Posted in Uncategorized

“Intangibles” in College Application Process

In today’s college admissions landscape, many students and parents put so much emphasis on the “tangibles” when applying to college and have a lack of appreciation or unawareness for the “intangibles”. First, let me say that the “tangibles” are very important and you must still do well in all of them if you are going to be considered admissible at a highly competitive university or for a top scholarship. However, it’s the “intangibles” that college admission counselors recognize and take note of when making final decisions on being admitted to their school or being awarded a significant amount of merit aid.

When defining the words “tangible” and “intangible”, I find definitions like the ones below from Websters Dictionary:

Tangible– “Capable of being perceived; substantially real; capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind; capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value”

Intangible– “An asset that is not corporeal; an abstract quality or attribute”

When a senior applies to college, there are many different steps or tasks they must complete and submit to a college admissions office. Let’s first distinguish what I think are the “tangible” parts of the college application process:

  1. Application
  2. Grades in courses in 9th-11th grade
  3. Courses taken in 9th-12th grade
  4. Test scores (if submitted)
  5. GPA
  6. Reasonable extra-curricular activities
  7. Letters of recommendation (these can highlight intangible qualities a senior had, but colleges will want to see more “evidence”)

While these parts of the college application are extremely important, I do want to emphasize that with a significant amount of money, these aspects can be “controlled” with tutors, test prep coaches and even college coaches. They are also “controlled” by high schools by the way they calculate GPA/rank, encourage grade inflation and are really ambiguous in how they manipulate class rank, offer certain courses and can embellish letters of recommendation. However, this isn’t true for many. Many students are on their own to do as well as they can on the parts of the college application mentioned above. College admission counselors will notice this.

What are the “intangibles” when it comes to the college application process? What will college counselors like to see in senior applicants to know they can be a good “fit” at their school and they will contribute to their campus? Below are the “intangibles” that I think are most important.

  1. “Personal” Essays– Notice that I didn’t say “well-written”, “great” or “detailed”. If your essays are going to stand out, you better have the above characteristics. What I mean by “personal” is that your essays better be specific to you, what makes you tick, contributions you currently are making in your community and ones you would like to make to your “future” community. TThey also must exhibit “vulnerability” on your part. This means they need to go “deeper” into who you are. You need to provide your positive and sometimes negative attributes, what you do when nobody is watching, unique interests and quirks and how you have interacted with others, your goals and ambitions, what you are curious about, just to name a few. If you work with a college essay coach (because I am one), they can do their best to get the “personal” out of you, but you must be the one to make it happen.
  2. Gratitude and Positivity– Whether students come from the most privileged backgrounds or from the most impoverished situations, showing gratitude for the good things of life demonstrates maturity. No one in the world is completely free from disappointment and heartbreak. Each person faces her own set of challenges. College can be stressful with its many demands. If you are someone who remains thankful and upbeat even in less-than-ideal situations, then you will be a bright light to your peers when they feel pessimistic. As you sit down to write your personal essays, especially if it the prompt is about overcoming challenges, be sure to frame your story with a tone of gratitude rather than complaint. Practice ways to be thankful in your daily life. In the end, these habits you build will help you to tell engaging stories for your college applications.
  3. Servant Leadership and Humility– It’s not hard to find college applicants who have held some type of leadership position. Most serious students have run a club, founded a project, and had an influential voice in some way in their school or community. Rarer are the types of students who pour themselves into serving and uplifting others. Their goal revolves not so much around dictating what happens but around meeting the needs of people. Find opportunities to empower others—including any of those you serve and classmates you work with. In college applications, you will have plenty of space to toot your own horn through the activities list or your resume. Feel free to list all of your awards and accomplishments there, but approach your essays with humility, focusing on the impact you made on others as well as people’s influence on your development.
  4. Collaborative and Team Oriented– Along the same lines, admissions officers seek students who can work well in a team. In college, there will be many opportunities to collaborate with classmates—whether it is planning a campus event for a club or studying for an upcoming math final. Being able to overcome differences in opinions, listen to others, and contribute your strengths and ideas to a group encourages your learning and the learning of your peers. Don’t shy away from the messiness of teamwork. See club or class projects as moments to sharpen your collaboration skills. It’ll help prepare you for the many team-oriented projects you will take on during college, summer jobs or internships, and throughout your career.  
  5. Socially Engaged and Compassionate– Admissions officers seek students who demonstrate community engagement and compassion because it is evidence that they will contribute positively to the student body experience. It has become popular to do volunteer work for the sake of college applications or to meet community service requirements, but admissions readers can tell from a mile away if a student had genuine, committed interest in something. Be truly socially engaged. Identify something that you care deeply about, and then find ways to address it. It does not have to be volunteer work per say, but you should be committed to using your passions to benefit others. Bake sales, supply drives, and other fundraisers can be a great way start but remember to take it a step further by learning about those you are serving with and forging connections that leave a lasting change on you. These small steps will build in you the character traits that move admissions officers, setting you up to succeed not only through the application process but also through college and life.
  6. Initiative and Independence- You should not shy away from taking the initiative to start something, help someone and show compassion towards each other even when it may be awkward or unpopular. The more that you show you can take initiative and be independent, the more trust adults will have in you and you will be given more responsibility. You can be with and have fun with your friends, but when there is an opportunity to fill a need, help someone, show compassion or sometimes just do the right thing although it may be the unpopular choice, it’s the ones who have shown that they can take initiative and be independent that stand out. The college application process is YOUR process…not your parents, friends, relatives or counselor’s. If you don’t show initiative in communicating with admission officers, go to the college that is the best fit for you academically, emotionally and spiritually, you only have yourself to blame.

Posted in Uncategorized

Should Seniors “Stay In Their Lane” When Choosing Colleges To Apply To?

When someone tells you to “stay in your lane”, it is normally after you have tried to do something that you didn’t have the knowledge, expertise or experience to do. What they’re saying to you is, “keep doing what your good at.” Should this be advice we always adhere to? Not necessarily. There will be times when one decides to take a risk and “step out of their comfort zone” and that’s fine. Honestly, at certain times, it’s encouraged because you can learn a lot by taking risks. Yet when someone does do this, they shouldn’t expect the ideal result. Why you might ask? Because if you are taking a risk, this probably means that you are moving forward without the preparation or credentials others may have who are taking on this challenge with you or it’s something that will be competitive.

I once applied for a job that others around me (family and friends) were saying “that’s great” or “you would be good!”. I knew I didn’t have the related experience other applicants would have or even what the employer was ideally looking for. However, I thought I would be very good at what the job was and since I heard a number of people encourage me, I spent the time to apply. I didn’t even get an interview but that’s okay, I didn’t come into it with many expectations and I was proud of myself for putting in the effort.

