Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
Getting into Harvard with its 5.9% admissions rate is like winning the lottery.
After receiving over 34,000 applications this last admissions cycle (down 2% from last year), even an admissions office as sophisticated as Harvard’s admits there is a lot more art than science in the final admissions decisions. Don’t, however, dismiss the elaborate admissions decision process Harvard runs through each fall: it goes to great lengths to ensure all candidates receive a thorough and holistic review.
On April 16th the College Board released sample questions from the 2016 ‘New’ SAT which were received with much fanfare by the SAT test-training world.
The questions and new essay format, though curriculum based and seemingly ‘more relevant’, still measure convergent thinking: the ability to assess multiple strands of information to arrive at one best answer. Convergent thinking alone, however, does not measure a student’s creativity or intellectual curiosity. To gain a fuller picture of a student’s creative capacity, measuring divergent thinking, the ability to develop multiple approaches to a problem, needs to be included.
Many highly selective colleges are in search of ‘smart students from poor families.”
These ‘High Achieving, Low Income’ students (HALI).are defined as students in the top 4% of their class who score in the top 10% on either the SAT or ACT. A 2013 study conducted by Caroline Hoxby at Stanford and Christopher Avery of Harvard, entitled “The Missing ‘One-Offs’: The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving Low-Income Students” garnered data on every student who took the SAT during the prior year ensuring its findings were statistically significant.
At last the new redesigned SAT was formerly announced on 5 March 2014 ending months of speculation about its content.
The new test content will be first administered in the fall 2015 PSAT, with the SAT launch in ‘spring 2016.’
The New SAT will eliminate the quarter point guessing penalty, obviate ‘obscure vocabulary’ from its reading sections—stressing discovery of meaning through context, and require students to support their answers to reading questions from evidence supplied in the passage.
On the mathematics front, the New SAT will focus on problem solving and data analysis (ratios, percentages, and proportions), linear equations and systems, and something that sounds a bit daunting, “Passport to Advanced Math” which deals with ‘manipulation of complex equations’. In essence the New SAT will be narrowing its math focus to the three aforementioned areas
Admissions officers spend a lot of time sorting through raffs of transcripts, standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, interview summaries, portfolios, and lists of extracurricular activities in search of clues of leadership, that prized trait sought by hundreds of American college campuses.
This year the alumni interviews at a number of schools were a touch more stressful than usual.
Usually an alumni interview is a relatively relaxed exchange done to gain a sense of how applicants present themselves, engage in conversation, and express their curiosities across a range of subjects. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s an element, a small one, of the college admissions process, these interviews could be one of the more enjoyable and interesting conversations a student might have about a college of interest. It often rewards an applicant with a unique perspective of the school.
What is the right college fit and, how will you know it when you try it on?
A lot of factors compose a ‘right fit’: size, location, academics, housing, costs, social life, extracurricular, even the personality of the campus. While it would be nice to be scientific and run around each campus with a clipboard recording what is appealing and revolting, possibly it’s best to just trust your gut. If you’ve visited a number of campuses and met dozens of students during your odyssey, you’ll know. Let instinct rule.
The path to success rarely depends on selecting the right major.
Nor is a job assured by studying a given discipline. Nonetheless, when discussion of majors arises ‘be practical’ and study something ‘relevant to the workplace’ are constant refrains. Yet, what is ‘practical’ and ‘relevant’ in the workplace? The practical and relevant today might become dross in just a matter of years.
On November 1st, the University of California began accepting applications for fall 2014. This column contains a number of frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the application timeline and details, selecting majors, submitting test scores and the UC Personal Statements. Although many of the answers can be found on the UC Admissions site, most applicants have little time to scour a 45 page PDF to unearth them. I, on the other hand, run into many of these every day.
To add a unique activity to your college application and resume, enroll in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in subjects ranging from essay writing to nanotechnology.
A MOOC is simply an online course with the capability to serve a large number of students (for example Stanford’s initial MOOC in 2011, Introduction into AI, enrolled 160,000 students) with open access via the web. Supplementary learning materials may include videos, lectures, e-books, or problem sets.
