Weigh Benefits, Drawbacks of Following Friends to College

While old friends can be a comfort at college, experts say students should make new connections.

The right school for one student may not be the right school for their best friend.

It's bound to happen sometime or another, either during the final talent show, or the senior prom, or while you're scribbling inside jokes into your last high school yearbook.

There comes a moment – full of joy or tinged with sorrow – where you look up at your closest high schoolbuddies and wonder, "Will we still be friends in five years?"

Making the transition from high school to college can be an exhilarating, and sometimes daunting, rite of passage. While some students decide to part ways with their pals in search of new experiences, others value the comfort of embarking on the journey with their closest friends.

Whether it's wise to factor high school friends into the college decision-making process depends on the kind of person you are, experts say.

Before students plan their escape across the country or vow to attend the same college as their BFF, experts suggest they do a bit of soul-searching to determine what they want most out of the college experience.

"It's really important for students to know that even though there are a lot of great schools out there, what is right for their friend might not be right for them," says Grace Chapin, assistant director of admissions at the University of Chicago.

"I'm always talking about this idea of 'fit.' Students should ask, 'Is this going to be a good community for me?' That is really important and it can sometimes get lost with students who are saying, 'My friend goes here.'"

Caroline Kim, a college freshman from California, had to face the fit-versus-friend dilemma as she decided where to head off to school.

She and her best friend daydreamed about attending the same university. When her friend chose Williams College, Kim, who was also accepted, had a decision to make: follow her friend's footsteps or go to the University of Pennsylvania, which was a bit out of her comfort zone, but a better outlet for her volunteer work.

"I chose Penn because I thought it would be the place where I could grow the most," she says. "I'm still trying to find my family here. I'm getting involved in activities. It's a process, but it's the process that I wanted."

Jennifer L. Tanner, a developmental psychologist and cofounder of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, believes that if students have any inkling that they want to go off to school alone, they should follow Kim's lead and take the risk. Students with strong high school friendships shouldn't worry, she says – if they want to, they will maintain the relationships that matter.

"Going away to college is the one opportunity to invest in yourself," says Tanner. "It is the one time in your life where you have the opportunity to go and think, 'Who do I want to become? What kinds of friends do I want to have?' College is as much about that as it is about preparing for your career – if not more."

Not all experts believe it's wise for students to head off to college without a social safety net, however.

"If you send a kid to college without connections, it's a high stress event," says Robert J. Hedaya, founder of the National Center for Whole Psychiatry, who has written about the teenage brain.

"You are taking them out of their social system, their family system, all of the familiar things that root them in life. Then you take them to a foreign environment and give them a heavy course load and new social relationships. Then sprinkle some drugs and alcohol and expect them to do well. It's very difficult."

Hunter Dobson, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Texas—San Antonio, says he knows firsthand how comforting it can be to have a friend on campus.

Dobson, originally from Austin, said he made his college choice with no regard to what friends would be joining him. But when he learned one of his childhood friends was also going to UT—San Antonio, he was relieved.

"I'm really glad he's here," he says. "It's not that I have a problem taking to people, it just makes everything a lot easier. The first two weeks you don't really know anyone. And we have a lot in common, so we made the same friends."

Students who choose a school based on their social network are in good company, experts say.

Barb Kefalas, associate director of residence life for Ohio State University—Columbus, says it's fairly common for students to choose a school based on the friends attending.

That's neither a good thing nor a bad thing, she says

"I think there is merit in that, especially if this is your first time away from home or if you don't have much world experience. It can be beneficial as long as you go beyond that one person. It's really important to form other relationships with faculty and staff and other students – it will benefit you in the long run."

