Now, The Waiting Begins

OK, so you've just hit the "send" button and your Early Decision or Early Action application is winging its way to an admissions office somewhere in the world. What do you do now? Start by reading this great article in U.S. News about what to do while you're waiting for admissions letters. I'll add this: Do take the time to follow up to make sure your application is complete, but, also understand that it is now out of your hands. Fate, and the Gods of admission, will do the rest. You have done your best. Don't live the next few months in fear or let anxiety consume you. Even if the news you receive isn't what you hope for, you WILL be fine. Life has a way of taking you in the direction you most need to go. Trust the process. Best of luck to everyone who hit the "send" button tonight. I believe that you will land in just the right college. Believe it yourself, and take time to celebrate finishing this part of the journey.

University of California Considering Dropping SAT Subject Tests

According to a brief article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education, the University of California's Board of Admissions recently proposed dropping SAT subject tests as an admissions requirement. Currently, students applying to the University of California system must submit two subject exams. The Chronicle quotes the Board's proposal as saying that the subject tests "contributes very little to UC's ability to predict which applicants will perform well initially at UC." The Board's proposal also acknowledges that the subject tests may contribute to the underrepresentation of black and Hispanic students in the system's applicant pool.

It will probably be several months before a final decision is made, but this is the latest in a long string of colleges and universities re-evaluating their use of standardized testing in admissions.

Juniors: Time To Start Thinking About College

Although college may still seem far away to most high school juniors, the truth is this time next year they'll be the ones putting the finishing touches on their applications. Developing a realistic list of colleges takes time and effort -- smart juniors and their parents should be starting the search process over the next few months.

A great article in today's Rutland Herald (VT.) makes a good starting point. The article lists ten things that high school juniors and their parents can do now to help get their college search off to a good start. At the top of the list: Start thinking about the possibilities and what you would like your college experience to be. Gather information -- ask guidance counselors, teachers, parents and college students for suggestions, and start exploring the multitude of online information resources I've gathered here at AdmissionsAdvice.com. But, don't forget the bigger picture. Your grades this year will receive particular scruntiny when colleges review your applications next year, so get serious about doing your best in school.

The article also has a great list of "don'ts" for high school juniors, starting with a reminder that the college search process is not a race. Take your time, keep an open mind about your options, and don't be too influenced by name brands.

AdmissionsAdvice.com Named a "Top Blog"

Thanks to my faithful readers, the AdmissionsAdvice.com blog has been named one of the top 100 blogs by BlogBurst, a blog syndicator, for the 3rd Quarter of 2007. Blogburst's 100 Leaderboard is a list of the top 100 blogs ranked by the number of audience views. The AdmissionsAdvice.com blog was ranked number 19 on the top 100 list. Thanks for your support and continued readership, and please keep sharing this blog with others!

Colleges Bend Deadlines For Students In California Wildfires

First, I apologize for not updating recently, but, like hundreds of thousands of other Southern Californians, I was caught in the wildfires here last week and evacuated from our house. Our house is safe, but please keep those who were not as lucky in your thoughts and prayers.

If you're a student in Southern California affected by the wildfires and school closings, and you are planning to apply Early Decision or Early Action with November 1 or even November 15 deadlines, there is good news. Many colleges are announcing that they are extending their deadlines for students who live in areas affected by the fires. Among the colleges who have done so: MIT, American University, Lewis & Clark, and Boston College. Even if the school you are planning to apply to has not formally announced that they will extend the deadline, it will not hurt to write directly to the admissions officer handling the Southern California region to explain your situation and ask for a short extension. Many, if not all, colleges and universities are likely to be happy to help.

Good luck to everyone working on those early applications!

Common Application Now Allows Changes

According to Rob Killian, the Common Application adjusted their online system last night, so that students can now make changes to their application in between submissions to different schools. All parts of the application can be changed, although the Common Application board might still return to limited changes for next year. The Common Application has issued a FAQ on how to make changes in between submissions (Adobe Reader required).