Having assisted high school seniors for 20+ years now as they apply to college, this “stay in your lane” saying has run through my head numerous times. Every senior comes into the college application process differently. Nobody is exactly the same. There are just too many factors that vary (family, background, extracurriculars, grades, courses, test scores, etc.). Nevertheless, many seniors try to apply to colleges that they have very little chance of getting accepted to because of the schools prestige, name, or rank or because they aren’t getting honest feedback from friends and family. What’s even more frustrating is that some of these seniors actually expect to get accepted. Now, there are definitely seniors that understand getting accepted to a certain college is a long shot but they would still like to complete the application. That’s fine with me! These seniors will also have additional colleges that they apply to as well that are a good fit for their credentials.

One aspect of “staying in your lane” when it comes to college admissions, is to “blaze your own trail”. You are different than anyone else that is going through this college application process. You may hear of the colleges your friends, neighbors or relatives applied to and were accepted to, but their “story” is different than yours! Don’t compare yourself to anyone else who went through or are going through the college application process with you. Just because they may have gotten accepted to a specific school, doesn’t mean you will or should.

Below are 3 additional factors to consider when trying to understand if you should “stay in your lane” when applying to colleges and understanding if you are applying to colleges that are “in your lane”.

1. Academic– If you don’t have straight A’s (maybe a couple of B’s), your chances of getting into a highly competitive admission college (top 25 of rankings) go down dramatically. You also needed to have taken the most rigorous course load at your school and have been very involved in extracurriculars at your school and outside of your school. Although we live in a test-optional world now, these highly competitive admission colleges also would like to see test scores at their mean that they post each year (typically, this means as close to 1500 or 34 ACT). Even if you meet all four of these criteria, it is a “reach” to get into the most competitive admission colleges.

If you haven’t done all four of these things, it’s OKAY! 95% of high school students in American haven’t either. If you’ve done one or two of these things, that’s great! I applaud you for working hard, completing what you have as well as you possibly can and for trying to be involved as much as possible inside and outside of school. There are still MANY colleges out there that would love to have you. There are excellent flagship state, private and Christian colleges that would be a great fit for you. The overwhelming majority of colleges accept students with A’s and B’s, a few C’s and even a D on their transcript. Go to websites like College Data, College Scorecard or SCOIR to search for colleges that match what you have done.

2. Financial- This is often an overlooked factor when it comes to “staying in your lane”. Even students who have great grades, test scores and are involved in many extracurricular activities, should not consider competitive admission colleges because if they have to pay 3/4 or full price to attend one of these colleges, I don’t think it’s money well spent, especially if you know you will need to go to grad school. If you have done well in each of the four factors mentioned above, MANY colleges will give you a lot of money to go to their college, and many colleges are going to provide you with a similar education and opportunities.

Most high school students have around a 3.8 weighted GPA, get between an 1100-1200 or 25 ACT and are involved in a number of extracurricular activities. Even if you didn’t achieve each of these criteria, there are plenty of great colleges for you to apply to. My biggest piece of financial advice is to not go into debt beyond what your potential starting salary would be. This may mean leaving off your list of colleges you are applying to, schools that have a more popular name because typically with the “name” comes more of a cost.

3. Major- Let me get this out of the way right away. Are there benefits to getting a high paid job in finance or the government/politics if you attend an Ivy League school, compared to a less known competitive admission college or another very good four year college? Yes. If you have the credentials (see #1) and you in essence “win the lottery of college admissions” by getting accepted to an Ivy League school, could you pay off thousands of dollars of debt if you were to get a high paying job in finance or government/politics? Yes…over time. Do graduates of lesser known, quality four year colleges get good jobs in finance or government/politics? Yes. It’s all about taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you, working hard, taking a risk and networking at whatever college you go to.

If you are not majoring in finance or government/politics, there is no correlation between the name of the college/university on your degree and the first job that you get after you graduate from college. After you’ve worked in your first job after college the school you went to becomes even less important because your next position is typically based on previous and related experience.

Find the major that would be a great fit for you to pursue. You can do this through internship experience and assessments like YouScience (students at DC take this free through SCOIR), MyMajors, O’Net Online or Career Direct. Another couple of good articles to read on this topic are Check on Return on Investment for Colleges and Academic Majors by Lynn O’Shaughnessy and a previous blog post I wrote titled “Choosing a College Based on ROI“.

Posted in Uncategorized

Early 2023 College Application Trends

Now that we are past the popular November ED (Early Decision) and EA (Early Action) college application deadlines, we can look back on the trends for the first time in regards to the 2022-2023 application cycle. On November 18th, Common App came out with their initial report of the application numbers up through the November 1st application deadlines. Click here for the full report. Below, I will highlight the most important trends to recognize and how it impacts current seniors and juniors when applying to colleges.

  1. College applications continue to rise at rapid rate. Applications increased the most (45%) at colleges with less than a 25% admit rate.

Those of us in the college counseling profession continue to cringe as we see application numbers continuing to rise at at rapid rates because it’s creating a logjam at the more competitive admission colleges in the country, which in turn, makes seniors apply to more colleges since their chances of being accepted go down at their “top choice” colleges. Through November 1st of 2021, Common App reported that there were 2,471,544 first-year applications. This November 1st, of 2023, that number rose to 2,853,554. This is after an increase of 596,709 applications from 2021-2022, the largest increase in history. An example is University of Georgia, who just came out with their Early Action decisions yesterday (11/18). They had their largest increase ever in applications last year and this year received 21% more.

What does this mean for you? Seniors, if you applied to a college that has a 35% or less admission rate, you can most likely reduce your chances of getting accepted by 10% right away, due to the volume of applications they receive and then you will need to have the grades, test scores (if you submit them), essays and extracurriculars to be able to stand out. You also need to show continued demonstrated interest until you receive a decision. Juniors, for every college that you apply to that has a 35% or less admit rate, apply to two more that have a 50% admit rate or higher. Also, start showing demonstrated interest now!

2. The overwhelming majority of applications are from seniors that live in zip codes with the highest median household incomes.

Common App linked ZIP code-level median household income data from the American Community Survey (5 year estimates) to each applicant residing in the United States. The grouped communities (ZIP codes) into 5 quintiles, where quintile 1 comprised the 20% of the ZIP codes with the lowest median household income and quintile 5 represented the 20% of ZIP codes with the highest median household income. Out of 697,042 applicants in 2022, 411,392 were from quintile 5.

What does this mean for you? Students who live in more affluent zip codes tend to apply to the more competitive admission colleges because they put more stock in the publicized and touted rankings. The more competitive admissions colleges love it when students can pay full price or close to it to attend their institution. If you are looking to receive need-based financial assistance to attend college and you live in a more affluent zip code, the opportunity to receive need-based financial aid may be lower due to colleges having the understanding that you could pay more if you had to (home equity being a factor). If you live in quintiles 1-4, colleges may be more generous and provide you with more need-based aid, if you qualify for it. This all is obviously based on your actual need after you complete the FAFSA and for some schools, the CSS Profile. If you are seeking need based aid, make sure you go back to the colleges that your senior has been accepted to, complete all of the financial aid applications that is required, and have honest communication about what documentation that they need to make as accurate a decision as possible when awarding you need-based financial aid. These conversations are better to have in late winter/early spring when they may have a need in enrollment. If you commit to early, they don’t have a reason to give you any more need-based aid. Demonstrated interest also plays a bigger role in how much need-based financial aid you will receive.

