Admissions Blog

30 Summer STEM Camps for High School Freshmen

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Sandy Clingman Leave a Comment

Summer STEM Camps

NOTE: This article was first published in 2018; some links are out of date, but most programs are still running. If links no longer work, type the program name into a Google to find the latest links to these impressive programs.

Summer is a good time for high school students to explore their interests. A little research and planning can uncover ways to investigate an idea, acquire a new skill, or demonstrate a specialty with independent research or projects. In the fields of STEM, especially, there are many options available, including residential summer camps.

The problem for current high school freshmen (rising sophomores), however, is that many of these camps restrict attendance to their older classmates: rising juniors and seniors.

The reason, says Jill Tipograph, founder and director of the independent summer educational consultancy Everything Summer & Beyond, is many of these programs are offering college-level coursework that requires students to have foundational academic experience to be successful. “With higher level quantitative and science exposure as prerequisites, (younger) high school students will not have had the opportunity to complete them…”

This does not mean high school freshman should wait to begin finding ways to learn more about the fields that interest them.

“There is great value,” says Ms. Tipograph, “to younger students taking these summer opportunities… to identify and pursue passions. They can gain exposure and then build on their interest in a deeper capacity the following summer.”

You’ll have to be a little more flexible and dig a little deeper to find available summer STEM camps if you are currently a freshman. But if you are fortunate enough to have the available time and financial resources (camps can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars), here are 30 options nationwide during the summer of 2018 for high school freshmen interested in STEM camps.

Boston Leadership Institute Longwood Medical Center, Boston, MA

Canada/USA MathCamp Colorado School of the Mines, Golden, CO

Careers in Engineering University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

COSMOS University of California, San Diego, CA

Discovering Biology: The Building Blocks of Life Boston University, Boston, MA

Engineering Camp Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

Engineering High School Camp University of Kansas , Lawrence, KS

Engineering Innovation Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (more locations)

Engineering Summer Academy University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Explore Engineering for HS Girls Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA

High School Engineering Institute Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Intensive STEM Academy Duke University, Durham, NC

Mathematics Academy University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

MathILy Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA

Mathworks Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

Michigan Math and Science Scholars University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Pre-Engineering Institute Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO

Prove It! Math Academy Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Ross Mathematics Program Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

STEM II Brown University, Providence, RI

Summer Accelerator North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC

Summer Bridge STEM Program for Girls Radford University, Radford, VA

Summer Engineering Exploration University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Summer Immersion George Washington University, DC

Summer Scholars Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Summer Science and Engineering Program Smith College, Amherst, MA

Summer Session for High School Students University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Summer STEM US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD

Summer Studies in Math Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

UMassAmherst Precollege Programs University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Northwestern ED Acceptance Rate Now 26 Percent

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Northwestern University received a record 4,050 Early Decision applications this fall, and the Evanston, Illinois university is only accepting 1,073 of them ED, taking its ED acceptance rate down to a slender 26 percent overall.

Northwestern aims to accept a bit more than half of its class through ED this year, which is in line with previous years.

If you do get the unfortunate deferral letter, please read this important article: How to Respond to an Early Decision or Early Action Deferral. If you get the stinging rejection letter, please read this article: How to Recover from Early Decision or Early Action Rejection.

Congratulations to those admitted.

Washington U. Accepts 40 Percent of Class ED

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Ronné P. Turner, Vice Provost of Admissions & Financial Aid at Washington University in St. Louis, has shared with counselors that Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) will accept forty percent of its Class of 2022 through Early Decision. This is a meaningful increase from WUSTL’s more typical thirty-six percent of its entering class being filled through the ED pool. Last year, WUSTL accepted thirty-five percent of its Class of 2021 through the ED pool.

In addition WUSTL received two percent more ED applicants this year – 1,850 – compared to last year.

Not shared was WUSTL’s overall ED acceptance rate this admissions cycle. Last year the university had an ED acceptance rate of thirty-eight percent and and overall acceptance rate of fifteen percent.

If you get in, congratulations!

Visit Admissions Intel’s College Acceptance Gift Collection.