10 Tips For Activity Resumes

Are you planning to attach an activity resume to your application? Here are ten tips on activity resumes from college admissions officers. The tips were posted on the counselor listserv of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC). You can find more great tips for students, as well as information about your rights and responsibilities as a college applicant, on the NACAC website.

1. If the club, group or organization is regional or local to your school, attach a brief explanation so that the reader can understand what the organization does, and what membership entails. On the other hand, there's no need to explain what national organizations like the National Honors Society are all about. We know.

2. Let us know if you are a founder or co-founder of a club or organization. Give us an idea of what went into the process of getting it off the ground.

3. Be sure to tell us about part-time work or anything that has prevented you from participating in extracurricular activities. This includes things such as having to care for younger siblings because your parents work, having to work to help support your family, or that you have a very long commute to and from school.

4. Tell us about your more unusual activities that might not fit neatly in the boxes of the application. You may think that it doesn't matter that you spend your free time taking photographs of the people in your neighborhood, but the person reading your application may be an amateur photographer and find it very interesting.

5. Don't use acronyms for organizations! We don't know what they mean, and therefore we don't have a clue how you've been spending 15 hours of your time each week.

6. If several of your activities are somehow related, group them together on the activity sheet. For example, group all of your theater related activities in one section, your community service in another, etc. This helps us get a better sense of how deep your commitment and involvement in a particular area might be.

7. Any supplements like a resume should be short and add important information. Many colleges dislike extra pieces of paper, others are more lenient, but no admissions officer has time to wade through five pages of supplemental material. Any extra you send should be brief and to the point (i.e., it should not list every debate tournament, or every show you've sold tickets to). Don't just re-list what's already on your application. If you must attach an activity sheet, keep it to no more than two pages (one is better!) and copy it front and back so it is only one sheet.

8. Admissions officers look at the extracurricular section and student activity lists as a way to see how the student has made choices about how to spend their time and energy. A few things done well and in depth are more important than a long laundry list of everything you've ever done.

9. The best activity sheets tell us how the student's participation in an activity helped them better understand themselves, helped them better understand others, or opened up their world to new possibilities. We don't need another essay, but let us know why your activities mattered to you if possible.

10. Remember, anything you attach is part of your application. Proofread, proofread, proofread. There's nothing worse than seeing an optional activity sheet that is littered with typo's and errors attached to a perfect application. It makes us wonder which is the "real you."

Common App Update

Rob Killian, executive director of the Common Application, has let counselors know that they expect to adjust their system today (Friday) to allow students to make changes to the Common Application in between submissions to colleges. In an email to counselors, Killian said, "If you knew how it worked last year, you'll know how it works on Friday." Last year, students were able to change all parts of the Common Application in between submissions, including essays.

However, the instructions on the Common App site have not yet been changed to reflect this, and Killian has not issued an announcement saying that the change has been made yet. He did say that they are still working on a FAQ posting for counselors and users and did not give a date for issuing the FAQ.

So, bottomline for those who might want to make changes in between submissions: I'd wait a day or so for final confirmation that the change has been made before submitting the application.

Nervous About College Interviews? Don't Be

If you're nervous about upcoming admissions interviews, relax. That's the message in a great Philadelphia Inquirer article. The article points out that, although interviews can be an important part of the process at many colleges, they're seldom make-or-break. Rather, they're intended to give admissions a more three dimensional picture of you than the flat statistics and data on your application. There's another point about interviews to keep in mind that isn't mentioned in the article: most interviewers sincerely like young people, and are interested in getting to know you as a person. Don't think of a college interview as an inquisition, but as a chance to have an intelligent conversation with someone who wants you to succeed.

Help! My Parents Are Driving Me Crazy About College Applications!

Last year at just around this time, I received an email from a young woman asking a very important question: What is the best way to go about the college application process without getting into huge arguments with my Mom? I know that it is a very stressful time for both of us and especially me, but the fighting is not helping my stress level at all.

