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Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

Want to get recruited to play your sport in college? It’s a Hail Mary.

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I work with a lot of athletes in both my private practice and at the school where I work as a college counselor. Each year a few of them do earn spots – some with scholarships, some without – on college teams; however, if you are betting on athletics getting you into – and paying for – your dream school, or indeed, any school, you are probably throwing your money away. Hate me if you will, but if you are an athlete or the parent of one you would do well to keep reading.

There is nothing wrong with playing a sport. There is nothing wrong with being an athlete in high school and aspiring to be a student-athlete in college, but do not believe, not for one little second, that athletics are a golden ticket for anyone but a very select few.

In the good old days you could play two or even three varsity sports in high school and still have time for homework, for friends, for clubs, and for a life. Unfortunately, these days, families are pressured to place their children in year-round club soccer, volleyball, baseball, or swimming starting as young as elementary school with the hopes of grooming that child for the elusive college scholarship.  Parents spend thousands of dollars on coaching, hotels, travel, club dues, uniforms, trainers, and eventually medical specialists so that their child can play at an elite level. School teams, with the exception of football, often play second fiddle to more specialized club or travel teams that an offer “better exposure” to college recruiters. Every year I work with families that have been down this path, for years, often at great financial and emotional sacrifice, only to find out that their child is not, in fact, college athlete material.

Let me save you a lot of heartache. Your child is probably NOT college athlete material. Does that mean that they shouldn’t participate on their school team? Of course not. They SHOULD be on their school teams. They should be on MORE THAN ONE school team if that is what they are passionate about, but not with the sole purpose of using that sport as a ticket.

I am going to give you a bunch of statistics in a minute that will bear this out. But if you don’t want to read those, here is an easier way of knowing whether or not little Johnny or Susie is going to be playing for Clemson or UCLA or Michigan any time soon. If your child is a sophomore and hasn’t been contacted by a coach (unofficially of course) or some other employee of a university, then he or she is probably not going to be. There are exceptions to this, of course. Perhaps your child is a swimmer and didn’t go to any big meets, or their track times aren’t in the main databases. Easy enough to check the websites of those dream schools and see what the stats are for recently recruited students. If your student’s times are in the ballpark, then great, reach out to coaches and start filling in those athletic questionnaires. If, however, you child plays a sport in which he or she has to be SEEN, like baseball, volleyball, football, lacrosse, and basketball, and they haven’t been seen by sophomore year, then they still might play, but it isn’t going to be at a school you have heard of.  If you are unsure as to whether or not your child is likely to be recruited, and at what level, ask your coach. They should be able to: 1) help you make connections with colleges and 2) give you a realistic appraisal of your child’s talent.

If you want some more concrete information about college athletics. Check out these resources:

First, read this brief run down of how college scholarships work.

Now, look at the statistics (straight from the NCAA) of how many high school athletes go on to college and professional sports.

I am not trying to be Debbie Downer. I am NOT trying to rain on every athlete’s parade. Yes, there are Division III schools where many, many student athletes are successful, but then there isn’t any money at stake, and those coaches do not have as much pull with admissions as you might imagine.  My own daughter was a decent high school 400 M runner. We live in Southwest Florida, a tough district for track with some very talented young women. My daughter was running the 400 in just under one minute with very little coaching or training, and that was good enough for her to run at all but the very top DIII schools. We made a few visits, and since she also had the academic credentials for those schools the coaches were very encouraging. Yet, we had ALSO been told that even though there were no athletic scholarships, “the money” would come to us in some magic fashion though our financial aid packaging. That did not happen. What DOES happen is that DIII schools are all audited each year and if athletes get better packages than the rest of the student population, the entire athletic department takes the heat.

In the end she chose a D1 school and so her illustrious track career came to an end with a medal at the state meet in her senior year (see photo below). She still loves running, and I am secretly relieved that it never became the chore that it might have should she have chosen a different path.

What actually happens much more often in my practice has nothing to do with the colleges at all. It is the student. Some sustain career ending injuries like a torn ACL or rotator cuff. Others simply burn out. They are tired of being tired. They don’t want to spend the next four years devoting eight or nine hours a day to their sport any more. They have been at it sometimes for ten or more years. They are done. And where does that leave them? If you have spent every free moment and every vacation at camps and clinics and tournaments… and now you want to quit. What other interests have you pursued? What community connections have you made? What else might you be passionate about? You have no idea, and THAT is the problem because now your activity list is looking pretty sparse.

