Category: College Admissions

Students have worked hard in their classes all school year and hopefully have finished well.  It’s great to have the summer to travel, visit family, go on vacation, get extra rest, enjoy an activity that you don’t get to spend as much time doing during the school year and even work more hours a week and make some more money.  However, the summer can be a very important and profitable time when it comes to enhancing your college applications.  One thing that is important to understand is that there is no perfect formula.  Some students think if they do X, Y and Z they will have a better chance of getting in to the college(s) they want to apply to.  That’s when it can get tricky.  You take a course over the summer or attend a week or longer camp at a college, but this doesn’t mean you will have a “leg up” in the application process.  Below are tips to follow as you head into the summer and make plans:

1) Be productive- Yes, summer is an opportunity to get some more sleep and have some more down time but if that is all you do (except for a couple weeks), it will not benefit you at all in the college application process.  Colleges want to see how you use the time you have when you are not having to spend a large amount of time in school and doing homework.  Now colleges can get a “glimpse” of what you do in your “free time” which can be important to them when evaluating your application. It gives them a great idea of how you will spend your time on their campus when you are not in class or studying because they do not want students who just go to class and study.  They want students who are going to benefit the school community beyond the classroom.

2) Do what you love to do– The last thing I would want a student to do in the summer is sign up or attend something that they don’t really want to do but they think it will help build their resume or get into a college.  I get the question sometimes, “If I attend a camp at ______ college will it help my chances of getting in”? My answer to that is first, ask the college for the most accurate answer, but when I have asked that question, it is always “no”.  Why? Can you imagine a college charging a good amount of money to come to a camp at their college and then saying students who attend the camp have an advantage in the application process? In my opinion, they will have a lot of equity and fairness issues to deal with.  These camps at colleges are there for you to get a feel for college life, get a great idea of what life on a certain college campus will be like, get a great idea of whether you should major in a certain area and also to learn, grow, make new friends.  Now, it is definitely not going to hurt you but it won’t help in most cases either.  However, if you were able to get to know any counselors in the admissions office, that can only help as well because they now can put a face to the name. This also goes for taking academic courses over the summer. I encourage students not to think that if they continue to “do school” all summer colleges will be impressed.  If you do take a course or two over the summer, do it because you want to and would love it.  I would encourage you not to only do this and be unproductive in other non-academic areas.

3) What if I want or have to work to make money? Great! In my perspective, having a job can be one of the most beneficial experiences for a teenager.  You are meeting and have to work with people you don’t normally associate with. You have to do tasks that you particularly don’t enjoy at times. You have to learn the disciplines of being on time, covering for someone who is out, getting evaluated, etc. These are things that you will most likely face in the future wherever you work after college. You also get to make some money and hopefully learn how to be a good steward of the money God has provided for you. Colleges understand that students want to and/or need to work in the summer.  The big questions they will ask are:

1. What did you learn at your job?
2. How did you grow individually?
3. How long did you work there?
4. Were you able to take on more responsibility and/or leadership opportunities while you worked there?

4) Serve others! In my perspective, the summer is an opportunity to show colleges that you want to serve others.  This is a responsibility we have as believers in Christ.  1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in various forms.” This should be our main motivation on why we serve others.  Colleges also like to see applicants who have used their gifts to benefit others and not themselves.  The more competitive admission colleges are great at picking these things out because you did it naturally and not intentionally.

I will tell you my own story as an example. I went to an overnight Christian camp for one week each year from when I was ages 8-16.  I loved and looked forward to that week of camp each year.  At the end of my junior year in high school they asked if I would considering being a counselor, I said yes! It was a lot of time (middle of June to middle of August) but I enjoyed every minute of it.  I didn’t get paid much but I didn’t care.  I was a counselor after my senior year and then was asked to be the Boys Head Counselor/Assistant Program Director the summer after my freshman and sophomore years of college.  I still graduated with a degree in Public Administration and looked for government and public policy jobs after graduation. However, God’s plan for me was to work with kids all along and he provided an opportunity to do so out of the blue at a small Christian high school in San Francisco the summer after I graduated. I look back on my summer’s now and think that they benefitted me for my future career more than anything I did during the school year.  I worked at Wendy’s and a small mom and pop ice cream and barbecue place as well when I could but it was the investment I made when working at the camp serving kids that prepared me all along.

In conclusion, I will say it again, there is no perfect formula.  Don’t get caught up in how many things you are doing in the summer wondering if it is enough.  Don’t ask yourself, “will colleges want to see me doing something specific in the summer to have a better chance of being accepted at their school?”.  Just be productive with your time, do what you love and serve others and you will be fine!