3. The share of Common App members requiring standardized test scores since 2019–20 has changed dramatically — from about 55% to just 5% in 2021–22. This season (2022-2023), just 4% of members require a test score to submit an application. There was a slight decrease in student test score reporting, from 51% in 2021–22 to 48% in 2022–23.

I’m going to refer you to a couple of posts regarding whether you should submit scores. They are both posts from The College Kickstart blog titled Selective Colleges with Low Test Submission Rates and Selective Colleges with High Test Submission Rates. Bottom line, take at least two of one test (ACT or SAT) and get the best score that you can. If you are below the average/mean that the college posts, then don’t submit your scores. If you are above the average/mean, then submit them. Even if you would rather not submit your scores for admission purposes, they may benefit you for merit scholarship opportunities or unique programs at the colleges you apply to. If a college is test optional, and you don’t submit test scores, you will not be at a disadvantage compared to students who do. Please click here for a great article on test-option being the “new normal”. You can also read this new article written by Jeff Selingo titled “What Does an SAT Mean Anyomore?”

Conclusion:

As seniors continue to apply to more colleges because they’re concerned they won’t get accepted to the most competitive admission colleges or they don’t want to apply to better fit schools, more college’s admit rates will continue to go down (including flagship state universities) and the cycle will continue. My biggest advice is to look beyond the top 50 colleges in the rankings and find great fit colleges that have over a 50% admit rate. There are hundreds of great colleges that have over a 50% admit rate that students will thrive at and receive a great education. For every college in the top 50 that a senior applies to, they should apply to 2 more colleges that have over a 50% admit rate. You should only apply to 3 or less colleges in the top 50 of the rankings. If you apply to more, you are just playing the college lottery game. No seniors should apply to more than 10 colleges because if you apply to the appropriate schools, you should get into 5-7 of them. Then you can make a more educated decision as to which college you should attend.

Posted in DCCS Specific Posts, Major/Career Guidance

Understanding the Junior Practicum Experience at DC

The Junior Practicum experience for current juniors at DC is intended to build off of the Sophomore Externship experience. If you are new junior at DC, welcome! I am excited to work with you. At DC, we require our 11th graders to complete a Junior Practicum, which is 40 required internship hours at a company/business or organization outside of DC. Click here to read a blog post of mine titled, “The Value of a High School Internship”. Click here to read a post titled “Gen Z X Factors”. I hope these two posts help you understand why I think high school internship experiences are not only helpful, but needed experiences that every Upper School student at DC should have.

What to know when planning for Junior Practicum:

  1. You have from the day after your sophomore year ends through May 31st of your junior year to complete the required 40 hours.
  2. These hours can be completed at any time beyond the classes you are scheduled to take at DC. You can complete Junior Practicum hours during the summer, PRT time, days off of school or one or both SAIL weeks (November or April).
  3. After completing your Sophomore Externship experience; who did you get to know, talk to and learn from that could be a potential supervisor for your Junior Practicum? You could intern at the same company or organization if you are building on and/or learning something new with a different supervisor.
  4. Continue to talk with your parents, friends and others that can help you know of someone that would be good for you to intern for if you are looking for a different experience than what you did for your Sophomore Externship. I think that this process of asking questions, initiating communication with potential supervisors and networking is very important to go through. 90% or more internships are established through personal connections.
  5. Feel free to go back to your YouScience aptitude/interest assessment results for additional recommendations of what careers may be a good fit for you.
  6. If you have asked a couple of professionals whether you can complete your Junior Practicum with them and they have said no, first ask them if they know of anyone else that would be good to ask. I am also happy to help connect you with someone that may be willing to have you intern with them.

What to do when a potential supervisor is interested or has said that you can complete your Sophomore Externship with them.

  1. If a potential supervisor would like to know more about the Junior Practicum internship program, they can view the Junior Practicum Guidelines and Supervisor Information forms.
  2. Ask your potential supervisor at what time, before May 31st, would be a better time for you to intern with them. It would good to consider interning with them at the most appropriate time during the year in which they may have more for you to observe or do.
  3. Go to the “’23-’24 Junior Practicum Hourly Log Form” that has been shared with you and is also in your SCOIR Drive, complete your information and then your supervisor’s information. E-mail me (tcreeden@dccs.org) your supervisor’s name, email and company name. Agree to and submit the “’23-’24 Junior Practicum Contract” form (submitting it is you agreeing to the terms).
  4. Begin your Junior Practicum!

What is required for you to complete during and after you complete your 20 required Sophomore Externship hours?

  1. Once you and your supervisor have agreed to the ’23-’24 Junior Practicum Contract”, log your completed hours in the “’23-’24 Junior Practicum Hourly Log Form” that was shared with you. Complete the questions for each day(s) hours as well (tasks completed and “one thing you learned”).
  2. Complete a project assigned to you by your supervisor.
  3. Once your 40 hours are logged, you must complete the “’23-’24 Junior Practicum Student Evaluation Form”. The link to this form is in the “’23-’24 Junior Practicum Hourly Log Form”.

Below are some FAQ’s regarding the Junior Practicum that you may have:

Can I complete my intern hours with more than one supervisor?

Yes. You must complete at least 10 hours with one supervisor. For juniors, this means you may have up to four different supervisors to complete the 40 hours required.

Can I complete my intern hours with a faculty or staff member at DC?

No. You must complete your Junior Practicum hours with a supervisor outside of DC. If you are interested in teaching/education, you may intern with a teacher at the Lower School.

What if I don’t know what profession/career I would like to intern for at all?

If you have completed the Sophomore Externship experience, you should hopefully be able to draw from that experience and know if you are more excited about the career field you interned for or maybe you are less excited about it (which is totally fine as well!). If you are looking to complete your Junior Practicum in a different career field, please go back to your Career Matches in your YouScience assessment results and review what careers that may be a good fit for you. If you are a new junior at DC, please take the YouScience assessment in SCOIR. Ask me how to get started and I would be happy to help you. I am also more than happy to meet with you individually to review your YouScience assessment results with you and/or talk through what career fields you may be interested in by asking you some questions.

Can I complete my Junior Practicum hours during my PRT period(s)?

Yes, if you have a PRT 1st or 4th period and would like to complete any of your Junior Practicum hours during this time, you can come into school late or leave early as long as I am aware that you are completing your hours during your PRT. I need to be the one to sign off and let the main office know where you are.

What if I don’t complete all of my Junior Practicum intern hours before May 31st of my junior year?

It is strongly recommended that you complete your 40 required hours before May 31st of your junior year because it’s important that you can add these hours to your college applications, be able to possibly write about the experience in your college essays, and most importantly, have a great idea of what you may need to put for a major you would like to pursue in your college applications. Also, you can get a letter of recommendation from your supervisor for your college applications and may even have the opportunity to continue working for your supervisor in the summer after your junior year and get paid (I’ve had seniors tell me this happened a number of times). Nevertheless, if you don’t complete any or all of your required 40 hours before May 31st of your junior year, you do have until March 1st of your senior year to complete the hours.