Since I know that other students (and parents) are probably asking themselves the same question again this year, I thought I'd re-post the response I wrote to her here last year. By the way, all turned out well for this young woman. She was admitted to almost all of the colleges she applied to (and yes, she DID get her applications in on time) and she is now a very happy freshman at a great mid-western university. Here is my reply to her question:

I laughed out loud when I read your email just from imagining how hard my daughter will laugh when I tell her someone asked me for advice on getting along with your Mom during the college application process. My daughter and I have always had a great relationship, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that at this time in her senior year, we were both really annoyed with each other a lot of the time. There was an evil word lurking between us, the "A word": Applications. I was convinced she was doomed to a life of failure if she didn't get them done right this minute, and she was convinced she was doomed to hear me nagging about them for the rest of her life. And, it wasn't even October yet!

A very strange thing happens to a lot of parents - especially mothers - when it comes time for their children to apply to college. Maybe it's that we can see the door closing on our being needed as kids prepare to leave the nest, or maybe it's that we have this burning Mom (and sometimes Dad) drive to want to protect our babies from the sting of rejection, or maybe it's just pre-menopausal stress. But a lot of us go plumb crazy for a while.

Of course, this is totally unfair to you kids. You're facing what is the first major step in your adult life. It's normal to feel scared and excited and just a little doubtful about how it will all turn out. The last thing you need is this crazy woman (or sometimes crazy man) hovering over you as you try to stretch your wings and find the courage to fly. It's no wonder that a lot of kids go plumb crazy for a while too.

What helped at our house was that, in early October, my daughter sent in her first application, to a rolling admissions "safe bet" college. Seven days later, she was admitted. Now that we knew that she could definitely go somewhere the following year, she made me swear - and I am not making this up! - that if I mentioned the "A word" again, I would eat nothing but Cheerio's for a week. I hate Cheerio's, so this was no idle threat. With the threat of the Cheerio's diet hanging heavy, I gradually learned to keep my mouth sh...uh...thoughts to myself. It wasn't easy. The large carton of duct tape I bought for my mouth helped a bit though.

Seriously, the best advice - aside from invoking the Cheerio's diet yourself - is to try to separate out the fear, anxiety, and unhappiness of the application process itself from the feelings you have towards your mother. Sure, she may be trying to help too much, and no one likes to be nagged, but she isn't the source of your true anxiety, and realizing that might make it easier to step back and respond calmly when she is keyed up herself.

Moms also need LOTS of reassurance when they're half-insane. Keep her in the loop, let her know that you are working on your applications (assuming you are), and tell her that you definitely will need her help for some things. One thing my daughter assigned to me is addressing and stamping all of the recommendation envelopes. She even had me write out postage paid cards from the post office with her name and address on them for the schools to send back when the recommendations arrived. It was a very simple thing but it made me feel like I was contributing in some way and that got me off her back for a few weeks at least. So, try to find some simple things like this to make your Mom feel like she is helping you out and relieve some of her anxiety about letting you control the process. We parents really do need to feel needed, so the more "dumb" tasks like that you can give us, the better we'll behave. (Making copies at Kinko's can burn up time too!)

And, try to find some time to do something fun together that doesn't involve the "A word." Go to the movies, go shopping, go out to lunch. Feel free to invoke the Cheerio's diet if necessary.

Anyhow, hope this helps with your question, even if just a bit. Just remember, this too will pass. If you and your mom generally get along, you will get along just as well once the applications are in the mail. Just take deep breaths when she's really driving you nuts, try to keep your sense of humor about things, and feel free to tell her to email me if she needs to vent some anxiety. I've been there. I understand. I will stock up on Cheerio's.

Now, I need to go call my daughter at college. It will be great to hear her laugh.

Common Application BackTracks; Will Allow Changes

Earlier this summer I reported on a change to the online version of the Common Application that would have prohibited students from making changes to the Common Application in between submissions to different colleges. A small but vocal group of college counselors has been urging the Common Application to return to their old process. This morning, Rob Killian, executive director of the Common Application, informed counselors that the Common Application Board of Directors has decided to backtrack on its decision to not allow changes. According to an email sent by Killian to counselros, in response to the counselor questions, the Common Application has "been discussing some short-term and long-term technology solutions that could address the three or four questions most commonly raised by counselors (for example, allowing an applicant to indicate different majors for different Common App members), without compromising our mission to provide a “Common” Application." Killian added that, effective Friday, October 19, students applying this year will "again be able to create and submit alternate versions of their Common Application, in much the same way they did last year."

