Three quick questions with Georgia Tech

It can be easy to think of large public universities as too large, too bureaucratic, too impersonal. But that’s not usually the case. If a busy admission department at a school like Georgia Tech can take time to answer questions for my little website, then think about the attention they can give actual applicants.

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admissions representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Alexandra Thackston, Senior Admission Counselor at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Georgia Institute of Technology?

One tradition that is unique to GA Tech is our Freshman Cake Race. This tradition dates back to 1911 and is still holding strong today. The Cake Race is held before sunrise on the morning of our Homecoming football game and spans half a mile around GT's campus. All freshman participants receive a cupcake, but the top winners receive a cake and great bragging rights. You can learn more about GA Tech traditions here.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Georgia Tech?

We practice holistic admission reviews at GA Tech. Therefore, we evaluate multiple documents and levels of each student's application. Something that stands out to us is grit. We love to see students who may have been challenged in some way or another, but were able to overcome that challenge and become who they are today. This represents what many students experience when they go off to college. We also look for students who demonstrate progress and service (our motto) throughout their high school experience.

When people come to visit Atlanta, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

I ALWAYS encourage students to check out the Atlanta Beltline. This is an urban pathway built throughout our city and encompasses what our Atlanta Community looks like. It's one of our favorite parts of Atlanta.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Georgia Tech. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Making a high school résumé

I’ve had resumes on my mind this week. I met with an executive recruiter and career coach who said that a huge part of her job is helping people make bad resumes good. I’ve also helped two clients, both high school juniors, improve their resumes in the past few days.

(Resume or résumé? I think that using the accents looks a little too formal and affected, but that going without the accents makes it too easy to read the word as the verb to resume, which interrupts the pace and understanding of your reading. I go back and forth, because neither seems “right” to me.)

So with résumés getting a lot of my attention, I’d like to re-run this post from a few years ago about putting together a good high school résumé for college application season. Leave a comment if you think I have a good piece of advice, got something wrong, or if you have an opinion on resume vs. résumé. Enjoy!

One of my Five Foundations of Applying with Sanity is to “be a person, not a résumé.” By that I mean to remember to think of yourself as an authentic person with complexity and contradictions, not just a list of achievements and statistics. That’s really important as a metaphor. But often you need a literal résumé. Scholarship applications may ask for a résumé. College applications sometimes (but not too often) ask for a résumé. Teachers and counselors may want a résumé to help them compose a recommendation letter. Potential employers very often ask for a résumé—that’s what résumés were created for. On top of that, it can be a useful exercise to go through and organize your thoughts about yourself and what you want to say about yourself. So with all that in mind, here are some things to consider when putting together, or revising, your résumé.

It’s strangely difficult to explain how to draft a résumé. The first thing I’d tell you to do is simply to do an image search for “resume samples” and notice the basic patterns. Résumés are just lists, but highly structured lists. The basic categories of things you would list are education, experience, and achievements. That’s where you begin your drafting, by listing the major facts of your education, like the high school(s) you’ve attended, your work experience, including volunteer work, and your awards and achievements. There are hundreds of guides and templates out there, but the best one I’ve come across recently is from the career center at Pomona College. It gives the basics, the reasoning for what goes there, and templates for different ways of organizing the résumé. I also recommend this video from a series produced by the Financial Times. (They’re British and use “CV” instead of “Resume,” but it’s the same thing.) Résumés are easier to revise than draft, so just get something written down, and then you can shape it from there.

There are also lots of fill-in-the-blank templates and résumé generators. Don’t use them. It’s important that you build your own from scratch, even if you’re looking at samples or templates as you do it. For one, you need to understand why you’re writing what you are, and why you’re placing it where you are. It’s easy to lose track of that when you’re just filling in information for a program to format for you. Revising and changing your résumé will be much easier and more intuitive if you make your own.

You’ll want to use a simple design. Keep it basic for your first résumé. Yes, there are some pretty good looking and clever templates out there to help you fit more information into the space or add photos or charts. But please understand that when most readers see this from a high school student, they’re not thinking “wow, this high school student made a really impressive design for their résumé!” They’re probably thinking “this kid expects me to believe they made this? They just used a fancy template. I wonder if they know how to make their own.”

Your résumé doesn’t need to have everything! It’s meant to begin a conversation, not be the conversation, so you want it to be concise and short. You’re trying to show off the things that speak to your finest abilities, and that’s different for everybody. Some students ask “should I have my GPA on my résumé?'“ If you’re proud of it, yes. Should you put your SAT or ACT scores on it? If you’re proud of them, sure. Should you list AP exams you’ve taken? If there’s more than one and you have room, absolutely. Should you list every class you’ve taken? No.

Similarly, you may decide not to list every tiny volunteer project you’ve ever done, especially if they were only a few hours total. If you house-sit for a number of families every year and it shows off your responsibility, then put it in the experience section. If you house-sat once for your aunt, there’s no need to put it on there. Everybody’s résumé will be different and list different things. There’s no precise formula. Make sure you’re listing, as concisely as possible, the broad outlines of your education, your experience in the world, and the achievements you’re proud of.

Two pages are fine if you need two pages. Many people will tell you that your résumé should never be more than a page, and they’re not completely wrong. Many readers—essentially the same ones who say a résumé should never be over a page—will not read past the first page. And if your résumé is over a page because you’ve failed to prioritize the important things or have weird formatting, then that’s a problem. But if you’ve got a reason to go onto the second page, it will be ok. Several studies have now shown that a second page doesn’t make you less likely to get hired. Watch out, though, for waste or sloppiness. If your résumé only goes a few lines into the second page, that looks odd. A second page should be at least half of the page. Otherwise, find ways to cut and condense.

But if it’s only a page, that’s great! Better, really. Don’t feel like you need two.

People tend to read résumés (and most things, on the page or on the screen) in an F pattern. They spend most of their time looking at the top, along the left margin, and at headings as they work down. Knowing this, make sure you put the most important section of your résumé at the top. Which section is going to be the most important for this particular audience? Put it first, even if your templates or examples don’t show it first.

Likewise, make sure the most important information in your lists is along the left. Say for example that you were on the swim team all four years of high school, and you were the team captain your senior year. If you write

2016-2020: high school swim team. 2020 team captain.

then you’ve got the least important information (dates) along the left margin and the most important part (captain, which demonstrates leadership and responsibility) all the way over to the right. Organize the section so that you can instead write

Captain, high school swim team, 2019. Team member 2015-2019.

There can be more than one version of your résumé. The information is going to be the same for all versions, but there are reasons to make changes. The most important thing for one audience may not be the most important thing for another audience. A résumé for a college may need to emphasize your academic credentials, so the education section will be at the top. But if you’re supplying a résumé to a teacher who is going to write a rec letter, then you may want to emphasize experiences that demonstrate your character. Besides, the teacher is already likely to know about your grades and obviously knows what school you attend. So for that version, the experience section will go higher and the education section will go lower.

I’d also advise using slightly different fonts for your résumé depending on whether or not you expect it to be read on a screen or on paper. Graphic designers and font nerds will debate these things for days and days, but for our purposes: san-serif fonts are generally more readable on a screen. However, even if they’re not less legible on paper, sans-serif fonts often look strange when printed, because we’re so used to seeing serif fonts used for printed materials. So consider making a sans-serif version for the screen and a serif version for printing. And please don’t use Times New Roman or Calibri—no matter how good they are, they’re associated with “default” and therefore “didn’t really bother.”

It has to be perfect. Not a single typo. As someone who is very successful told me once: “If you can’t make even one page perfect, when you’ve had lots of time to work on it and it’s all about you, then I don’t want to see you for an interview. You’re done.” She’s right. This one needs to be perfect.

Beware sending someone a résumé unless they ask for it. Remember that the point of your résumé is to provide a concise summary of your past four years. It’s meant to start a conversation or get someone to notice you. But if they’ve already noticed you or already started a conversation, then to hand them a résumé can be very limiting. It signals that you want to talk about what’s on the paper, when you have much more interesting things to talk about.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   How do I prepare for a college interview?

   How do I handle supplemental questions?

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

It's not the choice you make, it's how you explain it

A question I get often—from students, from parents, from strangers I’ve just met—basically comes down to “should I do A or B? Which is better for college applications?”

I can take AP Chemistry or AP Biology. Which should I take?

Should I take Calculus or Statistics?

I can take this really cool elective course or do one more year of baseball. Which should I do?

My daughter wants to quit the robotics team to be in the school play. Will this look bad to colleges?

My son wants to quit doing schools plays to try out for the robotics team. Will this look bad to colleges?

We’re thinking about moving high schools. How will this affect college acceptances? Does it raise red flags?

Can I take one fewer class my senior year to get more hours at work, or will that ruin my college chances?

My answer to these “A or B” questions is almost always “it doesn’t matter.” If you’re choosing between two good options, then you can’t go wrong. Pick the one that feels right to you and move on.

