Applying to College

The Liberal Arts Major: Would you like fries with that?

The engineering major asks, "How does it work?"

 

The accounting major asks, "How much does it cost?"

 

The liberal arts major asks, "Would you like fries with that?"

 

Yea, yea… Not so fast.

Wherever we speak across the country, we're asked by parents how to find out about outcomes for graduates. They want to know how they can justify a Classics or English or Art major when STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields are a sure thing with sizable salaries. And if you only read the headlines in the New York Times and other fashionable news outlets, you'd think that the liberal arts degree was experiencing death by a thousand cuts. One recent headline: "There's no place for the liberal arts in the job market."

Writing in the Wall Street Journal last year, Jane Shaw opined: “Many liberal-arts graduates, even from the best schools, aren’t getting jobs in large part because they didn’t learn much in school. They can’t write or speak well or intelligently analyze what they read.”

So what can you do with THAT degree?

Great advice for Juniors from the Admission Officers at Tufts

Tufts University has an excellent behind-the-scenes blog written by the school's admission officers -- Inside Admissions. In today's post, Meghan McHale offers up spot-on advice for juniors on how to maximize what remains of their high school years. Read the whole thing here. Admission office blogs are great resources for students -- providing insight into the admission process and what the school may be looking for, as well as solid information about the mechanics of the process. Spend some time perusing the admission office blogs -- or those of professors, students, and others -- as you research colleges.

Seniors: Make Sure Your Midyear Report Is Sent to Colleges

The Midyear Report covers a student's grades, courses, and activities, as well as any disciplinary or criminal history. It is usually completed by the high school college counselor or guidance counselor. Students should request their counselor send this report to ALL colleges to which they are applying. Check the websites of the colleges to which you are applying for the deadline for submission of this report and follow up to make sure the report was sent and the college received it.

For more guidance on the midyear report and other checklist items for seniors, check out the latest post from counselor John Carpenter here.

Juniors: Here's what you need to know when selecting next year's classes

Juniors, as you meet with your counselor to select your classes for next year, keep in mind that what colleges want to see are students whose course of study is characterized by appropriate challenge and rigor.

So what does that mean?

It means that colleges want to see evidence in your courses that you are willing to stretch intellectually and academically in the core areas of the curriculum -- science, math, English, social studies and foreign language -- and that your choice of classes demonstrates a pattern of increasing difficulty. For example, if a student wants to study science, she would take progressively more demanding courses in that core area. This is an important signal for college admission officers. In fact, one report found that taking progressively more difficult and higher- level courses increased an applicant’s chance of being accepted at a competitive college— more so than a higher grade point average.

Here's what Douglas Christiansen, vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions at Vanderbilt University, has to say about what challenge and rigor mean:

Fred Hargadon on College Admission and the Dodecahedron

Last week Fred Hargadon passed away. Hargadon worked in admissions at Swarthmore, Stanford and Princeton. In any room where college admissions people meet, there will be Fred Hargadon anecdotes. (We have several in our book!) He was a great communicator, with a dead aim for the college application process, conveyed with compassion and a wry sense of humor.  His acceptance letters from Princeton famously began with the single word "YES!," a phrase now carved in stone in front of Princeton's Hargadon Hall, the dormitory named in his honor.

Joyce Smith, executive director of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, recently shared a letter Hargadon wrote to prospective students and we'd like to share it with you. You have to love a letter that citesThe Phantom Tollbooth, Harry Potter's sorting hat, SAT scores and becoming bilingual. 

Here's one of our favorite pieces of advice:

One More To-Do List for Seniors...

It's not over 'til it's over. Seniors, you may have submitted your applications and caught up on your sleep, but -- apologies! -- there are still some things you need to do. High school counselor and author John Carpenter joins us again this month with some helpful reminders.

 

January… For most seniors that means applications are finished. Submitted.  Done.

Right? 

Wrong.

 

Submitting your application is only one part of this process.  Most kids, I will admit, exhale a big sigh of relief after they've submitted their apps. They either celebrate that the deadline has been met or sleep for two weeks.  And while both options are perfectly acceptable, there’s still a little more to do.  It’s called follow-up.

 

Here’s a list of tasks to be sure to take care of AFTER you submit your applications:

 

What should juniors be doing right NOW?

For most students, the second semester of junior year is when the college application process begins in earnest. So this month, we asked our high school counselors: What’s the most important task for juniors to tackle in second semester of junior year? Read on to get a jump start on your to do list!

 

Mai Lien Nguyen
College and Career Center Coordinator

Mountain View High School
Mountain View, California

Juniors, Taking the ACT or SAT? Practice, practice, practice...

The winter testing dates for the ACT and SAT are coming up soon:  the SAT will be administered on January 25th and the ACT on February 8th. For many students, practice can improve scores. But if you're listening to your iPod while you're thumbing through the test or not taking a timed practice test, you probably won't experience that improvement. Here's how to practice so you get results:

                Practice under actual test conditions. Both tests require students to perform in a fixed amount of time. Sit down in your kitchen with a test book and your No. 2 pencils and have a family member time you.

How To Show Demonstrated Interest

Have you heard of "demonstrated interest"? It's one of those phrases that can cause some confusion for students -- and parents  -- as they go through  the college application process. Luckily, educational psychologist Jane McClure returns this month to demystify "demonstrated interest" and provide six action items for students to -- what else? -- demonstrate interest.

By now, your applications have been submitted.  Whew!  What a relief!  So now you just wait, right?  Well, no, not exactly.  There are some actions you can take that will make a difference at many colleges, particularly independent colleges and universities.  It’s called “demonstrated interest.”  Students show demonstrated interest when they take various actions that signal to a school that they are seriously considering it. And it can possibly enhance your chances of admission.

Misty Whelan, Conestoga High School

Misty Whelan has lived the college admission process from both sides of the desk, so to speak. True, she worked early in her career at Bryn Mawr College. But that's not what we're talking about. Now a counselor at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsyvania, Whelan has also navigated the college application process as a parent. Her 16-year-old daughter, Sarah, is taking her first steps in the process and her 19-year-old son is now attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The view from the parental side of the process has been invaluable for Whelan.

"It has really, really helped me immensely as a professional in terms of sympathizing and empathizing with families as they go through this process," says Whelan. "And the other thing it validated for me was letting my son do the work and not to do it for him. He did the bulk of the work. I learned a lot about how to center him and not have him panic or get too stressed out. Luckily, he knew what he wanted and did not have too many schools on his list.  I also learned a lot about financial aid and the scholarship process. That was the biggest eye opener for me -- how colleges fund students."

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