The Common Application is compiling a list of FAQs which will be sent to counselors in the next week.

This move is very good news for this year's applicants, and I think it is great that the Common Application responded to the concerns I, and other counselors, raised about the new system.

Sanity and College Admissions

If you're a high school senior (or a senior's parent), you're likely feeling a little...ahem...anxious right about now. Take a break from fretting over essays and admit rates to read a great article in the Denver Post about keeping a sane and realistic perspective on the process of applying to college.

As I've said here repeatedly, there are 2,600+ four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. It's possible to get a great education at the vast majority of them. As you stare your applications in the face, make sure you've built in a solid safety net of at least one or two colleges where you're likely to be admitted. Of the 2,600 or so great options out there, only around 5% reject more students than they admit. Broaden your horizons and keep in mind that a solid education is something you DO, not a fancy decal on the back window of your car.

Good luck!

Tackling "Why This College?" Essay Prompts

One of the most perplexing essays for many students is the one that asks the most important question of all: Why do you want to attend this college? Here are some tips for handling this essay.

First, let’s talk a bit about why colleges ask this question in the first place. These days most colleges, especially highly selective ones, get many more applications than they have places for in their freshman class. Obviously, the admissions office does not want to waste an admittance on an applicant who is not likely to attend – and they also want to make sure that every student who does attend next fall has thought through their reasons for wanting to be there. In short, they are looking for evidence that you didn’t just toss in an extra application on a whim, but that you truly are interested enough to have thought through your decision to apply.

They’re also looking for clues to your personality, interests, and goals, and how you will contribute to or participate in all that the college has to offer. So, this question isn’t just about why the college is a fit for you, but why you’re a fit for the college. It’s a subtle but important difference to keep in mind as you work on this sort of essay. Don’t just tell the college why they are right for you – also tell them why you are right for them.

Here are some tips to help you tackle “Why This College?” essays:

1. Brainstorm before you start writing. Make a list of the five or ten most important things you are looking for in any college, not just this one. Next, write a list of your most important goals and interests. Then, brainstorm how this particular college might meet those needs, desires, and interests.

2. Do your homework. Learn everything you can about the college and its programs. If you’ve visited, think back over your visit and jot down anything that particularly struck you during the visit. Try to remember conversations you had with faculty or students, and places on campus that particularly resonated with you. What made you decide that this college was worth considering during your visit?

College websites are also loaded with information. Use them! Ignore the pretty pictures and catchy slogans in the admissions section this time around. Read the descriptions of departments you’re interested in, explore a few faculty bios, find out the details of graduation requirements and advising for freshmen, examine the school’s mission statement, read the online archives of the student newspaper, and scroll through recent press releases issues by the college news office.

Then, refer back to your list of what you are looking for in a college and match up the data points you’ve uncovered in your research with the most important things you’re seeking in any college. What makes this school a particularly good match?

3. Make it personal. Don’t write about things that any applicant can say about the school. Tell the admissions committee why everything you mention relates specifically to you. Instead of “I like University XYZ because it has a wonderful science program” say “I have a lifelong interest in zoology and the opportunity to work in University XYZ’s on campus primate research center in Professor Smith’s undergraduate research program will allow me to get hands on experience working with chimpanzees."

4. Don’t comment on the obvious. The admissions office already knows they have a beautiful campus, a world-renowned faculty, rank high in U.S. News & World Reports, and are located in an exciting city. If you keep it personal, and focus on why this college or university and you truly are a match, your essay will stand out.

5. Be specific. Don’t just say, “I was impressed with your library when I visited.” Look up the name of the library, and tell them exactly what impressed you (beyond, of course, the coffee bar in the lobby.) Sometimes little details can speak loudly. I once read an excellent essay from a student which began, “When I entered the drawing and painting studio on the third floor of Smith Hall, felt the warm sun streaming through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and smelled the pungent aroma of fresh turpentine, I knew that I had found a place where I could not only create art, but live it.” Here's the litmus test to know if you've been specific enough: Try changing the name of the college in your "Why this college?" essay. If you can drop in the name of a different college, and the essay still makes perfect sense, it's a sign that you've written too generic of an essay.

