Collegewise

You’re doing business even before the transaction happens

I want to rent a house for a vacation this spring, and I found what looks to be a perfect one on a vacation rental site.  It said to contact the owner for availability, so I sent him an email.  I won’t bore you with all the minutiae of what’s happened since then, but every promise to get back to me about availability, to send me paperwork, to confirm my reservation—none of them have been fulfilled.  I’ve been ready to pay and lock this down since my first contact.  But at this point, I am essentially begging him to take my money.

So far, the outcomes are:

1) He’s made it much harder than it needed to be for me to do business with him.
2) I’m now predisposed not to feel good when I pay him money.   

No money has changed hands yet, but I’m already not feeling good about doing business with him, which is too bad, because he seems like a nice guy (if he were a jerk, this would have been over a long time ago).  When we’ve started out like this, there’s already ground to make up.  I can’t help but wonder if this is a sign of disorganization to come.  Even if everything else goes perfectly from here on—if the house is beautiful and it’s everything I hoped it would be—I’ll be happy, but I’m not going to rave about my experience to anyone.

If you’re a private counselor or another kind of small business owner, you’re doing business even before the transaction happens.  Is it easy for me to find your contact information on your website?  Do you list your email address (or do I have to fill out a long online form to ask you a question)?  Do you answer your phone when I call?  Do you get back to me quickly when I leave you a message?  Do you make it easy for me to hire you and pay you?  Do I feel good when I make that decision? 

The way you deal with potential customers tells a story about how you run your business.  Design your business the right way, and people will actually rave about you even before they hire you.  Imagine if the owner of this house had given me this story to tell:

“I sent the owner an email, and he called me back in 30 minutes.  He answered all my questions, sent me some additional pictures of the place that weren’t up online, and offered to hold it for me for 48 hours while I made up my mind.  The next morning, I sent him my credit card number, and I got a reply right away with my confirmation, a receipt, a great list of all the stuff that’s included at the house, some suggestions of items I should bring, and his personal recommendations for the best restaurants in town.” 

He’d have had a happy customer, a rented house, and my money a lot faster.

Two college planning principles for parents

Almost all the advice I give to our Collegewise parents about navigating the college admissions process with their kids falls under one of these two principles: 

1. Remember that you aren’t applying to college—your kid is.

Some parents respond to the stresses of the college admissions process by taking it all on themselves.  But this isn’t happening to you.  You’re not the one who’s taking the SATs and trying to get through AP chem and submitting applications so you can be judged by people you’ve never even met. I know that good parents feel connected to what’s happening in your kids’ lives, but I promise you that freaking out with or for them is just going to make everything worse.  Take a breath and remember that this is happening to them, not you.  It will help you keep calm and be the supportive, encouraging parent your kids need.        

2. Make it your job during this time to set an example for your kids. 

The fact that your kids are going through this process does not give you an excuse to behave like a crazy person.  Your job during this time is to set an example and show your kids how a responsible, healthy, sane adult handles what life throws at us.  Don’t fly off the handle and go to battle with a Spanish teacher to get a grade changed.  Don’t jump in and write your kid’s college essays or fill out applications for him.  And never act like a rejection from any particular college is a life tragedy.  You have experience facing stressful situations, making big life transitions, and dealing with disappointment.  Now is the time to show your kids how it’s done.  Be a supportive voice of reason, a willing listener and an enthusiastic cheerleader.  And remind them that no matter which colleges say yes, you’re still going to love them (and your kids will still need to take out the trash when you ask them to).

Work hard to be missed

Which is more important—to be the scoring leader on the basketball team or to be the kind of player your teammates and coaches will miss when you graduate?

Of course, it’s great if you can be both.  But if given the choice, I think it’s better to be the kind of player who will be missed.  If you’re the leading scorer, but you’re not a great leader, you care more about your stats than you do about the team’s record, and you always take the shot before making a great pass, nobody’s going to miss you when you’re gone.  But if you show up early to practice, bring a great attitude every day, fire up the team, and still find a way to average 9 assists a game even though you come off the bench, you’re making a great impact on your team.  And they’re going to miss you.

I mention this because it’s a mistake to think the only way to stand out is to always be the best—to lead the team in scoring, be the president of the student body, or set the curve in calculus.  It’s great if you can do those things, but first, work hard enough to be missed later, whether or not you’ve got the talent to be the best.  Your attitude, the way you treat other people, the energy you bring to the work, those traits make you valuable whether or not you’re the MVP, president or curve buster.

Before you worry about being the best, work hard to be missed.  Neither goal is easy.  But the latter often pays off more than the former does.

