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College Admissions Consultant

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SAT in the Summer?

Thursday, May 31, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

The NY Times has a short piece about the SAT, here. I suspect this will be the first of many on this controversial subject. Their headline says it all, “For a High Price, SAT Available in Summer”.

As any Independent Educational Consultant, high school guidance counselor or high school student can tell you, the SAT is only offered during the school year. In fact, the first SAT of the school year isn’t offered until October.

The article states that, “For the first time, the SAT exam will be offered outside the school year — but only to students enrolled in a $4,500 summer program for gifted students on the Amherst College campus.”

To say that this smacks of privilege is an understatement. I am not going out on a limb in stating that I think the majority of high school students, especially rising seniors, would be thrilled to be able to take the test in the summer– when they are free to prepare themselves for the exam without the added school year homework, studying, projects, tests, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc. To offer this to only a handful of students is bad enough; that this small handful is limited to “gifted” and wealthy students is truly surprising.

After I wrote those words, I saw there was more to read on the subject. The Chronicle of Higher Education actually discussed this in more detail:

The summer camp, called University Prep, is sponsored by the National Society for the Gifted & Talented, a nonprofit group that’s committed to “developing potential in young people.” The camp, which will be held at Amherst College July 15 through August 4, offers students the opportunity to learn from “experts in the college prep field,”

An e-list devoted to college counseling that I subscribe to has already seen several posts about this, none of them happy with the decision by The College Board to offer this “pilot” test to a tiny, privileged group. I suspect these comments will grow as the news spreads in the admissions community. My favorite so far was posted by my friend Liz Lightfoot, college counselor at St. John’s College High School in DC, “I hope the students in the class learn the word “unconscionable.” It fits.

I find it hard to believe that the College Board made such an obvious blunder in judging the response this would generate.

Student Debt

Thursday, May 17, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

Student debt is big news these days. I have seen numerous articles about student debt with headlines like this one from the Wall Street Journal “Despite Concern, Banks Give Student Loans the Old College Try”, this from the Huffington Post “How I’m Repaying $120,000 in Student Loans” and from the Boston Globe, “How much college debt is too much?”

I heard several stories on NPR and I went to find the links to hear them again. I put “student debt” into the search engine on NPR’s website and found links to more than 20 stories that aired between the end of March and now.

This past weekend the NY Times ran an article titled “A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College” detailing the student loan debt of 16 people who borrowed to pay for undergraduate studies. You can click here and then onto their photos and read all about it. These are disturbing stories to read—there is one about a young woman who owes $70,000 and doesn’t have a degree to show for it. She dropped out. Another tells of a young woman who borrowed $120,000 for an undergraduate degree. Whatever you may think about borrowing money to pay for college and if that is a good investment in one’s future, you have to wonder how a lender could allow a student and her family to borrow $120,000 for college. This young woman is quoted in the article saying, “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.”

The article goes on to give us these statistics:

About two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients borrow money to attend college, either from the government or private lenders, according to a Department of Education survey of 2007-8 graduates; the total number of borrowers is most likely higher since the survey does not track borrowing from family members.

By contrast, 45 percent of 1992-93 graduates borrowed money; that survey included family borrowing as well as government and private loans.

These stories of students who borrow outrageous sums make good headlines, but further into the article we learn “the average debt in 2011 was $23,300, with 10 percent owing more than $54,000 and 3 percent more than $100,000, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports.”

Today’s Chronicle of Higher Education gave a more balanced view of the now “$1-Trillion in Student Debt”. They remind us “that more people are going to college—and graduate school. The sum is an estimate of all outstanding education debt: private and federal student loans for undergraduates, parents, and graduate and professional-school students.”

All in all, this is reminder that as families we need to have realistic talks with our children regarding debt—how much to borrow, what will this mean when it is time to pay it back and how much would I need to earn to be able to afford to pay this back.

Is This Carrying Things Too Far?