Finally, if you find yourself truly struggling with explaining why this school is a unique match for you, it may be time to sit down and consider whether this college or university is truly right for you. Think about your college expectations and dreams, do some additional research, but if you still find yourself unable to express why you want to attend beyond general platitudes, think twice about applying.

Considering Early Decision? Take This Quiz First!

The first deadlines for Early Decision applications are on the horizon. If you're considering applying Early Decision, however, I strongly recommend making sure it is the right decision for you now. Every year, I hear from a number of Early Decision admits who are consumed with doubt about the binding commitment they've made. Don't let this be you! Here's a quiz to help you decide if you're truly ready to apply Early Decision.

Answer Yes, No or Not Sure to the following questions:

1. Have you visited the Early Decision school at least once?

2. Have you visited several other schools?

3. Have you done an overnight stay at the Early Decision school?

4. Have you sat in on at least one class at the Early Decision school or had personal contact with at least one faculty member or admissions officer?

5. Can you list at least five strengths and five weaknesses of the Early Decision school?

6. If you need financial aid, have you and your parents used an online EFC calculator to see what your family will likely be expected to pay?

7. If you need financial aid, have you and your parents researched the typical financial aid package at the Early Decision school, including the typical debt of graduating students?

8. If you need financial aid, are you and your parents willing and able to live with a similar financial aid package?

9. Regardless of whether you need financial aid or not, have you and your parents considered all financial implications of applying Early Decision -- not just whether you can afford the school, but the opportunity cost of giving up the chance to compare financial aid and merit scholarship offers from other schools?

10. Have you asked admissions and the financial aid office about the percentage of students admitted Early Decision who receive merit scholarships, and how it compares to the percentage admitted Regular Decision receiving merit scholarships?

11. Have you asked admissions and the financial aid office what the average merit scholarship amounts are for both those admitted Early Decision and those admitted Regular Decision?

12. Have you evaluated your chances of receiving a merit scholarship at several other colleges you've considered?

13. If the Early Decision school suddenly became less prestigious, or its US News Ranking dropped 50 points, would you still want to apply?

14. Have you researched the graduation requirements of the Early Decision school?

15. Have you read back issues of the Early Decision school's student newspaper, and can you describe several current issues affecting students?

16. Could you write a 300-500 word essay describing why you want to attend the Early Decision school?

17. Could you write a 300-500 word essay describing why the Early Decision school should admit you?

18. Do your grades and test scores make you a solid candidate for the Early Decision school, even if you applied Regular Decision? (i.e., you are in the 50th to 75th percentile or higher for test scores of admitted students)

19. Do you have a solid list of other schools that you would be happy to attend if you are not admittted to the Early Decision school?

20. Would you still apply Early Decision to this school if your chances of being admitted Early Decision were the same as if you applied Regular Decision?

21. Have you and your parents read the Early Decision contract several times and agreed to be bound to its requirements?

22. Do you and your parents understand that the only reason you will be able to get out of your Early Decision contract is if the school is unable to meet your financial need?

23. Do you and your parents understand that the school's version of meeting your financial need may differ from your family's version (i.e., they may offer more loans than you wish to take)?

24. If you're accepted Early Decision, will you be happy for your friends when they are announcing multiple acceptances in the spring?

25. Are you applying to the Early Decision school solely because it is your clear first choice, not because you believe that you must not waste the "Early Decision boost"?

Give yourself:

1 points for every "Yes" answer
0 points for every "No" or "Not sure" answer

If you have scored between 20-25 points, you're ready to apply Early Decision - You've done in-depth research on the Early Decision school and other colleges, and have made a well-thought-out choice to apply Early Decision to this particular school.
If you have scored between 10-19 points, you are not quite ready to apply Early Decision. Take the next few weeks to do some more research and to mull over your decision.
If you have scored below 10 points, you are not ready to apply Early Decision. Review the questions, do more research, and re-take the quiz again.