Posted in DCCS Specific Posts, Major/Career Guidance

Understanding the Sophomore Externship Experience at DC

The mission of DC is “to educate students who will serve God and impact the world through Biblical thought and action”. Much of this education obviously occurs daily on our campus as the students at DC complete coursework, interact with their teachers, take unique electives and participate in extracurricular activities. As students enter 10th grade, we also believe that our students need to interact with professionals off campus to explore their interests, curiosity and gifts in a career field of interest. In order to do this we require our 10th graders to complete a Sophomore Externship, which is 20 required internship hours at a company/business or organization outside of DC. Click here to read a blog post of mine titled, “The Value of a High School Internship”. Click here to read a post titled “Gen Z X Factors”. I hope these two posts help you understand why I think high school internship experiences are not only helpful, but needed experiences that every Upper School student at DC should experience.

What to know when planning for Sophomore Externship:

  1. You have from the day after your freshman year ends through May 31st of your sophomore year to complete the required 20 hours.
  2. These hours can be completed at any time beyond the classes you are scheduled to take at DC. You can complete Sophomore Externship hours during the summer, PRT time, days off of school or one of the two SAIL weeks (November or April).
  3. Talk with your parents, friends and others that can help you know of someone that would be good for you to intern for. I think that this process of asking questions, initiating communication with potential supervisors and networking is very important to go through. 90% or more internships are established through personal connections.
  4. Use results from the YouScience assessment to assist in understanding what occupation/profession you may want to intern for. After we complete this assessment in Sophomore Seminar the first month of school, you will know and understand your results.
  5. If you have asked a couple of professionals whether you can complete your Sophomore Externship with them and they have said no, first ask them if they know of anyone else that would be good to ask. I am also happy to help connect you with someone that may be willing to have you intern with them.

What to do when a potential supervisor is interested or has said that you can complete your Sophomore Externship with them.

  1. If a potential supervisor would like to know more about the Sophomore Externship program, they can view the Sophomore Externship Guidelines and Supervisor Information forms.
  2. Ask your potential supervisor at what time, before May 31st, would be a better time for you to intern with them. It would good to consider interning with them at the most appropriate time during the year in which they may have more for you to observe or do.
  3. Go to the “’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Hourly Log Form” that was shared with you and is in your SCOIR Drive, complete your information and then your supervisor’s information. E-mail me (tcreeden@dccs.org) your supervisor’s name, email and company name. Agree to and submit the “23-’24 Sophomore Externship Contract” form.
  4. Begin your Sophomore Externship!

What is required for you to complete during and after you complete your 20 required Sophomore Externship hours?

  1. Once you and your supervisor have agreed to the ’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Contract”, log your completed hours in the “’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Hourly Log Form” that was shared with you. Complete the questions for each day(s) hours as well (tasks completed and “one thing you learned”).
  2. Complete a project assigned to you by your supervisor.
  3. Once your 20 hours are logged, you must complete the “’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Student Evaluation Form”. The link to this form is in the “’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Hourly Log Form”.

Below are some FAQ’s regarding the Sophomore Externship that you may have:

Why Sophomore Year?

In my opinion, sophomores are mature enough to explore the options they may have when it comes to vocation and career options. I go through The YouScience aptitude/interest assessment results with them in Sophomore Seminar class at the beginning of the school year. This information provides them with a number of occupations that may be a good fit for them. Also, the earlier you start, the earlier future internship opportunities may be available as a junior or senior. Lastly, it’s a great time to encourage improvement in the soft skills and networking skills that will be needed in their future.

Can I complete my intern hours with more than one supervisor?

Yes. You must complete at least 10 hours with one supervisor. For sophomores, this means you may have up to two different supervisors to complete the 20 hours required.

Could I intern with a family member?

Although I think it would be more beneficial to intern with someone you don’t know as well. You also could have a great internship experience with a relative. So yes, you can intern with a family member. The only requirement is that it cannot be your parent.

Can I complete my intern hours with a faculty or staff member at DC?

Yes, however, you must have contact with someone outside of DC for your internship to be approved.

If I can’t drive, how can I do an internship?

I understand that this is a challenge as a sophomore when completing an internship. Parents, you will most likely need to take your son or daughter to their internship and pick them up. However, 20 hours is not a lot of hours. To complete 20 hours you are looking at 3 full working days or 5-6 half days.

Are these service hours?

No, these hours are different than service hours. These are hours in which you are observing/job shadowing a professional at a company or business. If you have a question as to whether you think what you want to do for your Sophomore Externship hours overlaps with service hours please let me know.

When can I start?

When you know who your supervisor will be for your internship, go to the “’23-’24 Sophomore Externship Hourly Log Form” that was shared with you, and enter you and your supervisors information. Then email me and provide me with your supervisor’s name, business/company name and email address. I will contact your supervisor and then you are good to go to log your hours on the “hourly log form”.

What if I don’t know what profession/career I would like to intern for at all?

Wait until we review your YouScience assessment results in October and then you will have a lot of great information to consider. It’s okay to not know what you may want to major in or career you want to pursue as a 15 year old. I don’t think someone at this age should know. You can make a decision, however, on what interests you and what you are curious about. Is there an occupation you think is really interesting? Maybe you’ve observed someone you know or have seen someone on TV in this occupation. I would encourage you to explore this curiosity and interest, get out of your comfort zone a bit and intern with a supervisor in this particular occupation.

Can I complete all of my Sophomore Externship intern hours in the Sophomore Career Week class the 2nd SAIL week?

Yes, if you sign up to be in the Sophomore Externship SAIL class, I will contact you and ask what occupation you are interested in interning for. I will then email you one or more potential supervisors that you can contact and ask if you could intern with them. We will have class on Monday and Tuesday of SAIL week (morning and afternoon). These classes are interactive and I bring speakers in to help you understand various career options and how to prepare for and conduct yourself when completing your Sophomore Externship. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Sophomore Career Week you will be interning full days (at least 7 hours). You are responsible for your transportation to and from your Sophomore Externship. You must also return to school for any extracurricular activities you are committed to (drama, choir, athletics, etc.)

Posted in College Admissions

College Rankings are “Gamed”…Here’s Why!

Welcome Back! It’s a new school year and hope, excitement and good intentions fill the air. It’s also that time of year when US News and other publications come out with their updated college rankings and a lot of students, parents, grandparents, etc. like to look at these rankings to determine what the “best” colleges are. Columbia University went from #3 to #18 in this year’s rankings because they got caught reporting false information and numbers to help their rankings. Is the quality of education, facilities they have and opportunities they provide any different than last year? No. However, some will think they are getting a worse education because they are 15 spots lower in the rankings. I’m not defending Columbia at all. I wish they were taken out of the rankings for what they did. I’m trying to prove the point that the rankings are useless. My advice- don’t pay attention to these rankings because they are manipulated and “gamed” by the colleges. How? Let’s dig a little deeper.