Sure, you showed dedication and you can work with a team. Sure, you have some awesome essay ideas about how you lost the “big game” and it taught you to be resilient. I don’t doubt it. Do you know why? Because that is the same story that thousands of other applicants are telling on thousands of applications. Being an athlete, short of an Olympic one, does not get you noticed. There are a specific number of spots in college classes for athletes. Once those are taken, admissions committees are looking for folks with other interests.

If you are a recruited athlete, great. If you aren’t, you need figure out what else makes you special. Don’t worry, something does, you just need time to figure that out. If you are a high school junior, you might want to figure that out a little bit faster than if you are in eighth grade, but it is NEVER too late.

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Bonus: What are the odds of playing your sport professionally? Find out by clicking here.

Admissions and Financial Aid Statistics to Keep Close at Hand | UPDATED

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Stanford University

Students and parents often find transparency in short supply when navigating the US college admissions process and when trying to determine the methodologies American colleges and universities use award financial aid. Many students and parents will spend hours – if not days – trying to splice and dice statistics gleaned from various college websites and guide books in order to determine their chances of earning admission and/or aid to colleges on their lists.

Sadly, colleges and  universities themselves have done relatively little create user-friendly transparency; however, that hasn’t stopped independent educational consultants Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy from trying to bring a degree of order and transparency to the task of gauging one’s relative likelihood of earning admission to and aid from American colleges. In recent years the two consultants have put out annual lists with the latest statistics in three distinct categories:

  1. Early Decision vs. Regular Decision Acceptance Rates: Excel | PDF
  2. Domestic Undergraduate Need-Based Aid and Merit Aid: Excel | PDF
  3. Financial Aid for Nonresident Alien Undergraduates: Excel | PDF

While entire articles could be written – and one great one by Nancy Griesemer already has – about the valuable nuggets of knowledge found within these lists, of particular note are the three following findings:

– Many of America’s most selective colleges continue to have Early Decision acceptance rates that are triple their Regular Decision acceptance rates. This continues to spur the movement motivating students to apply using binding plans early in their senior years of high school. Some particularly high ED Acceptance Rate to RD Acceptance Rate ratios of note include University of Pennsylvania (3.3 to 1), Middlebury College (3.4 to 1), Claremont McKenna College (4.7 to 1), Carleton College (3 to 1), Amherst College (3.2 to 1), and American University (3.7 to 1).

– Domestic undergraduate applicants should look very carefully at the average need met by colleges and universities on their lists, especially if these colleges are public universities or somewhat selective private colleges, as they appear to have the widest range of disparities concerning how much need they meet. While hyper-selective colleges (Ivies and their immediate peers) meet 100% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need, public schools meet between 45% to 99% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need and selective private colleges generally meet between 60% to 100% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need.

– International students have more need-based aid options than they did years ago, but the majority of aid opportunities for international applicants still derive from merit-based aid and not need-based aid. Public and private colleges awarded no aid to international applicants (Auburn, Clemson, Boston College, and Carnegie Mellon University among others), only merit-based aid to international applicants (Baylor University, Boston University, Cooper Union, Rice University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign among others), only need-based aid to international applicants (all Ivies, Colgate University, Reed College, and Villanova University among others), or both merit-based and need based aid to international applicants (Brandeis University, Bringham Young University, Grinnell College, and Skidmore among others).

AdmissionsIntel.com has included links to all three lists above and on our Resources page.

‘Early decision’ stats every applicant should see

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Last year, Claremont McKenna filled 68% of its incoming class with early decision candidates.

Binding early decision (ED) is one of several tools colleges employ to control evaluative metrics like “selectivity” and  “yield” used by outside organizations seeking to rank or otherwise pass judgement on the quality of an institution.

By agreeing to apply ED to any one of many schools offering these plans, students are promising to attend an institution if admitted.  In other words, they are not only giving up the freedom to choose among future offers of admission but they are also providing colleges with virtually a 100 percent chance of “yielding” them into the institution.

