Let's say you are throwing a party for your closest friends. You arrange for everything at your house, buy chips and drinks, and plan fun games, hoping to impress everyone who shows up. Soon after the party gets started, a friend of a friend corners you and promises that he can make your party "even better!" He tells you about new fun games that will make entertaining easy, chips and drinks that will dazzle the tastebuds of every guest, and new ways to arrange furniture that will "totally get you noticed."
You agree to try his stuff out. What do you have to lose? It's not like he can make the party worse...
So he moves in all kinds of new toys and proceeds to take over pretty much everything. Your food gets pushed to the back to make room for his dishes. Your games get put aside to focus on his activities. After a few hours of this you look around and realize that all the stuff your new friend supplied isn't supplementing your party, it's swallowing it whole. And worse, everyone seems to be having a terrible time!
And then you realize that while you wanted your party to be awesome, you never needed this guy. Sure, he's got charts and graphs showing that some people sort of like his fancy chips and neat toys, but you can easily look around and notice that you aren't throwing a better party than the ones you've thrown in the past. This guy just scammed you by promising to help when he had no intention of helping at all...
This week, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors came to the same stunning realization about standardized testing. They note:
Although many colleges find benefit in using admission tests in admission decisions, it is the view of the Commission that there may be more colleges and universities that could make appropriate admission decisions without requiring standardized admission tests such as the ACT and SAT. The Commission encourages institutions to consider dropping the admission test requirements if it is determined that the predictive utility of the test or the admission policies of the institution (such as open access) support that decision and if the institution believes that standardized test results would not be necessary for other reasons such as course placement, advising, or research.
Let's sum that up: The NACAC, a widely respected group of college admissions officers, is advising all colleges to drop the SAT and ACT unless they have a specific reason to continue to require them.
I can't tell you how big this announcement is for the world of college admissions. For the last few years, I've continually stated that I believe colleges will be able to move past the ACT and SAT and focus on the parts of the college application that have been proven to matter (GPA, Extracurriculars, etc). Even as the score optional movement has gained momentum and continued studies proved that the SAT is worse at predicting success than GPA, I never believed the NACAC would take such a strong stand against standardized testing.
Mark this day on your calendar. Whatever domination the SAT and ACT have had on the world of college admissions is starting to slip. The NACAC isn't the first to criticize the testing industry, but this report is a devastating blow to the belief that every college needs standardized testing.
Someone finally pointed out that the SAT and ACT are ruining the party...
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What do you think? Is this the beginning of the end for standardized testing? Let us know in the comments!
This last week I had the pleasure to sit down with Matt Cobb, parent, fellow college admissions blogger, and creator of Admissions Directory,
a Digg-style college admissions aggregator. We talked about his
college experience, his interest in college admissions, and his
endeavors on the web to make information more accessible to students in
need of information!
This is the second part of the interview. The first part can be found here.
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Can you tell me a little more about Admissions Directory and what prompted you to start it?
I think the main motivation was that, as I got involved in trying to figure out how to help my son get into a good college, I realized that there's a ton of information on the internet about college admissions. But when I say, "college admissions," I'm talking about it broadly, from the very beginning of the process, when you're thinking about taking an ACT or an SAT test, or when you're thinking about what schools you might be interested in, all the way to the end of the process when you're looking for financial aid and scholarships.
There's just a ton of information on the internet, but it's not organized at all. It's very hard to tell what's good, what's bad, or what's helpful. And it's very hard sometimes to just find good content, because there's so much of it. And so I saw a need for a web site that could help organize that information.
How does Admission Directory function?
The idea is that we're building up a community of people that are interested in college admissions and encouraging them to submit resources that they find helpful in the admissions process. So, everyone's out there, scouring the internet, looking for information on how many AP tests they should take, or what scores are good scores, or how to best prepare for the ACT, or how to write a good essay. We're encouraging our community members to submit that onto the site, and then it gets organized and catologued so it gets put into certain categories so it's easy to find.
So all of the test prep articles, for example, are easy to find with one click. And also, these things called 'tags,' that are over to the side where you can describe that resource in even greater detail. So maybe, "test scores required to get into Harvard," could be a tag so you could find that specifically.