How can I say that these decisions don’t matter for something so consequential, and daunting, as college admission? For one, there is no secret set of standards and choices that colleges demand. To be clear, they do have standards. Take this example from the University of Oklahoma.

You can see that they require three years of math and recommend four. You can see that calculus and statistics are both things they recommend. You can see that they don’t tell you which one to take. If they really want you to take calculus and not stats, they’d say so. But they don’t.

A lot of our anxiety around college admission is this idea that there are secret expectations and rules. We love the idea of holistic admission. Holistic admission means that we can highlight our positive aspects and get credit for them. Holistic admission means that we’re not penalized for not taking a class that isn’t available at our school. Holistic admission means that our application will be taken within the context of our own life and not just a list of rules and requirements. We love all this…but we don’t always really believe it. Take a deep breath and accept it. There are no secret rules or requirements. You’re going to be accepted to a college—or denied—based on your whole application in context of your school and experience. You’re not going to be accepted—or denied—based on how well you guess what the secret rules are and adhere to them.

“Ok,” some of you may be thinking now, “I accept that there isn’t a secret rule about which option I take. But within my context, which would look better for me in a holistic admission context? Does it make my application look less polished, on the whole, if I switch from robotics to drama, or from debate to drums? What does it say about me?”

That’s a great question. I get it: “it doesn’t matter what you do” is unsatisfactory. Colleges accept some applicants and deny other applicants, so obviously “anything goes, don’t worry about it” is not a complete answer. So I say instead, “it’s not the choice you make, it’s how you explain it.” Because you get to decide what it says about you when you explain what it says about you.

Context matters, so explaining the context helps you out no matter which choice you make. Explaining your choice moves you away from a passive “tell me what to do” attitude and gives you more agency and control. It also highlights your critical thinking and illuminates your personality.

So don’t just focus on the choice, but the reason for the choice.

Even though I know that AP Biology aligns more with my intended major, I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to take another class from a really great teacher with whom I have a strong relationship. I’ll be taking plenty of biology in college and don’t expect the AP credit to transfer to my college in the first place.

Even though I had to pass up another class with really great teacher with whom I have a strong relationship, I ultimately decided to focus on my intended major and take AP Biology. I can still talk to my chemistry teacher after school, but I can’t get solid biology instruction after school.

It was difficult to let go of a unique elective course to play baseball another year, but I’ve developed into a team leader and didn’t want to let the team down my senior year.

It was difficult to walk away from the baseball team I’d spent three years with, but I know that my future is more academic than athletic, and this elective course was the ideal place to start making that future real.

In all these examples, it’s not the choice that’s really important—it’s the explanation. By explaining your choice, you emphasize personal qualities and priorities. You are showing colleges your decision-making process and your values. Preparing for the future, prioritizing relationships over grades, leadership, and intellectual curiosity are all things that colleges value. All of these explanations, even though for opposing decisions, mark you as having qualities colleges are interested in.

The more the reason for your decision aligns with the qualities you’re trying to emphasize in your overall application, the better. If you write an essay about how personal relationships are the backbone of a successful life, but also explain that you chose the class that aligned with your intended major over the teacher with whom you have a strong relationship, then that does indeed muddy the application. If you explain that you chose the relationship over the curriculum, but then don’t have a letter of recommendation from that teacher, it can be a glaring omission. If you want to emphasize your leadership capabilities in your application but also explain that you walked away from a leadership position to take an elective class, that might raise suspicion. But again, it’s the explanation that raises suspicion, not the decision. Let your defining qualities and priorities guide your decisions, not what you think colleges want you to do. The more you do that, the stronger the application will be.

But where do you get to explain your decisions? In the most basic, literal way, where does that happen? Throughout the application. If it’s a really major and important choice, then it may even become the subject of your essay. More likely it’s going to answer a supplemental question and/or be something you make sure to talk about in an interview. While there probably won’t be a question about “explain why you took one class over another” on an application, there will be places where you have a chance to explain your choice if it needs explaining. Most application supplements even have some version of “is there anything else you want us to know about you?” That can be where you briefly explain a choice you think might need an explanation.

There’s a real possibility, though, that the choice doesn’t even need explaining. Once you’re thinking about your own needs and goals and not just what “looks good to colleges,” you very well may decide you have better things to talk about than being defensive about a single decision. As a basic guiding principle, realize that the bigger and more difficult the decision, the more likely you’ll want to be prepared to explain it. This class over that class, this extracurricular over that one—not a big deal. Moving schools, quitting a team, or drastically changing your workload in either direction will raise questions, though. Be ready to answer them fully and honestly. That really is the best thing, both in terms of college admission and in terms of being the best version of you possible.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   How do I handle supplemental questions?

   What high school classes should you take?

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Glossary: Colleges that Change Lives

First there was a book. In 1996, journalist and independent college counselor Loren Pope published Colleges that Change Lives: 40 Schools You Should Know About Even If You’re Not a Straight-A Student. The idea was to highlight colleges that weren’t as famous and prestigious as Ivy League universities or other “elite” New England liberal arts colleges but that delivered the same—or better—personalized and life-changing education. It’s now in its fourth edition.

Later came the organization. The 40 colleges named in the book formed a non-profit organization to champion liberal arts colleges and help students find a good fit. It’s an antidote to reliance on rankings and the “prestige anxiety” that often comes with rankings. Even though Colleges that Change Lives was prompted by the book and named for the book, the group is completely independent. It has no relationship with Pope’s estate (he died in 2008) or the book’s publisher. Likewise, all the member colleges of CTCL are independent institutions. They just contribute to the organization.

CTCL does several things. It is a loud and thoughtful voice in the drive to make college admission more about a student-centered fit and less about elitism-centered prestige rankings. It provides resources to students, parents, and schools about making wise college decisions.

Probably the most important thing CTCL does for students is provide profiles of their member schools. It’s a good way to get to know some smaller colleges that you may not have heard of if you don’t live near them. CTCL also offers scholarships for students attending member schools.

Who are the member schools? There are now 44 of them. They are all small liberal arts colleges. Small in that they range in size from around 100 students to around 3,000 students. Most are in the 1,000-2,000 range. They are liberal arts colleges in that they focus on undergraduate teaching. For contrast, think of a flagship public university like the University of Michigan. It has over 30,000 undergraduate students, and it also has 180 different graduate degree programs. Liberal arts college doesn’t mean they don’t have STEM programs, nor does it mean that the college is liberal in terms of politics.

If I talk to a student or client who seems interested in a large, comprehensive university, I don’t try to steer them towards Colleges that Change Lives. Small liberal arts colleges aren’t for everyone. But if I’m working with someone who does seem interested in that kind of school, especially if they’re undecided about a major, then I definitely want them to spend time looking at CTCL and the member colleges. I live and work in a very large city, and most of the students I work with want to be in—or at least near—a metropolitan area. They stay away from the “tiny college in the middle of nowhere” stereotype. But many of the CTCL colleges are in urban areas. And none of them are, in reality, in a spot with nothing but cornfields for miles around.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   The Glossary: Liberal Arts College

   The Glossary: Public University

   The Glossary: HBCU

   The Glossary: Ivy

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Colleges that Change Lives is an independent organization which does not endorse or have a relationship with Apply with Sanity. It neither sponsored nor contributed to this content.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Delaware State University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admissions representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Todays response is from Zackery Rogers, Admissions Counselor at Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Delaware State University?

Homecoming is one of our unique traditions. Also, our aviation program is parallel to none as we have the largest fleet amongst HBCU’s on the east coast.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at DSU?

I would say students who were on the boarder line 2.1 GPA range or students who are first generation college students.

When people come to visit Dover, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

A place off campus that they should attend is the raceway track, when the race circuit is in play.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Delaware State. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

What 9th and 10th graders should be doing this summer

Earlier this week I wrote about what current high school juniors should do this summer to prepare for effective and efficient college applications this fall. I know that lot of younger high school students are already thinking about college and how they can prepare. So let’s talk about good approaches for current 9th and 10th graders.

But before we begin, let me say that you should not do anything that is boring or onerous just because you think it might “look good to colleges.” Colleges prefer that you are in interesting person, and there’s nothing interesting about wasting your time and energy just because you’re insecure about someone else’s approval. Don’t jump through any metaphorical hoops (or literal ones, either, I guess) based on vague ideas of what colleges want.

What should sophomores do this summer to be better prepared for college?

Train. You're like a professional athlete during the off-season. You get a lot more flexibility with your schedule and a lot fewer people watching you as you work, but you've got to spend this time productively. Does this mean to fill up your day with summer school classes and be a constant student? No. Like pro athletes, find another way to enhance the skills you have.

Think about your notable skills and talents, the things that you may want to emphasize on college applications. Now find interesting ways to hone those skills and talents. How can you best prove and improve your resilience, passion, intellectual curiosity, initiative, talent, creativity, empathy, or leadership? The more unlike another high school class or program the activity is, the better.