I’ve been asking my juniors in class, “how do you know whether a college is “better” or one of the “best” schools? A few of them came up with what I think are the top 4 reasons but most could not.

  1. Admission Rate– If it’s really low (<20%) then that means they take the “smartest” students and if they have the “smartest” students they have to be one of the “best” schools, right? I guess that depends on how you define “smart”. Also, let’s keep in mind that colleges can control their % acceptance rate. Here are just a few examples. First, they never accept significantly more students year after year because if they did, their acceptance rate would go up. Second, they don’t build more dorms and increase their freshman class size because if they increased their freshman class size, their acceptance rate would go up. Third, they market to students who have no chance of getting accepted and tell them they should apply because “they don’t just take students with perfect scores and are at the top in their class”. This is a lie because outside of athletes, students who come from influence and if you fill a big need, you pretty much have to have all A’s in the most rigorous courses at your school. Plus, over 93% of incoming freshman at the colleges with the lowest admission rates, are top 10% of their class. These colleges spend millions of dollars marketing to students who never had a chance of being accepted, because they need 40,000 + applications so that they can deny 95% of them.
  2. Rankings- For those that think the rankings are an accurate reflection of how good a college may be, you are the ones that keep the rankings alive. For those of us in the college counseling profession, we despise the rankings because we know it’s just perception, not reality. For additional thoughts that I have regarding rankings please read my posts titled “Perception vs. Reality in College Admissions” and “View College Rankings With Skepticism”. You can also read how an actual college “gamed” the rankings to boost their application numbers and perception here.
  3. Cost- Is true that if something is more expensive, it is better quality? Yes. When it comes to goods and services, you obviously have to pay more if the product you are buying was made with better quality materials that cost more. We also know that a lot of products get priced higher because of a “shinier” cover or case or a “sleek” new look even though the product is the same. When it comes to college costs, when you are paying more tuition for one school over another, what are you really paying for that’s “better”? I understand it costs more to live in a city than the suburbs or the country, but we’re just talking about tuition, not room and board. The answer is…not much. The majority of four year colleges have similar dorms, meal plans, major options, nice recreation facilities, nice academic buildings, etc. I know that some schools are larger than others and therefore have more resources but my point is that for what a college student needs and even wants in order to have a successful and enjoyable college experience, the overwhelming majority of colleges provide an excellent education on a nice campus with nice facilities. So what are you paying for when Harvard (without any financial aid) is $100,000 total per year and University of Pittsburgh is $30,000 per year? You are paying for their “reputation”, their “name” and I guess the opportunity you have to say you “went to Harvard”. This is exactly the reason Mark Salisbury started TuitionFit. I would encourage you to check out what TuitionFit is all about.
  4. Who You Listen To– In the majority of college planning meetings that I have with students and parents, when they think that the higher ranked colleges are “better”, most of the time it’s because one of the parents went to one of these schools and they believe their success in life is due to the fact that they attended their alma mater. I also meet with parents who say they don’t want their child to think they should attend their alma mater because it wasn’t the “great” experience they thought it would be. I often hear that there is a lot of pressure and anxiety students feel on a daily basis to “keep up” or succeed at a highly competitive admission college. I understand that this isn’t true for everyone though. It’s when a student or parent tells me that their neighbor, friend, co-worker, etc. told them that a certain college is better so therefore they think so as well that frustrates me. Nobody should form an opinion about a college without doing research for themselves and understand what all of their options are. First, know what environment you may thrive in spiritually, academically, socially, emotionally and then look for colleges that fit what you need. Don’t apply to a college because it’s more “popular”, “well known” or your friends and family think it’s “better”. If you are looking for websites that will provide you with very helpful information about any college, go to CollegeData.com, College Scorecard, or College Board Big Future.

Posted in College Admissions

There is a “Safety” Issue in College Admissions Today

When seniors apply to college they are encouraged to apply to a “balanced” list of colleges. Typically, this means applying to a few “reach” colleges (less than 30% admissions rate), “target” colleges (between a 30-60% admission rate) and “safety” or “likely” colleges (60% or higher admission rate). Colleges in each of these categories can vary depending on the student applying and how they have performed academically and/or test scores they have received.

The problem is that a lot of seniors begin the college application process having already determined in their mind what the “good”, “better” and “best” colleges are based on others opinions (friends and family), social media, rankings (read my view on college rankings here) and what they’ve read online. Many have spent little time researching other colleges that they maybe haven’t heard of but could be a great fit for what they are looking for. Why? Because if they haven’t heard about it…it can’t be a good school, right? The problem with this philosophy though is that they just eliminated 85% or more of the colleges in the United States.

What makes a school a “safety” school on your list of colleges that you are applying to? You have a greater than 60% change of being accepted. When you look at Temple University’s admissions profile in SCOIR, you see their acceptance rate is 71%. This lets you know that Temple could be a safety school for a majority of students. If you look at Temple’s Common Data Set here, in section C11, in order for Temple to be a “safety” school on your list, you want to be at a 3.25 (on a 4.0 scale) or higher because if you add up the percentages of students that were accepted and enrolled who had a GPA of 3.25 or higher, you will get 67.65%.

More than half of the colleges that were included in this study admitted two-thirds of their applicants!

THE MOST IMPORTANT COLLEGES THAT YOU APPLY TO WILL BE YOUR “SAFETY” SCHOOLS! Here are a number of reasons why and some resources to take advantage of in order to discover some great “safety” college options.

1. Depending on your major, “safety” colleges could have a better program than a “competitive admission” college.

If you believe in rankings, you should know that colleges get ranked according to specific criteria that has nothing to do with what majors are offered or how reputable that school may be for a certain major. Having met with college admissions counselors and visited colleges for over 20 years now, I know that there are colleges that have great education, journalism, engineering, computer science, nursing, political science and math programs (just to name a few) that aren’t in the top 100 colleges in the rankings, but their specific program would be ranked in the top 25 compared to some of the colleges at the top of the rankings. Who knew that Taylor University has an EXCELLENT journalism major, Purdue University is now of THE BEST engineering programs and Asbury University is one of the TOP broadcast journalism programs in the country. I could go on and on, however, you wouldn’t find out this information if you didn’t meet with college admissions reps that visit our school, attend college fairs or online events and ask questions or just put in an hour here and there and doing some research. It’s hard to go online and search for this information because the most competitive colleges will spend A LOT of money making sure their name pops up first in many of the ranking lists. Here’s a tip: When searching through rankings, write down the first 3 colleges you come across that you haven’t heard of as much and spend 25-30 minutes researching each of them. These could be great “safety” college options for you!

2. “Safety” colleges will pursue you!

This goes back to Jeff Selingo’s “Buyers and Sellers” list of colleges that is in each of your SCOIR Drives. The “seller” colleges are the more competitive admission colleges that don’t need to do much to get you to apply. They know that as long as they spend a lot of money staying on top of rankings and sending out bulk emails getting you to think you should apply, they have you and you are easily convinced to apply. The “buyer” colleges are the ones that need to intentionally recruit to get them to apply. They will visit high schools, send more personal information in the mail, pay for students to visit them in-person, and offer merit scholarship money. Take advantage of these opportunities to get to know if a certain college is a good for you! The “seller” colleges make up over 80% or more of colleges in the United States! Their admission rate is higher because only students apply to their school because they want to go there! They don’t get the 10,000-15,000 more applications each year because seniors just thought they’d “give it a shot” or “just tried” even though they know they aren’t getting in.

