Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

Wesleyan University Ends Legacy Preferences in Admissions

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Wesleyan University has announced that it will no longer give any preference in its application review process to applicants whose parents or grandparents attended the university. For context on why Wesleyan University is getting rid of legacy admissions preferences, which it rarely even practiced, and why other selective colleges will soon follow, watch my below video “The End is Near for Legacy Admissions” from April. Wesleyan’s own president, Michael Roth, has admitted that this change is “low hanging fruit” for his institution.

Interestingly, while legacy preferences get most of the headlines, far more students of current staff members and big donors get into selective colleges based on their current familial connections to colleges and/or potential to cut big checks respectively than do children and grandchildren of alumni. Yet, few, if any, selective college leaders – including Roth – have called for the end to preferences for children of current employees or current or potential big donors to their institutions.

Northwestern Releases Regular Decisions, Class of 2027 Statistics

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Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois, finalized is Regular Decision selection process and notified applicants of their decisions today, Friday, March 24.

Overall, Northwestern reviewed over 52,000 first-year applications from over 10,000 high schools around the world for a class that will ultimately only include roughly 2,100 students, according to Liz Kinsley, Northwestern’s Associate Dean & Director, Undergraduate Admission. Last year Northwestern reviewed 51,554 applications.

Northwestern previously admitted about half of its incoming Class of 2027 through Early Decision, and the university’s overall admit rate will stay roughly 7%. Northwestern’s Fall 2022 ED applicant pool grew by 3.5% to just over 5,200 applicants. This means that Northwestern’s Early Decision acceptance rate now hovers around 20%. In addition to growth in volume, Northwestern saw growth in the number of secondary schools represented in its ED pool of applicants: the number of schools represented by ED applicants was up 22% overall with a 25% increase in U.S. public schools represented.

Students admitted Regular Decision have until May 1 to accept their offer. Official steps toward enrolling in the Class of 2027 are outlined on Northwestern’s Admitted Student Website and will also be mailed with an admit packet.

For applicants offered a place on Northwestern’s waitlist, the deadline to accept a waitlist offer is May 1. Students who accept a waitlist spot before April 15 will be asked to reconfirm their interest in the waitlist on that date; the university will reach out via email with reconfirmation steps. Northwestern’s waitlist is unranked, and waitlisted students are welcome to write the admissions office if they’re still particularly interested in Northwestern. Additional materials should be uploaded via the applicant portal or emailed.

In other news, high school students in the Class of 2024 should know that Northwestern has confirmed that it will remain test-optional for the 2023–2024 admissions cycle.

Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston, Illinois, USA.

12 Reasons Scattergrams Lull Students Into a False Sense of Security

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Scattergrams, the ubiquitous x/y axis graphs that have caught on like wildfire over the last twenty-five years because of their inclusion in Naviance, MaiaLearning, Cialfo, and other online college counseling tools used by thousands of American high schools. Scattergrams purport to show a student’s chances of admission at different colleges and universities by plotting previous students from a particular high school on an x/y axis graph based on such students’ GPAs on one axis and their test scores (ACT or SAT) on the other.

Below is an example of a scattergram for a particular high school showing current students (and parents) at that high school how alumni from that high school fared when applying to University of Maryland College Park from 2010 through 2014.

Two images of scattergrams are included below. On the first one, from Naviance, please note that the scattergram plots the SAT on the x-axis using the old 2400 SAT scale; however, the SAT these days is scored out of 1600. Similarly, the first scattergrams’s high school clearly plots GPA based on a 4.0 scale, but some schools’ scattergrams will have very different numbers of the y-axis because scattergrams can have any sort of GPA scale on them (100, 20, 6, etc.) depending on a school’s grading scale.

The second scattergram image is from Cialfo and captures data for Reed College. It at least shares whether the data plotted represents students who applied Early Decision vs. vs. Early Action vs. something else (which at Reed would be Regular), which some scattergrams don’t share.

The typical student seeing the first of the two  scattergrams above assumes, if he or she has a 3.6 GPA and an SAT score of 1860 he or she is definitely going to get into University of Maryland College Park. Most of the rest of students with that combination of grades and scores would assume, after seeing the above scattergram, that Maryland is at least a huge safety college for them. After all, all students from this high school in the past few years who land in that GPA/score range got into Maryland, as illustrated by all of those green squares.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

The problem is a student with this GPA/score combination could easily get rejected from University of Maryland College Park for any number of reasons that a scattergram will not be able to display. The most common reasons scattergrams lull students into a false sense of security are as follows:

