College is expensive. Very expensive. Which is why most students receive some form of financial aid to help them pay for it. There's all kinds of terminology for all kinds of different financial aid, but let's first look at two broad categories.
Merit aid. This type of aid isn't based on financial need. It's a school's way of trying to entice you to enroll by lowering the cost for you.
For most high school seniors, the active part of school applications is winding down. Now is the time for waiting. While you're waiting to hear from schools and thinking about how to choose from your acceptances, take some time to write some thank you notes. Write one to everyone who has done something for you along the way: teachers who wrote recommendation letters, counselors who sent off transcripts, college admissions personnel who answered questions, people who took time to interview you. Everybody. They gave some of their time to help you, and you should thank them if you haven't already
You're half way through your first year of high school, and there's so much to deal with. There are often a lot of positive things associated with this time: establishing new friendships and networks, trying out interesting electives, learning practical skills. But there's also plenty of negative things to deal with: disappointment, feeling overwhelmed, feeling disorganized, having difficulty figuring out where you belong. Take time--not just once but at least once a week--to identify what's going well and what isn't. What are the positives to accentuate and the negatives to eliminate? Being self-aware and honest with yourself is going to help you get through this year, and if you'll stay in that habit will help you every year of high school and beyond.
Everyone’s experience is different, I get that. But there’s a really good chance that this semester is going to be your Golden Age. For one, you’re almost half way through high school and have got the hang of it. You’re not a clueless and picked-on Freshman any more. You’ve cultivated relationships with fellow students and, hopefully, a teacher or two. And also, the big jump to more rigorous courses and more college pressure usually doesn't begin in full until the 11th grade.
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.
The best way to prepare for college is to be a good high school student, and there may be no more important semester of high school--as far as college planning is concerned--than this semester. When admissions counselors look at you transcript next fall, this semester is the most recent and full picture they have. While they'll look at all your grades and activities, the junior year is more important. It lets them see how you perform in more rigorous classes and more leadership roles than you're likely to have in the 9th and 10th grade.
It may seem silly to talk about being a good high school student in the spring semester of your senior year, but the fact remains that you're still in high school and there's still more to be done. And yes, I'm very aware of "senioritis." Your parents and teachers may not want me to say it, but slowing down your last semester is completely normal and fine. Because it's true, you're not just a regular high school student any more. On top of your normal classes and activities, you also have a lot of college decisions to make. Many seniors go on more college visits once they get their acceptances and have to make a decision. Your time in high school is just about over. There are often Prom and Senior Trip and Senior Gifts and Senior Pranks to organize. And so it's normal and fine to begin a transition and be less committed.
In a December blog post, I contemplated the "thought experiment" of using a lottery to decide admissions to elite universities.
But just a few days later, the author of that thought experiment published an article where she really gets down to the essence of the message: "In fact, we should discard the notion that admissions is a meritocratic process that selects the 'best' 18-year-olds who apply to a selective university. When we let go of our meritocracy ideals, we see more clearly that so many talented, accomplished young people who will be outstanding leaders in the future will not make it to the likes of Harvard, Stanford and Yale."
This week I got responses from Jack, and there's one I don't quite understand. He's pretty excited about his early application getting deferred from Yale. I've never heard a student happy about being deferred before. I assume he's happy because because a deferral--which basically means "we're not saying yes, but we're not saying no. We'll look at your application again with the batch of regular applications instead of the early ones"--isn't a rejection. But I'll update when I hear back from him about his happiness. Also, if you happen to be an admissions professional at Reed, you should follow up with Jack. Read the full interview below.
When I talked to Grace in November, she was still trying to finish her applications. But by early December she'd hit the submit button seven times. Read the entire December interview with Grace below, and catch up with her past interviews here.
Most of this is for seniors in the midst of their college applications. But don't worry, underclassmen, there's advice for you in here, too. Most high schools give you a break for a few weeks around the holidays, and most students are good at procrastination. These combine to produce way too much to do over your break. Here's some advice for handle it.
In the past few weeks I've written about Affirmative Action (I'm not at all against it) and Legacy Admission (I'm not at all against it, either). There's one more admissions policy I'd like to consider, and it's mostly just a hypothetical one: using a lottery to admit qualified students to elite universities.
I visited New York City over Thanksgiving with extended family. It was a fantastically fun and relaxing trip. On top of all the lights and crowds and excitement, something else really caught my attention. Standing in line one night, I overheard someone in my group say that there has been a 20% decrease in applications to the University of Chicago over the past five years. It has to do, he said, with the growing violence in Chicago. People are scared to go there. (I checked with my wife, and she heard the same thing I did.) My immediate thought was that there is no way there's been a decrease like that to such a prestigious school, no matter what the news reports say about Chicago. But I didn't have any evidence for my argument. And I'd only met this guy, who is really nice and really smart, a few hours earlier. And it's the holidays. So I let it go...
...but I couldn't let it go. This week I did a bit of investigating to learn more about applications and crime near U Chicago. And it turns out he's right. Kind of.
There are a few things I know about plagiarism in high school. It's rampant. High schools tend to be pretty lax about it--it's seen more as a teaching opportunity than a reason to destroy someone's yet-to-begin career. Teachers warn that colleges are much more strict and you better learn your lesson or there will be dire consequences.
But how often do we hear about someone suffering dire consequences from cheating in college? Rarely. The "things will be more strict in college" threat seems about as empty as the "this will go on your permanent record" threat. How exactly do colleges treat plagiarism? The answer isn't simple. It depends on the circumstances, the school, and the professor. It's very subjective and case-by-case.
So here's a story about an actual case of plagiarism and the consequences. It's by no means the only way that plagiarism gets treated, but I think it's fairly typical.
Jack is in a much better mood this month than when I last talked with him. I guess finishing your Common Application, submitting an app to Yale, and having a successful fly-in visit will do that. jack goes to a pretty diverse high school in one of the most diverse cities in the nation, so coming across less-diverse campuses is making him reconsider some things--and schools. Read the entire interview below.
Checking in with Grace this month I was reminded of some important truths that colleges and parents should not neglect: a good overall program is more important than a particular major; geography is important; access to good Asian food is really important. Read the entire November interview with Grace below, and catch up with her past interviews here.
I spend my time reading and thinking about college admissions from a certain viewpoint--high school students. I rarely think about parents' perspectives or colleges' perspectives. I help out with the demand part of the equation. But what about the supply side? If I could advise colleges to make their search for top-notch students more efficient and effective, what would I tell them? How would I design the college admissions game?
If I could magically change the whole system, I would basically make it a two-cycle year.