And we're also encouraging and hoping that our community members, when they find one of these resources that are already on the admissionsdirectory.com site, they'll comment on it when they use it; to say whether it's good or bad, to affirm the original person's submission, to vote for it, vote it up or down. And so, what happens over time, the good articles, the good content, the good websites that are helpful will have higher scores and will be on the top of the results and they'll have comments associated with them, from a variety of people.
And you can read through the comments to see whether there's someone who's used this resource that's kind of like you, that has the same needs as you have, to help you decide whether you should spend the time to actually go to the website or use the service or the resource. I didn't invent any of these comments, if you go to the circuit city website and you're looking for a TV, for any particular model, there's a whole list of comments from people who have bought that TV. That's how I shop for a TV. I look for people who are kind of like me, who bought it and who liked it, and that gives me great confidence.
And then there are other sites, that are on the internet today - the most popular one is called digg.com, that uses the same approach to gather, organize, and rate news articles. And so the top news articles rise to the top. So if you're very busy and just want to read about the things that are the most intesting to everyone else in the community, you can just go in and pick the things off the top of the list.
So I'm essentially taking some of these techniques that have been used on the internet over the last few years and applying them to this very chaotic and disorganized huge mass of admssions resources and information.
The other questions I had are about your blog itself and sort of the idea of blogging about college admissions. Have you talked with Greg about using him as an example in your blog? Is that a discussion that happened before you started writing?
I mentioned it, and I certainly asked him if it was ok and he kind of didn't care. He had a fairly lackadaisical attitude about it, lackadaisical may be the wrong word, but he just wasn't engaged in the college admissions process quite as early as I was. And so, when I started this, it didn't really matter to him one way or the other. And any time I write something about him, I try to be cognizant of the fact that other people are going to read this and don't want to embarras him.
Right. We're always talking to students now about how their Facebook or Myspace page or personal blog may eventually influence their college admission, especially at a selective school like Harvard or Standford or any school that's an Ivy. They're going to Google that kid's name and see what else is out there. Have you given any thought to how you're actually impacting his college admission by blogging about him?
No, actually I haven't. But hopefully this will show that we're diligently trying to make sure that he's as prepared as he can be to go to a good school!
We see a lot of students who, during their freshman and sophomore years, come to our office just one time to talk, briefly, about what their path looks like. But it's junior and senior year when kids kind of wake up and get involved. So, it's neat to see that happening with Greg.
It's also interesting, I don't know if you have any experience with this, but I think there's a difference that I've noticed working with students on admissionsdirectory, between girls and boys. Girls seem to engage just a little bit sooner than boys do.
That's a truth extending very, very, very far into the college admissions process. We see a lot of schools where women are 60% of the population and men are 40% or lower. What you said, that girls are probably more involved, I have noticed increase during my time doing test prep and doing college admissions. Within the last 5-10 years, we have seen girls take the forefront.
I always joke with parents that, "Women are going to run the world, because they're going to be the only ones with college degrees. They're the only ones that are getting involved." And it's interesting that you've seen that same trend, working on the internet, which has traditionally been a very boy-friendly place.
I think the boys are all off playing World of Warcraft.
So they're using the internet for different things?
Fortunately, Greg is most interested right now in computer science, and the statistics favor boys in that area. So, he's at least got that going for him.
We visted a bunch of schools this summer, and one of them was Duke. And as I was sitting there, listening to the admissions director's presentation, and looking at the data that they passed out, it really seemed to me that being a male interested in engineering, as opposed to liberal arts, gave him a much better chance, on a percentage basis with all else being equal, than a girl interested in liberal arts, just based on statistics.
I'm kind of interested to see how the next four months play out, for me. And then, I have a freshmen in high school now, so the process starts over, although, I guess, not intensely for a couple of years.
Absolutely! The process starting over is the best part about working with parents with multiple kids, watching them become experts as it goes on. You know so much now that you didn't know originally, and unfortunately, Greg's only got four months left for you to use it. Your second kid will have a much better range of resources to draw from, not the least of which is your own website.
Great! Well, I really enjoyed talking with you and reading your blog and I look forward to continue communicating.
Well thank you! I'm excited that there does appear to be a community forming. I think that the advent of your program, and other blogs that I've seen start to pop up, mean that people are starting to see blogging as a way to get out this information and keep it current. And I'm really excited to see what we see, as the community, over the next couple of years in terms of resources.
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Big thanks to Matt for agreeing to the interview! If you've
got questions for Matt, please leave them in the comments...
