at CNN, it's an important question because "one of the best sources to tap for financial resources are schools themselves -- and some are more generous than others." The article discusses the nearly 100 schools that are able to fully meet student financial need, and includes a list of ten schools in the "100% Club" - schools that meet 100% of need.

The information used in the article was developed by Thomson Peterson, a publisher of test prep books and other college-related materials. If you're looking for the best financial deals in colleges, it may be worth shelling out $39 to gain access to
Peterson's online Best College Deal database. This searchable database lets you compare average financial aid packages for families at or near your EFC (estimated financial contribution). A particularly nice feature is that the database includes a "College Deal" section for each school that provides an overview of merit scholarship opportunities. Much of the information can be pulled from various sources elsewhere, but it is convenient and simple to have it all compiled into a single database.

Article on Finding Merit Scholarships

News alert: This week's Business Week article Tap the College Cash Machine offers a good overview of the basics of finding and applying for merit scholarships. Key advice from the article for those hoping for merit money: Get organized, do your research, and apply, apply, apply.

Public Colleges That Feel Like Private Schools, Part II

I received several comments on my last entry, "Public Colleges that Feel Like Private Schools" so I thought I'd expand on several of the colleges I mentioned towards the end of that entry.

1. The College of New Jersey. "I'm constantly amazed at the people I go to school with and how the majority of them are Ivy League people. I don't feel like I go to a state school. This school deserves to be on the map," one student recently told the New York Times in article about the rise of the College of New Jersey. With 5600 students, the College of New Jersey has been making waves in the past few years, attracting highly qualified students eager to partake of small class sizes and excellent professors at costs many thousands of dollars below similar quality colleges in the Northeast. Particularly strong programs include English, psychology, art, math, and pre-law and pre-med programs. Engineering and business offerings are strong as well. Costs: tuition is approximately $7,400 for in state students and $11,640 for out of state students; room and board: $7,416.

2. The University of North Carolina-Ashville doesn't get as much press as its larger cousin in Chapel Hill, but it offers an excellent liberal arts education in town with a vibrant art and music scene at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Strong programs include art, classics, history, psychology and sociology. The school also has an excellent astronomy program and the engineering department offers a unique major in mechatronics which combines studies in electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering to prepare students for careers in fields such as robotics. Athletics are at the Division I level. Like many of the other schools I've discussed in this series, UNC-Ashville can be even more of a bargain due to its merit scholarships, with eligibility beginning with a 3.5 GPA and math/reading SAT scores of 1250. Costs: Tuition is $1,696 for in state students, out of state students pay $6,296; room and board is approximately $2,770 a year.

3. Truman State University in Missouri is another public school focusing heavily on liberal arts and sciences. Students and parents rave about faculty accessibility at Truman and the school also offers a great internship program to prepare students for real world jobs after graduation. Truman also has a solid undergraduate research program, with more than 1200 students out of the school's 3300 undergraduates participating in research programs funded by the university. Strongest programs include biology, chemistry, English and Foreign languages, as well as business administration. Costs: Tuition is approximately $4,600 for in state students, $8,456 for out of state students; Room and board are another $5,000.

4. Humboldt State University. The California State University schools are known for huge classes and huge student bodies. Humboldt State University, at California's extreme northern edge, offers neither. The vast majority of classes at this school of 6500 undergraduates have less than 30 students. The campus is surrounded by Redwoods, and students have told me about seeing deer and even the occasional mountain lion. The Pacific ocean is close by. Humboldt's environmental science and forestry programs are nationally ranked. Chemistry, biology, studio art, social work, zoology, and geology are all strong as well. Costs: Tuition for in state students is just under $3,000 a year, out of state students pay $5,000 a year; room and board is $6,400.

