The Common Application goes live next week -- on Friday, August 1! So we're bringing you a real-time digital supplement to College Admission: From Application to Acceptance, Step by Step -- our completely revised and updated guide to The Application Form .
It's a complete guide to filling out the college application, which serves as the cornerstone of a student's admission file, including:
Located just north of the affluent town that is home to Stanford University, East Palo Alto has had a history of crime and violence and Silicon Valley's boom economy has largely bypassed the community and the families of the Latino, African American and Pacific Islander students who reside there. Today, the dropout rate for students from East Palo Alto is 65%.
In 1991, a Stanford student started an after-school basketball program for East Palo Alto kids in grades 4 through 8, linking participation with attendance at a daily study hall. But he soon realized it wasn't enough for these students, who, after eighth grade, would be bused 20 miles away to the nearest high school. So in 1996 that Stanford student, Chris Bischof, founded Eastside College Preparatory School, private school with an intensive, college-prep curriculum.
With an initial class of eight students, at one point, Bischof, who is today Eastside's principal, was using park benches in a muddy lot as a classroom. Today, more than 300 students enrolled in grades 6 through 12 attend school on a full built-out campus that includes boarding facilities for more than 100 students.
Mark Moody, Co-Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy, is back with us today with an excellent discussion of "outcomes" -- a meme in the media and a subject on the minds of some students, parents, educators and other interested parties. Read on to see why becoming "dis-oriented" from outcomes may provide the happiest ending.
I’ve noticed the term “outcomes-oriented” being used a lot lately. It’s apparently a desirable quality, describing my LinkedIn contacts on their profiles, applicants I encounter on hiring committees, professional services in marketing emails that land in my inbox. When you consider it, “outcomes-oriented” is an interesting pairing of words. It suggests a constant headlong bearing toward a projected future, radar locked on a defined finish line and a specific expectation of what should await there. It feels antsy and impatient. Let’s get to the outcome, people! Who cares how? Full speed ahead!
We want to tell you a story. A story that we think gets to the heart of who most high school college counselors are -- at least the ones every parent wishes for their son or daughter. This is a story about Trevor Rusert and a student named Amanda.
Amanda lives with her father, a single parent. Her family is working class and Amanda had a significant scholarship to attend Sewickley Academy in Pennsylvania where Rusert is Director of College Guidance. But her scholarship didn't cover everything, so Amanda worked 30 hours a week at McDonald's as shift manager -- 6 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then full shifts on the weekend -- to make up the difference. In the summertime, she worked with Sewickley's maintenance crew during the day and was back at McDonald's at night -- 70-plus hours a week.
Seniors, here's a not-to-be-missed message from Mark Moody, Co-Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy. We can't emphasize enough the power of this message. Read it! And then read it again. And then read it to your parents...
If you are making a return visit to a college or visiting for the first time after being admitted, make sure you get off the beaten path -- hang out at the student union, visit the study spaces in the library, or browse in the bookstore, grab lunch at a campus cafeteria, arrange to sit in on a class or meet with a professor. And ask questions of everyone. You may be surprised at how willing students are to speak candidly with you. Here are some questions to ask:
Why did you decide to go to school here?
What's a typical student like?
Are professors accessible? How do you spend time with faculty outside the classroom?
Carolynn Laurenza grew up in a farm town in the middle of western Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley, also known as the "Five Colleges" corridor because it's home to Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. This might have presaged her choice of profession in life.
Today, Laurenza is the College Placement Coordinator for Uncommon Charter High School in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she earned a Masters in Education from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Laurenza spent three years as a guidance counselor at a regional public high school in the "Five Colleges" area before joining Uncommon Charter in the summer of 2011.
"It's a different reality," says Laurenza, who was named a "Counselor that Changes Lives" earlier this year. "As a public high school guidance counselor, you're juggling many types of social/emotional issues, the administrative needs of the school, trying to help kids in all grades and doing college counseling. At Uncommon, I get to focus on college counseling."
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.
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:
Seniors, over the next weeks, you may be doing interviews at the colleges or, over the holidays, with local alumni. Remember, the interview is a conversation, not a test. But you should prepare. It is likely that at some point in any interview, you will be asked if you have any questions and the general rule is to ask questions that cannot be answered via advance homework -- for example, by perusing the FAQs page of the college's website. Here are some ideas for questions that you may want to ask:
What kinds of students are most successful at College X?
What do you like about College X?
Most colleges have a specific personality that goes beyond its academic offerings. How would you describe College X's personality?
Is there a type of student who is smart and well prepared but who would be happier at a different kind of place? Why or why not?
And, in addition, for alumni:
Why did you choose College X and what did you like about it? What would you have changed if you could have? What surprises did you experience? How has the campus changed?