This last week I had the pleasure to sit down with Matt Cobb, parent, fellow college admissions blogger, and creator of Admissions Directory, a Digg-style college admissions aggregator. We talked about his college experience, his interest in college admissions, and his endeavors on the web to make information more accessible to students in need of information!
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Thanks for joining us, Matt!
Thanks for having me, Mark.
What is your background, coming to the table, for college admissions? Where did you go to college and what made you interested in admissions?
I'm a bit of a college snob, partly because i went to Stanford twice.
I got into Stanford as an undergrad, and then went back and got an MBA there. This was decades ago. In fact, this year was my 30th reunion year for Stanford.
I got into Stanford back when it was easier to get into the elite schools. And I'm also from Florida, so I figure that I must have met some kind of geographic distribution quota back then. I certainly did OK in school, I had good extracurricular involvement and good grades, but I wasn't a stellar student. So I was always just a little surprised that I got into Stanford, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed that.
After I got out of undergrad, I worked on Wall St. for a number of years and then went back to Stanford Business School. So I have a couple of degrees from Stanford, and I was actually born and raised in the Bay Area, so that was a little bit like going home since I was living in Florida at the time. And so i have a great appreciation for a good college education, as a result of that experience.
What would you say you had at Stanford that was a good match for you and that did provide you with something extra that you would not have received at a non-Ivy school?
I certainly got a great education from great professors. To this day, I think back fondly to some of the introductory courses I had from world-class professors. In fact, the other day, my younger son, a freshman in high school this year, was taking an introductory psychology (psych) class, and he was looking for a study that he could use. And I said, "You know, a really neat study is the Standford Prison experiment by Phillips Zimbardo. And that came up recently, with the Abu Ghraib mess in Iraq, as one of the academic studies that kind of explained the behaivor of those soldiers.
I actually took a Psych 1 class from Philip Zimbardo, and he covered that experiment just a couple of years after he had ran it.
I had a similar experience taking an economics (econ) 1 course from a guy named George Bach, who was the grand daddy of econ teachers and had the best selling general econ textbook, back in those days. And, in fact, it was that course that made me decide to become an econ major, which then led me to become a business major and kinda launched me on my current career trajectory.
What brought you back to the college admissions table, to looking at these issues again? Obviously, you're not looking into going back to school...
Mostly it's the fact that I have a son now, who's a senior in high school, and I wanted him to get into the best school he could. Or, at least, have plenty of options that he could choose from. When I started thinking about this, and as I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a college snob, since I went to a good school. I have this higher regard for selective schools, rightly or wrongly, and I realize that it may be over inflated, but that's just the way I feel, since I went through that experience.
So, I started paying attention when my son, Greg, got into high school, and realized that it was a lot harder these days to get into college...into any college really, but especially the selective colleges. That made me realize that Greg was going to have to pay a lot more attention to this, or should pay a lot more attention to this, than I ever had to.
I read some of these stories recently about people of my generation, or even people a little later than me, their whole preparation for the SAT was making sure they had two sharpened number two pencils and that they got there on time.
Right, right. And that was my preparation as well. I didn't do anything else for it.
Yeah, and you took it once and that was it, and you know, it wasn't that big of a deal. And obviously the world is very different now, and it was just sorta focusing on what he, or what it was going to take for Greg to get into, you know, whatever the best schools were that he could get into. Then I started researching it and learning about it, but I'm also an internet consultant and so I have a professional interest in this as well.
First I used my blog as a way to learn about blogging, because web 2.0 technology is the modern web technology is an area or part of my practice. So I wanted to have some hands on, practical experience, and I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather blog about than something I had some interest and passion in, which was college admissions, kinda in this time frame.
You started the blog as sort of a self contained exercise and college admissions was the first thing to come to mind?
It wasn't the first thing, but it was the thing that I most wanted to, or that I could see myself writing about on a consistent basis. It was an area of interest and I wanted to blog about something that I was interested in. And as you would notice if you were to go back and look at the history of the blog, I had a couple of false starts, where I posted for a little while and then there were seven or eight months lag. And even though I was interested in college admissions, the fact that I started when Greg was a sophomore, I think, it just wasn't an all-consuming enough topic to keep me focused on it with all the other distractions in my life.
Now that he's a senior, and it's like, T minus four months until all the applications are due, and he's now finally, himself, engaged in the process, it's something that it's much easier to do on a regular basis.
