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Archive for 2011

The Most Competitive College Admissions Year

Monday, April 4, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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As predicted by yours truly, in my blog posts of Feb. 8 and Dec. 21, the headlines everywhere are about how this was the most competitive year for college admissions. Ever.

The Daily Beast declares it to be “the toughest college admission year on record”.

The NY Times “The Choice” blog has a box with admissions facts that are being updated as more data come in. Even as he reports the numbers, Jacques Steinberg, the blog’s author, says “I know we risk inducing hysteria and more than a little hyperventilating in presenting this data, particularly among those who will apply next year, and beyond.” That, I would say, is an understatement.

The Washington Post’s “College Inc.” blog headline is “Admissions rates tighten at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton”.

The Huffington Post says “College Admissions Rates Drop for the Class of 2015”

These articles are also filled with depressing statistics like this one from the College Inc. blog:

“Stanford admitted 2,427 students from an applicant pool of 34,348”.

And this one from the Huffington Post:

“Columbia University, which saw its applicant pool balloon by 32 percent this year, accepted a mere 6.4 percent of prospective student”

This kind of news is guaranteed to have parents reaching for antacid to calm the upset stomach that accompanies the rising fear.

Panic stricken students and parents need take a deep breath and tell themselves “College admissions is about finding the right fit and there is more than one college where I (or my child) can be happy and successful”. Repeat as necessary.

Competent Independent Educational Consultants can help make sure that students are looking at colleges that are the right fit and help them with the parts of this process that are within their control and let go of what is not.

And be prepared to read the exact same headlines in April 2012.

The Wait List

Monday, March 28, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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By the end of this week, high school seniors all over the country will know which colleges have accepted, rejected or wait listed them.  Being wait-listed can feel like you are in limbo. The college hasn’t rejected you but it also hasn’t accepted you.

What should a wait-listed student do?

If a student still wants to be considered for admission, he should let the college know that he wants to remain on the wait-list. Many students who have been wait-listed will not want to remain on the list and they should let the colleges know that they will be attending another college.

I think it is very hard for students to know what to make of being wait-listed. If they know they really want College X and other students they know have been accepted but will not be attending, they may think that there will automatically be room.  Some colleges have tremendous wait-lists. A few years ago, I read about a very competitive university that wait-listed more students than they actually accepted. And, at that time, they had not gone to their wait-list for many years. Some colleges will rank their wait-list and others will not.

It is perfectly reasonable for a wait-listed student to call admissions and ask about the wait list. Do they categorize or rank the list in any way? If so, where am I on the list? Have they gone to the wait list in the past few years? Will there be financial aid available if I am accepted off the wait list?  Whether or not they will go to the wait list this year depends on how well the admissions committees made their decisions on who to accept and what their yield will be. If they have hit their mark, there will probably be little, if any, movement off the wait list. After the May 1 deposits, colleges can see where they stand.

Do students get invited off the wait list? Yes, sometimes at some colleges. And at some colleges more than others.

Emotionally, a student should think of the wait-list as a rejection because he needs to put his energy, enthusiasm and focus into choosing from among the colleges that have accepted him. He should try and attend the admitted student events that his accepted colleges are hosting. And then the student needs to make his choice and send in the deposit by May 1 to one college. If he is invited off the wait list, then it should come as a happy surprise, but it is best not to hold out for this to happen.

X-Rated College Classes

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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I couldn’t help but click on the article in The Daily Beast– the headline was about Northwestern University’s Live Sex Class. Oh brother. The article stated, “On Feb. 21, after a lecture on sexual arousal, students in Northwestern University psychology Professor J. Michael Bailey’s human-sexuality course were given the option to stay for a guest presentation.” The article then goes on to describe the particular guest presentation. Suffice it to say that the guest had a fetish for being watched while… well, you know.

While no one should be surprised that sex happens on college campuses, having it live in the classroom still has shock value to some of us.

