College Odyssey

03/07/2021

The pandemic has caused a lot of uncertainty about college admissions for students. One challenge is that students cannot visit college campuses. In response, colleges are finding all sorts of ways to bring campus to students. Most colleges have created virtual tours which you can find on their websites. In addition, there is a series of virtual college fairs coming up where students and parents are free to drop in on admissions representatives. The first one is March 7, 4-8pm ET. Chat with admissions reps from 200 schools in the Northeast. Register here

Attend BigFuture Days Northeast if you’re interested in visiting a college in one of the states in this region.

02/21/2021

Do you know a visual or performing arts student who is interested in studying abroad? The University of Gloucestershire is holding a very special Art & Design Week March 1-5, 2021. They have a wide array of wonderful informational sessions to choose from, including careers in the arts, portfolios, and the application process. (US students should be aware that most of these sessions are live, and England is 5-8 hours ahead of us.)

"Join us for our special Art and Design Week, dedicated to the creative industries. We will be running a range of sessions exploring how creatives can begin their careers in the UK with a degree at University of Gloucestershire. Our sessions will look at the vast array of subjects and career paths available. It's a great chance to speak with our practising lecturers directly to learn more about what we are looking for in applicants and their portfolios, what it's like to study with us and how we help our students start their careers from day one."

For more information, and to register, click on this link

01/19/2021

The College Board has announced that they will no longer administer the SAT Essay or the SAT subject tests. The reason they give for dropping these tests is the pandemic. However, this has been a long time coming. Fewer and fewer schools have been using the essay or the subject tests. I know a lot of students who will be relieved at this news! Dropping these tests will also go a long way to increasing equity in the admissions process. The essay and the subject tests tend to favor higher-income students. In addition, the SAT with essay was already a long test; for students with learning disabilities who have extra time, the essay SAT with essay was 6-hours long.

Officials say they want to ease demands on students. A revision of the SAT is also planned.

06/01/2019

In a previous post, I expressed my enthusiasm for small colleges. In this post, I want to highlight some of the things I love about large universities. As one admissions officer at University of Washington commented, a big university means big opportunity. Because professors at large universities are engaged in research, there may be opportunities to do research that you would not find at a smaller school. While it is true that large universities have a lot of large lecture classes, these classes may be taught by faculty who are at the top of their field. You may also have classes, or sections, taught by graduate students. While some students may feel disappointed by this prospect, it should be said that graduate students are passionate about their studies and many greet the opportunity to teach with enthusiasm.

An admissions officer at the University of Minnesota pointed out that “you can make a big school feel small, but you can’t make a small school feel big”. Some ways that large universities can make themselves feel smaller are honors colleges, which draw the top 10% of students, and Living Learning Communities (LLC’s). A residential honors college with dedicated honors classes can provide an Ivy League level education, with more diverse students, for half the cost of an Ivy League education. LLC’s house students from the same major together, which affords them the opportunity to live together and learn together, thereby forming strong bonds.

Large universities have large numbers of student clubs and organizations: 1,000 at UCLA and 1,500 at University of Michigan. Clubs are completely student run. In addition to providing a sense of close-knit community on a large campus, many student clubs afford opportunities to do professional-level work. For example, dancers can find a dance club where they can do the choreography for club performances. Engineers can participate in the campus Formula SAE club. SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers. Students design all aspects of design for a Formula-1 race car. Different teams work on design, aerodynamics, acceleration, fuel efficiency, etc. The team then builds the car and races in competitions at the state, national, and international level.

There are many students who thrive at large universities. Students are very self-directed and have a clear idea at a young age what their career path is will thrive at a large university that can serve their interests. For a born architect, the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University will offer unparalleled opportunity to develop as an architect. Students who are extraverted and feel energized by being in crowds will love the opportunity to socialize with large numbers of students at a large university. If you are looking for raucous school spirit, there is no better place to find that than at a D1 football game at a school like The University of Alabama. The University of Alabama Crimson Tide sends more football players to the NFL than any other school.

For students who feel ready to seek out the big opportunities at a big school, students who can find their niche in a big school, students who want big school spirit, or extroverted students who feel energized by being around lots of people, a big school can be a great fit.

05/25/2019

I am thinking of proposing a new psychological diagnosis: CASD, which stands for College Admissions Stress Disorder. I became a college admissions counselor after 20-years of treating teens with anxiety. As a psychologist who specializes in treating anxiety, many high school students are brought to my office by their parents because they “need treatment for anxiety”. It often turns out that these students do not need treatment for anxiety. What they need is a road map to the college admissions process and some rational thinking to counteract the college admissions frenzy.

When you look at the skyrocketing number of college applications and plummeting rates of admissions at “top colleges”, the picture is horrifying. However, those numbers are being blown up by the top 5% of students who are applying to an astronomical number of schools. For example, at LEAP Academy University Charter School in Camden, NJ, students apply to an average of 45 colleges, with one student applying to 70 colleges. But it is important to remember that a student who applies to 45, or 70, schools can only go to *one* of those schools. In fact, the majority of colleges in this country admit the majority of students who apply.

Many students try to beat the college admissions odds by applying to a scattershot of a huge number of colleges. Using an online college matching tool, they enter their GPA and test scores and receive a list of schools that are a “match”. However, students are more than GPA’s and test scores, and colleges are more than the average GPA’s and test scores of their admitted students. Both students and colleges have personalities. What might be a good match on paper can be a mismatch of personalities.

When I counsel my high school clients, I work to create a list of colleges that will be a good fit for their personality. Like Cinderella’s step-sisters, there is no point in trying to cram your foot into a glass slipper that doesn’t fit. I encourage student and parents to really get to know the schools, and to really think about whether that school will be a good fit. I help my clients to not be seduced by the shiny baubles of “top” schools.

In an interview with CNN, former Stanford Dean Julie Lythcott-Haims discusses some of the factors that are contributing to the current stressful college application climate:

Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of Stanford University, says that it hasn't gotten harder to get into college, but that students tend to focus on the top 20 schools, and the Common Application allows students to apply to more schools than ever before.

05/21/2019

I am a huge fan of a Liberal Arts education. In recent years, many families have turned away from Liberal Arts colleges, shifting their focus to large state universities and engineering schools. Many families believe that they can't afford the price tag of a smaller Liberal Arts college, or that graduates of Liberal Arts colleges don't earn enough. Most people don't know that private colleges may be more affordable than they realize. A recent study shows that graduates of Liberal Arts colleges are thriving, economically. In addition, Liberal Arts grads score well on life satisfaction, because they are pursuing careers that are meaningful to them. You can read the full article here:

Sure, engineers earn more, but new study shows that liberal arts college grads are doing just fine and seeing economic mobility -- and that much of what is said about graduates of these programs is not backed by evidence.