Show Your Colleges Some Love!

According to research conducted by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), almost 78% of college admission officers say that an applicant’s “demonstrated interest” is considered when evaluating applications.

As students apply to more colleges, admission officers find it increasingly difficult to predict which applicants will enroll. In 2017, the average yield rate for colleges – the percentage of admitted students who enroll – dropped to less than 33%, compared to an average yield rate of 49% just a decade before. As a result, many colleges now factor in the chances of an applicant saying yes when deciding whom to admit.

Not all colleges consider demonstrated interest; public universities and some highly-selective private universities do not. Among those that do, the weight placed on demonstrated interest can vary. Even so, it’s smart to signal to colleges that you’re sincerely interested in attending. Here are some of the ways to do that:

Visit campus. Admission officers know that students who’ve visited campus are more likely to attend, so a campus visit is considered a plus when it comes to demonstrating interest. Sign up for the tour, sit in on the admission presentation, and schedule an appointment to talk to an admission representative if possible.

Can’t visit? Don’t worry. Colleges understand that not everyone can visit colleges on the other side of the country before applying; you can still show your interest through the ways listed below. But, if you live within an hour or two of campus, they will wonder why you haven’t found time to visit and assume that they’re just not that high on your list.

Connect with admission locally. Attending a presentation at your high school or at a local college fair shows you’re serious about the college. Be sure to add your name, email and mailing address to the admission officer’s list of attendees.

Apply early. Applying Early Decision or Early Action sends the message to admission that they’re at the top of your list. Also, a student who gets the applications in well before the deadline sends a different signal to admission than one who waits until the very last minute on deadline day.

Write a great “why us?” essay. Give these essay questions your full attention and thought. Don’t just recycle the same essay for different colleges; customizing your answer to each specific college and its offerings sends a stronger message about your interest.

Interview. You don’t have to visit the college to interview; many colleges offer local interviews. Do your homework before the interview so you can explain why you and the college are a perfect match.

Get on the mailing list. Don’t ignore mailing pieces and emails from colleges you’re considering. Many colleges track which students follow up and consider it a sign of interest. While you’re at it, it never hurts to follow and like the colleges that interest you on social media. If nothing else, you’ll learn more about the schools to which you are applying!

Applying Early Decision

Traditionally, college application deadlines were often in January. More recently, however, there has been a push for earlier applications, with admission programs that include Early Action, Early Action II, Early Decision I, Early Decision II and even a few Single Choice Early Action programs enticing applicants with the promise of earlier decisions and possibly better chances for admission. This more hurried approach has contributed to an increase in stress levels for many seniors.

Early Decision (ED) is a binding application program that has a November 1st or 15th deadline. Students are generally notified before Christmas whether they have been accepted, rejected or deferred to regular decision. Since it is binding, students who apply ED and are accepted must withdraw any other college applications. Students can apply ED to only one college, and the student’s parents and Guidance Counselor must sign an agreement with the college confirming that the applicant has done so.

Early Decision can (the operative word here is “can”) offer an applicant a significantly higher acceptance rate, depending upon the college. The 2017 edition of the Princeton Review’s The Best 381 Colleges states that Elon University received 504 Early Decision applications and accepted 86%. Its regular decision acceptance rate is listed as 57%. If you love Elon and know deep-down that if you are accepted that’s where you’d love to go, then applying Early Decision and knowing within six weeks an be a very good thing. Davidson College had a 22% acceptance rate for regular decision but that jumped to 48% for ED. Not all colleges, however, are so generous in their ED offers. In the 2015-2016 cycle, Rice University received 1,389 ED applications and accepted 20%. Their regular decision acceptance rate was 16%, so applying ED provided a boost of only 4%.

When students apply ED, they are a captive audience. The college doesn’t have to wonder where else they’re applying or if they’ll enroll if accepted. A college’s yield is the number of students that say “yes” to the college’s offer of admission. Colleges are often evaluated on their yield percentage and ED applicants increase the yield. Many colleges fill as much as half their incoming class with ED candidates. The regular decision pool then becomes more competitive because the college will frequently look to balance the class, i.e., they may need more theater majors, more students from Kansas or more soccer players. If a student has applied ED, he is saying it’s his first choice. The biggest downside of ED is that students are unable to compare financial aid offers, which are typically made in March.