  1. Many selective colleges get more selective every passing year, rendering antiquated past years’ admissions statistics.
  2. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ extracurricular resumes.
  3. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ essay writing skills.
  4. Scattergrams don’t show past applicants’ demographics (rich, middle-class, poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, International, etc.). College admissions officers for American colleges – especially selective institutions – often care quite a lot about their applicants’ demographics.
  5. Scattergrams don’t show incredibly important (again, in the eyes of college admissions officers) background information about past applicants’ beyond their demographics. Here we are talking about characteristics like an applicant’s legacy status (Did a past applicant’s mom or dad attend the same college?), athletic prowess (Was a past applicant a highly-sought athletic recruit?), and/or his or her parents’/grandparents’ proclivity for giving money to the college on the scattergram in question.
  6. Most high schools set their scattergrams to hide from current students/parents whether or not past applicants to the college in question applied Rolling Decision, Early Decision, Early Action, Priority Admission, and/or Regular Decision. That’s important information! This is because colleges that offer different admissions plans/deadlines often have very different standards for each such plan/deadline. You can also forget about a scattergram showing whether a past applicant applied for and/or was accepted to the college for fall, spring, or winter term (if such varied options exist at the college in question).
  7. Scattergrams don’t show the quality of past applicants’ teacher and counselor recommendation letters/evaluations.
  8. Scattergrams likely don’t account for whether or not past applicants submitted their ACT scores, SAT scores, both, or neither (in the case of test-optional colleges) to the colleges’ scattergrams on which they are plotted. This is a huge issue in a college admissions environment where there majority of colleges continue to be test-optional.
  9. Unless the scattergram’s GPA axis is a weighted GPA, the GPA axis is not capable of communicating to students and parents the past applicants’ curricular rigor.
  10. Scattergrams don’t show past applicants’ grade trends in high school (colleges care so much about this).
  11. Scattergrams show past applicants’ final GPAs in high school, not their GPAs when they applied to college (usually in the beginning of a student’s senior year). Senior slumps in the final months of past applicants’ senior years often slightly (and sometimes greatly) deflate their final GPAs relative to what their GPAs were in October of their senior years.
  12. Directors of college counseling (the leaders of college counseling offices) can be applicants’ best advocates or worst enemies depending on whether or not these directors have written a strong and compelling high school profile and done everything else they can do to encourage particular colleges to accept their students. Scattergrams don’t note when certain directors’ regimes began and ended; therefore, in a field where many directors of college counseling only stay in their roles for a few years before moving on, a five- or ten-year scattergram could be capturing admissions statistics for students applying from a particular high school under very different college counseling regimes. Some directors write bang-up high school profiles (which are sent to all colleges to which students apply in a particular admissions cycle) and some don’t. Sadly, at some schools, the high school profile is written and designed by the communications team and/or individuals in the admissions, advancement, development, head of school, principal, and or central office! The further removed from college counseling the writers of the high school profile are the more likely the profile will not provide college admissions officers the information they are looking for in a high school profile. Meanwhile, some directors of college counseling make calls for their students or their colleagues’ students, others simply don’t. Some are on a first-name basis with Ivy League admissions officers, some don’t know any. Some act as PR agents for their students, others are real in their recommendation letters, which leads to such letters carrying more weight with admissions officers than those that only share glowing reviews. Scattergrams lull students and parents into thinking (just like point #1 above) that each student plotted on the scattergram had the same college counseling team behind him or her and faced the same college admissions rates from year to year. The fact is, high schools change and colleges change, and as a result, scattergrams fail at capturing subtle or quite large subjective changes to students’ chances from year to year based on how high schools and colleges change.

In summary, so much of what colleges will ultimately base their admissions decisions on is NOT captured in scattergrams; therefore, don’t use them as the end all be all when it comes to determining whether a particular college on your list is a Safety, Possible, or Reach. Any college counselor, student, or parent who tells you otherwise has no idea what he or she is talking about.

I frequently get irate parents telling me that I am too pessimistic about their student’s chances at a particular college or university based on what the family sees on a particular college’s scattergram on Naviance, MaiaLearning, or Cialfo. I remind them that I often know the back story on each applicant on the scattergram and/or that there are at lease twelve reasons why the scattergram is only part of the story – especially at the country’s most selective colleges and universities. Sadly, this does not often calm the parents down, and as a result, a few parents hold months-long bouts of resentment towards me – usually until all admissions decisions are released in April, at which point reality sets in – for good or ill. With that said, I am happy when I have a student get into a college that I classified as a Reach that the parents and student thought I should have classified as a Possible or a Safety. It’s my job to help turn all colleges on a student’s list into offers of admission; yet, I need the student’s cooperation and effort if I can make this happen. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Scattergrams are trustworthier for colleges that primarily base their admissions decisions on applicants’ grades and scores only. Theses types of colleges were usually those that accepted over 50 of applicants and/or large state universities that asked for the perfunctory essay and extracurricular list but which didn’t have the actual manpower to review these subjective aspects of students’ applications. Such colleges simply defaulted to determining whether or not to accept a student based on his or her scores and grades. Yet, such colleges are increasingly rare because of the current trend of test-optional admissions that is sweeping the nation. Even in such cases where grades and test scores make of the majority of a college’s admissions decision, a student who is quite deficient or exceptionally strong in one or more of the twelve areas listed above could easily become an exception to the rule that the scattergram seems to convey.