Princeton Early Action Acceptance Rate Drops to 14.6 Percent

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Just 799 students were accepted out of 5,402 applicants who applied to Princeton this fall using the university’s single-choice early action deadline for Princeton’s Class of 2022.

Princeton’s Office of Communications shares that its single-choice early action pool was the “largest in the last seven years, representing an 8 percent increase over last year’s early applicant pool and a 57 percent increase from 2011. The admission rate was 14.7 percent this year compared with 15.4 percent last year, and 21.1 percent in 2011.”

Decisions were mailed to students on December 13 and they are also available online to applicants on December 13.

Of those applicants accepted, forty-eight countries and forty-four states, in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, are represented. Forty-four percent of the admitted students are U.S. students from “diverse backgrounds,” fourteen percent are the first in their families to attend college, seventeen percent are children of Princeton alumni, and eleven percent are international students.

The gender breakdown of accepted applicants was fifty percent male and fifty percent female.

Interestingly, twenty-one percent of the admitted students indicated they want to study engineering.

In 2011 Princeton began offering an early application round for prospective students whose first college choice is Princeton. Princeton’s early action applicants are allowed to apply early only to Princeton and public colleges concurrently. If admitted, such applicants may still wait until May 1 to accept Princeton’s offer of admission.

If you get in, congratulations!

Visit Admissions Intel’s College Acceptance Gift Collection.

MIT Received 16 percent more Early Action Applicants this Fall

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

MIT Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services, Stu Schmill, has provided context relating to the Early Action notifications that MIT will be sharing with students on December 14 at 6:28 p.m EST.

According to Schmill, MIT received approximately 9,700 applications, which is 16% more compared with last year’s Early Action pool.

“Last year, we admitted 657 students in Early Action; we plan to admit a similar number this year. As you may know, our early admission rate tends to be relatively low, as we try to avoid admitting a disproportionate percentage of our class in Early Action,” Schmill shared. Taking that information at face value, that would mean that MIT’s EA acceptance rate would be roughly 6.8% this year.

“Because our applicant pool is so strong, we defer many applicants to Regular Action for further review. While many of them are not ultimately admitted, we do admit some portion of our deferred applicants. In the last few years, we’ve typically admitted ~100–300 deferred applicants,” Schmill continued.

Finally, Schmill added, “While this is always difficult, we will give definitive decisions to applicants if we are certain they will be denied admission this year, so that they can focus on their other college options.”

If you get in, congratulations!

Visit Admissions Intel’s College Acceptance Gift Collection.

University of Iowa is the Sweet Corn of the Big 10

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

They say that Iowa sweet corn is knee high by the Fourth of July. Well, we say that University of Iowa has grown much taller, so much so that it’s time for Iowa Hawkeyes’ to be invited to the big boys’ table. Not only do University of Iowa athletic teams compete in the Big 10 against major powerhouses like Penn State, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and Purdue; University of Iowa’s students, academic programs, and campus rival its more selective Big 10 rivals. In fact, if you are looking for a SAFE and large campus in an urban area that is also filled with everything from sports teams to root for and Greeks to join, University of Iowa is likely a superior choice to its bigger name Big 10 rivals.

Tag along on our recent visit to Iowa City to explore University of Iowa up close.

Best and Worst Colleges for Meeting Demonstrated Financial Need

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

To wrap our financial aid week, we turn again to some extremely valuable data meticulously compiled by independent educational consultants Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy. In recent years the two consultants have put out annual lists, two of which deal with financial aid stats at American colleges and universities:

Domestic Undergraduate Need-Based Aid and Merit Aid: Excel | PDF
Financial Aid for Nonresident Alien Undergraduates: Excel | PDF

Today we delve a bit deeper into analyzing one statistic in particular: the percentage of demonstrated need met by colleges across the U.S.A. Demonstrated need is a loaded term. It does not translate into what families think they can pay for college each year; it instead is defined as the difference between total college costs and the family’s ability to pay – as deemed by the college (and whatever formula it uses to determined family need).

