I don’t mean to make light of disasters, natural or otherwise. I live in Houston, so I understand how serious and tragic hurricanes are. But still, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything that exemplifies the fervor of college admissions season quite like “We had school cancellations [because of Hurricane Michael] so that gave me time to work on college stuff.” Read about that, and everything else Faulkner is up to this month, below.
Kati is juggling
You’ve got automatic acceptance into your top-choice school. Life is easy, right? Not if you’re also in the choir and the lead in the school play. And you’re having second thoughts about your major. And you want to do some more campus visits. And you’ve completely shifted your college list from what it was just a month ago. And you have a bit of writer’s block. And your top-choice school may not be your top-choice school in another month. Kati’s got a lot going on right now. Read below for the full scoop.
Grace is keeping up the pace
Revisiting Affirmative Action
Results from my student survey
Last week I spent two days talking to seniors at Carnegie Vanguard High School during their English class. We talked about what colleges are looking for in applicants, how the different parts of an application work together, and how colleges actually process all those applications. The students also had tons of really great questions.
But first, I had some questions for them. Before our talk, I asked them to fill out a quick questionnaire. Here are the questions I asked and some comments on their responses. If you’re working with college-bound students—either in a school setting, as a parent, or because you are a college-bound student yourself—this may be useful for you.
Meet the Class of 2019, Kati
Meet the Class of 2019, Grace and Faulkner
Posters are now available
High school counselors and teachers, would you like an Apply with Sanity poster for your school? It's 24" by 48" inches. Send me a note with "poster" as the subject line, and I'll send you a free poster to help your students find all my free content! (I've also got postcards--let me know if you want me to throw some in!)
Some fun financial exercises
Everyone knows that college is expensive. There are plenty of universities whose full published price is higher than the median family income in America. The numbers can be so big that they're hard to imagine and even harder to make realistic decisions about. So here's an exercise I do with most of my consulting clients. You can do this at home with your family.
SAT scores should look a lot more like AP scores
SAT scores are weird. You get a number, ending in a zero, on a scale of 200 to 800, twice: one for reading & writing, one for math. You get a total score between 400 and 1600...except, of course, for those years when the writing was separate and you got somewhere between 600 and 2400. You're allowed to take the test multiple times and combine your highest reading & writing score with your highest math score, giving you a "superscore" that's higher than the total scores you got any of the individual times you took the test.
And then what? What does that number even mean?
Grace's final interview
When I first put out a call for seniors interested in letting me check in with them monthly, I got interest from all over the country. But the two who ultimately committed to it were classmates from my own city (I didn't know them prior to this). And now it seems they're going to be classmates next year, too! Read Grace's latest--and last--interview below.
Jack's final interview
I had a feeling that Jack would have some surprises for me, and sure enough he did! Read Jack's final interview below, and read all of his responses going back to the beginning of the school year in September. I'm so very grateful to Jack for letting us follow along on his admissions journey. If you'll be applying to college next year and want to participate in Meet the Class, let me know!
Should you hire a college admissions consultant?
I've had a slow month as seniors are (for the most part) done with the college admissions process and underclassmen are busy with exams and finishing up the year. But the first week of June I have at least four initial meetings with new clients coming on board. I'm still pretty new in the Educational Consultant business, but there are a lot of Independent Educational Consultants out there, with a lot of different approaches and price ranges. Should you consider hiring an admissions consultant? Who are they for?
Grace has chosen!
Jack is ready to make decisions
I didn't hear back from Jack's March questions until April 1, when I was about to send April questions. So this will count as a March/April installation, and we'll hear back from him after he makes his final decision by May 1. It looks like he's going to be choosing between Pitzer and Brandeis, although you never know how last-minute decisions work out. Read the full interview below, and check back in May to see how things wrap up!
Grace has to deal with some bad news
Jack has good news!
Jack is beginning to get word back from schools, and most of it so far is good news! But one thing we've learned about Jack over the past six months is that he's always trying to do more. He says that, even though he's been accepted a few places and is still setting up interviews, he kind of wishes he could still apply to more schools. Here's the full interview below.
Grace has good news!
Jack has sent his applications
Grace has time to reflect
You’d sent off all your applications by the beginning of December. Have you heard anything yet? I believe U of H has rolling admissions, but I don’t know how quickly things turn around during the holidays. Did you submit your CSS profile?
I haven't heard back from any schools yet :(. It's very nervewracking and I find myself checking my mailbox almost every day for a letter.