Bottom line: strong college counselors always explain this important, complex, and as you can now see, somewhat time-consuming information to students and parents. Such college counselors tend to lean towards being more conservative with their Safety, Possible, and Reach classifications for colleges on their students’ lists than those college counselors who take a relatively two-dimensional approach (x,y axis, anyone?) to college acceptance/rejection prognostication. If you are a student or parent going through the college application process now or in the future, please remember to be skeptical of scattergrams. Though they have valuable data on them, scattergrams only capture some objective data, and they certainly don’t capture the subjective strengths or weaknesses of past college applicants or their college applications.

Rolling Admission vs. Regular Decision

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When deciding how to apply to a particular college, many students look for that college’s final application deadline, and then, working backwards in their minds, such students decide that they simply need to get all of their application materials into that college by that application deadline date. What such students fail to realize is that many (but not all) colleges that have such Regular Decision application deadlines also review applications and make admissions decisions on an ongoing basis well before their application deadlines.

Don’t be Regular if you can help it! What I mean by that statement is this: while many colleges have Regular Decision application deadlines (usually in January through March) many of these same colleges will review applications and make decisions on such applications well before their drop-dead deadlines (in most cases Regular Decision deadlines, but in other cases these are known as simply “Application Deadlines” at colleges where the deadlines extend very late – approximately late spring through summer). Don’t treat such colleges as Regular Decision for your purposes. Treat them as Rolling!

When you apply Regular Decision you are applying by the college’s Regular deadline. Students can apply to more than one college Regular Decision. Regular Decision admissions decisions tend to be received by students between March and April. When a college is Rolling Admissions, it reviews applications on an ongoing basis and accepts students on a space available basis. Students can apply to more than one college Rolling Admissions as well.

Yet, many of the same colleges that will let you throw in an application by a Regular deadline also review applications by either an earlier Priority or Early (Action or Decision) deadline OR are simply Rolling Admissions colleges.

Of course you would want to apply to a college that offers both Priority and Regular deadlines by the Priority deadline! After all, what’s the definition of priority?! Early Decision can come with major pros and cons. Early Action is generally a good idea for students to consider as well.

But in the case of colleges that offer Rolling Admissions – again, when a college reviews applications as they are received and makes decisions on an on-going basis – it is always best to apply to any such college as soon as you have decided on applying to that college. Some Rolling Admissions colleges don’t have any application deadlines, but a good number of Rolling Admissions colleges do have firm deadlines. Which means they are both Regular Decision and Rolling Admissions colleges. In such a scenario, you want to get your application in ASAP.

Some examples include Indiana University (which has a Regular deadline of February 1, but starts rolling out admissions decisions as early as September; it should also be noted that IU has an EA deadline of November 1), University of Arizona (Regular deadline is February 14, but I regularly have students who have gotten into Arizona by mid-September of their senior years), and Penn State University (which has a Regular deadline of November 30, but also is famous for rolling out decisions in tranche after tranche starting in November; like IU, Penn State also has an EA deadline these days of November 1). Many private colleges also roll out their decisions starting in either the fall or early winter.

The bottom line is this: always work your hardest to determine as early as possible whether colleges on your list review applications on a Rolling basis and make admissions decisions on a space available basis – even if these colleges have firm Regular Decision application deadlines. Colleges that do this are often objectively easier to get into the earlier in the admissions cycle that you can apply. So apply as early as possible if you can put together a strong application early in the fall. Other than Instant Admissions, my favorite way for students to apply to college is Rolling Admissions, and now you can see why. It’s a great feeling knowing you have gotten into one or more colleges by Thanksgiving of your senior year in high school without having to commit to attending such colleges until much later in your senior year (usually by May 1).

So, embrace the superficial contradiction and celebrate colleges that are both Regular Decision and Rolling Admissions because in so doing you will always treat such colleges as Rolling at heart.

You CAN apply Restrictive Early Action and Early Action under the right conditions

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Restrictive Early Action and Single-Choice Early Action policies used by hyper-selective colleges such as Stanford, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton aren’t as restrictive as you may think. These colleges still allow you to apply to two classes of colleges at the same time as applying REA or S-CEA. There is no reason why you can’t receive admissions decisions from multiple colleges by no later than January of your senior year in high school. Don’t use REA or S-CEA as an excuse to apply to most colleges Regular Decision.

