On August 1st, Common Application 5 (CA5) launched. After two weeks of application writing, it appears to be stable. It only took 5 minutes to find the registration screen after initially landing in the CA5 Knowledgebase off Google. I consider that reasonably intuitive. To date, over a dozen students I’m working with have uncovered most of the supplements they were looking for. The stability alone is a relief after the crashes of CA4.
Learning outside the Classroom
The Importance of the College Essay Grows
The essay has always been an important factor in the admissions process: this year its import reached an even higher level.
This observation is a product of the sheer number of applicants plying their qualifications for spots in the most selective schools. The number of applications is staggering. If we just focus on the 10 most selective colleges in the US, the Ivy League, MIT, and Stanford, they admit annually about 27,000 students, while they receive over 305,000 applications. To compound the competitive nature of the admissions process, 8,127 admits were given during the early round, with most of them being Early Decision, taking those admission spaces off the table.
The Back Door to Harvard
A good way to get into a selective school is by first taking a couple classes at Harvard.
Sound farfetched? It isn’t. The Harvard University Extension School (HES) is one of the 12 degree-granting schools of Harvard University, which offers open enrollment into courses across 60 fields and into professional certificate programs in five subjects including nanotechnology. In addition, HES offers associate, bachelor, or graduate degree programs for those more ambitious.
Grade Inflation
In the September/October 2013 Yale Alumni Magazine, an article, ‘Grade Expectations,’ notes that in 1963 10% of the grades given by Yale College were As; today’ 62% are.
This phenomenon is not, by any measure, limited to Yale. Across all campuses, 43% of the letter grades awarded were As. Grade inflation is so rampant that a former Duke Professor of geophysics, Stuart Rojstaczer, created a website, www.gradeinflation.com and is now on the frontlines of battling this academic cancer.
Transferring: Opportunities and Challenges
Transferring from one 4-year university to another requires planning.
It’s important to research transfer requirements and your admissions chances before sending out transfer applications.
A good place to start researching is at a college’s Common Data Set (CDS), which can be found by Googling ‘school name Common Data Set’. Transfer information is in section D. Some schools, however, don’t release their CDSs (University of Chicago and USC immediately come to mind). In such cases you can go to College Board’s Big Future website (http://bigfuture.org). On each school’s profile site you’ll find a ‘for transfer students’ button.
The Work College Alternative
Around the time of the Civil War, the United States had hundreds of work colleges in which students contributed 10-15 hours a week to their college community to offset their tuition costs and other expenses.
Today there are only seven work colleges, with Deep Springs being an eighth, though not recognized by the federal government as a work college since it does not seek federal funds. Interestingly, Deep Springs is the only two-year work college whose annual class of 23 students, after 24 months of gardening, tending herds, and fixing fences on its 50,000 acres of sage brush and desiccated expanse, go on to transfer to Yale, Amherst, MIT, and other highly selective colleges. Tuition and Room and board are offset by work, which all students perform.
The other six colleges include a range of schools that are all members of the Work Colleges Consortium (www.workcolleges.org):
Alice Lloyd College (Pippa Passes, Kentucky)
Berea College (Berea, Kentucky)
Blackburn College (Carlinville, Illinois)
College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, Missouri)
Ecclesia College (Springdale, Arkansas)
Sterling College (Craftsbury Common, Vermont)
Warren Wilson College (Asheville, North Carolina)
Alice Lloyd College, Berea College, and the College of the Ozarks do not charge tuition; consequently, Berea and the College of the Ozarks have respectively, 12% and 10% acceptance rates, making them two of the most competitive campuses in the country. Alice Lloyd College, whose mission “is to educate mountain people for positions of leadership,” was founded by the eponymous Alice Lloyd who journeyed to the Appalachian Mountains in 1915 from Boston to regain her health. What she established became the focal point of her life: providing an education for leaders spread among 108 Appalachian counties throughout five states.
Berea College accepts students from all 50 states and over 60 countries (generally no more than one student is admitted from each international country, all are admitted on full scholarship), with the majority of students (around three-quarters of its 1,661 undergraduates) hailing from Appalachia. Founded in 1855, Berea was the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. It is a Christian school whose mission is to “promote the cause of Christ.”
