Posted in College Admissions

What Are “Hidden Gem” Colleges?

It has been one of the busiest starts to a school year that I can remember in my career.  There are a few reasons for this but a big one is that I have double the amount of college visits from college admission representatives that I have ever had in a fall season.  I typically schedule 25-30 visits in the fall but this year there are over 50 college admission reps coming to DC!  One of the reasons for this is because of the program RepVisits which integrated with Naviance this fall.  RepVisits makes it very easy for a high school college counselor to let college admissions counselors know when they can visit their school and the admission reps just sign up online.  I am really excited that so many college admission reps want to visit DC!

I have been able to talk to my juniors, who I have in class once a week, about finding the right fit college.  One of the phrases I said they may hear in the college planning process is “hidden gems”.  What does this phrase mean?  What makes a college a “hidden gem”?

1. Hidden gem colleges are not going to have a very high sticker price.

I am particularly impressed when I see colleges or universities keep their tuition down while still maintaining quality academics, excellent facilities and a quality experience for their students.  Colleges that have come to mind over the last 5-10 years are SUNY (State University of New York) schools like Stony Brook, Buffalo, Albany and Bingamton and also universities in Virginia like James Madison, Carson Newman and Mary Washington. There are plenty of others but one thing you may need to be open to is going to school further away from home. The further away you go, the more that school may want students from PA and that may impact your scholarship package.

2. Hidden gem colleges often reward high achieving high school students significant merit-based aid

I am a big fan of a college that properly rewards students with merit-based scholarship money for the success they have had academically in high school.  I wrote an article a couple years ago (click here to view) titled, “Is High School Really a Job?”  In this article I explain that taking rigorous classes and achieving good grades in high school does put students in position to get siginificant scholarship money from colleges.  I can’t say this is true of every college.  If a school has less than a 30%-40% admission rate, they typically do not offer much merit-based scholarship money and if they do, there are very few and they are ultra competitive.  A lot of these colleges are 100% meet need schools which means they don’t give any merit-based scholarships at all.  All of their money is given to the financial need of students that they determine based on the FAFSA EFC, CSS Profile results and even tax forms that they ask for.  However, there are plenty of great colleges whose admission rate is between 50-80% and they do offer significant merit-based scholarships.  It takes time to research these colleges though and scholarship amounts may vary from year to year.

3. Hidden gem colleges could be a great college for a certain student because they have an outstanding program for their intended major.

There are colleges that have outstanding programs but unfortunately, people don’t know about these programs unless they hear about them by word of mouth or they spend the time doing research online.  The college that the program/major is in may not be ranked that high, but the program/major within the college can be one of the best because of new state-of-the art equipment and building, the professors who teach the courses within the program and their experience and/or how long that major has been at the college and therefore they have a very strong alumni base.  A few examples I have come across in my year’s of college counseling, are Saint Norbert College in Green Bay, WI offering internships with the Green Bay Packers because they are right next to the Packer’s facilities.  Also, for students wanting to pursue flight school to be a commercial airline pilot, one of the best programs in the country is at Bowling Green University.  Finally, Asbury College, a Christian college in Kentucky, has one of the best Communication Arts programs in the country with state-of-the art facilities because of their Dean who is very experienced.  We have had DC alumni receive a high quality education at schools like Springfield College for Athletic Training, Clarkson University for Graphic Design, Taylor University for English/Journalism, Cedar Crest College for Biology, Ursinus College and Rutgers for Medical lab research just to name a few.  I love when students take advantage of opportunities to pursue a major at a college that has a high quality program and they get significant scholarship money to attend that school.

4. Hidden gem colleges tend to have a very strong regional reputation but not so strong of a national reputation.

This is pretty self-explanatory, right?  You can’t hide that much if you are so concerned with being in the top 50 of the US News and World Report College Rankings.  I am not saying that Hidden Gem colleges are schools you have never heard of, but typically, their admission rates don’t put them in the top 50 or even 100 of the national rankings, but then you see that they are ranked pretty high in their region which doesn’t get that much attention.  So if you do look at rankings, don’t be discouraged when you see a school you were looking into low in the national rankings.  This can mean that they don’t spend a ton of money like the schools that are ranked high, on “playing the game” so to speak to move higher in the rankings.