With this mind, here are the the bottom 25 colleges in terms of meeting demonstrated need for domestic students (percentages indicate percent of need met for all undergraduates):

U. of Colorado – Colorado Springs	20%
Ohio Northern University	23%
Brigham Young University3	33%
Missouri U. of Sci. and Tech.	35%
SUNY – Geneseo	41%
James Madison University	43%
U. of Cincinnati	44%
Adelphi University	45%
Auburn University	45%
U. of Wisconsin – Milwaukee	45%
San Francsico Cons. of Music	46%
Eastern Michigan University	47%
Virginia Commonwealth U.	48%
Salisbury University	48%
U. of Mary Washington	49%
Biola University	50%
SUNY – Buffalo	50%
Utica College	51%
U. of Colorado – Denver	51%
California Poly – Pomona	51%
New Jersey Instt of Technology	52%
Georgia Inst. of Technology	52%
U. of Pittsburgh	52%

Next, a better list: the top schools for meeting demonstrated need – a sixty-way tie for first between all schools that meet 100% of domestic students’ demonstrated financial need:

Amherst College	100%
Barnard College	100%
Bates College	100%
Boston College	100%
Bowdoin College	100%
Brown University	100%
Bryn Mawr College	100%
California Institute of Technology	100%
Carleton College	100%
Claremont McKenna College	100%
Colgate University	100%
College of the Holy Cross	100%
Colorado College	100%
Connecticut College	100%
Cornell University	100%
Dartmouth College	100%
Davidson College	100%
Duke University	100%
Franklin & Marshall College	100%
Georgetown University	100%
Grinnell College	100%
Hamilton College	100%
Harvey Mudd College	100%
Haverford College	100%
Kenyon College	100%
Lafayette College	100%
Macalaster College	100%
Massachusetts Inst of Tech.	100%
Middlebury College	100%
Mount Holyoke College	100%
Northwestern University	100%
Oberlin Coll. and Conservatory	100%
Occidental College	100%
Pitzer College	100%
Pomona College	100%
Princeton University	100%
Reed College	100%
Rice University	100%
Scripps College	100%
Smith College	100%
Stanford University	100%
Swarthmore College	100%
Trinity College	100%
Tufts University	100%
Union College	100%
U. of North Carolina – Chapel Hill	100%
U. of Notre Dame	100%
U. of Pennsylvania	100%
U. of Richmond	100%
U. of Southern California	100%
U. of Virginia	100%
Vanderbilt University	100%
Vassar College	100%
Wake Forest University	100%
Washington & Lee University	100%
Washington U. in St. Louis	100%
Wellesley College	100%
Wesleyan University	100%
Williams College	100%
Yale University	100%

Analysis: Ivies’ Inconsistent Need-Blind Review Policies

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Craig Meister 1 Comment

For years, the eight institutions that make up the Ivy League have loudly touted how they review undergraduate applications in a need-blind manner, which gives many families the impression that a family’s financial circumstances will play no role in its student’s chances of admission into one of these very selective institutions.

Yet, the Ivies have need-blind policies that are not so black and white. In fact, if families read the fine print, they will find that many members of the Ivy League engage in a hybrid of review policies depending on students’ citizenship or U.S. residency status. Five out of the eight members of the Ivy League review first-year applicants in either a need-blind manner or need-aware manner depending on an applicant’s citizenship or U.S. residency status. The other three are need-blind for each and every first-year applicant.

Below, Admissions Intel provides a breakdown of the distinct review policies for the eight members of the Ivy League.

University of Pennsylvania
Penn offers probably the most interesting need-blind review policy. An applicant to Penn will be reviewed in a need-blind manner if the student is a citizen or legal permanent resident of the U.S., Canada, or Mexico. Why Canadians or Mexicans are reviewed on a need-blind basis is not explained, though of course these countries share borders with the U.S. Canadian and Mexican taxpayers certainly don’t fund the millions of dollars worth of research that Penn engages in each year; American taxpayers do. Students living in the U.S. illegally (if they are honest about their status and not from Mexico or Canada) are reviewed in a need-aware manner. As are students from all other countries so far unmentioned. One could make the argument that Russia (close to Alaska) and the Bahamas (close to Florida) have reason to complain to Penn that Canada and Mexico get special treatment but they don’t.