A word of caution: don’t get caught in the trap of “I’m applying Early Decision somewhere, I just don’t know where.” Apply ED only if you can convincingly declare your love and commitment to becoming a student at that college.

Do Rankings Really Matter?

In a brand-name driven society, it’s no surprise that families often turn to magazine rankings to help them find the “best” college. While college administrators may publicly dismiss rankings as meaningless, favorable rankings are often featured prominently on a school’s website.

Deans of Admission are under constant pressure to improve their rankings. A college that slips in the US News & World Report rankings may disappoint its alumni, and that can impact donations to the school. But families need to keep in mind that the quality of education doesn’t change dramatically in one year.

Even if you accept the idea of ranking colleges, can you trust the data used to make those decisions? The class profiles submitted by schools may not give the full picture. Colleges can leave out the SAT scores of certain groups, including legacy students, recruited athletes, and development admits whose families are big donors, because the grades and test scores of these students would lower the class average and make the school look less selective. Schools may count applications that were never completed so it looks like they have more students applying, lowering the acceptance rate and making them appear more selective in the ratings. Also, part of the US News score is based on college administrators rating other schools that they may know little about.

How do you compare schools that have different programs and cultures? It’s like including romantic comedies and sci-fi in the same best movies list. Different people love different films, and one person’s number one is another person’s number twenty. The enjoyment you get from the experience of watching your favorite movie has nothing to do with its ranking.

The same holds true for colleges. What matters is the experience a student will have at that school. Spending four happy, productive and successful years at a college that is number forty-eight on the US News list makes that college number one for that student.

Other magazines have also gotten into the rankings game. Money magazine ranks colleges based on educational quality, affordability, and alumni success (as measured by Pay-Scale.com). On its list, Princeton ranks #1 this year, followed by Baruch College of CUNY. Forbes ranks colleges based on student satisfaction, graduation rate and alumni salaries. Its top colleges are Harvard, Stanford and Yale. Washington Monthly takes a different approach and instead of asking which college is best for you, they ask which college is best for America. Its criteria includes how colleges facilitate social mobility (by reaching out to low-income students), whether the college fosters scientific and humanistic research, and how much the ethic of service is promoted. Stanford, Harvard and MIT top Washington Monthly’s list of national universities while Berea College is #1 on its list of top liberal arts colleges.

But none of the rankings assess the quality of teaching, because that is tough to measure quantitatively. Rankings don’t tell us how prepared a school’s students are for graduate school or the job market. They also don’t say anything about the sense of community that makes a campus welcoming and campus life rewarding.

Perhaps rankings make us feel more secure. If someone pronounces a school "the best", we can reassure ourselves that we’ve made the right decision. But students who trust themselves enough to find their own best schools will end up making the most satisfying college choices.

Social Media - Think Before You Post

Stories abound of students and even teachers sharing inappropriate items on social media. One would hope students who are about to apply to colleges and be evaluated by admission officers would know better. The truth is that the vast majority of high school students are very responsible about their social media presence, and we only hear about the foolish ones whose mistakes live on as lessons for others.

A big question most parents ask is whether or not colleges are fishing in the social media waters. Are colleges and universities proactively seeking out information on prospective applicants or not?

Recent research from Kaplan Test Prep, a survey of nearly 400 admissions officers, demonstrates that “the percentage of admission officers who visit applicants’ social media pages to learn more about them has hit a record high of 40% — quadruple the percentage who did so in 2008,” when Kaplan first explored this issue. Further research also identified that only 11% of admission officers do it “often.” Googling an applicant to learn more about them has remained relatively stable over the past two years, at 29 percent.

Why are colleges looking? It’s interesting to note that what triggers admission officers to look beyond the traditional elements of the application (GPA, standardized test scores, extra curriculars) and turn to Google and Facebook are both positive and negative factors. Contributing factors include:

Special talents - Students who are musicians, writers or performing artists will often invite admission officers to view their social media presence in their applications. According to Kaplan’s research, 42% of admission officers reported an increase in such invitations compared to two years ago.