So, for example, going to a weeklong camp for debaters is good, but volunteering to do door-to-door canvasing for a local political campaign is better. Reading books ahead of time for your 11th grade English class is good, but starting a book club that focuses on foreign or lesser-known books is better. Taking a class for adults at the local community college is good, but teaching younger kids in a summer program is better. The most important thing is that you focus on yourself and the qualities you want to improve, not focus on a vague sense of "looks good to colleges." Do everything you can with your summer time--in any setting, be it a summer job, summer camp, traveling, or staying close to home--to be a better person, not have a better résumé. 

Push yourself. If you need to work or want a job, that's great. As far as college is concerned it really doesn't matter what that job is so long as you work hard at it and are reflective about what you learn from the job. As you go to work, remind yourself to work as hard as you can. And when you're done, ask yourself what you learned from that day's work. Those two things matter so much more to everyone than the job title or name of the company. 

If you don't need to work and don’t want to work, then make other plans. And here's the trick: treat it like a job, in the sense that you decide to do your best and be reflective. Even if you have the cushiest summer imaginable--maybe you're going to spend two months as a VIP on a cruise ship sailing around the Caribbean--you can still get a lot out of this. Just begin each day reminding yourself to make the most of the day, and end each day reflecting about what you learned. Whatever is you do, it can be useful for your college applications and useful for your productive and interesting life.

Go someplace new. Choose someplace you've never been that you can visit this summer. Geographically, it doesn't matter how close or far the place is, so long as it's new to you. It can be another country, another state, or another neighborhood. Try to get a sense of how people unlike yourself spend their days, and do it with an open and empathetic mind.

Goal of 20. Another way you can make the most of your summer is to give yourself a goal of 20. Make 20 visits to local museums or parks. Have 20 intentional interactions with older members of your family asking them about their experiences. Read 20 books. Watch 20 of the best movies of all time. Find 20 items to donate to charity. Run 20 miles, spread out over as many days as you need. The number 20 is arbitrary, but an arbitrary number helps make a vague idea an achievable goal. Every time you knock out one of your 20, remind yourself to be deliberate and reflective.

What should 9th graders do this summer to be better prepared for college?

Anything! You can do just about anything, I mean it. In terms of preparing for the next three years of high school, preparing for college, and preparing for productive adulthood, there's no magical activity that you really must do to get ready. Do your thing, no matter what it is (within reason--if your current thing is chaotic or self-destructive then take care of that first).

At this point, what you do isn't nearly as important as how you do it. Whether you're doing amazing, once-in-a-lifetime things like volunteering with veterinarians at a wildlife refuge in Botswana or mundane things like babysitting your little brother, you can make the most of it. Be reflective. Ask yourself "how did today go, and what can I do tomorrow that will be interesting?" Every day. Read something that relates to what you're doing. Even if all you're doing is walking aimlessly around the neighborhood trying to find someone to hang out with, stop at the local library and learn about the history of your neighborhood and go inside shops you've never been in before. Take photos of weird things you notice around the neighborhood. Be engaged with your world and your mind, whatever you're doing in the world. 

Write about your experiences. Writing about what you do on a regular basis serves several goals. For one, any college-bound person has got to be very comfortable with a lot of writing, so practicing on your own with your own assignments helps build up your discipline in a way that's more palatable to you. It will also help you maintain and deepen your self-reflection that's so vital for your off-time. You’re not trying to draft college application essays or make it into a novel. You’re just practicing writing in your own voice about what’s interesting to you.

Make a product. Toward the end of the summer, make some sort of product. Select some journal entries to make into full-on essays. Select and edit some photos to make a narrative photo essay. Make an interactive map of the places you visited. Make a book of advice for someone starting the job that you worked. Again, you can do almost anything. The idea is to curate and edit your experience into something that you can share. That's kind of a definition of education, isn't it?

Meet someone new. Right, of course you're going to meet new people over the summer. But what I'm talking about is to proactively and intentionally introduce yourself to new people that you've chosen to meet. Circumstance, coincidence, serendipity, and providence bring all sorts of people into our lives. That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't work to bring others into our lives through our own intentions and effort.

Practice some form of meditation and contemplation. There's probably no better gift you can give yourself than to start the habit of meditation and contemplation. There are dozens of different traditions and techniques to fit any religious, cultural, and personal background. Here is a pretty solid introduction to 23 of them. Choose one and try it. It doesn't have to be a religious or spiritual exercise. It can just be good relaxation. 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are two easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   What juniors should be doing this summer.

   The secret to success? Here are two of them!

3. Ask a question—or share other resources—in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

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What juniors should be doing this summer

Some high school juniors are already far along in their college admission process. Through personal ambition, pressure from family, high school requirements, or a combination of those, they have a clear sense of where they will apply, why they’ve chosen those colleges and universities, and how to go about it. Many high school juniors will not start thinking about college admission until their senior year begins. But most college-bound juniors are starting their admission season right about now, toward the end of 11th grade. If you’re one of those juniors—or an adult who cares about one of those juniors—then you should check out my post from last week, “What juniors should be doing right now.” Read that first, and then come back to this.

What follows are my recommendations for things you can do this summer to make your fall semester a little easier. It’s not a checklist to do in order, though. Each piece can affect all the other pieces, and you’ll find yourself updating and going through the cycle multiple times.

Go on college visits. You should visit some colleges. I mean this in the broadest sense, though. It doesn’t have to be a weeklong trip with family where you will personally visit three or more colleges that you think you’ll probably end up applying to. That’s great if you can do it, but most families can’t. After campuses shut down last year because of the pandemic, most began offering high-quality online virtual tours (or improved the ones they already had). Take advantage of these to look at schools you’re interested in.

As far as college visits go, you don’t even have to visit schools you’ll be applying to. I’m a big fan of visiting colleges near you just to get a feel for college in general. Tour the large public university nearest you, the small liberal arts college nearest you, and anything in between. I live in Houston, so I encourage people to visit the University of Houston, Rice University, the University of St. Thomas, and Sam Houston State University. You may not be interested in actually attending any of those colleges, but it will quickly and easily give you a sense of the difference between a large public university, a mid-sized regional public university, a private research university, and a small private university. Three of them are centrally located in the heart of Houston, and the other is just over an hour away.

Write and revise a College Mission Statement. Start with the formula “I want to _____ at a _____ college with _____.” For example, “I want to study engineering and/or financial mathematics at a small- to medium-sized university in or near an urban area, preferably not in the Northeast, with an intramural sports program.” Fill in the blanks as thoroughly and honestly as you can. For more on writing a College Mission Statement, start here.

Put together a game plan. You don't need to start on your applications yet, but it helps to have a plan for how you will go about finishing your applications. Here are some questions to ask yourself to get an outline ready for your next semester:

• What personal qualities do you want to project in your application? Examples of the kind of qualities I'm talking about include resilience, passion, intellectual curiosity, initiative, talent, creativity, empathy, and leadership. Think of one or two of your strongest qualities that will be the focal point of your applications. Your essay will center on these qualities, and you'll try your best to arrange for your recommendation letters to center on them.

• What concrete evidence do you have--other than grades and test scores--of those qualities? What stories can you tell that exemplify those qualities? Who can vouch for you when it comes to these qualities?

• What are the primary qualities of a college that will be a good place for you? How, other than by looking at rankings or reputation, will you know when a school is right for you? It helps to have an idea about this before you start looking too closely at individual schools. Knowing if a school has what you want can prove difficult if you don't know what you want. 

• Is there a school for which you think you should apply early? Why?

• What are the major application deadlines? Begin with the general. Early applications are generally due in early November, regular decision applications are generally due in early January. As you build and then narrow down your own college list, you can find more specific deadlines for your schools. How do those fit with the rest of your schedule, both at school and outside of school?

• What are the gaps in your understanding that you need to fill in? It can be quite difficult to know what it is that you don't know, but make sure you've looked through the Common Application as best as you can and identify any major holes in your timeline or knowledge.

Talk to your family about money. By the end of the year, you're going to need to send away paperwork with very detailed and personal financial information, including your parents' tax forms. You're going to decide where the line is between affordable and unaffordable. You're going to to decide how much you and/or your family is willing to borrow for your education. The sooner you begin these difficult conversations, the better. They rarely go well the first time around, so you don't want to wait until the deadline to have the first time around. If your family’s financial circumstances have changed recently through unemployment, depletion of savings, loss of investment value, and/or extra costs associated with the pandemic and lockdown, then you’ll need to revisit your financial discussions often.

Draft some essays. Even if you don’t have a college list ready, you’ve probably got a good idea of the essays you will need to write for your applications. The essay prompts for the Common Application are available. So are the essay prompts for the separate application for public universities in your state, if they have an application separate from the Common Application. Look those over. You can begin working on those now.