Letters of Recommendation: The Real Icing on Your College Admissions Cake

Almost every private college and university -- and these days, some public schools as well -- requires at least one recommendation letter as a part of their college admissions packet. If you take a look at the list of their freshman applicant requirements, you will find one or more of the following:

• School Report Form: Your high school college counselor is the person who usually completes this report, which often contains a written evaluation. Occasionally a non-counselor school official, such as a headmaster, principal, vice-principal, or upper school director, will fill it out for you.
• Teacher Evaluation/Recommendation Form: Colleges will usually stipulate whether they want one or two teacher evaluations submitted.
• Optional/Other Recommendation Form: Sometimes colleges will accept recommendations from people other than teachers, such as a mentor, coach, arts teacher, employer/supervisor, minister/rabbi, or someone who knows you through a volunteer or extracurricular activity.
• Peer Evaluation/Recommendation Form: A few schools, such as Dartmouth College, ask students to have a fellow student complete a Peer Recommendation Form

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Many colleges require recommendation forms, but some don't want them at all. For example, the University of California application states, "You should not submit letters of recommendation for the UC application." More than 500 colleges and universities make use of the Common Application, which offers the following forms: School Report (SR), Teacher Evaluation (TE) and Other Evaluation (OE) forms.

Bottom Line

While colleges will not be happy to have you brag about yourself on your applications, it is absolutely appropriate, if not essential, for recommenders to sing your praises as enthusiastically and with as much detail as they can.

What if you're not a straight-A student? Think of teachers with whom you've had a good relationship, who can speak to your work ethic, and more importantly to your trajectory of improvement. If a teacher can honestly say in a letter that they've seen you grow from a struggling C-student to a consistent B student over the course of the year, that's good stuff! If as a freshman or sophomore you struggled in classes, yet found ways to connect with teachers to get extra help, admissions officers want to know. Colleges would love to hear that you were committed enough to work with a teacher during lunch or free periods three to four times a week in order to understand content and bring your grades up.

Helping Your Counselor and Teachers do a Good Job for You

All school counselors and teachers, particularly those who work in public high schools, are overwhelmed by all that they must do. Therefore, one of your jobs is to make their job of writing your recommendation easier. You have nothing to lose by doing this, and everything to win. Some of the ways that you make the counselor's job easier is by:

• Being organized and neat
• Providing the recommender with useful, detailed, up-to-date materials
• Getting everything to him/her early, and certainly on time
• Appreciating whatever is done

adMISSION Possible Tip

Because hand-written materials can be difficult to read, all information that goes to the counselor and teachers should be in typed form.

Here is a list of information and materials you might want to give the counselor, teachers and other recommenders. Frankly, by being proactive, helpful, and providing useful, organized materials, you will enhance your chances of receiving a very good recommendation.

1. High School Counseling Office Questionnaire

Some high school counseling offices ask students and/or their parents to complete college admissions questionnaires. Do it and be sure to provide plenty of details. Counselors and teachers often take information straight off of these forms and put it in their report/letter.

2. Up-to-date Activities Resume

Nothing provides recommenders with more information about who you are and what you have done than a detailed, totally up-to-date activities resume.

3. A College List

It's very important that you provide an up-to-date college list that is organized by the dates when the different applications are due. On this list, be sure to note if you are applying early (EA, EAII, ED, EDII, REA or Rolling Admissions) to any college. One way of helping the recommenders is providing specific reasons why you are interested in each college.

4. The recommendation forms

Most colleges offer their forms online now; make sure that you type in the names of your school recommenders in the correct space. Some counselors and teachers prefer to use hard-copy forms. If that's the case, then fill out the top portion of each form and give it to the recommender. If the counselor and/or teachers don't want to use the online forms, then provide them pre-stamped, college-addressed envelopes to send each recommendation.

5. Copies of your college application and/or essays

Some counselors and teachers want to see students' applications and essays.

6. Any other information that will be helpful

If you have letters that laud your accomplishments or work; an art or music portfolio; or materials that describe your special interests and/or projects outside of school, provide recommenders with a neat, organized package of what you have. Find out what your recommenders would like from you.

7. Parent information

Depending on whether a recommender is open to parents doing this, provide him/her with useful information, such as a list of positive, descriptive adjectives that your parents have pulled together to help colleges "get" who you are: personal stories, brief descriptions of obstacles or significant family events that have impacted you, or interesting/useful family background details.

8. Cover sheet

A cover sheet should identify what you have given to a recommender. Not only is it useful to let recommenders know what you have provided them, but proof of your having given them the material. You never know when that might come in handy.

Finally, make photocopies of everything you give to your recommenders. And don't forget to thank your counselor, teachers and others for whatever they do for you.

