Students

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What's the right number of colleges to apply to?

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What's the right number of colleges to apply to?

While seniors have a few more weeks before they have to make their final decisions, it’s ok to let them go and start focusing on current juniors and sophomores who are planning for their admissions season, not ending it. One of the most basic, and common, questions about the whole experience is how many colleges to plan on applying to. Most years there’s a news story about someone who is accepted to all eight of the Ivy League schools—though so far there’s no report of that this year—and there’s also usually a story about someone accepted to a large number of universities, sometimes over 50. Are these role models for you to follow? How many colleges should you apply to?

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Diana is doing ok!

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Diana is doing ok!

I felt nervous sending out interview questions this month. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis, a global financial crisis, and a near-complete shutdown of society. So…how’s your college search? But I also want to know that these seniors, who I’ve been checking in with since September, are doing ok. So far, I’ve heard from Diana, and she’s fine. She’s still on track to head to college in the fall. The University of Oklahoma is her frontrunner, though Texas Tech is still in the running, and Texas A&M has decided that they want to be on her list too. Read the full interview below.

Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.

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Making a very important decision in a very difficult time

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Making a very important decision in a very difficult time

The final stretch of college admissions for the high school class of 2020 is, to say the least, a giant mess. Some schools have moved their decision and deposit deadlines back a month to June 1, while many are keeping the May 1 deadline. Tours, visits, and accepted-student events are cancelled. As millions of people find themselves unemployed, financial aid will have to be re-figured for many would-be college students, and already many seniors are changing their minds and deciding that they will not be going to college next fall.

But many, many seniors are still making their decision as best as they can. Make sure you look up any online events your possible schools are hosting, check on their deadlines and how to appeal financial aid offers for changes to your family’s situation. Understand that you may not have as much information as you would like to make this decision, but you’ve got enough. You knew to apply to these schools, didn’t you? Other than that, here’s my advice for the coming weeks.

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Katie is almost there

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Katie is almost there

Although it’s now early April, Katie answered these questions almost a month ago. She got busy—as we all did—and didn’t have a chance to send them until earlier this week. Keep that in mind as you read these—they were written before most of us were in Social Distancing. By early March, Katie had, unfortunately, heard “no” from a number of schools. But she heard “yes” from one that has the program she’s most interested in, so there’s good news in here too! Read the full interview below.

Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.

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Resources for an extended time at home

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Resources for an extended time at home

With that in mind, I want to take this time to share some resources for making your own Social Distancing time more useful and productive. Right now my social media feeds are full of memes, questionnaires, video recommendations, and projects. They’re largely aimed at a bored and slightly stressed audience. And those are good, there’s nothing wrong with that. But my fear is that the “answer these questions about yourself” and “share a photo of _____” mini-conversations are still grounded in passing the time and not making something of the time. Here are some suggestions for making something of the time.

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Revised: what should seniors be doing now?

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Revised: what should seniors be doing now?

Apply with Sanity always has a “What Should I Be Doing Now?” section, updated for fall, spring, and summer. Obviously, the idea of what students should be doing right now is quite different, so I’ve updated the section for seniors to reflect what’s going on right now.

For 9th, 10th, and 11th grade, the “What Should I Be Doing Now?” entry is simply last week’s blog post “Don’t write a Coronavirus essay, but act like you will.” That’s really all the college admissions planning you should be doing right now while we’re in this emergency.

It is my largest hope right now that the Summer section, when it goes up in May, will be the same as every summer. Stay safe, stay home, and wash your hands.

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Questions from students

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Questions from students

A few weeks ago, back when students were still in school, I gave a talk to around 100 local juniors about three myths of the college admissions process. I only had time to take about two questions from the audience before they had to run off to class, so they compiled a list of follow-up questions. Since they won’t be back in class for at least three more weeks to get my responses, I thought I’d put them up here.

Don't write a Coronavirus essay, but act like you will

Don't write a Coronavirus essay, but act like you will

If you’re a high school student planning to go to college, you’ll be tempted to write about this for an admissions essay. And that makes sense—it’s probably going to be one of the major events in your life so far. But don’t do it. It’s likely to be a major event in everyone’s life. As extraordinary as this is, its universality will make it difficult to write anything that stands out. It will be like other major life events that almost nobody writes about because they’re so common: starting high school, the difficulties of puberty, realizing that all families have weirdness in them. You should just decide right now that you’re not going to write about this unless asked.