Monday, April 23, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

A colleague sent a link to this article in the NY Post about some high schools instituting guidelines about how seniors should announce their college acceptances and choice.

To quote the article, “In an attempt to ease the blow of a student’s first big rejection, New York prep schools are instituting dress codes and Facebook guidelines barring excited seniors from broadcasting their acceptance to top-tier colleges because it would hurt their classmates’ feelings.”

The article goes on to say that they have asked students not to wear college apparel until after May 1, which is the universal date for accepting college admission.

OK, I am not in favor of any one at any age that gloats but this is too much. First of all, we can’t and we shouldn’t protect kids from every negative thing that happens. We need to teach resilience and convey that they are strong enough for disappointments and adversity that will surely come to everyone at some point in their lives. And second, I am pretty sure that most kids, or at least those who are interested in knowing other people’s business, already know who got in and where. This reminds me of when my children were young and playing T-Ball. The coaches didn’t want anyone to feel bad so they didn’t count the runs. Some kids were oblivious and for the ones to whom this mattered, they counted the runs on their own. They knew who won and who didn’t even if the games were called a tie.

I agree that it is perfectly reasonable to teach students how to convey one’s own good news in a polite manner that doesn’t trample on others’ feelings. No one wants to hear “I got in to Wedontwant U! In your face!” But is a student “run(ing) around yelling, ‘I got in! I got in!’” really that out of line?

There comes a point when every teen has to realize that there are times when everyone doesn’t come out on top. Certainly by the end of senior year students should be prepared to accept their own college acceptances and rejections and to hear others’ decisions too. Some admissions decision may come as a surprise and some may be expected. But we can’t protect them from reality, no matter how well intentioned.

Charging More for Popular Classes?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

A few weeks ago, I read about a community college in California that was considering charging more for the most popular—and therefore harder to get in to—classes. The article from The Atlantic indicates that these popular classes are the ones required for graduation and to be able to transfer. Santa Monica College has 34,000 students and since 2008 the state has reduced the money they receive which required the college to offer fewer classes. According to this article:

“This week, the school announced that it would begin offering more expensive versions of its most popular courses during the summer in order to accommodate students who can’t take them during the school year. The classes will be offered at cost, since the college is providing them without any subsidy from the state. The price works out to $180 a credit — not a huge sum, but still five-times what students pay now.”

Although it is understandable that the college wants to make these courses available and in a way they can afford, this is very disturbing. The students who can afford this will be the ones who are able to take advantage of the summer option.

This week, the NY Times reported that Santa Monica College has decided to hold off on this two-tiered system.

Following a week of student protests and a request from the chancellor of the California community college system to hold off, Santa Monica College has canceled its plan to offer certain popular courses at higher prices this summer.

That solves the problem of unfairness— that those who can afford the classes get them—but it doesn’t address the underlying problem of not enough classes to graduate on time.

Social Networking and Admissions: Who is Checking?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

I am not a big fan of social networking like facebook and twitter. I am sure that this is mostly due to my age and the other part is that I am not fond of the amount of over-sharing we see. Yes, I finally got a facebook account but that was the only way to see pictures of the babies of my nieces and nephews. I post a few things but I tend to keep most of my personal and political views private. I am also keenly aware of the digital paper trail that may stay on a server forever.

Many teens, on the other hand, give little thought to self censoring. I have, on more than one occasion, talked about the necessity of keeping one’s fb page free of damning photos and information. I tell my students that it should pass the “grandmother test”. If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read it, take it down. See blog posts here and here and my advice here.

Having just read these statistics from Kaplan Test Prep, I feel like shouting from the rooftops (or in today’s world –taking to twitter) for everyone to take this seriously: What you write doesn’t always stay private and you would be very surprised to know who is searching.

According to a study done by Kaplan, 41% of Law Schools, 27% of Business Schools and 20% of colleges have googled an applicant. 37% of Law Schools, 24% of Business Schools and 22% of Colleges have looked up an applicant on Facebook.