And for colleges concerned about where they stand on the U.S. News pecking order of “best” colleges, this is a powerful device for crafting a class “to spec.”  So important, in fact, that much time is spent tinkering with enrollment management strategies to ensure optimal effectiveness of these plans.  And make no mistake.  Effectiveness is assessed by how well it works for the institution and not for the applicant.

Some of the considerations that go into deciding how to structure an early decision policy include target students (legacies, athletes, top academics) and their credentials, deadlines, percent of class to be filled, and what the competition is doing.

In other words, early decision gives colleges a great deal of control and they love it.  Even those schools publicly professing concern about the level of stress the admission process is causing high school students are quietly increasing the percent of class filled by these plans, moving deadlines around, and adding clever alternatives like ED II—a second chance to pledge undying love to an institution and guarantee a yield for the class.

So how can the average applicant regain some small part of control over a process that looks to be increasingly out of control?  First, by understanding what benefits colleges offer in terms of admissions advantage for early decision candidates. Obviously, a successful applicant will have a decision and lock in their college long before others in the regular decision pool. That’s good, but more importantly, some colleges sweeten the deal by appearing to admit a greater percent of early decision applicants. These schools might argue that the early decision pool is typically very strong and represents the best and most committed applicants.

The ED pool can also contain a disproportionate number of target students (athletes and legacies) making analysis of the admissions advantage even more complicated. But the deciding factor could ultimately be how much of the entering class is filled early decision. If that number approaches or exceeds 50 percent, an applicant electing not to go that route may be severely disadvantaged.

Other issues confuse the early decision strategy, and many of those focus on financial aid. Despite what they say, it’s hard to believe that a college that has admitted a student through early decision has much incentive to provide an overly generous financial aid package either in terms of total dollar amount or composition—balance of grant aid vs. loans and work study.

It’s only by understanding policies, gathering facts about how colleges use early decision and reviewing outcomes that students can begin to decide if applying early is in their best interests.

To help counselors as well as students and their families analyze and compare various early decision plans, Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy have assembled an amazing chart documenting early decision vs. regular decision acceptance rates at colleges and universities offering early decision.  They are making the chart available, free of charge, on their respective websites (see instructions below on how to access the chart).

“What we have learned from the data we compiled was that several trends in college admission are more concerning than we thought,” said Jeff Levy, an independent educational consultant (IEC) based in Los Angeles. “But we also found institutions standing firm against these trends and we were encouraged.  It turns out that the only generalization that holds true is that college advisers must really know the schools they are recommending or risk misleading students when talking to them about their chance of admission.”

The chart, based on data that is readily available to anyone taking the time to do the research, is organized alphabetically by college or can be downloaded and sorted by individual criteria.

According to Jennie Kent, an IEC working in Bogotá, Colombia, “This chart includes four main metrics:  early decision acceptance rate, regular decision acceptance rate,  percent of class filled from early decision, and the ratio of ED to RD acceptance rates.”

You won’t find anything like this analysis anywhere else. Levy and Kent meticulously research the data and spend hours putting it together. They provide an incomparable service to anyone with a need to know or desire to understand.

And some of their findings are startling.  For example, some schools give a very large advantage during early decision (ED vs. RD) include:

  • Claremont McKenna College: 32% ED to 7% RD
  • American University: 85% ED to 23% RD
  • Middlebury College: 43% ED to 13% RD
  • University of Pennsylvania: 23% ED to 7% RD

Some schools go in the opposite direction and actually have a lower admit rate for early decision:

  • University of Denver:  31% ED to 54% RD
  • Southern Methodist University (SMU): 31% ED to 50% RD
  • Virginia Tech: 47% ED to 74% RD
  • Goucher College: 67% ED to 79% RD
  • Northeastern University: 27% ED to 29% RD
  • NYU – 30% ED to 32% RD

Some schools practice a more equitable balance:

  • Carnegie Mellon University: 26% ED to 21% RD
  • Boston University: 32% ED to 29% RD
  • Brandeis University: 35% ED to 34% RD

Some schools fill a huge percent of their class early decision:

  • Claremont McKenna College: 68%
  • Bates College: 66%
  • Middlebury College: 66%
  • Carleton College: 64%
  • Others that fill more than 50% of their class from ED include Davidson, Washington and Lee, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, Penn, Lehigh and Emory