In 2003, I read in the NY Times about a film class at NYU where a student had an idea for her class project where she would film two actors having sex in front of the class. The classmates were OK with it as was the professor. However, the professor made the wise decision to ask the administration first. The response was to keep the sex R rated, “university officials said they would issue a written policy requiring student films and videos to follow the ratings guidelines of the Motion Picture Association of America, with nothing racier than R-rated fare allowed”.

This caused a stir on campus–some felt that this was censorship and that it stifled creative expression. However, I think this quote from a spokesman for the Tisch School at NYU, Richard Peirce sums it up nicely, ”Someone give me a list of universities that allow sex acts in the classroom,” Mr. Pierce said. ”We’re not going to be the first.”

But I am not sure that Northwestern can claim that title. It may go to Wesleyan. In 1999, the Hartford Courant reported that Wesleyan had offered a class called “Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes” in which the final project was for the student to make his or her own porn. This could be in the form of writing, photography, a video or a performance piece. From the Courant:

“I don’t put any constraints on it,” Professor Hope Weissman said of the final course assignment. “It’s supposed to be: ‘Just create your own work of pornography.’”

I have no problems with and can see the legitimacy of a college class that discusses pornography and its impact on society and behavior. But, personally, I draw the line at making or performing this as part of the class. That feels less scholarly and too much like voyeurism. No doubt that guarantees me membership to those known as old fashioned fuddy-duddys. My card is probably in the mail right now.

Another Admissions Error

Friday, March 18, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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The NY Times is reporting that yet another university has mistakenly let students know that they were admitted.  This time it was the University of Delaware. According to the Times,

“When the applicants accessed the university’s admissions portal, My Blue Hen Home, which only recently went online, they were presented with a link to a page for admitted students that greeted them with personalized best wishes and invited them to visit the campus in Newark, Del.”

The university realized the error when some students who had not been admitted signed up for the tour.  61 students who were actually rejected or wait-listed had to be told their offer was a mistake.

That hurts. It is cruel. College and universities do not do this on purpose and I am sure they feel terrible. But really, they all need to review their systems so this doesn’t keep happening.  On a previous blog I listed quite a few instances where this has happened at other colleges.

The University of Delaware is a pretty popular choice for Connecticut students. This one hits much closer to home.

If you are one of the 61 students who were mistakenly admitted to the University of Delaware, or if this happened to you or your child at another university, please let us know in the comment section.

Harvard Reverses Itself-Will Allow Early Applications

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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In 2006, Harvard University decided to stop offing early admissions–for Harvard that meant they would no longer offer non-binding Early Action. According to the Harvard University Gazette, the reason for the change was this: “The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex, and too vulnerable to public cynicism,” said Harvard interim President Derek Bok. “We hope that doing away with early admission will improve the process and make it simpler and fairer.”

At the time, it was widely believed that other universities would follow suit to help even the playing field.  I myself was sure that Yale would follow Harvard and renounce early admissions since President Levin had stated back in 2001 that he wanted to see the practice ended. The NY Times quoted President Levin:

The president of Yale University said yesterday that he would like to abandon the frenzied process of early-decision admissions, and that he had approached the presidents of other selective colleges to discuss the possibility of coordinated action.

”If we all got rid of it, it would be a good thing,” Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, said during an interview yesterday. ”It pushes the pressure of thinking about college back into the junior year of high school, and the only one who benefits is the admissions officers.”

But they didn’t all get rid of their early programs– in the Ivy League only Princeton followed Harvard’s lead. Yale held onto its Single Choice Early Action and the rest (Cornell, Columbia, Brown, Penn and Dartmouth) continued to offer Early Decision. Stanford offered Single Choice Early Action and Georgetown offered Restricted Early Action. The University of Virginia did end their Early Decision program.

Now it was recently announced that all three of these universities–Harvard, Princeton and UVA– have decided to reinstate their early application programs. In 2006, Harvard said that this was an experiment and the university would revisit the question and review the data regarding one decision deadline for all. Both Harvard and Princeton will adopt Single Choice Early Action and U VA will offer Early Action.