Most of the seniors I work with end up having two “big” essays—around 600 words—that they use. Sometimes one gets submitted for the Common Application, and another gets used for scholarship applications or shortened for supplemental questions. When I work with a senior I end up seeing several versions of the same response, at lengths from 150 to 1,000 words, constantly updated and re-used. You can begin those now, even without prompts. In fact, it’s best to begin without thinking about a prompt. Think about your qualities that you want to highlight, the big ideas that excite you, and the stories about yourself that you end up repeating to adults often. If it helps, here are some questions to consider:

• What are you most proud of?

• What do teachers or other adults praise you for?

• How would you explain yourself to a stranger?

• What separates you from your friends at school?

• What gets you intellectually excited? What do you do when you’re excited?

• What’s happened to you in the past three years that has most changed who you are?

• You’ve matured in the past three years—what evidence or stories have you got to show it?

• What’s the most recent un-assigned book you loved?

Narrow down your list of colleges. There are around four thousand colleges and universities in the US to choose from. By then end of your junior year, you want to have that narrowed down to no more than 50. By the beginning of your senior year, you want to have that narrowed down again to about 25. By application time, it will be narrowed down to between four and twelve (for most people), and by May 2022 it will need to be narrowed down to one or two. For each, make sure you do these things:

• Go to the school’s website and sign up to be on their mailing list.

• Look at the school’s web pages for any majors you’re interested in.

• Look over the school’s financial aid and scholarships web pages.

• Try to find the admissions staff assigned to your geographic area. Most schools still divide their admissions staff geographically, and many post that information on their website. You’ll know exactly who is in charge of your application.

• Look up their policy on campus tours. If you sign up for their prospective student mailing list, they’ll let you know if and when it changes.

• Find out if and how they conduct interviews.

• Find and if and how they handle gap year requests.

• If your high school counseling office uses Naviance or similar software, put the college into your college list there so your counselor can see.

• Get the information you need to try out their net price calculator.

Take care of yourself. The junior year is the most difficult for many high school students. You've just finished yours, under some of the most difficult conditions to happen in a long time. You need to prepare for your senior year and college applications, but you don't need to neglect your immediate well-being. Get rest. Read something for pleasure. Have a long talk with an interesting person. Ask some good questions instead of always being the one called on to answer questions. Be a person, and be the healthiest one you can.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are two easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   What are good test scores?

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

3. Ask a question—or share other resources—in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth

Breya's last interview

Breya is finished! She had a number of universities to choose from, and she made her final decision. Congratulations, University of Michigan, on scoring a great first-year student! And congratulations, Breya, on your graduation and new life as a Wolverine! 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.

Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy. 

Breya attends a public high school in Ohio

Have you made a commitment to a college? Where did you choose?

I made a commitment to the University of Michigan with the backup of Ohio State, depending on how much I get in scholarships at the end of the year.

How did you make your final decision? What were the factors you considered, and what was the deciding factor?

The University of Michigan has everything I want in a college. It is out-of-state, has an amazing study abroad program, and I was offered a spot in the Summer Bridge program, so I would have a opportunity to earn more college credits before actually starting college. Out-of-state and affordability were basically my deciding factors.

How does it feel to be finished with college admissions?

It feels nice to be done because it was extremely stressful for me as I don’t really have a support system so I went through a lot of it by myself.

If a current high school junior asked you for a single piece of advice, what would you tell them?

I would tell them to make sure they hold themselves accountable, especially if they have no support system. It will make life way easier and make sure that you are on top of everything.

What have you got left in terms of high school? Is there still a lot going on, or do you get to coast and relax a little bit?

Next week, I have my Phlebotomy exam, along with my AP Chem exam and club photos for the yearbook. I would say that I still have a lot to do before I get to relax.

What are your summer plans?

I plan on working this summer and attending the Summer Bridge program for the University of Michigan. I also plan on preparing myself for college, outside of academics. I also want to enjoy my hobbies more.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out interviews with other Meet the Class seniors.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

What juniors should be doing right now

Most college-bound seniors have now made their final decision and commitment about where they will be next year. (Most. Some are still hoping for a waitlist opening. Some are still navigating financial aid and aren’t sure they’ll end up where they plan to go. Some are deciding late that they want to go to college and are grabbing rolling admissions spots or checking out community college offerings.) That means the clock is really ticking for current juniors, who have approximately 51 weeks to complete their own admissions process. An entire year from now may seem like a long time to get it all done. It may seem like a really short time. Both are true: it’s plenty of time, but it will go by really quick.

Some juniors are already far along the path. Others are just beginning. Wherever you are in the process, there are four things you should do before the end of this school year.

Do your best at school and finish with the best grades possible. Some people will tell you that your junior-year grades are the last ones that count. They’re not right: colleges will ask for grade updates, and it will be conspicuous if you suddenly have less rigorous classes or are getting worse grades. Colleges can, and sometimes do, take back your acceptance if they think you’ve let yourself become too much of a slacker. But they’re not completely wrong, either: senior-year grades will get checked, but they won’t be scrutinized like your transcript for 9th-11th grade. Your GPA and rank at the end of this year are much more likely to be your “official” ones for college admissions purposes, so finish this year as strongly as possible.

Decide if you will take the SAT and/or ACT. I don’t encourage anyone to rush to take one of the tests. Many universities are still temporarily test optional, and many are permanently test optional. It’s very likely you will not need to submit test scores, and there’s no good reason to take the test if you don’t need to submit them. You should base your to-test-or-not-to-test decision on fact and research, not a gut feeling. “I’m sure I’ll be fine without test scores” is not a wise approach, nor is “I have to take the tests, because schools really require them even if they say they don’t require them.” Look at the testing policies for any school you’re interested in. Also check the requirements for any major scholarships and honors programs at those colleges. See how necessary test scores are for you, and proceed from there based on the facts. You can take the tests in the late summer or fall—you don’t have to do that now.

Set up test prep if you think you need it or want it. Don’t sign up for test prep if you’re not really sure you need it. Test prep can help, but not if you’re passive about it. If you’re not going to really work at test prep, then it will be a waste. There are all kinds of ways to get help preparing for the entrance tests. There are classes through the big companies like Princeton Review, Kaplan, and Test Masters. Lots of school districts and local colleges offer test prep. There are private tutors and smaller companies that offer personalized programs. Khan Academy offers free prep, and you can also work independently with a test prep book.

Line up rec letters. Teachers who may write you a letter of recommendation have a long time before they’re due. But don’t wait until the last minute. Don’t even wait until the last month! Find time to have a quick conversation with the teachers who know you best. Let them know that you’ll be requesting an official recommendation from them, and ask them if they have any questions or suggestions. It’s a much easier conversation to have when there’s a lot more time for it. Now is the right time to ask, even if they won’t have it written until much later.

Do some large-sweep online college searches. Even if you think you have a preliminary list ready, spend time reading through lists and descriptions in case you’ve missed something. Just looking at a list of “Best Colleges” is worthless. Don’t waste your time with that. But doing some searches for more narrow topics can be useful. Look for rankings of top colleges for several majors you’re interested in. Search for best colleges in the geographic areas you’re interested in. Look for colleges that have other qualities you’re interested in. Be sure, though, to look at multiple sources and cross-reference the lists. Never trust a single source. Also, don’t put too much weight on the actual rankings: the difference between number 12 and number 28 may be minimal. And never stop at just the top five or 10. A rule of thumb for dealing with rankings from any source: assume the top 50 are actually tied for first place.

So, for example, imagine you think you’d like to major in biology or environmental science. You like the mid-west. You want a school with a strong sense of school spirit. I’d recommend you search: best colleges for biology, best colleges for environmental science, best colleges in mid-west, best colleges for school spirit, most underrated colleges in mid-west, best colleges for your money in mid-west, best colleges for your money biology, and best colleges for your money environmental science. For each, try to find several different lists or rankings, and look at the top 100 if they go that deep. The important thing is to look for patterns and which programs show up on multiple lists. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of them, and don’t take time to stop and do research on individual schools as you go. Just look at lots of lists and look for patterns and repeating names. This takes time, but it’s also pretty low-key. Do this before you start asking counselors and teachers for more specific help or doing deeper research.

I know you’re busy. It’s been a crazy school year. You’ve got final exams. You have projects and competitions. But you’ve also got 51 weeks left. The heavy lifting is going to happen this summer and fall, but you can set yourself up to have a much easier time if you’ll take care of these things in the next four to five weeks.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   What happens in high school stays in high school

   Should you bother to take the SAT or ACT?

   Three things I say all the time

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

The secret to success? Here are two of them!

May 1st will soon be come and gone, and I’ll done thinking about the class of 2021. Time to focus on ‘22!