Cornell University
Cornell is one of four Ivy League colleges that actively reward illegality with its need-blind admissions policies. Cornell is need-blind for all U.S. citizens and permanent residents and for those with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status. That last group includes many teenage children of parents who entered the U.S. illegally when their children were younger. While the children are also officially illegal residents of the U.S. the Obama administration created DACA to “bring out of the shadows” individuals brought to the U.S. illegally by their older family members. All other international applicants to Cornell are reviewed on a need-aware basis.

Brown University
Brown takes Cornell’s policy one step further by reviewing not only all U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and DACA recipients in need-blind manner; Brown also reviews all undocumented students in a need-blind manner. This raises the question, why would a student who wants to go to Brown but who doesn’t have the financial means just cross into the U.S. illegally through the Canadian or Mexican border before applying to Brown? Brown’s admissions committee rewards law-abiding international students with the gift of being reviewed in a need-aware manner.

Columbia University & Dartmouth College
Both Dartmouth and Columbia are need-blind for U.S. citizens, undocumented students, and eligible non-citizens residing in the U.S. This latter group includes:

-U.S. nationals (includes natives of American Samoa or Swains Island).

-U.S. permanent resident with a Form I-551, I-151, or I-551C (Permanent Resident Card, Resident Alien Card, or Alien Registration Receipt Card), also known as a “green card.”

-Individuals who have an Arrival-Departure Record (I-94) from U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) showing:

>“Refugee,”

>“Asylum Granted,”

>“Cuban-Haitian Entrant,”

>“Conditional Entrant” (valid only if issued before April 1, 1980), or

>“Parolee” (you must be paroled for at least one year, and you must be able to provide evidence from the USCIS that you are in the United States for other than a temporary purpose with the intention of becoming a U.S. citizen or permanent resident).

-Individuals who hold a T nonimmigrant status (“T-visa”) (for victims of human trafficking) or your parent holds a T-1 nonimmigrant status. Your college or career school’s financial aid office will ask to see your visa and/or certification letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

-Individuals who are a “battered immigrant-qualified alien” who is a victim of abuse by your citizen or permanent resident spouse, or you are the child of a person designated as such under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

-An individual who is a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the Republic of Palau. If this is the case, you may be eligible for only certain types of federal student aid:

>Citizens of the Republic of Palau are eligible for Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and Federal Work-Study.

>Citizens of the Federal States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands are eligible for Federal Pell Grants only.

-To qualify for federal student aid, certain eligible noncitizens must be able to provide evidence from the USCIS that they are in the United States for other than a temporary purpose with the intention of becoming a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

-Certain Native American students born in Canada with a status under the Jay Treaty of 1789 may also be eligible for federal student aid.

All other applicants to Columbia and Dartmouth are reviewed in a need-aware manner.

Harvard, Princeton, & Yale
This Holy Trinity is need-blind for everyone! That’s right, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale don’t care if you are Brazilian, Burmese, Byelorussian, or Baltimorean. You’re all going to be reviewed on a need-blind basis. Congrats for keeping it consistent Big Three.

Important Final Note
The above discussion only applies to how these eight schools determine whom to review on a need-blind or need-aware basis. Once a student is accepted, the Ivies make every effort to meet 100% of demonstrated need. The trick, of course, is getting in first, thus the discussion above.

Good luck!

Start Applying for Financial Aid Today with FAFSA and CSS Profile

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

October 1 marks the official start of the financial aid application process, as it’s the first day that the FAFSA and CSS Profile are available for families to start filling out for the 2018-2019 school year. To celebrate, Admissions Intel is publishing three articles this week that all share a common theme: financial aid. In today’s first article, we set the table with some important introductory information about applying for financial aid for the 2018-2019 school year.