Public Schools that Feel Like Private Colleges

What word comes to mind when you hear the term "public college?" If you're like me, you probably automatically think "Huge campus, huge student body, huge classes." That's why I've been pleasantly surprised during my research and college visits to discover that "public" and "huge" aren't automatic. In fact, there are some very good public schools that feel very much like private colleges. At these schools, you'll find smaller classes, lots of personal attention, an emphasis on undergraduate education, and often a focus on liberal arts education as well. Best of all: these schools come without the private college price tag, even for out of state students. Here's my personal list of favorites for public colleges that feel like private schools:

1. St. Mary's College of Maryland - With just over 1800 students and a beautiful waterfront campus that rivals many private schools in terms of sheer attractiveness, St. Mary's College of Maryland is a real gem. Billing itself as "the honors college of the Maryland University system," St. Mary's offers a top notch liberal arts education. Particular strengths are biology, environmental science, economics, history, English, psychology and political science. I've had the opportunity to talk with the President of St. Mary's personally and came away impressed with how a small public school could be so much like a private college. St. Mary's is primarily a residential college and it shows in attractive and comfortable dorm facilities. Costs: Tuition is approximately $8700 for in state students, $15,000 for out of state students; room and board: $7100.

2. Mary Washington University - Don't let the "University" in Mary Washington's name fool you: with 4200 undergraduates, this Virginia school feels like a small liberal arts college in many ways. The red brick buildings on the campus convey both a feeling of history and a sense that this isn't your typical "modern" public school campus. Liberal arts receive special attention here, with psychology, history and English being particularly strong. Mary Washington's proximity to D.C. opens the doors for internships and research opportunities in the nation's capital. Costs: Tuition is about $3500 a year in state, $12,078 out of state; room and board: $5500.

3. State University of New York (SUNY) College of Arts & Sciences at Geneseo. With just over 5300 undergraduates, SUNY Geneseo has long been known for strong liberal arts programs. Psychology, English, and biology are especially strong departments. The undergraduate education is so strong that Geneseo is second only to Vassar among New York state colleges and universities in terms of the number of students receiving prestigious Goldwater Scholarships each year. Geneseo also has one of the highest graduation rates among 4-year public institutions in the country. The campus is pretty, with several historic buildings and many trees and he rural village of Geneseo caters to college students. Geneseo is highly selective and out of state students need to be towards the top end of the applicant pool. Costs: tuition is approximately $4400 a year for in state students, $9400 for out of state students; room and board: $6400.

4. Evergreen State University. Located in lush Olympia, Washington, Evergreen's unique interdisciplinary approach to education makes it a school worth looking at for those seeking something outside the ordinary for their college experience. Classes are tied together into learning themes which vary from year to year, allowing for lots of curriculum flexibility. Environmental science, biology, and the social sciences are featured here, although those interested in the arts, film, and humanities will also find a solid niche. Evergreen has just over 3500 undergrads. Costs: tuition is approximately $3900 in state, and $13,500 out of state; room and board add about $5700.

These are just my personal favorites, but there are several other great public colleges that feel like private schools across the country. Some other schools to check out if you're looking for small classes and personal attention at public school prices include: Truman State in Missouri, New College of Florida, the University of South Dakota, Humboldt State University in California, the College of New Jersey, Southern Oregon U, SUNY College at New Paltz, and the University of North Carolina at Ashville.

Negotiating Financial Aid

If you'll be applying for financial aid, it pays to negotiate says certified college planning specialist John Wasik in his column at Bloomberg News. "Once you receive a college's financial aid offer, it's a done deal, right? Not necessarily. Aid packages can be appealed and enhanced," writes Wasik. Read more, including some good advice about the basics of negotiating in his article
U.S. College Financial-Aid Packages Can Be Appealed.

