College Mentors

Those of you who applied Early Decision or Early Action may soon be hearing from your first choice schools. Good luck! I hope each of you gains admission to your first choice college.... Meanwhile, the next major set of application due dates is coming up on December 31st. By now you have completed your Common Application essay and any supplement essays (and have turned them over to a trusted reader for comments/editing review).  I expect that you arranged for all letters of recommendation to be sent to the colleges at the same time--back when your first wave of applications was due; however, if you have added a college or two to your list since that time, make sure to let your teachers know immediately (and give them stamped, addressed envelopes for the new schools), before you leave for winter break. Finally, I wish you all a very Happy Holiday and Happy New Year. 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, please join me for a free workshop on November 2nd at the Fairview Library in Santa Monica at 7pm.  We'll be reviewing the UC, Common Application, and CSU Applications.  We'll also talk about what makes a great personal statement! Join my Facebook page (just click on College Mentors link in the lower right column on this page) and keep abreast of upcoming events!

Tomorrow, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) is holding their annual Performing and Visual Arts College Fair at UCLA. Here's a link to the details: http://www.nacacnet.org/EventsTraining/CollegeFairs/pva/Pages/09PLA.aspx

Score Choice from College Board, the much anticipated ability to cherry pick your best scores to be sent to Colleges rather than having to send all scores, is turning out to be a hotbed of confusion. The two main points of confusion pertain to differing college requirements and how to handle the Common Application. Here are a few points that may help you in the process: What is Score Choice? Before score choice, all SAT results would be sent to all of the colleges to which you apply. Most colleges have a policy of taking the highest scores (some even take the highest section from among them all, so if you got a 600 Math and 650 CR in one sitting and a 650 Math and 580 CR in another, they'd take the 650 Math and 650 CR). Score Choice instituted the ability to pick and choose WHICH sittings of the test you send to colleges to which you apply. However, you must send the entire sitting, so Score Choice won't necessarily hide a poor performance on a particular section of the test...

Kiplinger recently published an interesting visual comparing the amount of college debt and average incomes for each state. They also provide information about the least and most expensive colleges based on outstanding debt: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/studentdebt/map.html Of course, these are averages, and families must evaluate many factors when determining how expensive a particular college is for their family—family income and student academics can lead to scholarships and grants, etc.—even a very expensive college can be within reach, so don't restrict your college choices purely by cost.

As most of you know, the US News & World Report rankings have been released, and the push is on for students and families who believe that getting into one of the US News top tier colleges will make or break their future. It's simply not true for US News or any other ranking tool. There are several ranking tools--each with its own criteria. Make sure you know what attributes the particular tool is using, so that you can judge how important those attributes are to you. One tool that I think bears looking at is the Forbes list, which also just came out and which puts more of an emphasis on students' perspectives: http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/02/colleges-university-ratings-opinions-colleges-09-intro.html While any ranking list can be a useful tool to compare colleges on a given list of criteria, none should be used as a final authority as you construct your own college list. I know just how tough it is to listen to the hype, the peer pressure, the family pressure and so ...

The Common Application for 2009-2010 has been released, so you seniors can get started early at www.commonapp.org. The personal statement prompts have not changed, so if you've been working on your essay this summer, full speed ahead! Here's a run down of what's different: Demographics: Student-- There are a lot more demographic questions about the student, most related to race and ethnicity, all of which are optional, except for a question about first language and language spoken at home. Family-- There are a few more questions about families, including a designation of "other" for person with whom the student makes his/her home. Other-- They ask whether the student has had college counseling or assistance with their application process "from a community-based organization" such as Upward Bound or Questbridge. Other Sections: In the disciplinary statement, if you answer 'yes' to either question, they now want you to write about the incident and...