So let’s look at two things that will increase your success. It’s not strictly about college admissions, though it can help you immensely with the college application journey. It can also help you be a better college student and a calmer person after college. There are two things you need for success in high school, college, and beyond: a meditation routine and a time management system. Maybe need is a strong word. You can get by without either of these things—many people do. But I promise that a meditation routine and time management system will never be a waste of your time or effort.

Meditation. Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation are very popular at the moment, and for good reason. I’ve been falling in and out of my own mindfulness meditation habit for 20 years, so I’m obviously a fan. But it’s not the only type of meditation that you might consider. I’m using the broadest possible meaning of meditation: any repeated activity that allows a person to focus their mind for the purpose of relaxation and/or awareness.

There’s mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, loving kindness meditation, body scan meditation, and many more. Meditation is commonly associated with Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Many meditation practices are completely secular, even if they originated in Hindu or Buddhist religions. There are also Christian, Jewish, and Muslim contemplative prayer traditions. There’s a meditation routine to fit any body, any belief, and any community. There are ways to meditate sitting, standing, walking, even running.

The important part is to completely disconnect on a regular basis. Disconnect from the noise and activity around you. Disconnect from your critical inner voice. Disconnect from all the thinking about the past and the future. Disconnect from everything that prevents you from relaxing and raising your self-awareness. Sleep also helps you disconnect, and sleep is essential. But sleep isn’t focused, and many of us don’t experience sleep as a way to get away from stress or anxiety. Meditation, however, is focused and intentional. So don’t assume that sleep is all the relaxation and disconnecting you need. (You’re probably not getting enough sleep anyway.)

Meditation works best when it’s a regular routine. Daily is better than occasional. Five minutes, twice a day is better than an intense weeklong retreat every few years.

What’s so great about meditation? It helps control stress and anxiety. It promotes the ability to focus. It may make you healthier. If you’re a spiritual believer, it helps you attain spiritual awareness. It makes different people more focused and happier in different ways, but a meditation routine, once you find the right one for you, will make you more focused and happier.

Recommendations. There are an overwhelming number of meditation books, meditation classes, guided meditations, and websites exploring meditation of all sorts. If you need a place to begin, try the Calm app or Andrew Weiss’s book Beginning Mindfulness: Learning the Way of Awareness. I think it’s better to start any meditation routine while you search for the best fit rather than wait until you find the best fit before you begin.

Time management system. Ours is a culture with too much. Too much stuff, too much to do, too many choices, too many distractions, too many solutions that never quite solve the problems. That’s a blessing; I’d rather be in a place with too much than not enough, and too many people within our culture still don’t have enough of the things that are important. But our abundant culture also has challenges—lack of sleep, lack of direction, anxiety, missing out on important things and people, self-destructive habits. This is why we need a time management system. As a high school teacher I told countless classes that the secret to doing well in college is time management. It’s something a lot of people say. But that doesn’t mean that we’re good at teaching time management.

Like meditation, there are so many ways to go about it. There are programs and systems for managing your time, and they often contradict each other. There’s not a single solution that fits everyone. The different systems use some combination of to-do lists, calendars, inboxes, notepads, routines, rewards and notes, but there are two main ideas almost universal to productivity management.

The first main idea is that you have to get your organization outside of your brain. Get your thoughts onto paper, or a note on your phone, or a calendar. But get these things, literally, outside of your body. The more you’re asking your brain to keep up with all your commitments, all the things you have to do, all the things you want to do, and all the things you hope to do, the less energy is left for your brain to focus on the thinking that it needs to do at the moment.

Imagine you’re very, very rich, and you can hire people to do most things for you. A personal shopper buys your clothes, and a helper has them ready for you each morning. A chef makes all your meals, housekeepers keep your home clean and looking good, a secretary takes care of all your planning, and someone drives you everywhere. You literally have no decisions to make or things to do that you don’t choose for yourself. Imagine how much time and energy you can focus on the projects you want to focus on! Very few of us have that much money, but the time management systems we put in place serve the same purpose. By spending 30 minutes each day reviewing what you need to do the next day and making a plan, you can maximize the time you spend on what you want to do, minimize the on-the-spot decisions you have to make, and make it less likely you’ll be unprepared for whatever is in front of you. But if you’re constantly trying to remember what you need to do, where you need to be, and what you should have done to be ready for it, you’re always behind and not spending much mental energy on what’s important to you in the moment. Any routine that gives you more time doing what you want to do and less time trying to keep up with what you need to do is a good thing. Explore your options.

The second main idea is that you have to use your system consistently. A time management system that you only use some days doesn’t work. A way to keep track of your assignments and appointments that you only check sometimes doesn’t work. You have to be consistent, or the organization doesn’t actually get out of your brain—you’re still trying to keep track of everything in your head when you could be focused on other things.

Take, as a simple example, my car keys. My car keys are always in one of only two places. They’re either in my left pants pocket, or they’re in the top drawer of my bedroom dresser. I never set them down anywhere else. It took some self-training to get myself to that point, but I did it. And now I never lose my keys or waste time looking for my keys. I also spend exactly zero mental energy thinking about where my keys are—it’s just a habit. But it wouldn’t work if I only put my keys in the same place half the time. Even if I mostly put my keys in my dresser, but sometimes left them on the kitchen table or in the bathroom, then I would either end up spending some time looking for my keys or a lot of mental energy trying to keep myself aware of where my keys are.

The same is true of your homework assignments or deadlines for college application materials. If every time you get an assignment or a deadline you write it down in your calendar, and you check your calendar daily, then you never miss a due date or deadline. And you don’t have to spend any mental energy keeping track of them, because you know they’re in your calendar. But if you only get your assignments and to-do items written down half the time, then it’s not much better than writing them down never.

Recommendations. All of my recommendations for time management systems are books: Daniel J. Levitin’s The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload; David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity; Laura Vanderkam’s Juliet’s School of Possibilities: A Little Story about the Power of Priorities; James Clear’s Atomic Habits; and Cal Newport’s Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Also: watch this.

People often ask me for tricks and tips for getting into the college of their choice. I usually have to tell them that college admissions doesn’t work that way, and I definitely don’t work that way. The best way to get into a good college is to be a good high school student. But forming a meditation routine and using a time management system will definitely help you be a better high school student and get into college. They’ll also help you be a better college student. And a better employee and a better leader. So, you know, put that on your to-do list.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   Your parents’ fears and wishes

   Set goals for the new school year

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Seniors, are you still deciding on a college?

The deadline for most seniors to accept or decline most admissions offers is coming up soon--May 1. You may have already made that decision a while ago. If so, congratulations! But if you're still struggling to choose between two schools, or three schools, or seven schools or however many, then you may be looking for some help. 

At this point, I'm assuming that money probably isn't the issue. If you're stuck choosing between two similar schools where one costs wildly more than the other, then you're not really struggling to decide...you're just procrastinating.  Take the more affordable choice; you’ll be glad you did. I'm also guessing that if you're still struggling to decide, then a simple "make a list of pros and cons for each school" is something you've already thought of and found unhelpful.

First, consider all the stats. You’re probably already familiar with their acceptance rate, graduation rate, and basic return-on-investment data. But there are more things to consider:

What is the average daily temperature on September 5, January 10, March 15, and May 30? We all know, in general, that it's colder up north and warmer down south. But you'll want something more specific than that. What is the weather likely to be on your first day of class in fall, the first day of class in the spring, Spring Break, and the last day of class?

How much it will cost to get there and back? How long will it take? If you will be driving from home to college, how long is the drive? Will you need to stop overnight? How much gas is that going to take? (More on gas soon.) If you fly, how long is the flight? Are there non-stops, or do you take multiple flights? How expensive is that? How likely--and possible, even--is it for you to visit home during the year? How important is that to you?

What is the school's sophomore retention rate? That is, how many first-year students come back to the school for a second year? All the schools you're considering probably have similar rates, but any that are significantly higher or lower than the others should get your attention. To get a high retention rate, a school has to do just about everything right: interesting classes, helpful financial aid, and a reputation for being worth the cost and trouble. Take notice of which schools on your list do this better than others.

Is the school on the list of Top Party Schools? Every year Princeton Review ranks the top party schools. They also rank "Stone Cold Sober Schools," which is the opposite. Party sounds fun and positive, but keep in mind the way that these schools are ranked: "Schools on the "Party Schools" list are those at which surveyed students' answers indicated a combination of low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities." If they were to re-title the list "schools that attract drunks who don't study" would it sound so fun and exciting?

Compare the size of the campus to the size of its home town. For example, Boston University, University of Southern California, and University of Louisiana at Lafayette have similar numbers of undergrad students. B.U. is in a city of almost 700,000, U.S.C. is in a city of almost 4 million, and Lafayette has around 127,000 people. Those are very different contexts.

How diverse is the school? What's the racial/ethnic breakdown? How much of the student body comes from out of state? How much of it is international? How important is it to you to have a chance to study and learn with people who are different than you and have different backgrounds?