And it's evolved because I also have started Admissions Directory. So now the blog, in addition to helping me learn about blogging, is also a part of my business strategy for promoting that website.
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Check back soon for more of my interview with Matt as we discuss his website, resources available to college applicants, and his son Greg! If you've got questions for Matt, please leave them in the comments...
As a college consultant, I spend a lot of my time speaking to groups of parents and students about the college admissions process. Although I try to focus on the entire college endeavor, I've noticed that parents and students are always eager to turn the conversation toward the financials of college...even if it's not the topic I'm scheduled to talk about.
Unfortunately, paying for college relies primarily on the government's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and not on any secrets I can divulge. Through the FAFSA, schools estimate how much of the comprehensive cost of the student's education should be paid by the student and parent. The Feds and the school are supposed to cover the difference between that estimate and the established costs through loans, grants, and workstudy programs.
The FASFA can be a lifesaver for low-income students, but I've often found that it dramatically overestimates the amount of money that parents and students can put forth in the pursuit of a college degree. All students should fill out the FAFSA in the second semester of their Senior year, but they shouldn't be surprised if the financial aid packages they get from the colleges are a little lean.
In fact, middle-income students are the hardest hit by the lack of Federal aid. Low-income students will find that the majority of their college experience can be subsidized, but middle-income students may find that their parents make too much to get any grants, but too little to foot the whole bill.
So what can be done? Ya gotta get creative! Here are three ideas for paying for college when the "traditional" options dry up.
1) Get a private loan.
Until recently, I considered private college loans to be a devil's bargain. All too often, I have seen students struggle to pay down loans from mainstream banks with interest rates in the 10-15% range! Luckily there are some new tools on the market to help students find good loans from respectable institutions. Simple Tuition is a site that's leading the way in transparency, publishing interest rates, estimated monthly payments, and even summaries of what the loan will cost you in total.
2) Check out schools that are footing the entire bill.
This year, Congress is taking a close look at the endowments of many private colleges that are claiming to be "non-profits." They contend that rising tution costs are the result of the universities' willingness to pass the bill to students rather than pay out of the school's enormous endowment. This has prompted some schools, like Harvard, to declare within the last few years that they will be reducing costs for upper-middle income families...even going so far as to eliminate tuition completely for those students! So don't be scared by initial price tags. Instead, call the financial aid department and find out what the school is doing for families in your income range before you apply.
3) Beg.
It's a risky strategy, I know. But it looks like it's working out pretty well for Max Stephenson, a student who sent an email to friends and family asking for them to chip in a few dollars for his $25,000 college tuition bill. He's accepting amounts as little as $2, collected almost $6,000, and ended up with coverage in a few larger media outlets that I'm sure netted him more cash. It's unlikely that you'd be able to replicate his success, but asking around if people can help you is never a bad idea!
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Paying for college can be tough, but don't get bogged down! Got any ideas that didn't make the list? Let me know in the comments!
As a test prep tutor and college consultant, I personally work with dozens of students every year to improve their college applications. For some of my students, I help them shore up shaky resumes and make a four-year university a reality. For others, I aid their already tremendous applications by refining their essays and interviews and helping them find the best schools for their selected fields.
Yet, one thing remains constant for every student I work with regardless of his or her dream: High School grades matter. A lot.
To start, I've helped dozens of students over the years get into college on the basis of grades alone. Arizona State, University of Kansas, and University of New Mexico are just three examples of schools where all you need is a 3.0 Core GPA and a smile! Most students don't realize that for students who select these colleges, the SAT and ACT are significanlty less important. Instead these universities put the focus on grades, a proven indicator of college aptitude.
In fact, recent studies have confirmed that high school grades are more predictive than the SAT or ACT, meaning that grades almost always matter more than standardized test scores. As I noted in an earlier post, colleges are becoming more and more aware that SAT and ACT scores are not indicative of future succes. That realization has prompted people like Richard C. Atkinson, president emeritus of the University of California, to continually call into question the value of the tests to the college admissions process while simultaneously reaffirming the usefulness of high school grades:
The most intriguing aspect
of this research, however, is not what it says about tests but what it
says about that old-fashioned admissions criterion, high-school grades.
The studies concluded that a student's performance over four years of
high school remains the fairest and most meaningful measure of his or
her accomplishments and the most reliable indicator of future success
in college.