And, now for the scariest statistic: In answer to the question “Have you ever found something that negatively impacted an applicant” the answers were: 32% of Law Schools, 14% of Business Schools and 12% of colleges said “Yes”.

This is sobering news. What should students do? Click here for Kaplan’s suggestions on how to keep your information private.

And, if all of this isn’t shocking enough, read this article about a job applicant whose interviewer looked at his fb page, found it was not public and asked for his log-in information. The applicant refused and left. I agree that this is completely inappropriate. After you have taken the steps to keep your private life private, no one should have the right to demand you make it available.

This is a brave new world and we all need to know that almost everything we say or do online can be viewed by people we hadn’t figured on.

College Decisions–By Mail or on the Web?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

Jay Mathews of The Washington Post posed this question to his readers today. Would they rather get their admissions decisions by mail –the old fashioned way– or by logging on to a website to find out their fate?

Although I really like the idea of knowing an exact day and time to log on and getting an answer instantly, my vote is for the mail. Why? I think there is less of a chance of a college making a mistake.

On March 8 of last year I posted a blog about an admissions error at Christopher Newport University in Virginia where they sent out 2000 emails congratulating students on their acceptance, only to have to take back their good wishes a few hours later. That was not an isolated case and I listed several other examples.

Then on March 18 I posted about another mistake that had just happened, this one closer to home, at the University of Delaware.

This January, Vassar College informed 76 students that they had been accepted early decision, but in fact they had not. A letter from the president of Vassar to alumni explained the error and then said “Each of those students was informed of the error and received our deepest apologies.” They also had their application fee refunded.

Hearing that you are admitted and then having a college say, “Sorry, we goofed, you really were rejected” is devastating. It is March and in the next few weeks, students will be receiving their admissions decisions. I really hope we don’t have a repeat of those headlines, but I won’t be very surprised if we do.

My vote–snail mail. And, my advice is after you receive the news online, wait at least a day to make sure there were no mistakes before you tell anyone outside of your immediate family.

How Many AP Classes?

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

Jay Mathews, education writer for The Washington Post, has written an article about how many AP classes a student ought to take. After initially writing in an article that students do not need to overload on AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Baccalaureate) classes, he decided to solicit some opinions on the number of these classes a student should take and the reasons behind the number.

So, how many AP courses should a student take? My advice is that if students are looking to apply to the most competitive colleges, they should take as many as they can, but balance the decision using other factors. Don’t take an AP class if you won’t be able to get a good grade– at least a B, and don’t take so many AP classes that you are risking your sanity. Another thing to keep in mind is that colleges want to see that students do something with their spare time. If you are so overloaded with AP classes that you have no time for outside activities, it will be counterproductive. Again, the key is balance.

Why AP classes? Because the colleges will tell potential applicants that they are looking for students who have “challenged themselves and taken the most rigorous courses their high school offers”. Nothing says rigor as loudly as AP (or IB) classes. That being said, colleges will interpret a student’s transcript within the context of her high school. If the high school offers four AP classes and the student took all four, then she has taken the most rigorous curriculum the school offers. If the school offers 20 and the student took two, then she did not.

Is there a correct number? No. This is an individual decision that a student comes to with the advice of his parents and an Independent Educational Consultant or Guidance Counselor based on many factors such as the courses offered and the student’s strengths as well as his or her college ambitions and possibly choice of major.

I have some students who take none, some who take a few and some who take many. In fact, I had two students last year that each had taken 14 AP classes by the time they graduated high school. Like almost everything else in admissions, the answer to the question “how many APs?” is “it depends”.

The GPA Game

Monday, February 27, 2012 by:Janet Rosier

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?” “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 4 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 follow with a Question and Answer session.

If you would like to come, click on this link for more information. Space is limited, so please let me know that you are planning to attend.

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