When email is your introduction

I got an angry note once from someone who’d applied for a job as editor at Collegewise and was “shocked and dismayed” that we hadn’t invited her to interview.  There were several reasons we’d passed on her, and one of them was the way she’d introduced herself to us in her email: 

“attached please find my cover letter and resume.  thank you”

No greeting, no capitalization, and some sketchy punctuation.  That’s not a good way to introduce yourself (especially when you’re applying for a job as an editor). 

This is a mistake I see a lot of high school students make during the college admissions process.  When an interviewer emails you to schedule a time to meet, or someone in the admissions office invites you to an event for applicants, whatever you send back is the way you’re choosing to introduce yourself.  That’s the first impression you’ll make.  You’d never go to your college interview while still in your pajamas and without even brushing your hair.  And yet a lot of kids think nothing of sending an email like:

“sunday at noon is good.  thank you” or “kevin mcmullin will attend the workshop” 

That’s just a sloppy, lazy way to communicate, especially with someone from a college.  Are you going to get rejected because of that?  Probably not.  But you’re doing absolutely nothing to help yourself, either. 

There’s no need to write a response like Hemingway.  But why not make a good first impression?

“John- 

Sunday at noon at Starbucks sounds perfect.  I really appreciate you working around my soccer schedule and I’m looking forward to chatting with you.  Thanks so much.”

Kevin McMullin

Or when you’re RSVPing for an event:

“John-

Thanks so much for emailing me about the Bowdoin event on Sunday.  If there’s still room, I’d love to come with my parents.  We’re really looking forward to it. Thanks so much.

Kevin McMullin”

It’s not hard.  And enough kids get it wrong that you can stand out by getting it right.   

Three mistakes college applicants must avoid this month

Seniors, while you’re awaiting the last of the decisions to arrive from your colleges, don’t make any of these common mistakes:

1. Neglect to send a midyear report to a college that requires one.

2. Forget to send your required financial aid paperwork (most deadlines will be before March 1).

3. Ignore an email or letter from a college in which you were asked to send information that’s missing from your application, like a letter of recommendation or official test scores.

Check your colleges’ websites to verify whether they require midyear reports, and to see when the financial aid forms are due.  And don’t ignore any communication you get from a college, especially one informing you that one or more of your application materials is still missing. 

Do you really have until May 1 to decide?

Students accepted for fall admission are supposed to have until May 1 to decide between the colleges that accepted them (unless you were admitted under a binding early decision program).  And yet some colleges seem to imply in their acceptance letters that waiting until that date could leave you shut out of housing options, classes, or even space in the class altogether.  So do you really have until May 1 to decide?

First, you should know that all colleges that are members of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling agree to follow the Statement of Principles of Good Practice which says clearly that, unless you are accepted in a binding early decision program, the college will…

“…permit first-year candidates for fall admission to choose among offers of admission, financial aid and scholarships until May 1 …”

“...work with their institutions’ senior administrative officers to ensure that financial aid and scholarship offers and housing options are not used to manipulate commitments prior to May 1."

“…neither retract nor adversely alter their offers of admission and/ or financial aid prior to May 1 for candidates who choose not to reply until that date, nor will they state or imply that candidates might incur such a penalty by waiting until May 1 to submit an enrollment deposit.”

So yes, unless explicitly stated otherwise, you have until May 1 to make up your mind.  If a college implies or outright says that waiting until May 1 could somehow be detrimental, don’t let it scare you into making a decision sooner than you’re ready.  Instead, call the admissions office and politely ask for clarification.  If you don’t get a straight answer, ask your counselor to call for you. This decision is too important to make in a hurry or without all the right information. 

In return, you need to do the right thing, too, and…

1. Reply to all your colleges by May 1, including those you decide not to attend (so they know the spot they offered you can now go to someone else).

2. Only place a deposit at one school.  You don't get to plunk multiple deposits down at more than one school so you can buy more time after May 1 to decide. 

Send a good message by taking notes

Taking notes in class isn’t just good common study sense.  It also demonstrates that you’re bringing some effort of your own to this exchange.  It shows that you’re paying attention and that you care about what your teacher has to say.  That’s a powerful message to send, one that you might not want to reserve just for class time.

When you visit your teacher after class to ask for help, take notes on what you discuss.  Show that you’re doing your part to make the most of this extra time your teacher is giving you. 

If you meet with your counselor to talk about colleges that are a good fit for you, don’t just sit there and nod your head.  Write the names of the colleges down.  Ask a few questions and take notes on the answers.