Yale Admissions Dean: Dos, Don'ts Of Getting Into Ivy League

With the new school year comes the frenzy of another admissions season, as students rabidly compete to get into the nation's top schools.

As the admissions dean at Yale Law School, I love getting the dirt on how much money people spend to game the system. Lacy Crawford, a longtime "admissions tutor" whose new novel is based on her experiences helping the children of the wealthiest families get into college, charged $7,500 for help writing the college essay, a modest fee compared to the $40,000 parents pay to Michelle Hernandez, "America's premier college consultant," for guiding a child from ninth grade to Ivy League admission.

I'm not sure what's more shocking: the price tag for these services or the fact that they're in demand. But while it's tempting to heap blame on these admissions consultants or the tiger parents who hire them, some of the responsibility for creating such an atmosphere lies with the admissions officers themselves.

The admissions process at elite schools has long been shrouded in mystery. Before the electronic age, the admissions black hole made sense — admissions officers had no real way of communicating with students, apart from generic paper application materials.
But in an age of instantaneous information, the black box is anachronistic and counterproductive. Students know immediately, through Facebook and online discussion forums, when and where their peers have been accepted. They share essays at the click of a mouse and two minutes later feel that their own versions fall short. They believe everyone else is on an inside track that they don't know about, or has some critical piece of confidential information that they need.

It's no surprise that so-called admissions consultants — who often have no actual knowledge of the admissions process at any school and whose only "credential" is that they happened to attend an elite school themselves — are willing to fill this void and make a buck doing it.
Admissions officers can provide real insider tips and level the playing field for the people who most need it. First, we can require students to disclose whether they received any assistance in preparing their applications. You might think that students would just lie, but applicants' neuroses about jeopardizing their chances of admissions are as effective as sodium pentothal: In the six years I've been asking this question on my school's application, I've received confessionals detailing everything from proofreading help from Uncle Bob to writing assistance provided by fellow students, college counselors and consultants.

And if they do lie? Well, I don't want to give away my methods and sources, but the Internet is quite helpful when it comes to verifying applicant information. (It helps that I'm also a former FBI agent.)

Getting outside help isn't automatic grounds for rejection (unless the student lies about it), just as not getting help isn't an automatic in. But knowing the kind of assistance an applicant received provides an additional data point about that person and context for weighing other parts of an application, like a recommender's assessment of the applicant's writing ability, or how well the student performed in writing-intensive courses. (Fortunately for me, the LSAT includes a timed writing sample, so in cases of serious doubt I can compare the essay to the writing sample.) In the end, asking students to be candid about what went into their application lets me compare apples to apples, which in my job is the only way to accurately pick the best students.

Next thing admissions officers can do: With so many free and public interactive platforms, like blogs and Twitter, we should offer a peek into what we're really looking for. Most admissions officials would scoff at this idea, saying that admissions is so holistic that there's no specific advice to give applicants other than to just "be themselves." I sympathize with not being able to offer detailed advice, since admissions at elite schools is typically highly subjective and case-specific. But even if most of us can't give applicants a checklist on what to do, we surely have advice on what not to do. As I tell applicants on my admissions blog, the admissions process is a lot like playing blackjack: There's plenty of luck involved, and the odds are on the house, but there are a few rules you can follow to increase your chances.

For example, make sure your application is entirely, 100 percent free of typos, grammatical errors, and incorrect punctuation. (You think this is obvious? Then you haven't spent much time reading personal essays.) Remember that "standing out" is admissions code for "crazy": Don't write your essay on cringe-worthy topics like naked yoga (true story), or in "clever" formats like rap and iambic pentameter. And don't stalk me or the admissions office; don't send food, gifts or money.