Others—not so much:

  • Clark University: 5%
  • Goucher College: 5%
  • Northeastern University: 9%
  • Ithaca College: 10%
  • Ohio Wesleyan University: 10%
  • University of Denver: 11%
  • SMU: 17%
  • Carnegie Mellon University: 22%

And the schools with some of the lowest early decision admit rates include:

  • Harvey Mudd College: 18%
  • Pomona College: 20%
  • Brown University:  22%
  • Rice University:  23%
  • University of Pennsylvania:  23%
  • Duke University: 24%
  • Vanderbilt University: 24%

This is all enormously valuable information to use when making the decision whether or not to commit to an early decision application.

To access the complete chart, visit either one of Jennie Kent’s or Jeff Levy’s websites:

Another Undergraduate Admissions Season Begins

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August 1 marks the official start to the 2017-2018 undergraduate admissions cycle, and this year Admissions Intel is celebrating by giving you the chance to join Admissions Intel on Patreon. Learn a bit about the big trends to look out for this admissions season and the three distinct membership levels that will give you even greater access to the expertise you’ve grown accustomed to on the free side of AdmissionsIntel.com.

12 of the nation’s most prestigious science competitions for high school students

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Each year, thousands of high school students across the country gain valuable hands-on laboratory and research experience by interning for a variety of academic, government and nonprofit organizations engaged in scientific research.

Locally, high school interns may be found in George Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) or in one of the two Science & Engineering Apprenticeship Programs (SEAPs) sponsored by George Washington University, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy. They may also be found at NIST, NASA or one of many summer programs offered by the National Institutes of Health.

While they vary in terms of content and work experience, each of these internships supports opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Students meet and interact with scientists, learn lab skills, conduct research, and possibly publish their findings or patent their ideas.

In fact, some programs encourage students to present research at poster sessions or similar scientific forums where they gain self-confidence, improve writing skills, and potentially earn credentials important to colleges and universities as well as future employers.  They also lay the groundwork for undergraduate research assignments as well as admission to post graduate studies in medical schools or PhD programs.

And many young researchers turn their summer experiences into competitive science projects, vying for hundreds of thousands in scholarship dollars offered annually by organizations supporting the goals of STEM education.

Here are 12 of the more prestigious and well-respected competitions:

    1. AAN Neuroscience Research Prize. Students investigating problems concerning the brain or the nervous system are invited to compete for monetary prizes as well as all expenses paid trips to the AAN Annual Meeting, to present their work during a scientific poster session.
    2. Davidson Fellows. This prestigious scholarship annually awards up to $50,000 to students, 18 and under, who have completed a “significant” piece of work in one of eight categories including Engineering, Mathematics, Science, Literature, Music, Technology, Philosophy, and Outside the Box.
    3. Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge. Participants work in teams of 2 to 5 members to develop solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems. Finalist teams compete for seed funding grants, investment opportunities, patent support, business services and scholarships.
    4. ExploraVision.  Jointly sponsored by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), ExploraVision encourages collaboration by restricting the competition to group projects.  Although all participants win gifts and discounts, the top four teams receive US Savings Bonds worth $10,000 for each student. 
    5. Google Science Fair. Beginning with online submissions, this competition invites young scientists from all over the world to compete for up to $50,000 in scholarships as well as a trip to the Galapagos Islands sponsored by National Geographic.  Finalists are invited to Google Headquarters to present their projects before expert judges.  To receive information on future competitions, sign-up on the Google Science Fair website.
    6. Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Intel ISEF is possibly the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, providing an annual forum for over 1,800 high school students from countries all over the world who compete for approximately $4 million in awards.  Competition begins at the high school level and culminates at the International Science and Engineering Fair, held each year in different cities around the country.
    7. International BioGENEius Challenge. This competition is designed to recognize outstanding research in biotechnology. Finalists showcase their talent and research before a prestigious panel of expert biotech judges and have the opportunity to win cash awards.
    8. Microsoft Imagine Cup.  Imagine Cup is a global competition for computer science students who team up to use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications and compete for cash, travel and prizes. Sign up on line to get notified when the 2018 season begins.
    9. MIT THINK Scholars Program.  The THINK Scholars program is an initiative that promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics by supporting and funding projects developed by high school students. Finalists receive all-expenses paid trips to MIT to attend XFair (MIT’s spring tech symposium) and winners receive up to $1000 to build their projects.  Additional scholarship prizes are also available.
    10. National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Individual students compete for scholarships and recognition by presenting the results of their original research before a panel of judges and an audience of their peers. Regional scholarships as well as eight national top awards of up to $12,000 are among the prizes available.  Different regions/states run on different schedules.
    11. Regeneron Science Talent Search. The Regeneron Science Talent Search invites the nation’s best and brightest young scientists to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists. Open only to high school seniors, 40 finalists are selected to come to Washington DC and compete for the top award of $250,000. This year’s competition will open on August 1, 2017. All applications will be due on November 15, 2017.
    12. Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology. Since 1999, the Siemens Foundation, has provided young scientists with opportunities to win scholarships ranging from $1000 to $100,000 for original research in team and individual categories.  This year’s competition is now underway and all competition materials must be received by September 19, 2017.