The Wall Street Journal bestowed the name ‘Hard Work U’ on the College of the Ozarks, which the school trademarked and turned into the school motto. While the students put in regular 10-15 hour weeks ,(with bursts of 40-hour weeks during the holidays), the school distinctly values caring and character above all else, including intellect, which indeed does have its limitations. The 1000-acre campus overlooking Lake Taneycomo prohibits all alcohol on or off campus and has a 13 to 1 student to faculty ratio. Students do not pay one penny in tuition: all students work to cover their educational costs.
The types of jobs students perform range from tutoring, teaching assistance, janitorial, and general office work to the more exotic. College of the Ozarks has students working in an airport, servicing planes, and working as ground crews. It also has positions in a watermill. Berea College employs students in its Boone Tavern Hotel, college farms, and its campus electric plant. Sterling has a farm which nurtures midget rams (certainly a point of conversation on any student resume), while Alice Lloyd assigns students to its radio station, computer repair and day care services. Deep Springs is a working cattle ranch.
The best aspect of the entire work college experience is work doesn’t conflict with learning, rather it enhances it. All the issues surrounding work such as management of students by students, dealing with malingerers, setting hours, fair compensation, and building integrity and self-confidence through actually being a pivotal part of the college community) come into play. Work colleges provide an inclusiveness missing from most colleges, even those that offer coop programs, internships, or work-study programs. At work colleges everyone works, everyone studies and the two create grounded, engaged, and capable students.
It’s a shame only eight remain.
Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) and a Word from its Admissions Director
Few California high school students know of a small Jesuit liberal arts school located in the city of Worcester Massachusetts.
If their thoughts turn to Massachusetts colleges they might include the red bricks of Harvard, the eclectic mixture of buildings at MIT, the bucolic campuses of Amherst and Williams, or the alluring charms of Wellesley, Mount Holyoke or Smith. However, Worcester warrants consideration with its bevy of over 15 colleges including Worcester Polytechnic, Clark University, and, of course, Holy Cross.
The UC Admissions Process: 2013
Tips for Successfully Transitioning to University
How does a fledgling student spend her time within a university to gain a better education?
Andrew Roberts, an assistant professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, addresses this very question in his The Thinking Student’s Guide to College, 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education, He begins by explaining how a university works, how to best approach professors, and how to work within the university to derive the best education.
The Liberal Arts Alternatives- Public Liberal Arts Colleges
The most discriminating purchasers of college services, college professors, are keen on sending their kids to liberal arts colleges. Why? Liberal arts schools are usually small, smaller than many high schools. Most are composed solely of undergraduates, meaning accessibility to professors is unmatched: professors know this.
The Multitasking Myth
When people began multitasking on their computers, it was as if a new world had evolved: desktops could now run spreadsheets, Word documents, and even a calculator simultaneously. As our computers multitasked, we soon followed. Multitasking during the 1990s and the 2000s became the rage. Multitasking had become the purported path to improved productivity and capability.
The Community College Option
Some students are skeptical about attending community college. They shouldn’t be. The Regents of the University of California report that almost of third of those graduating from the UC System transferred from a community college: this trend will probably become even more pronounced in the years ahead as the UC tuition continues to soar and community college tuition maintains its value.
The Medical School Picture: the AAMC Guide to Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR)
If you’ve ever contemplated becoming a physician, two write ups warrant reading: “How Becoming a Doctor Works,” http://www.howstuffworks.com/becoming-a-doctor.htm and the “Process of Medical Education,” Chapter 2 of the AAMC’s Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR). The MSAR is a thick reference book containing over 400 pages that detail the medical admissions process and profile the universe of 130 US and Canadian medical schools. The guide is available at the AAMC website (https://www.aamc.org), which includes access to its online version.
The Dental Picture: the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools 2011
If you’ve ever contemplated a career in dentistry, two sites might warrant review: “Becoming a Dentist,” at http://becomeadentist.org/why-to-choose-dentistry, and the “Meet a Dentist” site at http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/1/Dentist. The second site comes to you under the auspices of the ADEA, which also publishes a guide that profiles dental schools and explains the pathway to becoming a DDS, The ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools ($35 at the ADEA website, www.adea.org). Considering the average 2010 graduate from USC’s dental school was encumbered with $283,000 in debt, it is a publication well worth the price.
The Checklist and the College Application Process
When applying to college, it’s a very good idea to use a checklist to ensure all the requirements are submitted by deadline. A generic checklist, such as the one found at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bcde7df85082b0eecac2e5/t/56e8822e55640b2933acc2d4/1294954817013/sampleorganizer.pdf, covering recommendations, thank you letters, special submissions, financial aid…, might be sufficient, but the problem is many schools have so many offerings that a customized checklist might prove more effective. Devising your checklist will depend on the schools and the programs of interest.