Oh, Canada! The Definitive List of Canadian University Application Deadlines

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Looking to go to college north of the border? First, don’t call it college; call it university. Second, be prepared to work with an entirely different set of application deadlines than you have when applying to American colleges. Third, realize that your citizenship will likely influence what your deadline for applying will be. Fourth, it’s always a better idea to get the application completed and ready for review ASAP; don’t wait for the deadline. Fifth, the below chart is updated in early 2019 for students aiming for a September 2019 start date. Sixth, realize that certain niche programs at universities listed below may have other deadlines than those listed; make sure to double check with the school/program before moving forward. Seventh, good luck as you set your sights on studying in Canada!

Canadian University Deadline for In-Province High School Students Deadline for International Applicants Deadline for Other Applicants
Acadia Rolling Rolling Rolling
Alberta 1-Mar 1-Mar 1-Mar
Bishop’s 1-Apr 1-Apr 1-May
Brandon 15-Aug 1-Apr 15-Aug
Brock 1-Jun 1-Apr 1-Aug
Calgary 1-Mar 1-Mar 1-Mar
Cape Breton 1-Aug 1-Aug 1-Aug
Carleton 16-Jan 1-Apr 1-Jun
Concordia 1-Mar 1-Feb 1-Mar
Dalhousie 1-Jun 1-Apr 1-Jun
Guelph 16-Jan 15-Feb 1-Mar
Lakehead 16-Jan 1-Mar 1-Mar
Laurentian 16-Jan 1-Feb 1-Feb
Laval 1-Mar 1-Mar 15-Aug
Lethbridge 30-Jun 15-May 30-Jun
Manitoba 1-Aug 7-Jul 7-Jul
McGill 1-Mar 15-Jan 1-Feb
McMaster 1-Feb 1-Feb 1-Feb
Memorial 1-Mar 1-Jun 1-Mar
Moncton 1-Aug 15-Jun 1-Aug
Montreal 1-Mar 1-Feb 1-Feb
Mount Allison Rolling Rolling Rolling
Mount Saint Vincent 9-Aug 21-Jun 9-Aug
New Brunswick 31-Mar 31-Mar 31-Mar
Nipissing 16-Jan 1-Apr 1-Apr
Ottawa 1-Jun 1-Apr 1-Jun
Queen’s 1-Feb 1-Feb 1-Feb
Regina 15-Mar 1-Mar 15-Mar
Ryerson 1-Feb 1-Feb 1-Feb
Saint Mary’s Rolling Rolling Rolling
Saskatchewan 1-May 1-May 1-May
Sherbrooke 1-Mar 15-Jan 1-Mar
Simon Fraser 31-Jan 31-Jan 31-Jan
St Francis Xavier Rolling 30-May Rolling
St Thomas 31-Aug 1-Jun 31-Aug
Toronto 16-Jan 16-Jan 16-Jan
Trent 16-Jan 1-Jun 15-Feb
UBC 15-Jan 15-Jan 15-Jan
UNBC 1-Mar 1-Mar 1-Mar
UOIT 16-Jan 31-Jan 31-Jan
UPEI Rolling Rolling Rolling
UQAM 1-Mar 1-Mar 1-Mar
Victoria 28-Feb 30-Apr 30-Apr
Waterloo 16-Jan 29-Mar 29-Mar
Western 16-Jan Rolling Rolling
Wilfrid Laurier 16-Jan 1-Apr 1-Apr
Windsor 16-Jan 1-Mar 1-Aug
Winnipeg 1-Mar 1-Mar 2-Jul
York 16-Jan 6-Mar 6-Mar

UNC and a tale of one – make that four – acceptance rates

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June 7, 2020 Update: Do you want to learn how to get into University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill? Watch this in-depth video.

March 22, 2018 Update: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, Stephen Farmer, informed high school counselors that his institution received more than 43,000 applications during the 2017-2018 admissions cycle – another record and a six percent increase from last year.

“We’re grateful to every student who honored us by applying, and we’ve enjoyed getting to know them over the course of the last five months. At the same time, this increased interest has made our decisions especially difficult. With more applications, a class no larger than last year’s, and yields that we expect to remain healthy, we will reluctantly need to decline the applications of many students who would have received better news from us a year ago.” wrote Farmer.

Previously: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released its Early Action decisions on Friday, January 26, 2018; therefore, now is as good of a time as any to remind our readers that UNC at Chapel Hill doesn’t have one annual acceptance rate – the one that is published in popular college guides and online data sites such as CollegeBoard.org. In fact, UNC at Chapel Hill has a grand total of four annual acceptance rates for first-year applicants. Understanding this reality will put your recent acceptance or rejection or your future acceptance or rejection in proper perspective.