Private counselors can do this, too.  When we meet with a new family who’s considering joining our program, we ask them if it would be OK if we took some notes during the discussion.  And we always take notes when we meet with our enrolled families, not just because we need to remember the information, but because we want the families to know that we care about what they’re saying. 

When you take notes during an interaction with someone, you’re sending a powerful message.  Don’t do it on a date—that would just be creepy.  But in class, a meeting with your teacher or counselor, even a job interview, send a good message by taking a few notes.

What’s your academic story?

Here are three things colleges don’t need to read about in a letter of recommendation from your teacher: 

1. The grade you earned in the class.
It’s helpful for a college to learn about your level of achievement relative to the other students in class, but colleges have your transcript.  So they don’t need a letter of recommendation to tell them you got an "A."

2. The activities you’re involved in.
You list your activities on your application.  So there’s no need for your teacher to elaborate on what you do outside of the classroom.

3. How well your teacher knows you. 
Maybe your teacher is also your yearbook advisor, or knows your family, or coached your little league baseball team when you were 12.  That’s all fine, but none of that needs to be explained in an academic letter of recommendation.

So, what’s left?  Colleges want to know the academic story behind your grade in the class. 

What are you like in the classroom?  Do you ask questions?  Do you contribute to class discussions?  Do you seem genuinely interested in learning the material?  Did you struggle in the class but work like crazy to improve your grade?  Did you do an interesting project or complete outside reading on your own or stop by to talk about the material with your teacher after class?   

That’s the information that tells colleges what you’re going to be like in their classrooms.  And your teachers are the only ones who can share it.

If you had to get a letter of recommendation today, which teacher could tell your academic story?  And what could you do differently to make their job easier? 

You can do a lot more now to change the answers to those questions than you’ll be able to do once you start filling out applications.

Don't renew your vows

If you’re planning college visits this spring, here’s a tip—don’t visit your dream schools. 

A lot of students make collegiate pilgrimages to visit their dream schools, which all too often are those schools most likely to reject them.  Then they come away even more in love than they were before.  If you’ve loved Duke since you were twelve and you simply cannot envision a universe where you wouldn’t apply, what’s the point of spending time and money to visit Duke?  You don’t need to fall any deeper in love with Duke.  Spend this time visiting other colleges, preferably some more likely to love you back.  

There’s nothing wrong with having dream schools.  But when you limit your visits to your top choices, you’re just renewing your vows instead of playing the field.

You can always visit a dream school later if you’re actually accepted (imagine how much more fun it would be visiting when you know you could actually be there in the fall).  But as you plan your college visits, be honest with yourself about whether or not you really need to visit a dream school.  If you’re already deep in love, there’s no need to renew your vows.  Play the field and see some colleges where your chances of admission are more certain.

No FAFSA regrets

It’s hard to imagine a worse college admissions regret than wishing you’d taken the time to apply for financial aid, especially if that regret comes in the face of not being able to afford your chosen college. 

Don’t make excuses.  Don’t assume you won’t qualify or worry that asking for aid will negatively impact your chances of admission (it won’t).   Unless you are absolutely sure you can painlessly pay the full cost of any of your chosen colleges for four years, take the time to fill out the FAFSA this month (and any other forms your particular colleges require).

Most colleges require you to submit a FAFSA no later than March 1, so this is the time to get on it. 

A few other FAFSA reminders:

1. This is the only place you should go to fill out the FAFSA.  Never pay to fill it out (the first “F” in FAFSA stands for “Free").

2. Unless otherwise stated in the directions, “You” or “Your” refers to the student, not the parent.

3. You’ll need completed taxes to finalize your FAFSA.  If your taxes won’t be done in time, you can submit estimated data now and edit it later.

4. The FAFSA only allows you to choose 10 schools to have it sent to.  If you’re applying to more than 10, wait until the FAFSA folks send you your Student Aid Report (SAR).  Then log back into your FAFSA and specify the additional colleges you’d like it sent to.

5. If you have FAFSA questions, there’s a good chance you’ll find the answers in this section of finaid.org.

Write it down

I’ve written before that when you’re applying to college, it’s important to share the stories behind what you’ve done in high school.  A college isn’t as interested in your list of activities as they are in what you actually did--how you showed initiative, how you made an impact, what you learned from your successes and, yes, your failures.  You’re far from the only kid who will write “French Club” or “Yearbook Editor” or “Varsity Tennis” on your application.  But the stories behind those activities are yours alone.

As you go through high school, it’s a good idea to take the time to write those stories down as they happen so you can remember them more clearly when the time comes to apply to college.  How much money did your fundraiser bring in?  What did your dad say to you before your first game as a varsity pitcher?  What exactly happened that day at the yearbook staff meeting when you learned that you have to be better about how you give constructive criticism?  These are valuable moments in your life and colleges will be interested in learning about them.

