College admission Navigating the process College admission Is

College admission Navigating the process

College admission… Is not a prize to be won; it is a match to be made. • Choose a car • 8 first choices • Finding your people – • who you are vs. who you want to be • Your learning style • Inside – Out

Approximate Timetable • Summer before 12 th grade: • Identify colleges to consider applying to • You make 2 of the three decisions! • Begin “roughing out” personal essays • Investigate thoroughly the tests you must take. Register for them. Some schools are test optional.

Money • Family talk about money! § Applying, visiting, testing § The cost of college • Investigate funding options, policies, scholarships, deadlines, forms, etc.

Approximate Timetable • Fall of 12 th grade: • Create “final list” of colleges • Speak to teachers and counselor about letters of recommendation • Finalize essays • Apply: • For Early Decision/Early Action, usually in November • For Regular Decision, usually in late December or January

After you apply • Your school sends Mid-year grades (January. February) • Other academic updates (not awards or certificates!) • Common Reply Date May 1 • Wait list options— § Need to respond to be “active” § Offers typically May-June • One final transcript • Commitment to enroll

Application Components • Common Application vs. Other Options • Personal & Family section • Academic Information • Extracurricular Information • Writing section & supplement(s) • Information that the specific college wants

Pieces of the Puzzle Academic Information • The context is critically important • Transcript (grades, rigor of academic program, etc. ) • Scores (SAT or ACT, TOEFL, SAT subject exams, AP, etc. ) • Recommendations from counselor and teachers § Which teachers and how many? § Again, you can exercise some control.

Pieces of the Puzzle • Extracurricular Information: • How do you spend your time? Per week/ per year/ how many years? Show level of commitment to each activity? • How diverse a range or how concentrated? • Programs/ internships/ research • Things you may not think of: travel, family responsibility, work, hobbies

Special Talents • What about special talents or leadership (artistic, athletic, other)? Samples of talent (ONLY if you are good enough for it to make a difference, and ONLY if the college wants it!) • Example: Portfolio of artistic talent (music, dance, drawings/paintings, research papers, images of maker material, etc. )

Pieces of the Puzzle • Personal Information: • Basic information about you and your family • Essays • Things you might also contribute: • Interviews (depending if they are available and when) • Additional letters of recommendation (ONLY if they will shed new light!) • ONLY give us what we ask for; • don’t be “gimmicky”

Various Application Programs & Terminology • Early vs. Regular Decision vs. Rolling • Early Action, Early Decision, Early Notification, etc. • Need Blind vs. Need Aware • Demonstrated interest • Institutional Priorities

What do selective colleges do with this information? How does the selection process work? • The Challenge: Selective colleges have many more highly qualified applicants than we can admit. • It is not simply finding out who can succeed in class or who meets minimum eligibility

Crafting a Class • The Goal: To admit the most diverse and interesting “mix” of students possible from different backgrounds and experiences. • Types of diverse qualities: intellectual, geographic, socio-economic, cultural, extracurricular, talents and expertise. (i. e. , not simply the “smartest” freshman class!) • Why? Students learn just as much from each other as they do from their professors.

Crafting a Class • The Solution: Create a highly personalized, nuanced, and labor-intensive decision-making process that evaluates the credentials of each candidate in the context of opportunities available • It is not formulaic (i. e. , no GPA or score “cut-offs”) • It can seem subjective sometimes • It is people making judgments given the information in front of them – in the application • It is NOT a referendum on how worthy you are as a person

What we look for and look at • Academic information is FIRST & FOREMOST • But: • 80 -90% of applicant pool is usually academically qualified to be successful • Very few students are admitted for academic reasons alone (usually a combination of factors are involved) • The more selective the college, the more difficult it is to stand out in the applicant pool purely on academics

What do we hope to find? • Will vary by college and sometimes by the academic program within the institution • Evidence of curiosity, self-motivation, discipline, initiative, resilience • Passion in your approach to your life and your studies • Maturity, selflessness, perspective • How has a student contributed to make the community a more interesting place? How might that translate in the context of a college community?

What do we hope to find? • Who is the real person behind the grades and scores? • Be authentic! Don’t “second guess” what you think the application reader wants to hear! • Does this person seem like someone you would want around the seminar table, as a roommate, a dinner partner, or on a team? • You are creating a narrative for us!

6 Tips 1. Find YOU. Go Inside- Out. 2. You are creating a narrative for us! 3. This is NOT a referendum on how worthy you are as a person. 4. Finding a good learning environment 1. Research vs. teaching 5. Net Price Calculator 6. Common Data Set

Questions The answer is probably: “It depends” ; -)