3. Being a “big fish in a small pond” is fun and provides different opportunities.

A blog post I wrote back in 2017 titled “Would you rather be the “head of a chicken rather than the tale of a Phoenix?”, explains everything you need to know about this point. I know there are opportunities to land great internships if you were attending a highly competitive admission college but I also know that a lot of times the big reason you end up getting hired because of the school listed on your resume.

4. Every college is going to provide you with the opportunities to succeed.

I have yet to visit a college that I thought, “they don’t seem to care about their students”. EVERY college I have visited, every college admissions counselor I have talked to and (almost) every alum I have chatted with, care for their school, love working there or enjoyed their experience there, and they are there to do whatever they can do give the students at their college the same experience. Sometimes I hear that students have more friendly and caring interactions at a “safety” school they are applying to compared do the more competitive admission college. At least in my experience, the tours at colleges who have over a 50% admission rate have been different than those with less than 30%. Why? Because the competitive admission colleges don’t need to spend intentional time with you. They just need your application to keep their admit rate low to stay on top of the rankings. They don’t even need to offer in-person tours anymore. They’ll just wait for you to ask questions, come to an online info session or come to their campus for a tour because they know you’ll do these things because you think you have to in order to “up your chances” for admission. The colleges with an over 50% admission rate? They’ll email you personally, send you intentional info and even some small swag in the mail to get you to visit their campus, offer to pay for some expenses to visit, have you meet with a professor when you are on campus and even give you a meal ticket.

5. Your “safety” colleges will award you the most merit scholarship money.

This is just a fact. The more competitive admission colleges don’t even have merit scholarship money because they promise to “meet full demonstrated need” (which they get to define by the way). Over 55% of students at the most competitive admission colleges PAY FULL PRICE! That’s over $80,000 a year! Because of what? The name of the school? The bragging rights with family and friends? Believe me, if you have significant financial need, can get accepted at a highly competitive admission college and will only pay significantly less than full price, by all means, go! However, for 96% of applicants to these colleges now, that’s not the case. Having financial need can hurt you at these colleges (read Jeff Selingo’s book titled “Who Gets In and Why”). Colleges with over a 50% admission rate will offer merit based scholarship money to applicants who have good grades and/or test scores. They have to in order to get the best students to come to their school. And these colleges may offer more if you ask the right way. Click here to read a great blog post about a senior’s decision to attend UPITT over Northwestern.

Below are a few resources for further reading on the importance of applying to “safety” colleges:

“Reach, Target and Safety Schools: Don’t Slip When Creating a Smart College List”

“Perception vs. Reality in College Admissions”

“Should You Pay More than $66,000 a Year for Northwestern University?”

Get to know more possible “safety” schools:

Stuart Nachbar has his own website titled “Educated Quest”. He has visited many colleges and writes school profiles based on these visits.

There is a show on Amazon Prime titled “The College Tour” and it has completed it’s 4th season. These are great 30 minute tours of many “safety” type colleges.

Posted in College Admissions

The New Era of College Admissions

Whether we like it or not, we’re headed into a new “state” of college admissions. Unfortunately, this “state”, “era” or “phase” is not going to advantage the seniors applying to college UNLESS they start applying to a broader list of colleges.

What’s the concern?

Let me reiterate that the concern isn’t on the college side, it’s on the student side. A lot of the “name brand” colleges are continuing to get more applications over the last two years coming out of the pandemic which is “gold” to them. Why? Because the more applications they get, the more students they can deny, the lower their admission rate gets, which makes them seem more desirable (which isn’t true since nothing changed at their school the last two years). It also lets them give out less merit based scholarship money since they can convince more students who were accepted to pay more since they are now more competitive to get in to.

How did this happen?

There are a few factors that led to this. The first was when the pandemic started, all schools went test optional, so now a senior can apply not needing to send a test score to the college and try to get accepted solely on grades, courses, extracurriculars, essays and letters of recommendation. More seniors applied to the competitive or moderately competitive admission colleges because now some of them, who have pretty good grades and weren’t great test takers, could see if they would get in. This rise in applications was expected in 2021 and most competitive admission colleges received 20% or more applications.

Second, colleges have made it easier to apply to colleges now, especially through the Common Application, so instead of seniors applying to 6-8 colleges on average, now they are applying to 10-12 colleges. I have nothing against applying to 10-12 colleges, but in doing the math, if millions of high school seniors are applying to 10-12 colleges now, that’s millions more applications going to colleges which creates this issue in the first place. If you think of how a lottery works, people get all excited when the amount gets higher and higher that you can win, but in order to get that amount higher, more people need to buy tickets. The more people that buy tickets, the less your chance of winning becomes.

Third, and the biggest issue of all, is the perception that the colleges in the top 50 or even 100 of the rankings give to potential seniors, getting them (and their parents) to think that they are “better” or will set them up for future success more. The 10-12 applications that seniors are now completing, are really to the same 50 to 60 colleges, really driving up their numbers and allowing them to deny more students.

What should seniors do moving forward?

DON’T BUY INTO THE HYPE! What do I mean by that? As soon as you think you need to go to a college because they are “known”, “better” or “prestigious”, you just bought into the hype that these colleges want you to and now they have you applying to their school, along with others, driving up their application numbers even higher. I’m not saying you shouldn’t apply to a few of these colleges if you take a look at their admissions profile and determine that you could be competitive for admission when you apply. The frustrating thing is that over one third of the seniors that apply to these colleges, have less than a 1% or no chance of getting in. So basically, they just bought a lottery ticket.

THERE ARE PLENTY OF GREAT COLLEGES THAT NEED APPLICANTS! I visited four colleges with my junior daughter over spring break and 3 of them were colleges I would say need applicants and one is part of this “hype admission train” barreling down the tracks. I don’t mind mentioning them here but I know this is my daughter’s college planning journey and not someone else’s. We visited Anderson University, North Greenville University and Furman University. All great schools with admissions rates over 60%. I know my daughter would get an awesome education and be cared for, prepared and enjoy her experience at each of these colleges. All three of these schools would give significant merit scholarship aid to my daughter to encourage her to come. I would recommend they colleges to anyone out there. AND THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF COLLEGES JUST LIKE THESE!

We also “visited” Clemson University, which is a great school as well, however, they keep receiving 30% more applications and now their admission rate for out-of-state students is getting below 30%. They’re so “desirable” now, we couldn’t even get a tour and they didn’t have one available all through April (even though we walked in the Visitors Center when we were there and nobody was in there with 6 people sitting at the welcome desk…hmmm”). My daughter realized on the self-guided tour that she would have just as great of an experience at one of the other three schools above and pay less than half of what we’d pay for Clemson.