- Forbes, "Beyond the SAT"
As more and more schools like Wake Forest turn to testing-optional programs, students are going to see colleges intensify the focus already placed on high school grades.
This shift is happening at all levels, but will have the greatest effect at highly selective universities. ASU, KU, and UNM may admit students solely on the basis of grades, but highly selective schools (like the Ivies) are starting to prioritize grades in a time where the smallest differences between applications matters tremendously.
And there's no sign of slowing in the increase of applications or the decrease in test score relevance. I predict that the (Freshman) Class of 2012 will face a very different college admissions reality than today's Seniors.
So keep that GPA up to at least a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. Take classes that are challenging and earn A's and B's by doing the work and learning the subject. Hire a trained academic tutor if you need one. Colleges do like to see an upward trend in grades throughout high school, but they like to see A's from day one even more!
In short, make your high school grades are an asset instead of a liablity. You'll thank me when it comes time to apply to college.
Earlier this month, the LA Times reported that The College Board will be launching a new PSAT in 2010 for 8th grade students. Currently only 10th and 11th grade students take the PSAT, a standardized test that has no real bearing on college admissions for the majority of students. The addition of the 8th Grade PSAT will bring the wonders of the SAT into the middle schools and junior highs of America for the first time.
To which I say "Blech!"
The public director of Fair Test sums up my feelings quite well:
"Now we're going to have a preadmission test to get ready for the
preadmission test? Get ready to get ready to get ready?" said Robert
Schaeffer, public education director of Cambridge, Mass.-based
FairTest, which is critical of standardized testing. "To believe you
need an eighth-grade test on top of the PSAT and SAT is just insane."
College Board is claiming that the new test will help to identify students who should focus on college preparatory classes during high school. I think it's far more likely that they want to compete with the ACT and generate additional revenue.
By their reasoning, students who will score well on the 8th Grade PSAT
will score well on the actual SAT and should be on a college bound
track. That relationship will probably hold up to scrutiny, but only because they are designing both exams. In addition, success on other standardized tests is plenty of notification already for parents and students to arrange for college prep classes.
ACT currently has a middle school test titled EXPLORE. I personally don't find the test to be particularly worthwhile, but it doesn't advertise itself as any sort of signal for future ability on the ACT. Instead, it's one of many diagnostic tests that administrators can give to help students understand their future choices by focusing on students interests, abilities, and values.
The new PSAT, however, is already being marketed in a way that makes parents and students who don't plan on taking the exam feel behind. It's not a diagnostic exam that will help students understand their choices. It's a marketing ploy designed by College Board to attach kids to the SAT brand while charging schools for tests that mean nothing.
Sound crazy? Here's what the LA Times says one administrator is already doing:
Cortines said he welcomes the new test, as it will focus families and
teachers on what students need to succeed. The deputy superintendent
said he has asked the board to budget $125,000 for eighth-grade PSAT
tests in the coming school year.
That's right. $125,000 of taxpayer money is going to go toward a test that is completely unproven to test anything. Just because College Board, a company that has no official relationship with colleges beyond supplying the SAT, says the test matters.
Blech.
I'm never a big fan of interviews with college admissions staff. No matter who is doing the interviewing, the whole subject ends up being a rehash of every other interview ever given and nobody learns anything new about the staff member or the process. Earlier this month, Ted O'Neill, dean of admissions at University of Chicago, gave an interview to the Chicago Tribune that was really typical...except for one fascinating part:
Q: What's your favorite part of the process?
A: More than a few
parts are very pleasing. I like the ritual of sitting and signing 3,400
admit letters, and appending notes going to the students I have come to
know. That brings me pleasure, and I know the letters bring them joy.
Wow. The admissions dean for a major American University writes notes to the students he knows? He actually takes the time to say "Thanks for applying, but it's not going to work out" or "I can't wait to see you in the fall"?
Of course he does!
Students and parents constantly forget that the admissions officers at the colleges they are applying to are real people. They have feelings, desires, and motives all their own. Most of them like their jobs and most of them genuinuely want to see every student succeed.
And because of that desire, reaching out to them is an extremely successful way to improve your application. They love to hear from students who are excited about their university and eventually grow to like applicants who are successful at networking and expressing their desire. When it comes time to make admissions decisions, that emotional reaction can definitely influence their choices...