How much is the price of gasoline? If you'll be driving, the amount of money you have to pay to keep your tank full can be quite different depending on where you are. Going to school in an expensive-gas state has a different cost of living than going to a cheap-gas state. Check here to know where the different areas are.

Ok, now that you have more information, here are some strategies for helping you make the final decision.

Go back over your college mission statement carefully. Decide how many separate factors are a part of it, and then see how many of those factors are met by each school. The one that comes closest to meeting all your factors is where you should go. If you haven't yet made a mission statement, it's not too late.

Maybe there's a school that you would like to consider, but it's a little outside your comfort zone. Perhaps it's farther away than you want to be, or larger than you'd want. Maybe it's an all-girls school, or a military school, or will make it your first time being in a minority. Go to that school!! You like it well enough that you applied, and they like you well enough that they accepted you. The fact that it's a little outside the norm for you is exactly why you should go there. This isn't the time to play it safe or delay pushing yourself. 

Practice explaining your final decision. For each of the schools you’re still considering, whether two or 10, write this sentence for each: “I’ve chosen to go to _____, because _____. I was also considering _____, but _____.” And then read those sentences aloud, a lot, to multiple people, and see what resonates.

What will your tie-breaker be? If you just cannot decide between two schools, what will you use to make a decision? Most people would use price, but what if they both cost the same? Will you choose the closer school? The larger school? The one whose basketball team has a better record? Will you flip a coin or ask someone else to make the decision for you? Seriously, thinking now about how to break a tie can help you understand a little better what your priorities are, and that can go a long way.

However you decide, once you've decided, really commit. Don’t look back. Donate all your free college t-shirts you got on visits and college fairs--even of the school you chose. Buy yourself a new t-shirt (or sweatshirt or bumper sticker or keychain) to make the symbol more meaningful. If you're still a member of any discussion boards or online groups for schools other than the one you choose, get off them. Throw away or recycle all the marketing materials you've collected. Delete all the marketing emails. 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   What to do when you get waitlisted.

   Don’t pass up a full ride.

   Asking for more financial aid.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

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Julianna's last interview

Julianna still has some AP tests coming up, as well as normal everyday school. But her college application season is completely finished. This may have been the calmest, most successful season I’ve witnessed. Even with Covid. Read her final interview of the year below. Congratulations, Julianna, and thank you!

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.

Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy. 

Julianna attends a public high school in Kentucky

I assume your plans haven't changed, and you're still on track for the University of Georgia next year?

Yes, I am a bulldog through and through! In the last few weeks, I received decisions from my final three schools. I was accepted to Northwestern and Boston University, and I was waitlisted at Syracuse. BU even offered me a full tuition scholarship! But I have no regrets about my decision to attend UGA, and this is absolutely the best fit for me.

What did you do over Spring Break? Did you go on the trip with your aunt?

Over spring break, I went to Red River Gorge with some friends. It’s a state park in Kentucky, and one of my favorite places. We had a few days of hiking and adventure!

What's the rest of your school year look like? Are you still busy? Has senioritis taken over?

I received my first vaccine dose last week, so soon things will start to look more normal. We will be having graduation outside in person, so I’m looking forward to that. I have AP tests to worry about, but all in all it should be a pretty relaxed rest of the year. Senioritis has definitely taken over, but I’m trying to just chill and recharge before I have to be back in the game in college!

How does it feel to be finished with the college application process?

It’s relieving to be done. I never expected to end up where I am, but I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere else in the fall. I feel like everything is falling into place.

If a current high school junior asked you for a single piece of advice, what would you tell them?

I would tell them to put their authentic self into everything, and really prioritize their own opinions. For too long, I was preoccupied with the notion that some schools don’t compare to others. But after really listening to my heart, I know I’m going where I need to be- even if it’s not where I would have expected.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn't? What else would you like to share? (Personal note to a future journalist: the "what should have I asked that I didn't" question is one that I learned from my journalist mother. I heard her interview many people through the years, and she almost always ended with something like that. I once heard her ask someone "what is it you're not supposed to tell me that you're dying to tell me?" and they talked another 30 minutes.)

I love the anecdote you mentioned regarding this question. My mother was a journalist who graduated from Northwestern in 1991. She passed away in 2013, and I always dreamed about going to NU. For that reason, it was hard to be accepted and turn it down. But at the end of the day, I know she is proud and happy for me. I won’t be following her footsteps in terms of schools, but she’ll be guiding me with her example every step of the way on my own journey to become a journalist.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out interviews with other Meet the Class seniors.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Breya is getting close

High school students—especially current juniors—take note. When we think about the stress of college applications, we often focus on the fall. All those forms, all those essays! And then, we tell ourselves, we get acceptances and make our choice. Much simpler! But Breya’s experience is like a lot of people’s. She’s got acceptances from half her applications. Congratulations! But financial aid offers aren’t all in yet, and some are going to be appealed. For many, the time from March to June is actually much more difficult. 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.

Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy. 

Breya attends a public high school in Ohio

You said last month that you were hoping to go on some campus visits for Spring Break. Were you able to do that? Where all did you go?

I was able to see one campus so far, which happened to be Xavier University. I’m still on Spring Break, so I am hoping to visit Howard before it is over.

Have you heard back from all your colleges now? What news did you get in the past month?

I am supposed to get my final college decision in 3 days. But so far, I have gotten into more than half of my colleges. This month, I have gotten into the University of Michigan.

Have you made a decision yet? If so, can you explain your thinking? If not, can you explain what questions you're pondering and what factors you're considering? Are you attempting to get any offers changed, either in terms of acceptance or financial aid packages?

I have not made a decision yet due to still waiting for decisions and financial aid letters. I am trying to get financial aid packages changed for two colleges. Ohio State marked me as out-of-state so I am in the process of proving my residency. Also, I got no financial aid from Spelman so I am trying to work that out as well.

You're almost to the end of applications and decisions! How do you feel?

I feel excited and very anxious at the same time. I feel that it is a good thing but I am also thinking about what happens next.

What's something you feel good about right now, either related to school or not?

Something I feel good about right now is that I got a scholarship through school and I also got a new laptop for school.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out interviews with other Meet the Class seniors.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Tyra's last interview

Of the dozen high school seniors I’ve got to know through Meet the Class, Tyra has been the first in several ways. She’s the first to live in a rural area. The first to go to community college. The first to choose her college early on in the process and stick with it. Now that her plans are settled for next year, this is the last check-in with her. Thanks, Tyra, for letting us all follow along and get a sense of the variety of colleges and college students out there!

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.

Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy. 

Tyra attends a public high school in Iowa

I assume your plans haven't changed, and you're still on track for Iowa Lakes next year to study to become a vet tech?

My plans have only changed in the sense that I am now going to live off campus as my boyfriend plans to move down there with me.

Do you have any Spring Break plans?

My only plans over break was to work and spend time with my family as my days of living in my hometown are coming to an end.

What kind of "normal" spring activities will you have? Graduation? Prom? What are you most looking forward to in your final months of high school?

We have both graduation and prom coming up. I am extremelg excited for both events and they should, to my understanding, run somewhat normally dispote COVID. I am personally looking forward to prom with my boyfriend followed by graduation and the feeling of finally being done.

How does it feel to be finished with the college application process?

It is so freeing not having to worry about which college to chose. Now I am focused on finding an apartment and getting the necessary items for said apartment.

If a current high school junior asked you for a single piece of advice, what would you tell them?

Don't waste your final days. There is not many left and they will completely fly by. It sounds cheesy, but cherish every moment before it's gone.

Anything else to share that I didn't think about?

I just want to thank you for this experience!

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out interviews with other Meet the Class seniors.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Seniors, it's time to decide!

High school seniors applying to college have, for most universities, until May 1st to choose a school and make their commitment. If you have competing offers and aid packages, then it may be difficult to decide. I can’t make the decision for you, but I can offer some advice for how to get yourself in the right frame of mind to make a wise choice.

Know how much input you want from your family, and let them know. This is your decision about your future. If your family is helping to pay for it, it’s also their decision. There’s plenty of room for conflict between you and your family over how to make the best choice. Some students really want the final say to be a communal decision, and some students really want their parents to just stay out of it and let them decide for themselves. Think about how much help you want from your family and then tell them that as clearly as possible. This may be a statement like “This is a really important decision, and I’d love to know what you think I should do and why.” Or “I know we’re all in this together, but for the next week I’d really like to think about things on my own and not talk about college with you.” Making these kinds of statements of your intentions now can make it easier in two weeks if you find yourself needing to say “I know this isn’t your top choice, but I really believe this is the best choice for me and I’d appreciate your support.” There’s of course no guarantee that your family is going to go along with what you request, but beginning with a short and concise statement about what you need is the best way to keep control over your situation.