What’s a solution?

There are a few changes that colleges and the Common Application can make, but they won’t because why would they if they are benefiting greatly and have such an advantage over the applicants? These include admitting more students (which would make their admit rate go up), eliminating Early Decision (which would mean having to admit more in early action and regular decision and makes their admit rate go up), the Common Application can limit how many college apps a seniors can complete on Common App (which hurts their bottom line).

There is something you can do!

  1. Only apply to colleges that you know you will be competitive for admission. For example, if you don’t have all A’s and didn’t take all or almost all of the most rigorous classes at your high school, you probably aren’t going to be accepted at any colleges with less than a 10% admit rate…so don’t apply. Move on and apply to more colleges with a 20% admit rate or higher.
  2. Find some colleges that have a 50% admit rate or higher and apply to 3-4 of these schools. These colleges will give you merit scholarship money to come to their school.
  3. Only apply to 6-8 colleges total. Choose a couple of “reach” colleges, a couple of “target” colleges and a couple of “likely” or “safety” colleges. If you want to apply to a couple more “target” or “safety” to see what merit aid you may get, then great! However, don’t apply to more “reach” colleges thinking the more I apply to the more chance I have of getting in. You are just entering into the “lottery” at all of them. Go ahead and apply to the few you think are a better fit and put your best foot forward.

I have not visited a college yet (and I have visited many colleges), that didn’t offer so much to all of their students and were very excited for any new student to join their campus. I know that whatever college my daughter attends, she will have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of, clubs and organizations to join, classes that will challenge her and professors that will provide her with a great education.

The problem becomes when people in society today think that certain colleges, who have built their brand by marketing well, made their name more desirable and worked their way up the “flawed” US News and World Report rankings, are “better” than others because that’s what they hear others in their “sphere of influence” say and people they talk to on a daily basis also believe. It’s dangerous if we make decisions based on other people’s opinions and perceptions. If seniors understood the plethora of options they have, how they can make wiser financial decisions when it comes to staying out of debt after college, and know that at almost any school they will have plenty of opportunities to succeed, then we can end this “era” in college admissions and enter a new era that benefits the student more than the college.

Posted in College Admissions

Colleges Are Businesses So Treat Them Like One

With any business, there is a company that is providing a product and the customer who is wanting to purchase and use this product. This is also true of colleges. There are over 1,400 four year colleges in the Unites States and they each need to convince high school seniors (and current students) to attend their school year after year for them to be successful businesses. As the customer or buyer (if you relate it to buying a home) in the college application process, there are important tasks you should take advantage of before you choose where to go to college. This is especially true from the financial perspective.

1. Ask for a Pre-Read from the Office of Financial Aid.

By law, every college must have a net price calculator on their website. Some colleges have invested a good amount of money to make sure theirs is accurate. Some colleges just have the basic one they have to put on their website to fulfill the government’s requirement. Something I learned this past fall, however, was that many colleges will do an independent pre-read of your financial information and give you as accurate of a number as possible to let you know what you could expect to pay. If you are expecting some financial aid from the college you are applying to (this means you expect to complete the FAFSA), then ask each college your senior is applying to if they would do a pre-read of your finances and let you know what you could expect to pay. If they don’t do a pre-read, ask why. Colleges need to be more transparent about what you should expect to pay before you commit to apply and attend their school.

2. Never take the first scholarship offer as the final offer.

If I’m a college and many decisions come down to the almighty dollar, would I throw out more money the first time I give a scholarship offer than I have to? NO! I’m going to offer a lower scholarship amount and see if an applicant comes back to me and asks if there are any opportunities for more money. If you think about it, most seniors the college gives scholarship offers to, don’t even end up attending anyway. If a senior contacts a college after being accepted and is looking for additional merit or need-based aid, then we know they are more interested in attending our school (which is something they are looking for) and now the college can pay more attention to them and possibly see how they can work with them. However, I am going to put an asterisk on this point. This isn’t true for every college. The more applicants a college gets and the more they can deny, the less financial aid you are going to get. If you want to know what some of these colleges are that probably won’t offer additional aid because they don’t have to, go to the Buyers and Sellers List of Colleges in your SCOIR Drive that was put together by Jeff Selingo. The “Seller” colleges are the ones that won’t offer any or very little merit-based scholarship money and the “Buyer” colleges are the ones that will. These “Buyer” colleges typically need to pull in as many strong applicants as they can and they do this by providing you with merit-based scholarship money.

3. Ask “nicely” for additional financial aid

I get the question, “how do I go about asking for more financial aid/scholarship money?”, a lot, which is great. My answer to this question is always, “imagine yourself on the other side with the money”. If you have money to give and a friend comes up to you and asks for it, how would you like them to ask? Would you like them to say, “hey, you have plenty of money and I need more, please give me some”. How about, “my friend and my uncle gave me this much money and you could to, so please give me more money”. If I’m the one with the money, I’m thinking, “who do they think they are? They’re acting like they just deserve our money after we already gave them some”.

First, it’s great to recognize the scholarship money you already received and be grateful for what they have given you. “Dear ____, I am really excited that I was accepted to _____ and so grateful that you have awarded me a scholarship for _____.”

Second, the reason you are writing them is because you have a definite interest in attending their school than some of the other schools on your list. Make them aware of this. “At this time, _____ is one of my top choice schools (if it’s your top choice let them know) and I am really excited to possibly attend. I would love to (enter here a few things you are looking forward to contributing to or participating in on campus).” This is showing great demonstrated interest which is very important to many colleges.

Third, ask if there are any other additional merit-based scholarship opportunities that you could apply or are eligible for. Then you will need to wait for a response. Please give it a week but you probably will here back sooner.

Fourth, and this depends on their response. You may hear back from them and they will say, “thanks for asking, but unfortunately the scholarship offer you received is our final offer”. If this is the case, I would politely write back and say thank you and that you will continue to consider attending their school along with the other college options you are considering”. If you receive a response back that let’s you know there are other scholarship opportunities to consider or that they can offer you ______ more of merit-based scholarship money, then write back to them and be very thankful.

4. BE PATIENT

I know it can be difficult to see other seniors making decisions to attend a certain college. You can think that you are behind or you just want to be done with the whole college application process. Nevertheless, being patient can pay off! You don’t have to make a decision until May 1st! I have even seen seniors get a little bit more merit scholarship money from colleges who were told earlier there wasn’t any additional money because the yield (how many are accepted compared to how many commit to attend) numbers are always changing until May 1st (and sometimes even after). You may have been in the “middle of the pack” when they were determining scholarship amounts in February, but in April, based on numbers they weren’t expecting, you have moved to the top 25% of accepted applicants and therefore, would be in line for more merit scholarship money. You never know, but if you’re patient, at least you let the process take its course. If you commit earlier, they really have no reason to offer you any more merit scholarship money. Why would they? You’re already coming.