That's the basic stuff, but I've offered more specific guidance on my blog based on my experience reading almost 25,000 admissions files. For instance, "I Love to Argue" is not a particularly sophisticated (or original) theme for an essay to law school. Also, you should know the difference between an obstacle (like being a political refugee, or having faced a serious illness) and a disappointment (like not making a sports team) — and you might be better off not writing about either. Other essay topics to avoid include comparisons between Yale and Star Trek, imaginary conversations with Socrates, and pickup lines addressed to the reader, which leave me wondering whether I should reject the applicant or call my Title IX coordinator.
I've found that providing candid advice in my own voice goes a very long way in reassuring students and their parents that there is an actual and mostly reasonable human being on the other side of the admissions black hole. It democratizes the process by making sure that everyone has access to equal information and encourages students who otherwise might not have bothered to apply to throw their hats in the ring. Most importantly, it provides students who don't have connections — like first-generation college students — with some confidence that they know what's going on, they're on the right track, and they'll be given a fair shake.
Admissions at elite schools is widely believed to be rigged in favor of the privileged and wealthy, and to a certain extent, it is. By closing themselves off behind a wall of secrecy, admissions officers are complicit in creating a market that allows students who are already ahead of the game to get an even greater competitive edge in the process.

Without transparency going both ways, the admissions process won't truly be fair. Admissions officers should lift the veil, give a real voice to the process, and make admissions what it should be: a meritocracy.

Rangappa is the dean of admissions at Yale Law School.

The 411 on SAT [Infographic]

We all take the SAT before college. It’s almost a part of crossing over into college-hood!

This test is pretty important when it comes to getting into some colleges.

The SAT is just one of many ways college admissions decide whether you stack up well against the competition.

Usually juniors and seniors take the SAT.

Some of them try it once and get a great score, others take the SAT 12 times until they’re okay with their score.

Not only are there books on the test, but there are classes and online test to help any student prepare for a very important test.

In 2012, more than 1.66 million high school students took the SAT.

Find out in the college infographic below everything you need to know before, during and after testing day. Leave comments below on how you prepared (and hopefully aced) the test.

Good luck and bring a pencil!

How NOT to Find the “Right” College

With fall comes the critical second round of campus visits. Now’s the time for your child to go beyond the information sessions and introductory tours of last spring and summer by sitting in on classes, eating in dining halls and staying overnight (if at all possible). It’s not a good idea to rely solely on what you read or hear about places; to truly get a feel for schools in which your student is interested, it’s best to have him or her experience them for an extended period of time in the flesh.

Here are a few other common mistakes to avoid when conducting a college search:

• Relying on rankings to determine “quality” — To be blunt, rankings sell magazines and guide books. Sure, it’s fun to check out the winners in colorful categories (e.g., “happiest students” or “biggest party schools” just to name two; my own alma mater recently was cited as having one of the ten “most beautiful” campuses in the world!) in which colleges gain notoriety or acclaim. But, just because a college is ranked #5 for this or number #120 in that doesn’t mean it’s the college where your child is most likely to thrive. So be wary of what others–even “experts”–say about schools. What’s important is the degree to which schools seem able and eager to meet your child’s needs.

• Getting hung up on “name” and “prestige — Some parents insist that their children concentrate on trying to get into elite colleges and universities (i., e., those that admit fewer than 20% of applicants). In their minds, it’s where you go to college that matters, and if you don’t attend a “top” school you’re doomed to a less-than life. Not so! Any admission officer at the Ivies or elsewhere knows (and will tell you) that while a “name” school is sure to open some doors, as with anything in life, it’s what you do with what you’ve got that truly counts. So, while Harvard and others can be terrific options for some students, it follows that they may not be the best choice for others.

• Second-guessing the job market of the future — It’s easy to get rattled by all the bad press surrounding what appears to be out-of-control-student-loan debt. But because the world is changing so fast, it’s impossible to know which jobs will exist tomorrow (and where). More than ever, certain skills–like the ability to think critically and creatively; to communicate clearly and persuasively and to collaborate effectively to solve problems–will be essential, and they can be honed in any number of majors. And, while becoming tech savvy is a must, students need not feel compelled to commit to a career in computer science or other STEM disciplines to experience personal and financial success.

There are more effective and productive ways to conduct college searches. If you start with your child’s particular abilities, interests, personality and preferences, gather as much info as possible from direct, close-up and personal research and then winnow down/add to the initial list based on a realistic assessment of admission chances and probability of  receiving financial aid awards, you’ll be on your way to helping your child find a school that may not be absolutely, positively perfect, but pretty darn close.

Negotiate the Best Possible Financial Aid Deal

Find colleges where you’re likely to get merit-based financial aid – and follow up after freshman year.