University of California Application: 10 Rules about the Arts Requirement Out-of-State Students Don’t Know

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UC Berkeley

Applicants to the University of California (UC) must complete fifteen college-prep courses for admission to any UC campus. One of those courses must be from Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

The VPA requirement can be confusing to out-of-state students, because many high schools do not require completion of an arts course to graduate; and many students were not planning to take one.

But UC’s “overarching goal is to ensure incoming freshmen are adequately prepared to undertake university study.” The UC criteria for completion of the requirement are specific. Make sure you understand these rules as early as possible during high school if you are planning to apply.

1.The grade in the course must be a C or better to meet the requirement. (A grade of C- would be counted as a C, since pluses and minuses are not considered.)

2. The course must be a full high school year; or two one-semester courses from the same discipline of  dance, drama/theater, music, visual art or interdisciplinary arts.  (Neither both semesters of the yearlong course nor the two one-semester courses need to be taken in the same academic year.)

3. If the choice is two one-semester courses, they not only must be from the same discipline, but also must “demonstrate a sequential relationship of some sort,” whether  because one is a stated prerequisite to another, or because one reasonably serves as a good foundation to another. (For example, Drawing 1 and 2, not Drawing 1 and Ceramics 1.)

However, if the high school does not offer more than one semester of VPA courses, the student may mix and match two one-semester VPA courses. Nonetheless, the two courses must still be from the same discipline.  (For example, two Fine Arts courses or two Dance courses.)

4. Private competition, instruction, or learning, does not count.

5. A course the student’s high school counts as PE (such as Marching Band), does not count.

On the other hand, a course the student’s high school counts as fulfilling an arts course requirement, even if it is not considered as such at other schools (an example might be computer graphics), will satisfy the requirement. Your school counselor can verify this for you with the UC admission office.

6. Concurrent courses will satisfy the requirement. (For example, Drawing 1 and Drawing 2, taken during the same semester.)

7. New for 2017-18: UC approved VPA online courses will satisfy the requirement! Current approved courses are listed on UC’s Online Publishers page. For example, Arts Anywhere, LLC offers six UC-approved survey courses in music, media arts, studio arts or theatre; and iCEV offers one: Art and the History of Floral Design. These specific courses are annotated with UC approved through 2020-21.

8. A score of 3, 4 or 5 on the AP History of Art, Studio Art or Music Theory Exam; or a score of 5, 6 or 7 on any one IB HL exam in Dance, Film, Music, Theatre Arts or Visual Arts will satisfy the requirement.

9. A 3-semester or 4-quarter transferable college course, that “clearly falls within one of four visual/performing arts disciplines: dance, drama/theater, music or visual art,” will satisfy the requirement.

10. Admission by Exception is an option for unusual circumstances in lieu of meeting the requirement.  Examples of who might qualify include home-schooled students and those who’ve experienced hardships. UC suggests that students who believe they qualify “use the personal insight questions or additional comments section of the admission application to explain (their) unique story.”