The FAFSA is the name commonly used for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the CSS Profile is short for the College Scholarship Service Profile. The former is a federal form, which is used by most American colleges to determine financial aid offers, and the latter is published by the College Board and used by about 200 mostly private colleges in addition to the FAFSA. Families applying for financial aid should clarify if they need to fill out only the FAFSA or the FASA and the CSS Profile for colleges on their list. Any family that wants to receive need-based aid that also believes they might qualify for financial aid must apply for financial aid in order to have any chance of getting financial aid.

A good number of colleges offering Early Decision and Early Action have financial aid application deadlines as early as November 1 or November 15 for Early Decision and Early Action applicants; yet, the exact deadline to submit financial aid applications varies a great deal from college to college and may also depend on your application plan (ED vs. EA vs. Priority vs. Regular).

Admissions Intel recommends that students check the Naviance Family Connection profile for each college on their list (if their high school uses Naviance Family Connection) and then fact-check this information with information gleaned from the financial aid office website for each college on their list in order to confirm the appropriate deadlines for submitting any and all applications and associate forms that each college on their list requires in order to be fully considered for financial aid for the 2018-2019 school year. Failing to meet financial aid application deadlines will affect a family’s ability to qualify for financial aid for the 2018-2019 school year.

To get further familiarize yourself with FAFSA, we recommend printing out and filling out the practice FAFSA on the Web Worksheet, which provides a preview of the questions that families will be asked while completing the real online FAFSA. It’s always good to plan ahead!

Similarly, CSS Profile publishes the CSS Profile Student Guide that is helpful in better orienting families with what to expect when filling out the CSS Profile. The fancy folks at the CSS Profile also publish an audio slideshow that explains the application in greater depth. Thanks for that tool College Board!

More Information:

FAFSA on the Web – Federal student aid application
CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE – Financial aid application used by many private colleges (in addition to FAFSA) in order to get a more detailed view of the finances of a student and family

Fail to get Noticed

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Amy Feins Leave a Comment

This morning I was listening to the radio and heard a segment about a new museum that just opened in Sweden. The Museum of Failure. Brilliant! There are all kinds of cool failed ideas like Google Glass and the Apple (fig) Newton. I could add a few others…olestra (that oil alternative that has the unpleasant side effect of violent diarrhea) or maybe these hoverboards that explode into flames (I have two in my garage). The point is, in order to succeed one has to fail first. The problem is, everyone likes to say that, but find me the parent who is happy to have their child get an F in Algebra. Not happening.

So how can we allow our kids to fail (and learn) without screwing up their chances for college admission? You don’t want to fail an AP class, or any class for that matter; yet, there are plenty of other opportunities for failure, and you should make them available to your kids ASAP. Here’s how.

1. Start early. Let your child NOT make the team. Let them lose the race, the game, the contest. Let them flub up the recital (especially if they didn’t practice). Give them lots and lots of opportunities to try, fail, and then try again. Penelope Trunk writes about the importance of practice in an article in Business Insider, and we all know that “practice makes perfect,” but how many of us really force that issue?

2. In school, encourage plenty of “low stakes testing.” These aren’t those God awful state assessments. Low stakes testing (the best way to prepare for the SAT by the way) consists of frequent, short, low stress quizzes that help to decrease test anxiety due to their frequency and the fact that they DO NOT COUNT for much. They are LOW STAKES. Sure, your kids may fail a bunch of them, and then they start to figure out that the world isn’t ending, and they figure out how to best learn the material (not by cramming the night before) and after a bunch of failures they start to PASS the tests. Imagine that.

3. As a child gets older, he or she is willing to take intellectual risks because he or she knows that A) the world won’t end with failure and B) that failure leads to new ideas and eventual success. Once a young adult, he or she will learn to collaborate and look at – and deal with – problems in different ways.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Failure is good. Just ask Thomas Edison, or just about any theoretical physicist, or any of those folk who discovered a cure for one disease because the one they were working on didn’t cure the original disease.

And read one of Wendy Mogel’s books. Start with The Blessing of the Skinned Knee. It will go over great at cocktail parties when you are trying to explain to people why it is okay that your little Charlie was just cut from the travel soccer team (that’s fine, soccer is overrated).