While you’re at it, think about all your influences. You probably have people you trust, and whose opinions you value, other than your family. Ask those people their thoughts on your final choice. Explain the colleges you’re choosing between, and explain the benefits and risks of each of them. You may get good advice from them, and even if you don’t get good advice, you get the clarifying exercise of being able to articulate the benefits and risks of the contenders. Be careful, though, not to put too much stock in a single person’s opinion. Most people give advice based on their own experiences, which is great. But their experiences may not match yours, and their outlook may not be as pertinent to your situation as they believe. A person who had an exceptionally good or exceptionally bad college experience themselves may give advice that only works if your choices are also exceptional.

Your best friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend is not a good enough reason to choose a school. Of course you love them and want to be with them, and it will be difficult to be away. But college is one of your most significant life decisions, and it has to be based on your life—not just being near someone else while they pursue their own life. Would you let your friend tell you what city to live in, what job to take, who else you can be friends with? If not, then don’t let them dictate what college you go to.

Go back to your mission statement. Take a good look at your most recent College Mission Statement. Give the different schools you’re choosing from a detailed and accurate score based on what you decided you want. Do not change your College Mission Statement now just to make it favor one school over another! If one university has a higher score than the others, then that is the one that best matches what you decided you want for yourself. Don’t ignore that. If you have some sort of tie, then there are three things to think about: 1) this decision is going to be really difficult, 2) you’re not going to make a bad choice, so take comfort in that, and 3) at this point the smart thing to do is go with the one that costs less.

Think about the Wise Mind. I had a discussion once, about 20 years ago, that I never forgot. I was talking to a woman—I don’t remember her name or where we talked—who was a therapist, and she told me a rule to consider: always make decisions with the Adult Brain. The Child Brain thinks “I want.” It is impulsive, emotional, selfish, and ungrounded. It just wants what it thinks will be pleasurable. The Parent Brain thinks “I must.” It is consumed by obligation, sacrifice, and service. It defers its own needs to help someone dependent. But the Adult Brain thinks “I will.” It takes both desire and obligation into consideration, and tries to make a reasonable, productive decision. So, the therapist told me, it’s important to recognize that you have a Child Brain and a Parent Brain, but you should always make decisions—especially important decisions—with the Adult Brain.

The more up-to-date terminology for a similar idea is Wise Mind. Wise Mind doesn’t ignore rational thinking or emotion, but considers them both to make wise decisions. Here’s a short video about Wise Mind. To make your college decision using the Wise Mind is to avoid being overly influenced by pure emotion—I want to go to the college that my friend is going to; this college may not be as good a fit, but it’s well-known and people will be impressed when I tell them I go there; how can I pass up that amazing new student activity center? I can avoid an argument with my dad if I just go where he wants me to go. It will also avoid being overly influenced by pure reason—the estimated return on investment is higher at this school, so it would be stupid to pick the other one; this school has 5% more classes in my major than the other one; I’ve known about this school longer, so there must be a good reason for that. The Wise Mind will balance emotion and reason to make the most productive decision.

Practice explaining your decision. You’re going to need to tell people—friends, family, teachers, counselors—what you’ve decided. Practice saying this aloud as clearly as possible—not just where, but why. Make it into a single sentence. You don’t have to wait until you’ve chosen, either. If you’ve narrowed your choices down to two or three, then practice your explanations for all of them. That may make the decision a bit easier.

Once you’ve decided, don’t look back. You can spend the rest of your life wondering what would have been had you chosen a different school. That’s not a good use of your time. Sooner or later you have to stop wondering “what if” and start living the life in front of you. So you might as well do that May 2nd.

Best of luck to all the seniors making these final decisions. Remember: if you’ve got several good options in front of you to choose from, you’ve done a number of things right along the way. Congratulations!

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   What to do when you get waitlisted.

   Don’t pass up a full ride.

   Asking for more financial aid.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Glossary: HBCU

HBCU stands for Historically Black College or University. It’s not just an informal title; there’s a legal definition from the Higher Education Act of 1965:

any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.

Some of the more nationally-known HBCUs include Howard University in Washington, D.C., Morehouse College and Spelman College, both in Atlanta, and Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. The Department of Education lists 102 currently operating HBCUs. Usually recognized as the first HBCU, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1837. There are public and private HBCUs, and they are primarily concentrated in the South, where many were formed during Reconstruction.

While HBCUs have educating Black Americans as their “principal mission,” they are not discriminatory and admit other students, both non-Black Americans and international students. Looking at the schools I’ve already mentioned, the percentage of Black or African American students ranges from 73% at Howard to 97% at Spelman. A number of HBCUs are actively recruiting Hispanic and Latino students. You will find some White students at some HBCUs, but not many.

What are the advantages of attending an HBCU? Smaller size is one. The largest of them tops out at around 10,000 undergraduate students, and keeping a low student-faculty ratio is a priority for many of them. While every university likes to think of itself as a community, many HBCUS, with their smaller size and focus on educating a distinct group, truly are a community.

There’s also in immense amount of tradition and pride in the HBCU community. HBCUs come with a sense of belonging. That pride was quite clear in Vice President Kamala Harris’s inauguration parade with the Howard marching band, and HBCU tradition was a central theme of Beyonce’s amazing Homecoming performance. But it’s not just backs and performances. 25% of Black Americans with STEM degrees earn them from HBCUs.

Another huge part of the HBCU experience to be a safe and welcoming space for African American students. It’s a place to be among other Black students, with Black professors and administrators, in a Black community. With the increased cultural and racial conflicts of the past four years, enrollment at most HBCUs has increased too. Spelman just broke their record for number of applications, and Forbes magazine explained “Four Reasons Why 2020 Was the Year of the HBCU.”

Are there disadvantages to attending an HBCU? One descriptor you often see in front of “HBCUs” is “underfunded.” According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, “More than 75% of students at HBCUs rely on Pell Grants and nearly 13% rely on PLUS Loans to meet their college expenses. HBCUs have 1/8 of the average size of endowments than historically white colleges and universities.” So HBCUS typically don’t have the balance of wealthy and non-wealthy students to balance their annual tuition income, and the schools themselves don’t have the deep savings to keep things running as smoothly. Publicly-funded HBCUs, while receiving tax dollars to help fund the school, are sometimes battling for their continued existence. Sometimes this is an unintended consequence of good intentions, like larger flagship state universities working harder to attract Black students and then necessarily drawing from the pool that might attend an HBCU. Sometimes it’s an effect of more direct intention, with people making the argument that HBCUs are “no longer necessary.”

While any student considering any college should make sure the school is fiscally sound and not likely to go away before you have a chance to graduate, that is especially true of HBCUs.

Where can you learn more about HBCUs?

This page from the Aspen Institute has a lot of resources.

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is dedicated to funding HBCUs and organizing HBCU alumni.

The US Department of Education has a ton of resources on HBCUs.

Teen Vogue breaks down nine misconceptions about HBCUs.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Glossary entries: Ivy, Liberal Arts College, Public University.

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

They put you on a wait list. Now what?

I was already planning to post the annual “what to do if you’re waitlisted” post, and then Rick Clark, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Georgia Tech, published this really great blog post about the wait list two days ago. Take a few minutes to read it, and then come back. As Clark points out, every school has their own wait list procedure, and you may have a wait list offer from someone other than Georgia Tech you need to consider. You read it? You’re back? Great.

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.

What to do if you get waitlisted to a school that’s your only option.

This may be because you only applied to one school, or you got denials from the other schools you applied to. If it’s because you got accepted to at least one other school but the financial aid offer is so bad that you can’t afford it, then you should also consider ways to ask that school for more money.

First you’ve got to demonstrate a lot of interest and keep demonstrating it. When a college starts calling people from the wait list, they’re often in a hurry. Even if they’re not in a hurry, they don’t want to waste their time. They’re more likely to call people who they know will enroll over people they’re not sure about. How do they know you’ll enroll? Just putting yourself on the wait list isn’t enough. Email—once—the admissions office and tell them: “if you accept me from the wait list, I will attend.” Open all their emails and reply when appropriate. Spend time looking on their website. Ask them questions if you really have questions, but don’t pester them. While it’s a thin line between “eager and attentive” and “annoying and desperate,” make sure you don’t cross it.

Next, you’ve got to understand that there’s no senioritis for you! It’s normal for seniors to slack off a little bit once they see the end in sight and know that they’ll be at college next year. You don’t yet know that you’ll be in college next year. If you’re hoping to get a spot from a wait list and you’re in contact with the college that waitlisted you, you need to be able to tell them that you’re doing really well and trying to prove yourself. You’re not done yet, and that’s ok.

You also need a back-up plan. You can start searching for colleges with rolling admissions or late deadlines. If you haven’t already, check out your local community college, which is a real college. You can explore gap year options. You should probably do all of these, and make sure you talk to your family about your options. The only bad option is to decide that you’re going to give up on going to college. There’s no reason to do that.