There is still one more way a student can be considered for admission without meeting the UC minimum requirements, and that’s through Admission by Exam. Unique circumstances that may qualify a student for this option include non-traditional education or long-term illness.  The student must achieve minimum scores on either the SAT with essay or the ACT with writing, as well as two subject exams. A chart on the UC website can provide the information necessary to determine if your scores, totaled and converted to UC Scores, will qualify you.

The most important point is to review the rules as early as possible in your high school career. If you check in regularly with your school counselor or college advisor and carefully follow the UC website guidelines, you can plan ahead to avoid a last minute scramble to meet UC admission requirements when you are ready to apply!

Bonus: Read Sandy Clingman’s University of California Application: 10 Requirements Out-of-State Students Don’t Expect to learn more about the UCs unique admissions requirements. 

University of California Application: 10 Requirements Out-of-State Students Don’t Expect

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UCLA

Are you California dreaming? Do you want to spend your undergraduate years on a University of California (UC) campus?

The news is good — in spite of growing protests in recent years from many Californians (who believe resident students are being squeezed out), the percentage of out-of-state (and international) freshmen across all UC campuses is at an all-time high.

Out-of-state applicants, in fact, are now admitted at a higher rate than in-state applicants — to any UC campus, including flagship UC Berkeley. (In 2017 UC Berkeley admitted 22.1 % of out-of-state applicants versus 19.7% of in-state. At UC Davis,  72.2 % of out-of-state applicants were admitted, versus 35.9% of in-state!)

And although the UC Board of Regents has approved a policy to now limit nonresident enrollment to 18% on five of the UC campuses, more latitude will be given to UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego, which “will be grandfathered in”  per 2017-18 enrollment results. (Considering last year’s numbers, these percentages will likely be between 20 and 25%.)

If you’d like to take advantage of the opportunity and apply to be a part of next year’s University of California freshmen class, there are some specific UC requirements you’ll need to know about.

1. You will complete the unique UC application, which allows you to apply to more than one UC campus. And no matter how many campuses you choose, you will only need to submit one official test score. Each campus you apply to, however, will require a separate application fee — $70 per school for 2017-18 applicants.

2. The only time you can submit the application is between November 1 and November 30. It’s available as of August 1, so you can carefully complete each section well before the submission window opens.

3. You will NOT send an official transcript at application, but instead, will self-report your grades. Make sure to report them directly from your transcript — if you later accept an offer of admission, your official high school transcript will be required… and must match up!

4. Do not include letters of recommendation with your application. They are not required and will not be considered.

However, some applicants to any campus this year may be given the option  — or, as the UC website states, invited — via email to send up to two letters of recommendation, due by January 15. (Note: For the past two admission cycles, UC Berkeley alone has invited letters from some applicants; those who chose to take advantage of the opportunity were admitted at a slightly higher rate than those who did not.)

5. You will need to take the additional writing section of standardized tests — that’s the SAT with essay or the ACT with writing. You will select this option when you register for the exam. (Subject tests are not required, but certain programs on some campuses recommend them, so be sure to check your desired program on each school’s website.)

6. There is a minimum GPA requirement for application — and it’s higher for non-residents at 3.4, versus 3.0 for residents. (For the most selective UC campuses, both residents and nonresidents must have a GPA well above 3.4 in order to be truly competitive for admission.)

7. This minimum GPA is calculated using only your high school grades from the summer before your sophomore year to the summer after your junior year; and only your grades from any of fifteen specified college-prep courses. Grades in AP and IB courses will be weighted. GPAs are not rounded up; and pluses and minuses are not counted.

8. Completion of the fifteen college-prep courses, with a grade of C or better, are required for admission. Eleven of the fifteen courses must be taken prior to your senior year.

9. There are alternate ways to meet the college-prep courses requirement, such as taking a one-semester community college course (equivalent to a year-long high school course); earning certain scores on SAT, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams; admission by exam; or admission by exception.

10. Instead of writing an essay, you will select four of eight possible personal insight questions; each response is limited to 350 words. The admissions website provides writing tips and techniques, as well as a worksheet with suggestions for each question.

There is also a step-by-step guide for completing the entire application; the guide takes you through each question to help you understand how best to present yourself.

Considering the favorable odds, the time is right for out-of-state applicants who meet the academic criteria. If you can manage the additional nonresident tuition and want to apply, California (still) wants you, too!