Posted in College Admissions

Perception vs Reality in College Admissions

My career as a college counselor began in 2001. I was “drinking from a fire hose” back then as I learned the profession. College counseling isn’t an occupation you can really train for. They don’t teach you how to apply to a college and understand financial aid in college. I still remember the first workshop/seminar I attended for college counselors at San Francisco University High School. It was an AP workshop but they had a one-day session called “A-Z for College Counselors”. I still remember how helpful that was and how excited I was about being a college counselor after that all-day workshop.

The experience you gain as a college counselor is critical and then how you use it to counsel future students is most important to your career. There have been changes over the years as colleges add/remove application deadlines, change testing policies, the addition and growth of the Common Application, the popularity of college rankings and acceptance rates dropping each year, but the perceptions that were made regarding college admissions back in 2001 are pretty much the same today.

Quite honestly, it’s these perceptions that us college counselors (high school and college admissions) are always trying to change in our student’s and parent’s minds. It’s not easy though and for some, their perceptions will never change because it’s been engrained in their minds as “truth” from a past experience or from their family or friends. It would certainly make us counselor’s job’s easier though if students and parents knew, understood and believed the reality versus these perceptions about college admissions.

PERCEPTION- Going to one of the “best” colleges (highest ranked) leads to more success and money.

Reality- There are no “best” colleges because success (and money I guess if you think success=money) is determined by the opportunities you take advantage of, connections you make and the hard work, diligence and effort you give. I’ll refer to the “best” college issue in the next “perception” but one question you have to answer is, “what is success”? As Christians, we are to make sure we use the gifts, talents and abilities God has provided us with. If we do this and pursue a field of study in college that we know to be within our giftedness and strengths, and you have a desire to be a continual learner in that field, you will be successful. You will be paid an appropriate amount of money when you work in that field because you should be good at it for all the reasons mentioned above. God will provide for you and you will live contently whatever this amount you are making. The problem comes when people think they have to make “X” amount to be happy. This goes against what scripture says. Please read this blog post from Tithe.ly called “Bible Verses About Money: 9 Biblical Principles of Money and Possessions” to see what I mean. Alex Chediak also writes two great articles titled “Choosing Your Major” and “Vocation Plans” that I would encourage you to read.

PERCEPTION- The higher ranked a college is the “better” it is.

REALITY- Colleges spend millions of dollars “gaming” the rankings and they are not to be trusted. The colleges that find themselves at the top of college rankings make sure each year they stay there by how they approach their admissions process. They spend millions of dollars marketing themselves to “every” student so they can get 30,000+ applications and deny 95% or more of them. They then create this “dog eat dog” world where they create the “perception” that the “best” students come to our school so high school students and their parents think they need to go there to “get ahead” in society and be “more successful” than other people for the rest of their lives. They also get parents to think that if their child then goes to one of these “best” colleges, their reputation will somehow be “better” and they will seem like more “successful” parents. Did you notice all of the quotation marks I had to use in the last three sentences? That’s because all of the words used within them are opinions, not facts. Also, what rankings are you using? I counted just today that there are 15 different college rankings out there with different methodologies. Which one is “true”? The fact is, there are hundreds of great colleges out there and you need to find the one that is the best fit academically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially. Look at these acceptance rates for the fall of 1989.

1989 US News and World Report Rankings
1989 US News and World Report Rankings
1997 US News and World Report Rankings w/ Yield Rates

PERCEPTION- The lower the admit rate, the “better” the college.

REALITY- Colleges that have low admission rates spend millions of dollars marketing themselves to students who have no chance (<1%) of getting into their school so they can “convince” them to apply anyway because they “don’t just take student’s with 4.0 GPA’s and 1600 SAT scores”. This may be true, but in most cases, it’s the athletes, kids of famous people or those that give a lot of money to the school who could have a GPA lower than a 4.0 or 1600 SAT scores. If you are not a student in the above demographic, you pretty much need another outstanding “hook” or have a 4.0 GPA and 1600 SAT score…and they still may not accept you if you do! The majority of the times, it’s all about what they are looking for and not what you are bringing to the table. What’s the big difference between a college with a 5% admission rate and a 65% admission rate? The college with the 5% admission rate tries really hard to get as many applications as possible from students who have no intention of going there so they can deny more. The college with the 65% admission rate only get’s students to apply their school that intend on going there so less apply which means their admit rate is higher. There’s a way colleges also manipulate application numbers by counting seniors who just start the application but don’t finish it but I won’t get into all that right now.

PERCEPTION- Higher test scores mean a better chance of being admitted.

REALITY- This is a half-truth because having test scores in the top 50% range of what a specific college gets from their applicants in a particular year is a plus. However, in this “test-optional” world we live in now, test scores have been de-emphasized in the admissions process and more emphasis has been placed on the courses a student takes, the grades they receive in these courses and the involvement and impact they have made in their school and local communities. After this year, most colleges will have admitted a number of seniors into their freshman classes who never submitted test scores. As they get more comfortable doing this and realize that they can still bring in a well-rounded, successful and intelligent class of students, this will de-emphasize the need to know test scores even more. Before the pandemic colleges were already beginning to re-evaluate the need to require a test score from applicants because the way that testing exposed an equity gap in regards to income and opportunities available to certain students. Click here and go to page 7 to view the income demographic that send scores to colleges the most this past year. It’s the wealthier families that can spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on test prep and in a way “control” their results. If you are a great test taker, definitely let a good test score benefit your application. However, if you are not or you don’t perform as well on the test as you think you should have, you don’t need to stress anymore because you still have plenty of options…as long as you were diligent and did as best as you could in your high school courses!

PERCEPTION- Where you go to college for undergrad still matters even if you know you need to go to grad school.

REALITY- While not always the case, if you know you will need to earn a Masters (and possibly Doctorate) degree in the career field you are pursuing, it’s not the college you earn your undergrad degree at that matters, it will be the grad school that you attend. So why do people put so much emphasis on undergrad? Because of perception, reputation and falsehoods they have believed. There are so many great colleges and universities that would be a better financial fit and you would pay a lot less to attend. If you know you will also need to pay $50,000+ for grad school, why spend a fortune earning your undergrad degree. Click here for a good read on this topic from The Atlantic. Also, here is a great example of a student and her parents who lived through this decision and how successful she was in the end. My Supreme Court SAIL class also talked to Sarah, a clerk for Justice Kavanaugh. Sarah gave great advice herself, based on her path to where she is today, to not put that much emphasis on where you attend college for undergrad.

PERCEPTION- If I think I have “need” and I get accepted to a “100% meet need” college, I won’t have to pay anything.

REALITY- The overwhelming majority of parents do not want to pay more for college, but they are able to pay more than they think. Each college that says that they meet 100% need, is going to determine what your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is for their school and it will most likely be different for each college you apply to. Typically, if one parent in the household is earning a steady income and/or there is money in assets, home equity, savings accounts, etc., these will drive up your EFC pretty quickly. You need to determine if you would rather pay $25,000 a year at a competitive admission college because you think the “name brand” school is worth the extra cost, or you could attend another really good college, get merit and need based financial aid, the sticker price is lower to begin with, and still have a great experience. What you should be most concerned about is ROI (Return on Investment).