What to do if you get waitlisted to a school but you’ve been accepted to other schools.

If you get waitlisted by one college you applied to, but have affordable acceptances from at least one other, then don’t sign up for the wait list. You don’t need it. Just tell them to go away, you have a better offer elsewhere. It can feel really good to know that you’re the one making the decisions, not the other way around. You have power in this situation—use it. Thank them for their time, and then move on and let it go.

What to do if you get waitlisted from your top-choice school and you want to stay on the wait list.

Sometimes it’s not that easy to tell them to go away, and you sign up for the wait list anyway. No problem.

First, do all the same things you’d do if the wait list school is your only option. Sign up the for wait list, and contact the admissions rep for your area and let them know that if they call you, you will come. Reply to all their emails and keep checking back on their website. Keep demonstrating your interest, because it really counts in this situation. Keep working at school—no senioritis for you, either.

Choose your “backup” school from the ones you got accepted to, understanding that it’s probably where you’re going next year. You can't refuse to make other plans hoping that you'll hear back from the school that waitlisted you. Depending on the college and the year (even if you look up their statistics from last year, they will surely be wildly different this year), your chances of hearing good news later are either slim, very slim, or maddeningly slim. Once you take a spot at your backup school, you might quickly find that it’s no longer your backup and change your mind about the wait list.

Take a rational approach to figuring out your limits. You need an analytical way to think about the costs and benefits of hanging on to hope that you hear back from this school. You could make a spreadsheet. You could study up on opportunity cost and the sunk cost fallacy.

You can also think about all the extra hoops you have to jump through as extra fees that the dream school adds on to your bill.

Say you get waitlisted from Dream School, and you accept a place at Decent School and put down a $1,000 non-refundable deposit, and then Dream School calls back and gives you a spot. Think of that $1,000 as a one-time fee. Ask yourself: do I want to go to Dream School even if they charge me an extra $1,000 fee they don't charge most people? If your answer is yes then you know what to do. But as time goes on, the fees add on. If you also make a $500 housing deposit, then the one-time fee to drop Decent School and go to Dream School is now $1,500. And if you've already paid transportation costs, add those to the fees.

The really hard part is that the fees can also be emotional. Would you take a spot at Dream School even if they charged you a one-time fee of $1,500, and made you get emotionally invested in finding a roommate who you will now abandon, and made you buy t-shirts for some other school and pretend for four months that you were going to some other school? What if Dream School will also make you register late for classes and have fewer options than other first-year students for the first semester? What if they'll also take away the opportunity to use Facebook groups to seek out your own choice of roommate but instead stick you wherever they have happen to have room left? These are all real possibilities of getting pulled from the wait list, and the sanest way to think about them ahead of time is to think of them as additional fees the Dream School charges. Think about where your threshold is, how much you are actually willing to pay. Talk to your family about it, too. Then you can rationally figure out, if you do get the call, whether you say Thank You or Bug Off.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts:

   The Glossary: rolling admissions

   Dealing with denial

   Making the call before May 1

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three pandemic changes I hope will become permanent

It would be really foolish of me to say that the pandemic is over, or almost over, or close to almost over. There are still a lot of people left to get vaccinated, and there are still some scary new variants that may be resistant to the vaccines. There’s just too much that can still go wrong to start feeling confident.

And yet….

The past month I’ve seen a lot more people get their shots, a lot more kids go to school in person, a lot more people comfortable going out of the house. The pandemic may not be over, but we’re definitely in a new phase. So as the one-year anniversary of our lockdown came up last week, I started to think not just about what I was glad to be done with, but also the new habits and routines I picked up over the past year that I hope stick around.

I also, naturally, thought about changes in college admissions I hope will stick around.

The fall of standardized tests. Maybe “fall” isn’t the right word. There are still ACT and SAT tests, and there are still schools that require them. But the role of those two tests has certainly been diminished, and I don’t think they’re coming back to the prominence they had before. I’ve written about the tests a number of times in the past year:

Opting in and out of standardized tests

Juniors, should you take the next SAT or ACT?

Should you submit your test scores to a test-optional college?

It seriously looks like SAT/ACT testing is going away

Should you bother to take the SAT or ACT?

A more deliberate approach to campus visits. Last fall most college campuses were closed to student and parent tours, and many are still closed to visitors. However, a lot more virtual tours and online opportunities to explore became available. I hope this remains the norm, even after in-person tours get going again. While I think visiting a campus before committing to attend is still the best approach when possible, the past year taught many of us how to be more deliberate with visits. In the future, I hope people will get enough from the online options to feel comfortable applying to schools, and in-person visits will be limited to schools where you’ve already been accepted. I want to see more students touring schools online in the 9th-11th grades, and a lot fewer touring schools in person in the 9th-11th grades.

I hope that in the future, visiting colleges will be a lot more like touring homes for sale. Lots of people (including me) have fun checking out real estate listings both where we live and throughout the world. But we only book a visit with a real estate agent when we’re actually looking to buy. I’m sure they’re out there, but I haven’t heard of anyone saying “while we’re visiting family in California, we may as well check out some homes for sale just in case we end up moving here!” But I know plenty of families who, once their kids are in middle school, will say “while we’re visiting family in California, we may as well check out UCLA and USC, just in case!” They go on college tours wherever they happen to be, just to get the kids some exposure. I think you can do that much closer to home if you want, but colleges are making it much easier to get to know them without being there in person.

An appreciation for the old rituals. As a high school teacher, especially when I taught seniors and had AP exams to prepare for, I really didn’t like all the extra stuff that came with senior year. Prom; senior skip day; senior prank; senior trip; awards night; graduation rehearsal, sometimes several of them. I was fine with seniors doing college visits at places who had accepted them, but the rest felt like too much celebrating a win before they had crossed the finish line. But talking to students in the classes of ‘21 and ‘22, I keep hearing how much they miss those things. I’ve come to a better understanding of how important those transition rituals are, and I hope students do, too. School communities can reflect on which of the rituals and traditions they missed the most and why. The next two years will be a good time to appreciate and accentuate the really meaningful ones. It’s also a great time to let go of the ones that aren’t as special.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts: Taking time to reflect, Things for high school seniors to consider before committing to a college.

3. Ask a question in the comments section. Or let mw know what pandemic-related changes in your life you hope to keep.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

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Three quick questions with the College of Wooster

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admissions representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Todays response is from April Gamble, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to The College of Wooster?

A really fun and unique Wooster tradition is Filling the Arch. After the first big snowfall of the year, Wooster students gather together, no matter the time of day, and try and fill the iconic Kauker Arch with snow. Legend has it that if the Arch is filled, classes will be cancelled. This year, in spite of the pandemic, Wooster students still found a way to carry on this tradition.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Wooster?

As part of the CTCL coalition of colleges, Wooster believes the four years spent here will be transformational ones. We don't expect perfect students- we know that not everyone thrives and is successful in all areas of their high school curricula. We understand that the road through high school can be bumpy and uneven in spots. We're looking for students who want to grow and change and ask big questions—and we know that this kind of learning isn't without risks.

When people come to visit Wooster, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Boo Bear's Brew or Wooster Memorial Park are my two favorite places to recommend. Boo Bear's is a tiny coffee/tea shop, located inside of an indoor farmer's market downtown. Wooster Memorial is a surprisingly large and rambling nature preserve right on the edge of town with ADA accessible trails that highlight the rolling hills and oak forests of northeast Ohio.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Wooster. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Hope College

I took a break from sending Three Quick Questions to colleges in January. I didn’t expect to get any responses or goodwill sending admissions offices unsolicited requests while they’re in the thick of reading all those applications. But March seemed like a good time to resume, and it looks like I was right—I have two new ones today.

The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

This response is from Seth Costello at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Hope College?

The first tradition that comes to mind is The Pull, it's a 3 hour long tug-of-war between the Freshman and Sophomores each year. The rope is a couple hundred feet long and is laid across the black river in Holland. The Tradition is the longest college tradition in America and is an awesome feat to witness each year. Although in terms of program, Hope prides itself on the model of our liberal arts that saturates each student in a wide array of diverse classes that provide a perfect base to use later on in life or to help an undecided student find a major. Each student will be required to take a few more elective classes to further their broad education.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Hope? 

I wouldn't say that we have perfect and even more, imperfect students. I think the person that tends to flourish at Hope is a student that values relationships. At Hope we pride ourselves on the culture and community of our people, we love creating new, long lasting relationships. So no matter if you are a student with high grades or not, you have the opportunity to flourish through the relationships that you make while being here.

When people come to visit Holland, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there? 

There are many great places to be, obviously the beach during the warmer months is a great attraction and only about 7 minutes away. But anything downtown no matter the time of year is a great place to visit. Downtown offers so many shopping, restaurant, boutique and service shops to explore, plus the people downtown are such a joy to have in your company. 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Hope College. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.