Bonus: Read Sandy Clingman’s University of California Application: 10 Rules about the Visual and Performing Arts Requirement Out-of-State Students Don’t Know to learn more about the UCs unique admissions requirements. 

How to Make the Most of Your College Visits

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With summer upon us, many families take road trips, and parents of high school students may think about including one or two campus visits along the way. This is a great idea – as long as you understand you cannot get a true sense of a college culture when you visit during the summer. The campus will feel completely different once it is swarming with students and professors during the semester. However, it’s still better to visit colleges during the summer than not to visit at all. If you live in the Northeast and can plan visits for late August, that’s ideal because many college campuses start in late August while high schools usually begin around Labor Day. By late August, most college campuses are in full swing.

Visiting colleges with my daughter Amanda was incredibly enjoyable because we made sure not to let it get stressful. Instead, we focused on learning the factors she wanted and did not want in a college and getting a sense of the feel of each school. As I wrote in my new book, Love the Journey to College: Guidance from an Admissions Consultant and Her Daughter:

It may sound crazy, but I think that your first visits should include three colleges to which you do not think you will actually apply. Here’s why: if you are lucky enough to have visited colleges early in this process (maybe in 10th grade), your attitude and grades may shift a lot before you apply during your senior year. Don’t get caught up in the “name-brand schools;” visit schools to just learn as much as you can about what it means to attend college.

Harvard

Many families traveling to Boston like to visit the magnificent Harvard Quad. And why not, it’s a world-renowned university in one of the best cities in the US to attend college. But the reality is that even if you have phenomenal grades and near-perfect scores, you will probably not get into Harvard. Also, keep in mind that Harvard does not count ‘demonstrating interest.’ This means that unlike many other private colleges in our country that track your interest (such as visiting) as a factor in admissions, Harvard does not. So while it may seem fun to visit this top-tier school, you should really want to focus on schools that you have a better chance of getting into. So if you must visit Harvard, please remember that there are about 80 colleges that combine to bring 250,000 college students to the Boston area. Find several other colleges in the vicinity that appeal to you while visiting the city and make the trip fun and enjoyable, and not stressful.

If you can find colleges early in this process that you love and think you can get into, that can be a game changer for your emotional well-being as you navigate high school. Amanda, co-author of Love the Journey to College: Guidance from an Admissions Consultant and Her Daughter, said, “I can’t even explain to you how nice it was to be ecstatic about schools that I knew should accept me comfortably. From private, liberal arts schools to state schools and their honors programs, I had options that I loved and was excited about in tenth grade.”

Think of visiting colleges like window shopping, especially when you first begin. You are looking to evaluate what it is important to you. If you walk into a lecture auditorium that seats 1,000 students and you currently attend a small high school, that lecture hall may feel overwhelming to you. On the other hand, it may be exciting to have some anonymity if you felt a small classroom was too confining. There is no right or wrong way to feel about college. Your likes/interests may change over time, and this is 100% fine. There are about 4,000 colleges in America and dozens of them will meet your academic and social interests.

Jill and Amanda Madenberg co-author Love the Journey to College: Guidance from an Admissions Consultant and Her Daughter

For initial visits, try to visit a city school, a rural school, a small private school and a big state school. This will give you an idea of the different options throughout the country. It’s often hard to find the time during the school year to visit colleges, but going when students and professors who are typically on campus is the best way to really understand the school’s culture. Depending on where you live, you can even start by driving locally to colleges near your home. If getting to campuses is too much, or if you are trying to watch your budget, go online; the virtual tour is a great resource to at least give you a sense of a college’s physical layout.

Happy trails!

Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome Jill as an occasional contributor to Admissions Intel. For more insights into the journey to college, we encourage you to Pre-order Jill’s book, which comes out on August 1, 2017. 

2017 Advanced Placement scores are now available

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Virginia Tech students are allowed to use up to 38 hours of AP credit towards graduation.

In case you missed the email, the College Board rolled out Advanced Placement (AP®) scores for tests taken this past May earlier this month.  And by now, most AP students should have already received their scores—for better or worse!