One thing you can be pretty sure of– the colleges make these decisions with their own best interests in mind, not necessarily the student’s. Early Decision, Early Action, Restricted Early Action and Single Choice Early Action still remain controversial but they seem to be here to stay. (For complete definitions of these terms, scroll back to my Oct. 14 blog)

Congratulations, you have been accepted…Oops!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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The waiting game is down to the last few weeks for high school seniors and by the first week in April, students should finally have all of their college acceptance decisions in hand. For those who were accepted Early Decision, their wait was over in December. Some students already have a few acceptances under their belts right now–through Early Action or Rolling Admissions and even some Regular Decisions have been made.

Some students have heard by US Mail but many more have been notified by email. Sometimes, either a computer glitch or operator error sends a congratulatory email welcoming students to the college of their dreams to the wrong group of students.

The Washington Post described the latest incidence of this when Christopher Newport University in Virginia sent out 2000 emails to anxious applicants telling them the good news only to have to apologize later that evening for the error. At 2:30 PM they got the good news and at 6:45 PM the bad.

This is not the first time this has happened. I did a brief search and found the University of California at San Diego sent an erroneous email to 28,000 applicants who had previously been denied entrance.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Cornell University and Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School of Management have experienced similar goof-ups in recent years, but the UCSD incident Monday was by far the largest.”

Another article stated that emails were also sent to the wrong group at George Washington University and Vanderbilt.  And The Harvard Crimson reports that it also happened at the University of California at Berkeley’s Law School.

This can be devastating to students. I would advise that any student who receives an email acceptance should, just in case, hold off doing anything permanent until further confirmation. Until you get the letter in the mail, usually with a packet of information, don’t contact the other colleges to which you have applied and tell them you are no longer interested.

Scholarship Scams

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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Now that applications are completed and submitted, many students will begin their other round of applications–for scholarships.

This article in the Washington Post does a great job of explaining the many ways that students and families can get scammed.  It can begin as early as when the families fill out the FAFSA. The FAFSA is the Free Application for Student Aid and it is a government form used to apply for need based financial aid.  Notice the word “free”. This form is free and no one should charge you. If there is a fee, chances are good you are not on the official government site.

I just googled FAFSA and many sites came up.  The official site is http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/#.  The Post article also goes on to describe companies that promise to find financial aid for you and what to avoid.

Another way that students can get scammed is when applying for individual scholarships. If you hear or read the words “Thousands of dollars in scholarships go unclaimed every year” don’t believe it. This is a huge come on and not true. Something else to watch out for is if a scholarship asks for any kind of fee.  My rule of thumb is this–if there is a fee involved in applying for a scholarship, this is your sign to walk away. Scholarship applications should be free.

Here is the link to the Federal Trade Commission and their advice for how to avoid scholarship scams.

Your high school will have information on local scholarships and also reputable websites where students can search and not get scammed.

The GPA Game

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by:Janet Rosier
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As an Independent Educational Consultant, I am often asked about what the colleges are really looking for. “Does not having community service hurt my son in admissions?” “Will one poor grade kill my daughter’s chances at Wedontwant U?”  “How many extra-curricular activities do I need?”

The answers to these questions and more will be discussed at a seminar I am hosting, “The GPA Game”. This is a fun and interactive exercise designed to give students and parents an understanding of how the colleges interpret applications.

I did not invent this game. I came across it several years ago when it was being discussed on the listserve for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an association of which I am a member. I have hosted this game before and it is always enjoyable.

I am hosting this event on Sunday, March 6 at 1:00 PM at the Greater New Haven Jewish Community Center, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge.

Families with high school aged children–parents and students–are welcome to attend this free seminar.  I will moderate the GPA Game and explain it and also have a Question and Answer session. Refreshments will be served.

But, space is limited–the room only holds a finite number of people. So, I do ask that if you would like to attend, you register for the “The GPA Game” through my website, www.janetrosier.com or email me at jredres@optonline.net

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