First, what the student on the street would say about UNC at Chapel Hill acceptance rates: “I will just go on Naviance Family Connection or College Board’s Big Future to figure out my chance of getting into UNC at Chapel Hill…Oh look, Naviance Family Connection says the university’s acceptance rate is 28%. College Board’s Big Future says UNC at Chapel Hill’s acceptance rate is 27%. That’s a bit odd. La di da di da…Let me compulsively check Snapchat…”

But as a reader of admissions.blog you are not going to be the student on the street. You are going think multi-demsionally and realize that University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill actually has multiple acceptance rates EACH admissions cycle, four of which are extremely important to know in order to properly place the university into either the safety, possible, or reach section of your college list.

For first-year applicants, UNC at Chapel Hill offers both Early Action and Regular Decision consideration each admissions cycle; yet, the university has quite different standards for students applying from North Carolina versus students applying from outside of North Carolina. Thus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill actually has four distinct acceptance rates each admissions cycle:

1. Early Action (North Carolina Residents)
2.Early Action (Out-of-State Residents)
3.Regular Decision (North Carolina Residents)
4.Regular Decision (Out of State Applicants)

We are only half-way there so far this admissions cycle, so we only have the two EA acceptance rates (reportedly 48 percent for EA North Carolina Residents and 18 Percent EA Out-of-State Residents).  Those two numbers tell us quite a bit, as it’s clear that UNC is statistically far more difficult for out-of-state residents to get in than it is for in-state residents. That trend will continue Regular Decision even as the exact acceptance rates for Regular Decision will differ from those EA. At the very least, please note that the 28% and 27% acceptance rates mentioned above for UNC that are reported on two of the most trusted online college websites are averages of the four distinct acceptance rates that UNC has each year. Long story short, right about now, with EA decisions sinking in, North Carolina residents are not nearly as impressive as they feel and non-North Carolina residents are not nearly as unimpressive as they feel.

While Naviance Family Connection and College Board’s Big Future don’t even try to explain to visitors the differences in first-year applicant acceptance rates between in-state and out-of-state applicants to UNC at Chapel Hill, we are thankful that UNC at Chapel Hill itself at least shares on its website that the overall first-year application acceptance rates for in-state and out-of-state residents differs quite dramatically.

We are big fans of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill here at admissions.blog, but we would appreciate if in the future the university could err on the side of even greater transparency by also reporting its bifurcated acceptance rates by admissions plan so that prospective students, their parents, and those who advise them are able to make more accurate assessments of students’ chances of admission in the years ahead. Until that happens, though, do note that UNC is slightly harder to get into for both North Carolina residents and out-of-state residents Regular decision than it is Early Action. So, if you didn’t get an admissions decision EA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this January, buckle up for Regular Decision later this spring, which is sure to bring acceptance rates of lower than 48% for North Carolina residents and lower than 18% for out-of-state students. Good luck.

30 Summer STEM Camps for High School Freshmen

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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

Making the most of the summer before senior year

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For college-bound high school students, the months between junior and senior years are crucial for jump starting the application process.

It’s also a great time for discovering new interests, adding to your resume, and otherwise positioning yourself for beginning the ultimate transition from high school senior to college freshman.

The first day of the last year of high school will be here before you know it. But in the meantime, here are some ways you can make the most of the summer before senior year:

Work. Options range from scooping ice cream at the shore to organizing a book drive, conducting research, interning on Capitol Hill or hammering nails for Habitat for Humanity. By the time you’ve completed junior year of high school, you should be old enough and responsible enough to work—full or part time, paid or unpaid. Work builds character, introduces career options, teaches skills, and expands your network in important ways. Don’t miss the opportunity to add to your resume while learning something about yourself and others.

Visit Colleges. Campus tours don’t stop just because undergrads are off doing other things. Now is the time to check out the last few colleges on your list and refine your ideas of how location, size or architecture affects your thinking about a particular campus. And by the way, the summer is a great time for having more relaxed conversations with admissions staff, coaches, or professors in departments you may be targeting.

Nail Down the List. Take a deep breath and begin eliminating schools that don’t really appeal or offer what you want. Zero-in on places representing the best fit—academically, socially, and financially—and begin committing to a realistic list of schools to which you intend to apply.

Demonstrate Interest. Beyond visiting campuses, engage in a systematic demonstrated interest campaign. Be proactive by getting on mailing lists, requesting information, initiating correspondence, getting to know regional representatives and attending local events. In addition to showing your favorite schools a little love, you might just learn something important about campus culture or new initiatives colleges want to introduce to prospective applicants.

