Collegewise

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.

I'll bet you haven't tried this way of getting into a famous school

If you want to improve your chances of getting into a prestigious college, here’s one effective way to do it—find five other colleges you have never heard of but would be just as happy to attend as you would be to go to your dream school.

Whether or not you actually end up applying to them, the process of looking for and finding colleges you’ve never heard of that are right for you makes you focus more on the colleges and less on their names.  You'll think more about what you’re looking for in a college, what you expect your experience to be like and what you hope to get out of your time there.  You'll become more discerning.  At presentations and on tours, you'll ask more insightful questions than, “What’s the average SAT score for students you admit.” 

And more importantly, you’ll start to realize that there are hundreds of great schools out there, that you could be happy at lots of them, and that the difference between the first ranked school and the 100th ranked school would be almost indistinguishable if you took their names away.  

You’re not going to impress Harvard by telling your interviewer that you’re applying because Harvard is so prestigious.  If you’re choosing colleges based on their prestige, it’s time to look deeper (and think more deeply).   Becoming a savvier college shopper will help you get into lots of schools including the famous ones. 

Love your list

From Justin Pike, an admissions officer at Tufts:

Here is my advice: Love your list.  In the landscape of higher education, there is no excuse for feeling “bleh” about a school you apply to. Honestly, if you can’t see yourself going there why spend the effort writing essays, filling out forms, and shelling out application fees? Love your list.  Pick schools that deserve your talents but do not abandon reality. 'Safety school', 'match school', and 'reach school' should still be phrases running through your head. However, should loving your safety school be a foreign idea?  Imagine getting that first acceptance letter and genuinely being thrilled…woah…"

Read the full entry here

College is a buyer’s market

Dozens of colleges are likely visiting your high school this fall to give pitches about their schools and why you should apply.

If you go to a college fair, you’ll probably see over 100 colleges perched behind their tables eager to tell you about their schools.   

If you took the PSAT this fall and checked the box indicating that you would like to hear from potential colleges, your mailbox is going to fill with fancy brochures from colleges this spring in the hopes of enticing you to apply.

And if you'd joined us at the National Association of College Admissions Counseling’s annual conference this month, you could have strolled through the exhibitor hall and seen dozens (and dozens) of marketing companies offering their services to colleges to help them reach and attract students.  And none of those tables were without visitors. 

What do you think that all means? 

There are over 2,000 colleges in the country and only about 40 of them have the luxury of rejecting droves of kids with perfect grades and test scores.  The rest need the right students to fill their classes and dorms next fall.  They’re working—and paying—for the chance to reach you, to interest you, and frankly, to get you. 

The only folks for whom this isn’t a buyer’s market are the people who are convinced that the schools with far too many potential customers are the only colleges worth considering.

Product highlight: The Collegewise guide for future premeds

Last month, we released our guide, Is There a Future Doctor in the House? A Guide to Choosing a College and Preparing for Life as a Premed.  It’s 44 pages, sells for $9.95 and is available as a download.  Here are some of the reasons we made it, and what you can expect to find in the guide.

Why we wrote it

Our premed hopefuls at Collegewise consistently said things like,

“I want to go to UCLA because it’s good for premed.”

“I’m applying to Harvard because they also have a good medical school.”

“I’m going to major in biology because I want to be a doctor.”

Statements like those made it clear to us that while our future premeds knew they wanted to be (or were at least seriously considering becoming) doctors, most knew almost nothing about how to actually get there.  They didn’t know that there is no magic list of schools that are “good for premed.” They didn’t know that it doesn’t matter whether or not your college also has a medical school. And they didn’t know that a desire to go to medical school is not a good reason to major in biology.  Had we not been there to advise them, these future MDs would have made fundamental premed planning mistakes before they even got to college.

There’s too much at stake for premeds to pick colleges without knowing what they’ll need to do to achieve their goal and what they’re going to need from their colleges to get there.  So we wrote this guide to help high school students answer three questions:

1. How do successful premeds get accepted to medical school?  The best way to make good premed planning decisions is to understand how the people who’ve succeeded did it.
2. How can you find the right colleges for you to have a successful premed career?
3. What can you do in high school right now to prepare for life as a premed?

What’s included?

Our guide tackles those three questions in reverse chronological order.  After we explain what a successful premed’s college career looks like, we back up and talk about how to evaluate and choose the right colleges so you can identify which colleges—for you—would be good places to stand out as a successful premed.  Then we share some steps you can take now to prepare for life as a premed later.  And it’s not the same advice you’ve already heard like, “Study for the SAT” or “Volunteer at a hospital.” Some of the suggestions might surprise you (we even explain how reading novels about serial killers can actually help you get into medical school).

How we’re using it

Our job at Collegewise is to help our students make good decisions and select the right colleges.  So our Collegewise counselors are using our premed guide to educate themselves about the medical school admissions process, and using that knowledge to give good advice to our Collegewise students.

Who is the guide for?

Students

For students who are starting their college search or even just considering becoming premeds, our guide takes away the guesswork.  You’ll know exactly what to do now—and later—to become a doctor.

Parents

For a parent who’s helping your student with the college search, this guide will help you really evaluate what kinds of schools are the best places for your kids to start their medical journey. 

Counselors

There is no established list of schools that are the best places for premeds.  Our guide will help you understand the process so you can give your students the best advice. 

Results

We’ve been really happy with the reception for our premed guide, and the feedback from both students and counselors has been overwhelmingly positive.  We’re hoping that by making this advice available, a lot of future premeds will make better decisions and avoid common mistakes.