So call the school. Let them know you are serious. Visit and ask to talk to the admissions staff. Make an appointment to have an interview if possible. Just make sure they know who you are and that you really, really want to attend. Be genuine!
It's your job as the applicant to get the school to like, know, and trust you. You can do that by acing your standardized tests, working toward a solid GPA, and filling your application with professional and interesting information. But nothing will convince them that you are serious about their school until they get to know you and recognize your genuine desire to attend their institution.
If you're smart about it, maybe you can get a note from Dean Ted too letting you know that he's excited to see you at the U of Chicago next semester. If you convince him that U of Chicago is your top priority, it will significantly help your chances.
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What have you done to let schools know you are serious? Ever stalked an admissions director? Worried that they will file a restraining order if you call them? Let us know in the comments!
It isn't often that I'm jaw-droppingly surprised by college admissions news articles. Usually it's just a mix of College Board's inane half-truths, press releases from colleges that won't take effect for 4+ years, and fluff pieces that get students worried that they will never go to college. In fact, I consider reducing student anxiety about those kind of news pieces to be one of the primary focuses of Omniac Attack.
However, my jaw dropped this week when I was looking over an article from Inside Higher Ed titled "New Ethics Rules for Admissions Consultants." In the article, IHE reveals that:
The Independent Educational Consultants Association
has changed its ethics code to bar people who work in college
admissions from also working as private college admissions consultants.
And also that:
Gifts from colleges to admissions consultants may no longer exceed a
$50 value. In addition, it will now be official association policy that
Web sites and other promotional material must be designed to decrease,
rather than encourage, anxiety over the admissions process.
Le sigh.
Let me be clear: I'm all for the change in rules. In fact, I'm shocked that it has taken the IECA this long to implement these kind of ethical restraints. It's obvious to me that we shouldn't allow independent college consultants to advise students about getting into college while serving on the admissions board that is looking at student applications! It's obvious that we shouldn't allow colleges to offer large ($50+) gifts to college consultants! And we certainly shouldn't encourage consultants to create additional fear and apprehension about the college process!
So before you hire a local college consultant to help you find and get into the college of your dreams, here are some questions I would recommend asking:
1) Are you currently serving on the admissions board for a college or university?
The answer should be "No." No exceptions. Anyone who is sitting on admissions board while offering their services directly to students for money is behaving inappropriately.
2) What's the largest gift you've received from a college?
The answer should be "I've never accepted a gift from a college." While it may have been acceptable in the past, remember that you are paying your consultant to help you find a school. If they are taking money from schools as well, they aren't putting your interests first.
3) How do your promotional materials discuss the difficulty of getting into college?
The answer should be "My materials discourage anxiety and help students understand the overall process." If the consultant gives you information that makes you feel like you need them to go to college or you will die in a ditch, eaten by wild dogs...don't trust them.
The saddest part of this whole story is that the new rules on promotional materials only apply to new members. Consultants who have already been accepted by IECA will "eventually" have all of their materials reviewed, but for the moment only new members are coming under scrutiny.
So keep these questions in mind when shopping!
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Anyone had an experience with a college consultant that's worth sharing? Any questions I've missed? Leave us a comment!
Every summer colleges and counselors debate the usefulness of the SAT and ACT to the college admissions process. With students gone for the break, everyone involved feels that they can ask a few tough questions, suggest a few alternatives, and generally poke and prod at the whole process. And, of course, College Board always chimes in with sunny but useless data that continues to try to convince everyone that the SAT can determine everything about your future success.
Yet when summer ends, everyone goes back to the business of telling students in no uncertain terms that the SAT and ACT are super important regardless of their usefulness in determining college aptitude.
This leads to an unpleasant situation by the time we meet with a student for the first time at the beginning of the school year to discuss the ACT. They know that standardized tests are part of the college process that shouldn't reflect on their overall intelligence, but they are still convinced that their score reflects poorly on them. Many are sure that they are the worst test taker they know. Some students are even convinced they have test anxiety, doomed to fail every version of the ACT ever constructed.
Yet, while most students need help preparing for the ACT, I've never met a student with actual test anxiety.
Gay Brock over at the Miami Herald published an excellent article at the end of July about a student who did have test anxiety. Here's how he describes the plight of his own daughter:
The morning of her first SAT test, my daughter Cate Falkowski left our
Weston home with a No. 2 pencil and a predictable amount of
apprehension.