5. Hidden gem colleges are honors colleges or programs within a larger university.

There is a post by Lynn O’Shaughnessy in her The College Solution blog on this topic of honors colleges being hidden gems. Please click here to read her post.

 

 

 

Posted in College Admissions

College Admissions Trends for 2018

Below is an article from Synocate pointing out a couple of trends that you may see in the world of college admissions in 2018. I do agree with each of these trends taking place this admissions cycle as well.  

College admissions is a rapidly changing landscape. Every year, universities make changes to their requirements, more students apply, and the process becomes more complicated. However, college is a gateway to tremendous personal and professional growth and it is an important time. Below are a couple trends that I see happening this year in the world of college admissions.

Trend 1: Top 10 schools will have admissions rates fall even faster than last year

Looking at the trend at the Top 20 schools over the past 20 years, college acceptance rates have dropped tremendously. I predict that this will trend will continue at the Top 10 schools at an accelerating pace, at the Top 100 schools at the same pace, and at the rest of the approximately 4,000 universities in the United States at a slower pace.

College admissions is a rapidly changing landscape. Every year, universities make changes to their requirements, more students apply, and the process becomes more complicated. However, college is a gateway to tremendous personal and professional growth and it is an important time.  We at Synocate (synocate.com) have helped thousands of students in California and across the world through the admissions process, which further adds to our ability to see how students, especially Indian and Asian students, are affected by changes in the admissions process.

Looking across the United States, the average acceptance rate to college is about 66%. Colleges want students and need to increase their enrollment. The problem is that students want to attend the top 100 colleges far more than other colleges. Because these colleges are often located in environments where expansion is hard (for example, Columbia in the New York City), expansion is tough. Further, this trend of dropping acceptance rates helps the university brand.

In order to counteract this megatrend for the next admissions cycle, I recommend students who are aiming for Top 50 schools, which includes all Ivy Leagues, and schools like Emory, Georgetown, Stanford, MIT, and others, to apply to more schools. This is advice for students with A’s and B’s who are hoping to get into a Top 50 school.

Trend 2: Early Action and Early Decision will become even more important

You can apply to college in the United States at many points in time. The major types of deadlines are rolling, early action, restrictive early action, Early Decision I, Early Decision II, and regular decision. I will describe each, but the major trend occurring is that top colleges are accepting more and more of their students earlier in the admissions process.

We believe all students aiming for a Top 50 school (students with A’s and B’s) should be applying early action or early decision to at least one school. This has many benefits – if we get accepted we can cut down our list of other schools, it gives us peace of mind, and it generally increases our chances.

How early is early? The earliest deadlines are rolling where students can submit their applications as soon as the portal opens. This trend is especially popular for schools that are ranked lower and for graduate programs. For Early Action and Early Decision I schools, the deadline is November 1 generally. Regular decision is generally around January 1.

At many top 50 schools, over 50% of the class is filled up in the early rounds. This figure is rising. Colleges can predict if students attend if they must attend after accepting. Colleges can calculate how much tuition they will generate and increase their yield rates, the percentage of students who accept an offer if given. If students are required to accept, as they have to in the Early Decision process, the yield rate for those students is 100%. So theoretically, if a college accepts all students in the early decision process, their yield rate would be 100%.

The colleges with the highest yield rates generally are the most prestigious or sought after – Harvard and Stanford have yields in the mid 80s right now. US News and several other ranking services use yield to rank colleges. These rankings are very important to colleges, and therefore, they focus on yield. Make sure you apply somewhere early.

These two trends will continue in this admissions cycle because they are drawn by a variety of factors – more students applying, yield rates, college rankings, and the influx of international students. The best thing you can do is read as much as you can about the process to stay up to date.