College Hunt Resources for African-American Students

African-American students and their parents often have additional questions that aren't typically answered by the standard one-size-fits-all college guidebooks.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education often has informative research data on how African Americans fare in the acceptance process and makes a good first stop. If you're looking at liberal arts colleges, for instance, JBE has pulled together numbers black applicant admissions at the highest-ranking liberal arts colleges over the past decades - information not easily found in most guidebooks. According to the article's findings, The top five colleges in terms of acceptance percentages for African-American applicants are:

1. Middlebury College - 71.6% acceptance rate for black applicants
2. Macalester College - 56%
3. Trinity College (CT) - 54.4%
4. Oberlin College - 52.2%
5. Pomona College - 51.5%

Davidson, Colgate, and Harvey Mudd College had the lowest acceptance rates for black applicants. To learn more, read The High-Ranking Liberal Arts Colleges Where Black Students Stand the Best Chance of Admission.

The Black Issues in Higher Education website posts an annual list of the Top 100 Colleges and Universities for Minority Students using degrees awarded as the measuring stick. The list includes both traditionally white institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

If you're interested in an HBCU such as Howard or Spellman, several websites are good places to gather information and connect with current students and alumni. HBCU-Central offers news and a searchable database of HBCUs. One added feature: members can get access to video tours of HBCU campuses. Another, similar website, is the HBCU Network. Worth checking out: The Black College Expo, a college fair featuring HBCUs with stops in several major cities.

Finally, if you're looking for a college guidebook specifically geared to the issues and questions faced by African American students, I suggest Black Excel African American Student's College Guide Although slightly dated, the book provides excellent profiles of 100 top colleges for black students, tips on admissions and details on scholarships and financial aid.

Will you have to hire a tutor?

If you're looking at a large public university, it may pay to ask around about whether you'll need to look for outside help to make it through your major. An article in today's San Diego Union Tribune reports that the demand for private tutoring services is booming at "public universities, where students complain about large classes, temporary instructors and teachers' lack of accessibility."

At the University of California-San Diego, for instance, economics undergrads are seeking help from a private tutor who runs small tutoring sessions covering the material in up to 30 UCSD economics courses a semester. According to the article, economics is the second most popular major at UCSD, with over 1,790 majors. As a result, the department is experiencing difficult hiring qualified faculty and that translates into larger classes. Even upper division classes are large, notes the article, routinely seating 100 to 150 students. As a result, students are turning to outside tutoring services to fill in the teaching gap. Ironically, UCSD's economics program is rated within the top 10 economics programs by U.S. News & World Report, demonstrating yet again the importance of looking beyond the rankings.

Carol Colbeck, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State is quoted in the article as saying student reliance on outside tutoring services shows that "universities are falling down on their responsibility to provide a complete eduction. 'The tutoring services show that students feel that they cannot get what they need from professors or teaching assistants.'" Read the full article:Cram Session or Classroom? Students say class sizes, workload force them into private tutoring

Five Things Next Year's Seniors Should Be Doing This Summer

If you're going into your senior year, don't let this summer go to waste when it comes to preparing for college admissions. Time is usually at a premium during senior year, so any steps you take to get a jump on admissions now will pay off in less stress and anxiety later. Here are five things every in-coming senior should try to do this summer:

(1) Schedule college visits. There's no substitute for a first-hand look at the schools on your list. If you haven't yet visited the colleges and universities you're interested in, summer is a good time to do so. While you'll miss out on seeing the school in full-action, you'll still be able to get a good feel for the campus, the programs, and the surrounding area with a summertime visit.

(2) Evaluate yourself. As you apply to colleges, you'll be asked time and time again about yourself, your interests, and your strengths and weaknesses. Use the slower pace of summer to pinpoint the characteristics and experiences that make you unique and you'll be one step ahead when it comes to filling out applications, writing essays, and going on admissions interviews. Use these questions as a starting point:
What accomplishments - large and small - are you most proud of in your life? Why?
What are your strongest skills and how have you developed them? Why? What are your weakest skills? Why? What five adjectives would you use to describe yourself to someone you've just met? Why? What are the major influences that have shaped who you are? How? What are your wildest dreams? Your goals for yourself in the next five years? Ten years? Twenty? Explain.

