Mayfield College Advising

09/19/2023

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottwhite/2023/09/17/want-to-impress-admissions--do-chores-and-get-a-job/?sh=1ebe9695791e&fbclid=IwAR07H-BdTFMAv8e9lPVD_mAbElaOROTBZly0olvQuOJ0YgJ7w-ik_N0DY1s

Yard work, babysitting, or an after-school job are just as appealing to college admissions staff as the manufactured activities that kids do that might keep them from ...

12/21/2021

A little essay humor....

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/common-app-essays-by-shakespeare-characters?fbclid=IwAR3wt2EKjyr9tExx3mVW-B8sgsZrVXyVEJ6JZHm_65HfC4zL-vJ7gnHnpto

The personal essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voic...

07/20/2021

Malcolm Gladwell just took on the US News and World Report College Rankings on his podcast, Revisionist History and I would encourage families of high schoolers to listen. The blog post linked below provides some more context to the arguments that Gladwell makes.

The US News and World Report formula is wholly insufficient to measure the quality of education that a college will offer an individual student. I am glad that Gladwell pulls back the curtain on the measures used to create the rankings.

CTAS - College Tuition Advisory Services

05/06/2021

Every year, NACAC releases a list of colleges 📚🏈🎓 that still have space available for the fall.

It is linked below 👇👇👇.

Some things to keep in mind:

1) Students still have to apply to these schools and be accepted.
2) Take note of financial aid and housing availabilty.
3) Just because a school is not on this list, does not necessarily mean that they don't have space. Pick up the phone to double check.
4) This list is updated through the summer ⛱⛱⛱

The College Openings Update is designed as a tool for counselors, parents and teachers as they assist students who have not yet completed the college admission process.

03/31/2021

"Whenever we hope for something and it doesn’t happen, we lose an entire future we had created for ourselves. At the same time, though, consider that these futures are imagined futures. In other words, even if you had gone to Brown, your actual experience would almost certainly have been very different from how you’re imagining it now. You say that Brown was your “dream school,” and that’s exactly what it was: a dream. So do spend some time sitting with your loss, but remember that the loss you’re grieving is of an idea you had of what Brown would be like, and that this idea and reality would probably have diverged."

I’m trying to accept that the school I’m going to is where I am meant to be, but I feel like my accomplishments mean nothing now.

02/17/2021

The Real College Matters podcast starts 2021 off with a conversation with the parent of a current high school senior (she also happens to be a college advisor). Tune in for our reflections on the current admissions cycle as well as some helpful advice for parents of high school juniors and seniors! Link to episode below.

17 February 2021 by Leigh Moore We invite you to check out our first podcast episode of 2021! Ginger was...

02/15/2021

Another great post on the Georgia Tech Admissions Blog!

"People latch on to surface level numbers and assign them undue merit without really examining their credence. They assume they can compare apples to apples. Rankings are a good example...Another place this commonly occurs is with application numbers and acceptance rates. In recent weeks, there have been a ridiculous number of articles talking about EA/ED application volume and corresponding admit rates. Notice the same schools keep coming up in those pieces, so while they draw plenty of press, they only comprise about 1%-2% of American higher education, i.e. not representative of the accurate/bigger story."

One of my 2021 resolutions is to run, ride, hike, walk, or swim over 2021 miles this year. This means I am tracking everything, because to meet that goal it will require averaging about 5.5 miles a…

02/11/2021

Are you curious how many students from your state or your region were in the most recent incoming class at your favorite college?

You can find that information here:

01/28/2021

"The easiest thing colleges can do is just stop lying.
If a student BS’d a professor the way admissions people BS potential applicants, that student would end up in front of the disciplinary committee. But, advertising being what it is, colleges can basically lie to their hearts’ content. The biggest lie they tell is that they really do look at every applicant! Sure, the Ferrari dealership will let anyone walk into a showroom, buckle into a Portofino, and make vroom-vroom noises. That doesn’t mean they’re racing it at Le Mans."

A record number of college applicants will be disappointed this year. The system has to change.

01/13/2021

Parental attitudes are the main determinant of whether or not the college search and application process is stressful or not. This document helps offers practical suggestions for parents who want to avoid unnecessary chaos and distress.

"A good deal of research indicates that gratitude is vital to well-being and a key to young people becoming caring family and community members. Yet many teens and parents—because they’re anxious, self-focused, or entitled, among other reasons—never experience or express gratitude in this process. Any teen or parent of a teen who is applying to a four-year college that has a strong track record of graduating students should feel grateful for this tremendous opportunity—an opportunity that a great majority of people in the world simply don’t have and an opportunity that a staggering number of people in this country can’t afford. Only about 45% of Americans will attend a four-year college, and only about 60% of those students will graduate within five years. This broader moral lens can help teens and parents appreciate their advantages and consider the larger questions of justice that their advantages raise. Teens should also be expected to appreciate the many educators, counselors, and other adults—including parents themselves—who shepherded them to this point."