By ARLENE WEINTRAUB

September 10, 2013

There’s often additional financial aid available for resourceful students and parents who know where to look and when to speak up.

The recession and sputtering economy made it harder for families to pay for college even as they have hurt college endowments. On March 1, the Department of Education warned that the across-the-board budget cuts known as "sequestration" would hit federal financial aid programs hard. 

Still, resourceful parents and students will find that there's money out there for those who know where to look – and how to speak up when that fat welcome package announces a scrawnier-than-expected financial aid award. 

The typical aid package includes federal need-based grants, work-study funding and subsidized Stafford loans, where the government pays the interest for you while you're in school, based on your family's financial information on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The state may provide some funds, too. 

Then there are merit scholarships offered by the institutions themselves for academic achievements or talents. Finally, there are federal loans that aren't subsidized, for anyone who wants to borrow extra, and parent PLUS loans. 

Read more by clicking below -

Parental Warning: U.S. News & World Report Releases Best Colleges Rankings

Like every year, as summer wraps and college-bound parental panic begins to surge, U.S. News and World Report shares its rankings of Best Colleges. While one can appreciate the painstaking data collection and the voluminous amount of information packed into one document, the highly publicized lists can add fuel to the fire in those households already exploding with college application drama. What are the secrets to college admission anxiety management? Check out the five tips below.

1. Take the word "best" out of your college search vocabulary. 
There are plenty of great colleges, universities and specialty schools. Focusing on one institution as the perfect place is a recipe for disaster whether a candidate fails to earn acceptance or discovers down the road that acceptance was a mistake. Parents and teens can be guilty of this mindset, so catch yourselves when you begin to go down that road and add a few more schools to the wish list.

2. Look beyond the big books and websites to see the full picture.
Compilation books and magazines like U.S. News and World Report's Best Colleges and comprehensive websites are extremely valuable in helping people grasp the college search process. However, relying on only one source can limit your scope and perspective. Check out the colleges' websites and tour some campuses formally and impromptu to get a three-dimensional view.

3. Talk to college graduates who weren't accepted by their first choice school.
You'll be shocked at the high marks these people give their alma maters. During my research for my book College Bound and Gagged: How To Help Your Kid Get Into A Great College Without Losing Your Savings, Your Relationship, Or Your Mind, I was struck by the number of college graduates who said that not getting into their first choice was a blessing in disguise. Either way, their stories support the theory that there are many excellent academic options for students to happily achieve their goals.

4. Find a "safety school" that you love.
True, you can't count on a sure thing when it comes to college acceptance. An applicant must meet a school's needs and it's not always clear what those needs might be from year to year. Still, shooting too high can sometimes backfire. Identify the outstanding qualities in second tier choices and help your teen realize that there is plenty of fun, opportunity and success beyond the Ivy League.

5. Enjoy a college-free dinner.
If you're like my family was, it's hard to have a family meal during your teen's junior and senior years that doesn't include the word "college." It may be countdown time, but every now and then high school students need a break from the coaching (and nagging) of well-meaning parents. Plan one college-free dinner or day a week to refrain from asking your teen about anything college related. Trust me, it's tough, but the application will still get done.

Common App Essay Question #5 Tips

The fifth essay option on CA4, the new version of the Common Application launched in 2013, asks you to discuss an accomplishment or event that played a significant role in your transition to adulthood:

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

We all have all had experiences that bring about growth and maturity, so essay option five will be a viable option for all applicants. The big challenges with this essay prompt will be identifying the correct "accomplishment or event," and then making sure the discussion of your growth has enough depth and self analysis to show your are a strong, thoughtful college applicant. The tips below can help guide you as you tackle essay option five:

What defines a "transition from childhood to adulthood"?:

I find this part of the essay prompt a bit problematic because it suggests that we all cross a clear line with childhood on one side and adulthood on the other. The idea that a single event can make us adults is, in my mind, simplistic at best. Very few adults would point to a single moment of epiphany when, all of a sudden, they became adults. Maturity and adulthood come about over years, through hundreds of learning experiences.