(3) Get familiar with college applications. Download the application and recommendation forms from several of the schools on your list, as well as the "http://www.commonapp.org">Common Application. Take a close look at their format, the types of questions you will need to answer, and what your teachers and guidance counselor will be asked about you. If you feel like it, take a stab at filling out one or two of the applications. Notice any gaps in information that you'll need to gather before you complete the real thing. Now is also the time to think about whether you'll attach a resume about your extracurricular activities and hobbies that goes into greater detail than the space on most applications allow. If so, start writing it now.

(4) Start working on your essays. It takes longer than you think to turn out a polished and effective college admissions essay. Begin by reading the essay questions on the applications you've downloaded. But, don't dive right in with answering any questions just yet. Instead, get hold of a few good books on writing college essays (I'll be making some suggestions in a future post), and read up on what makes a good essay. Play around with ideas. Go back to the questions in step number 2 and brainstorm further. Draw up a few lists, or brief paragraphs, that might make good essay topics. Finally, sit down and take a stab at a few actual essay questions. When school starts in the fall, you might even be ready to take your essay drafts to a trusted teacher for feedback.

(5) Think about your recommendations. After you've looked at the types of questions colleges will ask the teachers and your guidance counselor about you, decide which teachers know you well enough to answer them in a thoughtful and positive way. You can make their jobs easier in the fall, by developing a list of your activities and examples for them to use when writing your recommendations.

How Much Does Applying Early Decision Help?

Many schools offer an Early Decision (ED)application option: You identify a school as your first choice and apply early with the promise that, if accepted, you will attend. In exchange, the college or university agrees to give you your decision early in the year, often before Christmas.

The decision to apply ED should never be taken lightly. ED is a binding contract between you and the college. If you are accepted, you are required to withdraw all outstanding applications immediately from other schools, and to attend.
The only "out" of an ED acceptance is if the school fails to meet your financial aid needs. But, beware: "failing to meet your financial aid needs" can mean very different things to you and the school. To the school, meeting your need means they have offered a financial aid package fills the gap between cost of attendance and your family's expected contribution (EFC) as established by Federal financial aid formulas. You or your family might not like the way the financial aid package is structured - for instance, if it relies heavily on loans versus grants - but as long as it fills that gap between cost of attendance and your family's EFC, you can not get out of ED claiming the school has failed to meet your financial aid needs.

Early Decision also eliminates the chance for you to compare financial aid offers between schools. You'll never know, for instance, if another school might have made you a better offer --- say a full ride scholarship --- because, once you've been accepted through ED, you'll be withdrawing all of your other applications long before financial aid offers are made. For this reason, students who are relying on substantial financial aid to pay their way through school are usually advised not to apply ED.

The benefits of applying ED? At some schools - but not all - you'll get a large boost in your admissions chances. I said at some schools for a reason: the truth is the touted "boost" from applying ED is not the same across the board at all schools. At some schools, your chances of getting in via ED are not all that higher than if you applied during the regular application round. So, like all admissions decisions, it pays to weigh the potential pro's and con's before making your choice.

There are other option to ED that are also worth considering. Early Action (EA) allows you to apply early in the fall and hear back before Christmas. It is non-binding, you can, in most cases, apply to other schools simultaneously and you don't have to make your final decision about which school to attend until May. Recently, however, some of the most selective schools, including Harvard and Yale, have switched from ED to single choice EA (SCEA). With this EA option, you still apply early and hear back early, but you can only apply to one school using Early Action.
As with Early Decision, sometimes EA gives you a boost in admissions - but not always. At a few schools, your chances of acceptance during the EA round are actually lower than during regular decision.

If you're interested to know how applying early - either through ED or EA - might affect your chances, you can check out the Early Decision Numbers. One caveat about this link: it is based on 2003 numbers and does not reflect Yale's recent decision to switch to SCEA. It is, however, a good starting point for weighing whether applying ED or EA to your top choice school is a worthwhile move.