Parents and other primary caregivers shape their children’s moral development in myriad ways. They also often influence every phase of the college preparation, search, and admissions process. Yet the troubling reality is that a great many parents are fundamentally failing to prepare young people t...

12/19/2020

It has turned out that applications are up this year, rather than down as many predicted. This is a helpful summary from a fellow member of IECA--DM for link.

"Class of 2025 Increase in Applications from Previous Year:

Brown 22%
Dartmouth 29%
Duke 17.76%
Emory 8%
Harvard 57%
University of Georgia 27%
University of Pennsylvania 23%
Yale 38%

When the pandemic first hit, everyone predicted that applications would decrease similar to enrollment numbers. But in fact, at the most select schools, the opposite has occurred. Below are some reasons why.

Pivot to virtual: Colleges pivoted to virtual information sessions, tours, and student panels. These digital recruitment platforms had a much broader reach.

Increased presence on social media: Colleges became marketing machines with ongoing efforts to connect with students through Instagram, Tik Tok, one-on-one Zoom calls, etc.

Increased awareness led to increased applications: These efforts created unprecedented access and awareness of schools that many students would not have felt were within their reach in the past.

Test optional policies lowered the barrier: The percentage of students who submitted test scores this year through ED ranged from a low of 27% at Cornell to 68% at Penn. Colleges had no choice but to rely on other factors to make their decisions.

Yield protection: You may be shaking your head if you or someone you know got deferred from their “safety”. This is more and more the trend as colleges do not want to admit students they know will unlikely attend.

Biden’s election: With a new impending president, international applications rose at many institutions. Tufts reported that their international applications rose 30% and most were submitted after the election." Again, DM for link if interested.

Here are my suggestions for families right now:

1) Never forget that colleges (even though they hold non-profit status) are businesses that deploy sophisticated Enrollment Management and Marketing strategies.

2) Application increase does not mean that the education has improved at any institution, it just means more people have applied. This increase in applications will result in a lot of revenue for already wealthy institutions. Harvard received 10,086 early applications this year and the application fee is $75.00. Of course, some small percentage had the application fee waived, but Harvard most likely made more than $750,000 in early application fees alone.

3) Yield Protection is a reality at a number of well known institutions. The experience of being deferred is painful for every teenager and explaining yield protection to them does not not soften the blow. Parents, please do your research on the front end and ask for help from your school counselor or independent counselor. If you need help thinking about the rest of the rest of this admissions cycle, please contact me.

4) The media focuses on a very small percentage of name brand schools. There are many other institutions that will not experience applications increase like the ones mentioned above. Be sure to consider schools that are not brand name. There are many great places out there that would love to educate your child and serve all their students well.

5) Parents, don't allow your student to make decisions out of fear. This is not the time to file a bunch of applications to additional selective schools. I have yet to see that strategy end in a desirable outcome for a family. If you want to add schools to the list at this time, add schools where your child is the 75th percentile of those admitted last year and that you have confirmed you can afford the cost of attendance. The temptation to panic and shotgun spray applications is strong, but please resist it!

I love working with teenagers and I see firsthand how hard the sting of a deferral or denial is for teenager. Adults need to model confidence and calm always, but especially at this vulnerable time for a student. You will love your child well by reminding that having a rewarding career and meaningful life is not contingent on where one attends college. That quiet truth gets drowned out by the din of the application process.

12/17/2020

"It is common for billionaire philanthropists to give to Ivy League and elite private schools that are already wealthy and where they often have a personal connection. Such donations support their passions, and also bring prestige and recognition. In recent years, Michael R. Bloomberg gave $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins, his alma mater, for student financial aid and Stewart and Lynda Resnick gave $750 million to the California Institute of Technology for research into environmental sustainability.

So it was telling to experts on philanthropy to see Ms. Scott associate herself with institutions that were much more humble and, indeed, needy. To these institutions, a $20 million donation was the equivalent of several times that to a Harvard or Yale, and could have a disproportionate impact.

'One of the things that’s so incredible about this massive grouping of gifts is that she does not have a personal connection to most, if any, of these universities,' said Kestrel Linder, chief executive of GiveCampus, a fund-raising platform that works with colleges and universities"

MacKenzie Scott’s donations to colleges serving often overlooked students were a surprise — and potentially transformational.