The Service Academy Alternative: Senior Military Colleges
The Service Academies: Military, Naval, Air Force, and Coast Guard (/imported-20110121194859/2008/9/2/attending-us-service-academies.html) provide excellent education and training for students intending to serve in the armed forces upon graduation. ROTC programs are another means to the same end: /imported-20110121194859/2011/4/8/the-rotc-reserved-officers-training-corps-scholarship.html. Then, there is a hybrid of the services academies and ROTC: the senior military colleges.
Selecting a Topic for your College Essays
If you go to the ‘California Colleges’ website dedicated to perfecting the Personal Statement for the UC Application, http://californiacolleges.edu/admissions/university-of-california-uc/personal-statement.asp, you’ll be told that
“The UC personal statement is a preview to the kind of writing you'll be doing in college and on college placement exams.
Unknown Audience: You will be writing for a community of strangers.
Writer-Determined Topic: You will pick the topic for your response.
Dig Deeper: Analysis and reflection are keys.”
Few high school students have dealt with this kind of writing before. You’re now writing for strangers in some admissions office who are not only reading what it is you’ve written, but are judging you based upon what you’ve written. No one likes to be subjected to such scrutiny, especially when the stakes are so high. Plus, there is one other uncertainty, you are now selecting the topic to use in the essay, and that’s a scary proposition.
Keep one clear principle in mind, no matter whether the prompt is: ‘Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations,’ or the University of Chicago’s Essay Option 6:’ Don't write about reverse psychology,’ the real topic is you. Accept this and the rest of the writing process will more quickly come into focus. The essay is your vehicle for developing rapport with everyone and anyone in the admissions office. Developing rapport, by the way, is best done by showing, not telling, your audience who you are. You want to select a topic that will help you do this.
Common sense suggests certain topics are best not used in your college essay. These include drug use, sexual experimentation, self-pity, criminal activity, strong religious beliefs, a travelogue…there is a more complete list on about.com, http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/tp/bad-essay-topics.htm, Discussing shady activities, or superficial treatments of your one week trip to the Great Wall, is hardly going to present you accurately. A topic you’re excited by will generally be your best choice. If it is rebuilding a Chevrolet 2.8 liter, V6 engine, then describe the process clearly and in detail, again, preferably around a story. Your enthusiasm will shine through if your interest is real. Even someone who doesn’t know a bolt from a screw will pick up your enthusiasm and will enjoy. (Trust me in this: your passion for any topic will be noted and shared by readers). When your passion palpitates, it attracts.
If, you can’t come up with a topic, it’s always a good idea to start asking questions. Such probing stimulates your brain cells and opens up your thinking: What do I spend a lot of time doing? What is it you like to do? In what activity do I lose track of time? If I could accomplish one thing in the next three years what would it be? Free writing and free association is a good way to generate topics, but do it with a pen or pencil on paper. Recent studies from the University of Indiana indicate handwriting evokes strong mind response and idea generation.
The painful part of selecting a topic is getting started. Don’t be intimidated by the process. Yes, you might go down some dead ends. What you write might not even come close to what it is you wanted to get across. These are all part of getting to where you want to go. Look at it from a different perspective. The pleasure of getting it right can bring incomparable rewards. You might even discover qualities about yourself within your essay that you may have never known you had. That, in itself, is the whole purpose of the enterprise in the first place: self-discovery. It’s just a question of getting it down on paper. Start now.
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Communications Major Considered
What is a ‘communications’ major, and what do you do with it? A good starting point is the College Board’s Majors and Career Central http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profile. There you will discover that Communications encompasses a range of subjects: advertising, digital media (anything from website design, ecommerce, to writing for web-based media), journalism (copyediting, magazine writing, broadcast news...), public relations, and radio and television.
Public versus Private Research Universities
When the Wall Street Journal surveyed top corporate recruiters who hire more than 43,000 new university graduates a year, the answer as to where the recruiters found the most promising graduates warranted consideration. These companies are putting their recruiting money where their mouths are. (To get a better sense of this you can find the article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704358904575477643369663352.html.) Their top five schools were all large public universities: 1. Penn State; 2. Texas A&M; 3. University of Illinois; 4. Purdue University; and 5. Arizona State. All admit over 50% of their applicants, with Arizona State admitting a whopping 90%. How in the world could these recruiters be so enamored with students from institutions that appear to be so unselective?