Award verification - There is no formal “fact-checking” process when students submit their applications. Colleges generally take at face-value whatever honors students list and the time commitments and leadership roles students state in their extracurricular activities and work experiences. However, a mention of a particularly distinguished award will sometimes trigger a search.

Negative stuff - Some admission officers say that if an applicant mentions he or she has a criminal background or a record of disciplinary action, they will do some online digging to get more details.

Scholarship applications - Students applying for special scholarships can come under greater scrutiny, as schools want to ensure those receiving the scholarships are fully deserving; extra due diligence can come in the form of online checking.

The worst reason a student’s social media presence may be viewed is referred to as “Admissions Sabotage.” The ugly truth is that college admissions officers are occasionally anonymously alerted to social media postings by students or parents who are trying to sabotage another student’s chance of being accepted, presumably with the hope that they will instead be accepted. Admission officers will typically follow-up to verify any accusations.
What’s the take-away for high school students? Clean up your current social media profile before you begin the application process and think before you post.

SAT or ACT? Which is Right for You?

A year ago the SAT was revamped and now students wonder, should they take the new SAT or the ACT? Keep in mind that a 1600 on the new SAT is the same as a 36 on the ACT. While experts say that the new SAT is more straightforward and now more similar to the ACT in format and subject matter, there are still some important differences to consider before making your decision.

The new SAT returns to its original 400-1600 point scale. It has eliminated the wrong answer penalty. The SAT essay portion, like the ACT’s, is now optional. There is still no Science section, but science questions appear in each individual section of the exam.

The new SAT Reading section includes only longer passages and does not contain sentence completions, making it more similar to the ACT Reading section. Unlike the ACT, its questions follow the same order as information in the paragraph. While the ACT focuses more on reading comprehension, the new SAT focuses on analyzing specific concepts and understanding how the authors construct their arguments. The new SAT Reading portion consists of 52 questions in 65 minutes, while the ACT Reading portion consists of 40 questions in 35 minutes.

The new SAT Writing section utilizes the same passage-based format as the ACT English section, and now includes more grammatical concepts such as punctuation. It is important to note that although both tests give roughly the same amount of time, the ACT asks almost twice as many questions. The SAT Writing portion consists of 44 questions in 35 minutes and the ACT English portion consists of 75 questions in 45 minutes.

The new SAT Math section has been redesigned to be more straightforward and focuses on math taught in high school, with a heavy emphasis on algebra and data analysis. The ACT Math section includes far more geometry and trigonometry, and does not provide formulas like the SAT does. The new SAT allows more time for the Math section, but the questions are more challenging. It includes both calculator and no-calculator portions. The ACT Math section is all multiple choice, and allows use of a calculator throughout the section. The new SAT Math portion consists of 20 no-calculator questions in 25 minutes plus 38 calculator questions in 55 minutes, and the ACT Math portion contains 60 questions in 60 minutes.

The Essay section is similar in the new SAT and the ACT. They are both given about the same amount of time and they are both optional. However, according to the College Board, “you can count on seeing the same prompt no matter when you take the new SAT with Essay, but the passage will be different every time.” In the new SAT, you must evaluate an argument, whereas in the ACT, you must come up with your own argument and support it. It is important to find out whether or not colleges on your list require or recommend the Essay portion before preparing for the test. The new SAT allows 50 minutes to answer one prompt, while the ACT allows 40 minutes to answer one prompt.

So which test is best for you? The SAT is still a critical thinking test, with no penalty for guessing incorrect answers. While many consider it to be the easier of the two, since they are both graded on a curve, it is important to pick the one that will give you the strongest competitive edge. If you are able to stay focused for longer periods of time and work at a fast pace, the ACT might be your best bet. There is more practice material available for it and the content is presented in a consistent manner. If you are a slower test-taker, the new SAT may be a better option, as it is far less time intensive and allows more time per problem. It also emphasizes creative thinking over memorizing content. To decide which test to take, obtain a copy of both exams and examine the rules, format, and questions in depth. One style may resonate with you over the other. Once you have decided which would be a better fit, start preparing as early as possible for the exam. Advance preparation will help you earn your best scores on either test.