Collegewise

Too much of a good thing

As a college counselor, I think that the Common Application is a wonderful tool.  It simplifies the process and eliminates the tedious task of creating 8 different applications for 8 different schools.  I believe that the Common Application works perfectly in tandem with careful college matchmaking and knowing exactly why a student is applying to each school.  But it does a disservice to both the students and the institutions when applicants spam, say, 20 schools with their application just because it's easy to select colleges with the click of a mouse.  This article concerns me about the advent of the Universal College Application, the Common Application's competitor.  I'm not sure that what is needed is greater ease of applying to a greater number of schools.  More is not better when it comes to college applications.  If anything in the college application process should be done to excess, it is the researching and evaluating of the colleges on a student's list.  I worry that these mass applications are turning high school students into college consumers as opposed to bright individuals who are mining for the best matched place to spend the next 4 years.

U.S. News Rankings= Collegiate Beauty Contest

  Well, if we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times at Collegewise... "don't give much credence to the U.S. News and World Report's survey of top American colleges." It seems that the presidents of some of the nation's top liberal arts colleges are finally in agreement with Collegewise. I guess you could say they're finally wise like us.

In a recent CNN Article, the title alone explains how colleges view the report: Many American Colleges Balk at U.S. News Rankings. A number of collegiate presidents met in Annapolis this week to discuss a possible boycott of the U.S. News and World Report's reputation survey, which asks academic leaders to rate other colleges. Their survey responses then become approximately 25 percent of the school's ranking in the U.S. News' article. But many school presidents agree that the results do not provide any educationally valid research. A director at Sarah Lawrence College called the reputation survey nothing more than a "collegiate beauty contest that is not a valid basis for judging the quality o f education."

One test does not a student make

Margot, a member of the Collegewise clan, likes to say, "What you do in four hours on a Saturday is much less important than what you do over the course of four years."  Filling in bubbles on an SAT or ACT scantron test sheet will never substitute the time and effort that high schools kids put into their schoolwork.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that one.  But I was really happy to read this article unveiling the results of a University of California study determining that those standardized test scores don't predict how students will perform in college either.  Take this excerpt for example:

The primary finding was that high school grades are consistently the strongest predictor of any factor of success through four years in college. And contrary to what researchers expected to find, the predictive value of high school grades goes up as students progress through college, even though more time has passed since high school.

So guess what, high schoolers?  All of that late night studying, note taking, and essay writing really WILL help you in the long run!  Doesn't that make you feel better?

 

August News for Friends and Family...

Happy Graduation
Collegewise counselors Jessica Schattgen (Los Angeles) and Allison Cummings (Irvine) recently completed our five-week college counselor training that culminates in a two-day final exam, an exam on which they both earned the highest scores ever recorded since we began our training program in nearly five years ago.   

To celebrate, the Irvine crew traveled north to Los Angeles for a congratulatory dinner. We're looking forward to seeing them put their admissions experience (and their curve setting final performance) to work helping kids get into college.

Extra! Extra! "Regular Kids" Still Get In!

Whenever we preach that kids can be regular teenagers and get into college, we always like to say that they can play guitar and work at the grocery store rather than paddle down the Amazon and cure athletes' foot.  Those latter hyperboles tend to change depending upon our mood, but the guitar and grocery store are old standbys for us to show how regular kids with real passion are very appealing to colleges.

Imagine our delight at reading about Kevin Robinson in today's New York Times, and 18 year-old senior in Pennsylvania who did exactly those things and is going to The George Washington University.  He even wrote his essay about how much he likes Parliament Funkadelic.

And this blogger will openly admit that he's accused the New York Times of only printing the bad news about college admissions.  Thanks for showing us the good side!

Standing Room(s) Only

We're in day #2 of our visit to the annual WACAC (Western Association for College Admissions Counseling) conference being held at the University of San Diego this year.  As of the penning of this blog, Arun and Kevin have finished their presentations ("College Admissions 101 for New High School Counselors" and "Solutions for the College Counseling Workplace") and did so to standing room only crowds.  Whether or not those standing room only crowds enjoyed the sessions remains to be seen for sure until the conference evaluations are submitted, but Kevin and Arun are telling themselves that they were funny, charming, and even informative.  Arun actually had an admissions officer from USC tell him after his session that his information was "right on point," so that was a nice piece of feedback.   

This picture at the left is Arun commanding the room during his session.  Kevin will be asking the rest of the Collegewisers why nobody bothered to photograph him and will reveal their answer in a blog entry to come.   

Soak Up the Summer

The school year is winding down, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to check out and ease into a summer of sleeping, eating, and catching rays.  Not if you want to go to college.  Below, find five tips to help you soak up the summer.  While we’re not demanding that every student pen their first novel this June through August, it is necessary to do a bit more than bragging to your friends about sleeping in until 2 p.m. each day.

1.  Go to work.
Although we haven’t polled the majority of teenagers in the USA, we can pretty accurately guess that most of them like to have a little money in their pockets.  The summer is the perfect time to make that happen by getting a job.  This doesn’t have to be some high profile internship at your mom’s friend’s law firm.  Washing Chevys at the local car wash and guiding customers to the right fit of khaki shorts at Old Navy are just fine.  It’s always appealing to colleges when a kid demonstrates initiative, hard work, and responsibility by obtaining and maintaining a job—even if it’s assembling Happy Meals at McDonald’s.

One Milestone at a Time

I once had a student proclaim that it was Pepperdine University or nothing.  He knew that it was a reach school for him, but he claimed if Pepperdine rejected him, he’d attend a two-year college and transfer.  He didn’t even want to apply to any other colleges.   

So often I hear my students lamenting the fact that their favorite school falls into the “reach” category.  I understand that the news can be disheartening.  But I find it even more disheartening when these high school juniors and seniors decide to prematurely throw in the towel based on this fact.  At the wise old age of 16, some of my students concede that they can only be happy at one college.  They want to apply to just one, accept their fate, and attempt to transfer from a community college after two years if the expected rejection letter arrives. 

Southwestern University

Georgetown, Texas

The Texas countryside—endless miles of cows, tractors, and locals shootin’ the breeze on the porches of general stores—is probably not what comes to mind when picturing college.  That’s until you reach Southwestern University in Georgetown, a beacon of academia among the cornfields. 

Georgetown isn’t exactly a metropolis.  (A double feature at the new movie theater is about as wild as it gets beyond the college’s campus.)  But there’s so much life and energy at Southwestern that even city slickers, like our Seattle-bred tour guide, will trade in the mosaic of urban life for four undergraduate years at a small liberal arts school that truly changes lives.

June News for Friends and Family...

Our new little “Collegewise News for Friends and Family” section of our blog is for those readers who really want to know what we’ve been up to around our offices. Yes, the section could probably be more aptly named, “For our Mothers” as they’re likely the only ones who will read it regularly. But as we all want to make our mothers proud, we thank the rest of our readers in advance for allowing us to update our moms here.

150 kids and counting

Collegewise essay specialist Elisabeth Abbott is beginning her fourth senior season with us this year.   And we figured that anyone who's helped over 150 kids with college essays, and done it so amazing well, deserves a little extra appreciation.  So we declared May 19, 2007 "Elisabeth Appreciation Night" and enjoyed a great meal together in Los Angeles.

The plaque Elisabeth is holding in the photo has the names of the more than 150 kids with whom she's worked, kids who are now enrolled in over 70 different colleges across the country.