Many adults would also argue that a 17- or 18-year-old applying to college is not yet an adult, or that a lot of maturing still occurs between being a "young adult" and an older adult. Fair enough, but if we put ourselves in the position of a college admissions officer, I think we can see that the label "adult" is an important one. Are you done growing and maturing? Of course not. If you were, why bother going to college at all. However, by applying to college you are telling the admissions officers that you are ready for the next stage in your life. You are prepared to take responsibility for your own actions, live away from home, manage your own time, and make the proper decisions to succeed in your endeavors. You're suggesting that you will be respectful of others, you'll work to negotiate differences with roommates and classmates, and that you will be a contributing member of a campus community. In short, your essay for option five needs to reveal the type of personal growth that suggests you're ready for the next, more independent stage of your life.

If, like me, you have some problems with the wording of this essay prompt, try thinking about the question with slightly different language. The question becomes more realistic and manageable if posed in these terms: "Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marks a moment of significant personal growth within your culture, community, or family." You're not done growing (nor am I), but you certainly have had moments of significant growth.

Click below to read more:

Our New Guide to the Application Form, Including Changes to the Common App

It's here -- our completely revised and updated guide,The Application Form, a real-time digital supplement to College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step.

• Including the August 2013 changes to theCommon Application.

It's a complete guide to filling out the college application, which serves as the cornerstone of a student's admission file, including:

• A walk through the new Common Application, step by step.
• An explanation of why colleges want this information and our best advice for how to provide it.
• Answers to students' questions about extracurricular activities, academics, testing, and essays are addressed.
• Guidance on fee waivers, deadlines, "fast apps," and resumes.
• A To Do List for the many moving parts so students can put their best foot forward when completing their applications.

Download your complete free copy here.

3 Reasons to Apply Early Action to College

Applying to a college’s early action program can help high school seniors with strong applications stand out from the crowd.

As students enter senior year of high school and meet the pressures and anxiety that come along with applying to college, one question that must be considered is whether to apply to a college early. The most common way to apply to a college early is through early decision, in which a student commits, if accepted, to attending the college to which he or she is applying early.

In recent years, however, a number of universities have instituted early action, a program that allows a student to apply to that college early without making a binding decision to enroll. Although these programs vary in specifics, as not all allow students to also apply to other schools early, non-binding early action overall is becoming an attractive application option for many high school seniors. 

[See these student tips for managing the college application process.] 

Here are three situations where it would make sense to apply to college via early action: 

1. As a non-binding alternative to early decision: Applying early decision can often provide a noticeable bump to a students' chances of getting into a given school – especially if you are on the proverbial borderline. If you have a clear-cut No. 1 choice early in your senior year and want to maximize your chances of getting into that dream school, applying early can help. 

However, the binding nature of early decision programs has its drawbacks. For one, students in need of financial aid will not be able to compare offers from multiple schools and will, for the most part, be stuck with just one offer. 

Second, because early decision is binding, students who are admitted under such programs often have little recourse if they change their mind. Applying early action gives you many of the benefits of early decision, but the non-binding nature means you can still compare multiple financial aid offers and will not be stuck attending the institution. 

[Create a strategy to ensure an organized college admissions process.] 

2. To improve peace of mind: If you tend to stress out more than most and have been dreading the college admissions letter season considerably, applying early action may be the best way to make your senior year of high school as enjoyable as possible. 

Even if none of the schools on your list offering early action programs are your first choice, it may still be helpful to know that you have already been accepted somewhere that you are happy attending. This will allow you to avoid having your entire senior year become stressful. 

If multiple schools on your list have non-exclusive early action programs, meaning you can apply to more than one school early action, then you can take advantage of an even better situation. 

[Avoid these common college application mistakes.] 

3. If your application profile is already top-notch: One reason commonly given for not applying early to college is that your application profile could still use a semester of buffing. This could be because of a lower-than-ideal GPA, a lack of extracurricular activities or mediocre SAT scores. 

However, if you already have top-notch grades, a generous helping of interesting extracurriculars and extremely high SAT or ACT scores, it may be useful for you to apply early action to one of your top choices so you can avoid competing in the regular applicant pool. If you already stand out as you enter your senior year and have done thorough research regarding the colleges you would like to attend, identify whether or not any of those colleges offer an early action program. 

If they do, getting your name in before other students can significantly help you gain admission to the college of your choice. 