Get Organized. There are a zillion moving parts to the college admissions process. Get a handle on them by creating a spreadsheet of colleges on your list and noting deadlines, requirements (recommendations, test score submission, interviews), important admissions policies (non-binding early action vs. binding early decision), and application quirks (supplements, scholarships, honors programs/colleges). Also, make note of which colleges use the Common Application, the Universal College Application (UCA), the Coalition Application or other school-based forms.

Prepare your Resume. If you don’t have one already, put together a resume or a detailed written list of accomplishments and activities. Turn it into a PDF for sharing with others or uploading with applications. Explore online resume templates, such as ZeeMee or Linked In. If you know colleges on your list partner with ZeeMee, consider creating a private account before the end of the summer

Do the Clerical Part. There’s no reason not to complete the simple stuff early in the summer by opening applications and entering basic information. All three major platforms are capable of rolling information from one year to the next and encourage the completion of questions that are unlikely to change. So do it. The Coalition and the UCA are set up so that colleges can launch as early as July 1. The Common Application will be ready to go on August 1. Other applications and supplements will appear on websites as the summer progresses. If you start shared elements of your applications, you will be one step ahead.

Draft Essays. Now is the time to begin brainstorming and drafting essays. Explore a variety of topics and don’t be afraid to change direction or discard work that’s going nowhere. This is the advantage of writing and reflecting during summer months before the pressures of senior year cut into Zen time. While essay prompts for personal statements have been posted for months, college-specific supplements and essays will roll out over the course of the summer. Keep checking websites and make note of prompts as they appear. And then start writing!

Prep for Standardized Tests. You’ve probably taken the ACT and/or the SAT at least once. If you didn’t knock the ball out of the park the first time (and most don’t), plan to prep for a retake. SAT now offers an August test, in addition to October. ACT has a test in September and in 2018 will have one in July. For the most part, scores from these tests will be returned in time for you to make the earliest of early deadlines. Get a tutor, sign-up for classes or simply sit at the kitchen table and take timed practice tests.

Research and Apply for Scholarships. The scholarship hunt should begin now—not after all your college applications have been submitted. A surprising number of scholarships have applications due early in the school year and use essay prompts similar to those you’re working on for colleges. Use FastWeb or Cappex to get an overview of what’s out there. And while you’re at it, explore FAFSA4caster with your parents for a little reality testing and apply early for that all-important Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID. FAFSA goes live on October 1, but there’s nothing to be gained by waiting until then to sign-up for the FSA ID.

Secure Recommendations. If you haven’t done so already, try to get in touch with at least two core academic teachers from junior year to ask for college recommendations. You may or may not need both, but it’s always a good idea to have two teachers willing to support you. Don’t delay—teachers may limit the number of recommendations they’re willing to write or they may want to get started before school begins. And be sure to provide recommenders with whatever background information they request—at a minimum, a resume and cover note reinforcing your appreciation and why you asked them to play this important role in your application process.

Schedule Interviews. Many colleges offer on-campus interviews during the summer. You want to be able to check these requirements off your list sooner rather than later. Colleges make it easy to combine interviews with campus tours, but you have to schedule early to get days and times that work for you.

Position Yourself for Fall Classes. Be aware that senior year courses and grades can be very important in admissions decisions. Colleges want to see upward trends in grades, and they care very much that you continue to challenge yourself academically. Obtain texts for any challenging or AP/IB classes and “study forward” during the summer. If necessary, give your tutor a call and go over the first few chapters of material you know will keep you up late at night come September.

Read, Relax, Enjoy Yourself and Connect with Friends.  A year from now, you’ll be packing your bags!

Top 5 Ways Applying to US Colleges is Different than Applying to UK Universities

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While we have previously discussed some of the biggest differences between the undergraduate student experiences in the United States and United Kingdom, today we are going to elaborate on the top five major differences between applying to colleges and universities in the United States and applying to universities in the United Kingdom.

5. Focus on Course, Not College/University Rankings

Students and parents applying for American colleges and universities are obsessed with particular college names and perceived prestige. College and university rankings proliferate. Some students and parents are smart enough to focus in on niche rankings such as best undergraduate engineering programs or undergraduate business programs; yet, most are intent to focus on only overall college and university rankings.

When building your UK uni list, it’s imperative that you focus not on overall university rankings as much as on course rankings. Courses are what they call majors in the UK, and course rankings are where it’s at when it comes to determining best fits for you. Why? Unlike the the undergraduate experience in the US, which most often demands students take required general education and distribution courses in addition to those in a student’s major in order to graduate, in the UK, students dive headfirst into their courses (majors) and never look back. Most UK undergrads won’t take any classes in subjects beyond their courses; thus, you must ensure that the course you study for three years (undergrad is only a three-year experience in England) or four years (Scotland still goes four years and is a big reason undergrad is four years in the US) is one of the highest quality and best fit for you, as your educational experience at that university will be synonymous with your educational experience in that course.