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Three myths about college admissions

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Three myths about college admissions

This week I got to give a 45-minute talk to the 11th graders in the International Baccalaureate program at my local neighborhood high school. I’ve talked to several classes there, and to the PTA, but never to a large group of students. Several of the teachers asked me to come, because their 11th graders are getting into full-on college application mode, and because the teachers have noticed a serious uptick in stress, competition among students, and “I heard that…” statements about college admissions that aren’t necessarily grounded in fact.

I prefaced my talk, as I do most talks with the usual disclaimer: each school is different, so there’s no rule or custom that works for all of them. What I’m about to say doesn’t relate perfectly to some of the super-wealthy and super-elite colleges like the Ivy League, nor does it relate perfectly to non-selective public or specialized schools. But it relates pretty well to a lot of the colleges out there, and to the ones where most of you are likely to go.

The talk was called Three Myths about College Admissions.

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Waitlisted? Here's what to do.

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Waitlisted? Here's what to do.

As regular admission decisions begin to go out, it’s time to think about what to do if the answer you get isn’t Yes or No, but Maybe.

First, let me say I’m sorry. Getting waitlisted sucks. In some ways a Maybe is worse than a No, because it keeps the suspense going and also starts to make logistical problems for you. Take a little time to be frustrated or angry or completely freaked out, but no more than a day or two. You’ve got to figure out what to do next.

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Two documents all students should understand

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Two documents all students should understand

In fact, many students never see the two most important documents that their high school will send to colleges for their applications: their transcript and the high school profile. Understanding what these documents are and how they relate to you can help calm down some of your anxiety about college admissions, and they can help you concentrate your energy and worry onto things that really matter.

Three things seniors can do while they wait

Three things seniors can do while they wait

For a lot of high school seniors, it’s currently Waiting Season. All of my senior coaching clients have heard back from some of the schools they’ve applied to, but not all of them. So no final decisions are made yet. What can seniors do while they wait to get responses to all their applications and make plans for the fall?

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The Glossary: public universities

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The Glossary: public universities

When it comes to college admissions, it seems like private, “elite” schools get all the attention. The Ivy League schools, Stanford, M.I.T., University of Chicago, places like that. But almost three fourths of U.S. college students are at public institutions, not private ones.

A while back I asked a question on my personal Facebook page:

Plenty of public education advocates—including myself—think nothing of sending their children to private universities. I’ve heard none of the arguments for keeping all children in public schools used for keeping all young adults in public colleges. I wonder why that is? Do you have any thoughts on our different attitude when it comes to higher education? Let me know!

One of the responses I got, which I wasn’t expecting, is that a lot of people probably don’t fully understand the difference between public and private universities. It’s not always easy to tell the difference (more on that below). Both are expensive and difficult, and neither guarantees you admission, much less success. So let’s talk about public colleges and universities.

Postcards and envelopes

Postcards and envelopes

It makes complete sense to prefer postcards over envelopes. They’re more fun, more immediate, more likely to be from friends than strangers. Envelopes require more effort, and they’re more likely to be junk mail. But still, it would be absolutely crazy to only look at postcards and refuse to open envelopes. You’d miss really important mail. You’d miss bills that need to be paid; you’d miss checks sent to you; you’d miss longer, more personal letters. Before online applications, you’d miss your college applications and you’d miss college acceptance letters. Just saying “I don’t open envelopes” and expecting any kind of success would be unthinkable.

And yet, in these more modern times with the internet and smart phones, too many high school students do the same thing. They’ll read texts, Twitter DMs, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp…almost anything but email. I’ve heard way too many high school students casually say “I never check email.” And I want to make clear that never checking email and expecting any kind of success is equally unthinkable.

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Jenna is narrowing down her choices

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Jenna is narrowing down her choices

Jenna has certainly reached the point where she’s narrowing down her list and getting a better sense of where she’s going to be at college next year. However, she’s still got incomplete information as she waits for some more financial aid offers. That could end up changing everything. Read the full interview below, and keep coming back to see what surprises are (or maybe aren’t) in store!