Bradford Holmes is a professional SAT and Latin tutor with Varsity Tutors. He earned his B.A. from Harvard University and his master's degree from the University of Southern California.

Understanding college application deadline options

As high school seniors begin their college applications for fall 2014 admission, there are sure to be many confusing aspects in the process. One that seems like it should be straightforward – application due dates – can add to the confusion with the number of choices available. Options include regular decision, early decision, restrictive early action (also called early action single-choice), early action (non-restrictive), and rolling admissions.

Why so many options? Will it make a difference when you apply?

The simple answers: because it serves the colleges’ purposes and yes, it can make a difference which application deadline you choose.

Regular decision (RD) and rolling admission are the easiest application deadlines to understand and navigate. There are no restrictions regarding applying to other colleges when choosing either of these two deadline options. Colleges using RD programs have clearly stated deadlines, usually but not always in January or February (for example the University of California system has a November 30 regular decision deadline and University of Washington’s is December 1), and students receive their decisions in the spring. The students have until May 1 (the National Candidates Reply Date for admission) to accept an admissions offer from a college.

Click below to read more:

Beware of the College Red Carpet

on SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 in ADMISSION PRACTICES, ADMISSIONS, APPLYING

I ran this college blog post during a previous admission season, but it’s just as relevant today! Lynn O’Shaughnessy

I received an email yesterday from a friend of mine whose son is a brilliant high school senior. She wanted to know what they should think about invitations her son has received to apply to colleges through VIP or priority applications.

Here is her question:

My son has received approximately 10+ email/print invitations from schools to complete their priority applications. These invitations say there are no essays, no application fees and quick scholarship notification, etc. The schools that I can remember are:

• Drexel University
• Rice University
• Tulane University
• Fordham University
• University of Denver
• University of Tulsa
• Loyola New Orleans
• Macalester College
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Colorado School of the Mines

Is this a gimmick to increase their application numbers? Would it be worth filling out the applications (meaning – do you think there is any scholarship money at the end of the tunnel?) I appreciate any thoughts you might have on this matter.

Be Careful!

What my friend has described is a college application that’s referred to in the industry as a fast app orfast application. This is the time of year when high school seniors across the country are receiving these apps whether they are called priority apps, VIP applications or some other names.

Here is how an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education once described these quickie applications:

Many high-school counselors offer colorful descriptions of “fast track” applications, an increasingly popular recruitment tool among colleges. Such applications come with students’ names and other information already filled in. Typically these solicitations also provide other incentives, like waived essay requirements, and promise quick admissions decisions.

For these reasons, some counselors call them “crap apps.” Matthew J. DeGreeff, director of college counseling at the Middlesex School, in Massachusetts, uses a simile instead. “This is like catnip for admissions deans,” he says, “because you can expand the application pool overnight.”

The Motivation Behind VIP Applications

Why are schools making it easy for students to apply?

For starters, it boosts their applications numbers. With the help of outside firms, colleges send out thousands and even tens of thousands of applications that are easier for teenagers to complete than the typical ones.

That’s what Drexel University has been doing, according to another Chronicle article. The school buys hundreds of thousands of names of teenagers who have scored within a certain range on the SAT and then sends them a letter asking if they’d like more information. All the students who respond yes end up getting an VIP application. Can everybody be a VIP?

In contrast, Ursinus College has abandoned its fast application practice (to its credit), which had made the liberal arts college, a red hot school as its applications soared. You can get a better appreciation of the fast-app practice by reading this New York Times article from earlier this year:

A College Opts Out of the Admissions Arms Race

Schools Not That Into You

Just because a student receives one of these applications certainly doesn’t mean the school is interested in him or her.  In some cases, schools use these applications to increase their applications so they can reject more students.  Selectivity, after all, is something that US News’ college rankings care about.

If applicants receive scholarships from a school, it’s not because they completed fast applications. In fact, relying on a fast app might cause a student to overlook talent scholarships that may require an additional application. The easiest way to find out if a school will give a teenager a scholarship is to use its net price calculator.

Bottom Line:

Don’t apply to a school because it appears to like you. Only apply for the right reasons and you won’t get snookered by fast apps.