With
a 3.8 GPA and all the required credits, she was poised for admission to
her college of choice, Purdue University. Her only hurdle was a
respectable SAT score -- or so she thought.
She had been gone about an hour when the home phone rang.
''I couldn't do it,'' Cate said. ``I threw up and left.''
In
the weeks and months that followed, we realized Cate's biggest
challenge was no longer the SAT; it was full-blown test anxiety.
Cate suffers from a condition that is extremely rare. Real, actual test anxiety
is characterized by physical and mental symptoms that go beyond simply
being scared and struggling a bit. Students who are suffering an onset
of test anxiety are prone to vomiting, fainting, and hyperventilating.
Needless to say, it's hard to take a test when you're in the restroom
for the first thirty minutes throwing up.
If these symptoms describe you...then you've got full-blown test
anxiety and you need to consult a psychologist. Cate conquered her
symptoms with a combination of Xanax and psychotherapy; it's likely you
will have to do the same.
But as I said earlier, you probably don't have any of these
symptoms. Most students we work with describe the test as a scary
obstacle and we are all too happy to help them conquer it without
medication. Preparing for the test is usually the best cure for any student who is afraid of the ACT or SAT.
I have found that the majority of students I talk to know that they need to diversify their college applications and apply to a variety of schools. They know that they should apply to at least one (1-2) Safety school, a few (2-3) Target schools, and a couple (1-2) of Dream schools and already have the schools picked out. Most families are even prepared to pay for the 6-8 college applications this would require, despite the fact that most applications are around $50.
The only problem is...the students only like their dream schools.
While it's most common among my students who want to apply to a dozen schools, I encounter a good deal of students who are literally padding their application process with schools they don't like. There are thousands of 4-year institutions in the US, but students seem to consider the categories a reflection of how much they should like the school. They routinely find Dream schools they love, Target schools they find tolerable, and Safety schools they can barely stand.
This inevitably leads to a sad turn of events. The student doesn't get into their Dream school or finds the Dream school cost-prohibitive and ends up with a selection of Safety and Target schools they hate.
Hate seem a bit strong? Imagine that you just found out that you aren't going to Princeton, Harvard, or Yale despite the fact that you've wanted to go there for your entire life. Doesn't that make you hate the Safety school you are being forced to settle for just a bit?
So before you whittle down your list of colleges this summer, take a few minutes to throw out any school that you don't absolutely love. Redefine your categories not by how much you like the school, but instead by how likely you are to get in to the school.
Here's a guide to help you out:
Guarantee Schools (Apply to at least one)
This category includes any college at which you are absolutely, positively, 100% guaranteed admission. Most community colleges fall into this category, as does your local state school if you have the appropriate ACT/SAT scores and GPA. For example, University of New Mexico will automatically admit any student that graduates from an New Mexico high school, has a 2.25 overall GPA, and a 21 on the ACT.
Safety Schools (Apply to at least two)
Contrary to popular belief, these are not schools that you will settle for if you can't go to schools you really like. Instead, they should be colleges you love where your application will fall into the top 25% of all applications. In other words, they would be lucky to have you at their institution and might even offer you a scholarship! In fact, your Safety schools are the most likely to offer merit-based aid, since your application will stand out above the general population.
Target Schools (Apply to two or three)
As the name implies, Target schools are the colleges that will consider you an average applicant because you fall into their target applicant population. Your GPA and ACT/SAT scores will match the range that the school publishes as their "average" scores, meaning that they admit students just like you all the time. Admission at a school like this isn't guaranteed, though. You will still need to write a killer essay, carefully document your extra-curricular activities, and find good letters of recommendations from teachers to stand out enough to get admitted.
Dream Schools (Apply to two or three)
It's likely that you already have your Dream school(s) picked out. These are the college where you fall into the bottom 25% of applicants and your GPA and ACT/SAT scores are significantly below the average range for the school. You are unlikely to be admitted to these schools, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Remember that the most exclusive schools, such as Ivy League schools, are always Dream schools since they take less than 10% of students that apply!
While it's likely that your Dream schools will be your favorite colleges, they don't have to be the only ones you care about. If you invest the time and energy into finding a few great Safety and Target schools, you can absolutely fall in love with schools that aren't as exclusive as your Dream schools. And that means that when it comes time to make a decision, you don't have to grin and bear a school you hate.