I know it seems like you couldn’t possibly forget those details, but when you’re facing an application deadline and a question about the activity that’s had the most meaning for you, or a time you failed and what you learned from it, you’ll be glad to have those memories written down somewhere.   

Juking the stats

You show me anything that depicts institutional progress in America, school test scores, crime stats, arrest reports, arrest stats, anything that a politician can run on, anything that somebody can get a promotion on. And as soon as you invent that statistical category, 50 people in that institution will be at work trying to figure out a way to make it look as if progress is actually occurring when actually no progress is.”

David Simon, Gaming The System, Juking The Stats

Not surprisingly, we were all reminded again this week that college rankings inspire the same behavior. 

If you look to US News rankings to pick your colleges, you're relying on an algorithm that rewards measures like test scores, how many kids apply, how many get rejected, and how many of the accepted kids decide to attend.  That's some pretty flimsy data to use to evaluate where you should go to college for four years.  And there's no way to tell if or how much those stats are juked.  You can and should evaluate colleges.  But you can't measure the quality of an institution--how well it educates, inspires and transforms--with an algorithm.

By the way, Simon created and wrote The Wire, regarded as one of the finest dramatic series in the history of television.  And he didn't need to go to a "Top Ten Ranked" university to be successful.  He went to the University of Maryland. 

Former Collegewise students: Join our Wall of Fame

We’re going to be dedicating a wall in our Irvine, CA office to pictures and stories from our former students.  We may also be putting these same pics and tales on a special page of collegewise.com.  Whether you’re in college now or out in the real world, if you’re a former student of ours and you’d like to be featured on our Wall of Fame, we’d love to hear from you!  Just answer a few questions here and attach a picture.

Thanks so much! We’re really looking forward to hearing what you’re up to and to seeing your pics up on our Wall of Fame.

Ship it...or cancel it

January-April is our slower time at Collegewise.  Every year, this is when we tackle our projects—new ideas, improvements to our programs, updates to our materials, all the things we thought about during the fall but just didn’t have time to get to them.  And this year, we’re trying something new to see just how much we can get done.  For every project, we’re picking a date by which we’ll ship it (finish and put it to use), or cancel it.  No in-between, no half-finished projects with no resolution—it’s either done, or done away with.

We all came into 2012 with ideas/projects we wanted to try.  We picked our favorites to start with and did three things:

1. One person volunteered to ultimately be responsible for shipping.  This person doesn’t necessarily have to do all the work alone, but every project needs a champion who will see it through or pull the plug.

2. The person in charge picked the ship-it date. 

3. We all agreed on what the project has to do or look like in order to be good enough to ship.  The truth is that most projects don’t need to be perfect in the beginning.  In fact, you won’t know whether or not they’re perfect until you actually ship them.  So we decided ahead of time what “good enough” looks like.  We agreed on the acceptable level of funding and risk we could take for each project.  Then on the agreed-upon date, we’ll ship it if it’s ready, or cancel if it’s floundering.

The idea behind the cancel option isn't to just give up.  It's to give you an ejection lever to pull if a project starts to take too long, cost too much, or just can't be made good enough to ship.  In 1991, Duke Nukem was one of the most successful video games ever created, so successful that the company decided to make a sequel.  And every time it got close to shipping, someone wanted a new feature or had a new twist that would make it even better.  Nine years later, there was still no sequel and they cancelled the project.  Couldn't they have reached that conclusion a lot sooner (and cheaper)?

I’ll share the outcomes of several projects in future posts (whether we ship or cancel them).  But for now, we’ve got “ship or cancel” dates on the calendar and a lot of projects underway.  There's focus and energy knowing that a project is either going to launch or get scrapped and we’re pretty excited to see how they turn out. 

If you’d like some inspiration for your own projects, we got this "ship it" concept here.

What UPS delivery drivers know about focus

A UPS delivery driver’s day is done as soon as the truck is empty—never before.   That’s why they always seem to be hustling, and you never see their drivers hanging out together on an extended coffee break in the middle of the day.  At UPS, it pays to be focused.  The sooner that last package gets delivered, the sooner it’s quitting time.

The straight-A student who never seems to pull a late night, who claims to have “barely studied for the test” isn’t always smarter than everybody else.  A lot of those kids just do their work like the UPS drivers.  No Facebook, no phone calls, no texts or emailing or YouTubing until the work is done. 

Focused work gets things done a lot faster.