You can download your copy here for $9.95.

Ten ways getting into college is like dating

I often tell groups of high school students and their parents that getting into college is a lot like dating.  What I don’t tell them is that I have a lot more demonstrated historical expertise in college admissions than I do in romance.  Still, I’ll forge ahead anyway here and share ten things to remember as you find your way to the right college. 

1. Don’t fall for a college just because it’s popular.  Popularity alone isn’t a reliable measure of the quality of a college or a person.  And it’s a totally unreliable measure of whether or not the two of you would be great together. 

2. There are plenty of potential matches out there.  There are over 2,000 colleges; you’ll eventually find and get into one that’s right for you, no matter what your SAT scores are.  (I’m trying hard to avoid the “plenty of fish in the sea” cliché.)

3. You should never fundamentally change who you are just to get someone to like you.  It’s one thing to take math classes after school because you love math.  It’s another thing entirely to do it because you’re hoping it will make Yale like you more.

4. Don’t fall in love too fast.  It’s easy to get seduced and believe that your dream college is the only place where you could ever be happy.  But trust me, it’s not.   See #2.  

5. It’s good to be confident, but it’s never good to be arrogant.  Colleges and people will be more likely to appreciate you if you believe in yourself, but also acknowledge your weaknesses and how much you have left to learn. 

6. Don’t try too hard to sound impressive.  Would you ever say to someone on a first date, “I learned a multitude of valuable lessons about leadership and working well with others during my time as treasurer of the student body”?  I hope not.  So don’t do it in your college essays or interviews either.  It’s fine to speak proudly about the things that make you proud.  But nobody likes a stilted sales pitch where you’re trying too hard to impress.

7. The pain of a rejection will be temporary.  Yes, a college rejection can be painful.  But you should know that the initial sting never lasts. That’s why you’ll never meet a 40-year-old who’s still smarting from a college rejection or a high school breakup. 

8. Speaking of rejection, if a college breaks your heart, it’s their loss.  Dust yourself off, move on and find happiness someplace (or with someone) else.  Lots of people don’t get into their dream colleges or marry their high school sweethearts.  They recover and are usually thankful later on after they find even better matches.  You will, too.

9. Remember that there is no such thing as the perfect college.  A school might seem that way on the outside, but the flaws will reveal themselves once you spend some real time together.  Expect it—it’s normal.  You’ll just have to commit to doing your part to make the relationship work.   

10. There is no magic forumla.  There are no such formulas for college, romance, or life.  If there were, someone would have found and profited from them already.  All you can do is work hard, do things you enjoy, be a good person, and trust that things will be OK.  They really will.  I promise.

Don't get name brand envy

I've met a lot of students who said, "I want to apply to the Ivy League schools."  But I've never met one of those kids who got in.

Being in love with the name brand of a college won't get you accepted.  People who get into highly selective colleges don't worship at the altar of prestige.  They want to learn, grow, and surround themselves with smart, interesting people.  They know that if Yale or Stanford or Princeton says "No," they'll just fulfill those expectations for their college experience someplace else. 

If you say things like, "I definitely want to go to an Ivy League school," you've got a bad case of name brand envy.  The quick cure is to think about the reasons why you want to go to a school like that and start recognizing that there are a lot of schools that could give you what you're looking for.   

For now, you’re just applying

When a Collegewise family is experiencing some anxiety about whether or not a particular school should go on the student’s list, we'll sometimes remind them of our golden college list rule--applying to a college doesn't necessarily mean you have to go there.

That might sound obvious, but it can relieve anxieties that families experience, like:

"We think she should stay closer to home, but she wants to go farther away."

"I think I want to be a journalism major, but I'm not positive."

"That school is too expensive."

You apply to college in the fall of your senior year, but you almost certainly won't decide which one you'll attend until the end of your senior year.  That's a lot of time to discuss how far away from home a student should go, to consider how committed you really are to journalism, and to see what kind of financial aid package arrives.

You should always have good reasons for applying to any school, and you shouldn’t go crazy and apply to twenty colleges.  But if you have a few schools you’re not sure of, remember that you don’t have to be sure yet.  For now, you’re just applying. 

 

A good way to investigate college majors

If you have the slightest idea what you might want to major in when you get to college, try this:

1. Pick five colleges you're interested in.

2. Go to their websites and find the listing of required classes for your intended major.

3. Read the descriptions of the required courses.  

What are you actually going to be learning?  Who's going to be teaching you?  What does the department for your major claim that you'll gain from that course of study?  And most importantly, how does all of that sound to you?

If you're not excited to start those classes as soon as possible, you might want to think about choosing a different major.  Or you may need different colleges.

Should you visit a college over the summer?

You might have heard that you should only visit a college when school is in session, that visiting over the summer doesn’t give you the same feel as when the campus is alive with students.  That’s true.  But it can also be unrealistic advice to follow, especially if you’re traveling a good distance to see the school.  It’s not easy to leave your classes and activities behind for 2 or 3 days to visit colleges.  So is it worth doing summer visits? 

I think visiting a college during the summer is better than not visiting at all.  Before you do, call the office on campus that schedules tours and make sure they’ll be offering them.  And keep in mind that you might not be able to sit in on a class, tour a dorm, or take advantage of some of the other deeper exploration you might be able to do if the school were in session.  Truthfully, a lot of teenagers don’t enjoy turning a campus browse into a 4-hour test drive.  So if you’re interested in a school and you have an opportunity to visit over the summer, do it.  Don’t write it off just because the school isn’t in session.