For the record, old fashioned snail mail reports were discontinued several years ago in favor of an online arrangement that requires you to have a College Board account to access scores. In other words, to obtain scores, students must have

  • an online College Board account requiring registration
  • a username and password
  • 2017 AP number (the number on the labels in the Student Pack) OR student identifier (student ID number) if provided on your answer sheet

Unless there was a problem with identification, scoring or test administration, your scores should now be available and will be added to a cumulative report of all AP tests you have taken to-date (you actually have to pay an extra fee to have any scores removed from the report).

If you’re unlucky enough not to have a score report, feel free to contact the College Board at [email protected] or 888-225-5427 (toll free) or 212-632-1780, especially if you haven’t received scores by September 1.

And what do the scores mean? AP scores are a “weighted combination” of results on the multiple-choice and free-response sections.  The final score is reported on a 5-point scale, as follows:

  • 5:  Extremely well qualified to receive college credit or advanced placement
  • 4:  Well qualified
  • 3:  Qualified
  • 2:  Possibly qualified
  • 1:  No recommendation

You can also think of the five-point scale in terms of letter grades, with 5 equating to an “A” and 1—well, you get the picture.

And what are they worth? The awarding of credit and placement status is determined by individual colleges or universities. You can check directly with the school or on the College Board website to research this information, but note that the latter is neither as specific nor as accurate as what you are likely to find on individual school websites.

In most cases, a student who scores a 4 or 5 may receive college credit. In rare cases, a school will require a 5, and almost no colleges will accept a score of 2. In fact, the most selective colleges will not accept a 3 for credit.

For example, George Mason University will accept a score of 3 for 4 credits in an entry-level environmental science class. For 8 credits, the student must earn a 4 or 5 on the exam.  Neither Georgetown nor GW will award credit for any score below a 4. In fact, Georgetown awards no credit for AP Capstone, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Comparative Government, AP US History, AP Human Geography, and AP Physics 1 or 2.

The University of Virginia generally awards credit for scores of 4 or 5, but for French will dip as low as a 3 for some entry-level exemption. The University of Maryland takes a different approach and awards credit for scores of 3 or better in Art History, English Language and English Literature but requires at least a 4 to receive credit in a foreign language.

Keep in mind that wise use of AP credit can reduce the total number of credit hours needed to graduate. At Virginia Tech, students are allowed to use up to 38 hours of AP credit towards graduation, while Vanderbilt University will only award up to 18 credits. And Dartmouth College will accept no AP credits toward graduation.

AP exam scores may also be used to meet standardized test requirements in the admissions processes of several colleges. Fair Test keeps track of this evolving trend on its Test Score Optional List and includes Colby College, Colorado College, Drexel University, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, NYU and the University of Rochester among those colleges and universities allowing APs to be submitted in place of ACT/SAT scores.

Teachers and AP administrators will also be receiving scores this month, and many high schools include score distributions in the school profiles they send to colleges along with transcripts (see Montgomery Blair High School’s profile for a good example). This is so admissions offices can put individual scores reported on applications in context with those earned by others in your class. But note that some high schools are extremely reluctant to make this information public and will routinely deny requests from families interested in evaluating a particular class or teacher.

For those new to the process, the online reporting system seems like an efficient, environmentally-friendly way to get scores. But be aware. The College Board can now connect your AP scores with PSAT and SAT scores as well as any grade, career interest or family income information you provide in the course of test registration or on their net price calculators. 

And the College Board is all about mining for data that can be sold to postsecondary institutions, scholarship programs, or any number of organizations willing to pay for lists it aggressively markets.

These connections can be both good and bad. If you haven’t graduated from high school, expect to receive recruitment materials from colleges purchasing name and contact information anxious to get to know you. At the same time, don’t be surprised to hear from questionable honor societies or other organizations hoping to con you into paying for something you don’t want.

Check back tomorrow for a sneak preview of AP test results as tweeted by College Board executive, Trevor Packer.

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Wisest Ivy League Major for 2017-2018 Admissions Cycle

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It’s a question undecided applicants are always asking: what should I put down as my intended major on my college applications? The answer of course will depend on the exact colleges one is applying to and the potential majors one will consider; however, this year, 2017, as students get ready to apply during the 2017-2018 admissions cycle for Fall 2018 freshmen spots at America’s most selective colleges, there is one major that certainly deserves your attention more so than others. Drumroll please….