To find course rankings, you must search for “league tables” or “subject tables.” Some of the best are the Guardian‘s league tables, The Times‘ subject tables, and the Complete University Guide‘s university league tables.

4. If an IB Diploma Student, Forget about SAT and ACT; if an AP Student, AP Test Scores, ACT Scores, and SAT Scores Really Matter

IB Predicted Scores are your silver bullet! If respectable (36+) to great (40+) they will save you from having to ever think about taking those pesky American standardized tests known as the SAT or ACT. Yet, in reality, if you are hedging your bets and also applying to colleges in America at the same time as you are applying to colleges in the UK, you probably won’t be skipping the SAT or ACT all together. If you do take those two tests and/or SAT Subject Tests, and do well on them, by all means report your scores to UK universities, but do realize that as an IB Diploma candidate, you really don’t need to. It is highly recommended you spend as much time earning strong IB predicted scores by no later than October of your final year in high school in order to most impress UK admissions committee about your academic wherewithal. Beyond reporting grades on your official high school transcript, the only other academic numbers UK universities will want to see from you before they make a decision on your application will be your IB predicted scores (both individually and in total).

If, on the other hand, you are in AP courses, you really do need to run the table on testing: you need to not only take a good number of AP courses in order to be a competitive candidate for top UK undergraduate programs, you also need to be able to present to the UK universities strong scores on AP tests and the ACT or SAT (and for top programs/universities, scores from the SAT Subject Tests).

If you have not taken any AP courses, your only chance of getting into to top UK undergraduate programs is if you are capable of taking and doing very well on the SAT or ACT and SAT Subject Tests and/or AP tests. This is not an easy task if you are not in a very rigorous high school curriculum.

3. UCAS Application Limits You to Only 5 Universities

The American higher education industry – and yes, it is absolutely an industry – encourages students and families to shell out hundreds of dollars applying to an obscene number of colleges. Students applying to America’s most selective colleges and universities are now routinely applying to no fewer than nine colleges, and many students are applying to fifteen or more. This is madness if for no other reason than there is no way that a student applying to fifteen colleges is going to have much idea why college four is so much different or better than college twelve on the list. It’s ironic, then, that many of nine or more colleges a strong student will apply to will ask questions like, “why do you want to come to our college?” on their applications when most students don’t have the time or ability properly answer that question, as they are serial appliers.

The relatively new American custom of applying to so many colleges is propagated by the colleges themselves in a transparent attempt to drive up application numbers in order to drive down acceptance rates and thus look more selective than they really are. The Common App, which is notorious for collecting millions of dollars and then blowing it quickly and wastefully, “limits” the number of colleges a student can apply to using its site to a ridiculous twenty! Yet, even that limit can be exceeded by industrious and neurotic students who find a way to apply to more Common App schools if they try hard enough. This is not even counting the number of colleges one can apply to beyond those colleges that are members of the Common App. The sky’s the limit and this creates an application arms race that all American college admissions officers will tell you to your face is just dreadful but their enrollment management overlords celebrate all the way to the bank!

Compare that mess to the relative tranquility of applying to universities in the UK, which has the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), an independent charity funded by advertising and fees charged to applicants and to universities, to thank for preventing such an application arms race from occurring in the UK. The UCAS doesn’t allow prospective student to apply to any more than five (yes glorious 5!) universities in any given year-long admissions cycle.

As an added stake in the heart of those students and families obsessed with prestige of practicality, UCAS also does not allow any applicant to apply to both Oxbridge and Cambridge in the same year. This is the equivalent of the Common App declaring that no applicant can apply to Yale and Harvard in the same year. Not going to happen in the money-drenched US higher education industry. Imagine the cries of horror from the Upper West Side to Studio City if such a policy made it across the Atlantic. Don’t hold your breath.

Thus, applying to UK universities is for those who have limits, self-control, and enough self-possession and focus to actually research which five UK universities would be the best fit for their interests and goals. Applying to US colleges is for gluttons for punishment.

2. Your Teacher/Counselor Has to Write a Different Type of Recommendation (a.k.a a Reference) 

While the standard advice we give to students applying to US colleges is to pick to write your teacher recommendations two teachers who love you as people and as students – teachers who will be willing to share anecdotes about your character and influence on the community in their letters of recommendation – such advice is not applicable for the type of recommendation letters you should procure for your UK application.

UK universities are all about collecting objective information (this is a theme that shines particularly bright when it comes to point #1 below), and as a result, UK unis don’t want a teacher recommendation that reads like a love letter! In fact, below are the exact areas of focus UCAS asks recommendation, or using British terminology, reference writers to focus on:

  • A student’s post-16 academic performance and their potential for success in higher education.
  • Why they’re suited to their chosen subject and career path, plus their attitude, motivation and commitment.
  • Skills and qualities like aptitude and enthusiasm, plus current or past achievements that will help with their chosen subject area.
  • Achievements, work experience, and extracurricular activities that relate to their chosen course(s).
  • Any commitments (like January AS assessments) that might prevent interview attendance on a particular day.
  • Any factors/personal circumstances that might affect their performance (consent must be gained first to mention health or disabilities).
  • Avoid repeating any of the information they’ve given in their application, unless you want to comment on it, and avoid mentioning any particular university or college.

As a result, make sure that if you are a student applying to both UK and US universities during the same admissions cycle that you discuss with your counselor and teacher referees/recommenders how their reference letter for the UK must be more focused on accomplishments, attitude, and academic potential and their recommendation letters/teacher evaluations for the US must be more focused on story-telling, emotion, and intangibles.

Final word on this topic: by UK law anything a teacher or counselor writes in their recommendations will be accessible to the student if the student seeks it out in the future. FERPA waivers end at the US border, so there is no truly confidential UK letter of reference.

1.  Your Personal Statement Must be Direct and Goal-Focused

What is your favorite word and why? What would you do with a million dollars? What is one thing your future roommate should know about you? What is one community you are a part of and why do you find this important? Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea; what prompted you to act, and would you make the same decision again?

The six questions above are just a sample of the crude psychoanalytical nonsense that US colleges conjure up when developing college application essay questions/prompts. The last one was one of the five options to choose from on the much-used Common Application, which has hundreds of colleges as exclusive members and over 700 college members total, most of which are American colleges and universities. If you are applying to highly selective colleges and universities in the United States you are going to have to answer questions like those asked above.

You thought you were applying to study business or biology and your scholastic merit would determine whether or not you were admitted? Ha! Foolish you! You in fact are applying to an institution that is focused on one thing above all else: your identity! Social engineering is a tame description for what is going on in most American college admissions offices these days; however, the powers that be in higher education call such a focus on identity in college applications “a useful tool to enroll diverse classes capable of demonstrating our commitment to inclusivity.”

As America’s colleges are all about creating “diversity” in their student populations, one tool they use to build an entering class full of “diverse” students is an essay prompt that compels students to share back stories that provide information that the colleges are either unable or unwilling (because of discrimination laws) to ask for directly elsewhere in their applications. You thought college application essays were a way to assess a student’s writing? Nope. If colleges actually wanted an unadulterated view of a student’s actual writing, they would require students to submit their ACT Writing section or SAT Essay section scores. Yet, more and more colleges are doing just the opposite by declaring they don’t want to see such scores.

College application essays are a wonderful way to gather a lot of subjective information about a student and his or her background and not be called out for socio-demographic bias while doing so! As such, the typically successful American college application essay must combine at least a sprinkling of virtue signaling in just the right proportion relative to wearing your heart on your sleeve and doing so in an eloquent enough manner all while ensuring you have a thesis, body, and conclusion and don’t go over 650 words!

If you find that which is described above unsettling, we recommend you seriously consider applying to universities in the UK. Why? In the UK, applying to college is even more streamlined than it is in the United States, and the big player in the application market, as mentioned above, is the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), a UK-based organization that operates the application process for British universities.

The great news is that the personal statement on the UCAS has a focus that is refreshingly pertinent to your actual reason for applying in the first place: your interest in and goals for your course of study. Specifically, students should answer in 4,000 characters or fewer the following questions (taken directly from the UCAS site preparing you to write your personal statement):

Why are you applying for your chosen course(s)? Why does this subject interest you? Why do you think you’re suitable for the course(s)? Do your current or previous studies relate to the course(s) that you have chosen? Have you taken part in any other activities that demonstrate your interest in the course(s)?

So, basically, you are writing about why you are applying – your ambitions and what interests you about the subject, course providers, and higher education and what makes you suitable – any relevant skills, experience or achievements gained from education, work or other activities. For international students it is also recommend that your personal statement touch on why you want to study in the UK and why you want to be an international student rather than study in your own country.

Unlike the common application experience (and especially the Common Application experience) for students applying to US colleges for which you need to be emotive, reflective, personal, and focused on illustrating personal growth usually by throwing out identity-landen examples of adversity you’ve overcome, on the UCAS you are directly addressing your interest in and reason for pursuing a course of study.

Final words of wisdom

Research, research, research. Education UK is a wonderful place to start (it’s like College Board’s Big Future or Naviance’s College Search function but tailored specifically to schools in the UK). Then, always visit specific university websites for the latest information on deadlines, programming, and policies. Finally, if you can visit universities in the UK before applying, that is a great idea because you want to be sure studying in a foreign land is in fact the right choice for you and even though it may seem great in theory, seeing life in the UK up close may change your perspective greatly.