 

 

It’s at this time of year when seniors choose which college they are going to attend from the list of schools where they have been accepted. It is also at this time every year that most juniors start realizing that the college application process for them is only a few months away and how “stressed” they are when it comes to choosing the colleges to which they are going to apply. I will be the first to admit that it is tough not to get caught up in the facts and figures around college admissions and start paying attention to list after list that books and magazines put together thinking that there has to be that one school that’s a perfect fit for you. Here are a few tips, however, to keep things in perspective and make sure we are keeping in mind the ultimate goal of glorifying God and being used by Him.

1) Keep an eternal perspective. There are going to be many times in your life that you are going to have to make a big decision. Where to apply to college is just the beginning. When we have an eternal perspective regarding these decisions, we can rest assured that God is over each one and He will be with us through each decision as well. We can’t approach these decisions thinking that if I am unhappy a year or two down the road that I made a “bad” decision. God uses each decision we make to mold us into who He wants us to be as long as we let Him lead.

2) You cannot do it yourself. If you try to keep God out of your college planning and decision making process, you will become very frustrated, selfish and anxious. I see this sometimes in student’s interactions with me and the way they respond to my questions. They can’t relax because they put so much pressure on themselves to make the “perfect” decision when there really isn’t a “perfect” decision when it comes to choosing a college. Each college has its pluses and minuses and it’s going to be up to each student to take advantage of the opportunities provided to him/her and be proactive in using the gifts and abilities God has given him/her. It’s the same when it comes to marriage. Every husband and wife comes into a marriage with great strengths but also weaknesses. It takes hard work, forgiveness and love to make a marriage work and no matter where you go to college, it’s going to take commitment, iniative, hard work and even forgiveness to make it work as well. You don’t just walk on a campus and it’s all of a sudden a smooth ride because of what school it is.

3) Take joy in the process. I am going to refer to the book of Philippians when Paul is talking about joy in the entire book even though he was chained, in prison and persecuted for proclaiming and sharing his faith. I am not comparing what Paul went through to applying to college, but Paul can serve as an example of what is most important. The college planning process can be enjoyable if we keep things in perspective. Enjoy the visits you take to colleges, the fairs and information sessions you attend, the research you will do and time spent with family and friends talking things through. It may lead to wiser decisions being made and proper information being evaluated in the end.

4) Surround everything in prayer. When we pray we are giving God control and letting Him take the lead in the process which is most important. We are handing our pride, anxiety and worry over to Him and surrendering to His plan and purpose in our lives. I know it’s not easy and we all will struggle at times to let go, but only with Him will we find fulfillment in the college planning process.

This month each student in grades 8, 9, 10 and 11 will receive a course selection form to select which courses they would like to take for the 2018-2019 academic year. Here are a few things to pay attention to when selecting courses.

When in doubt, err on the side of rigor

The degree to which you expose yourself to rigor or challenge in the high school classroom speaks volumes with regard to the likelihood that you can perform well in college level courses. As a result, admission officers are watching to see how you use the curriculum available to you to see how you “step it up” each year. Each year of high school should reflect advancement through progressively rigorous coursework in each core subject area (English, math, science, history and world language). Know your capacity to do the work. In contemplating rigor in course options, it is easy to assume that taking the highest level will be most impressive to colleges. While there is some truth in that assessment, you need to be able to function at a high level in the course. Barely passing an inordinately “hard” course produces the double whammy of a low grade in that course and the ripple effect of lower grades in other courses as you spend a large amount of time making it through the “hard” course. The bottom line: While it is important to stretch yourself, don’t over-reach in taking courses for the purpose of impressing admission officers. Your previous teacher’s recommendation is a great way to go if you are unsure.

Breadth matters

In other words, keep your bases covered. In each year of high school, you should take courses in the five core discipline areas: English, math, science, history and world language. Do this regardless of your career interests. Why? Admission officers, especially at highly selective colleges, want to see that you have developed skills of critical thinking and analysis across disciplines. Having such an experience gives them greater confidence that you will be able to handle credit requirements and cross-disciplinary courses you are likely to encounter in college.

Substitute value for value.

It is not uncommon for students entering the junior or senior year to rationalize course selections (e.g. “I don’t like Spanish…” “I want to double up in sciences…”). Generally speaking, dropping a course in one discipline for a course in another is acceptable if you are substituting value for value. This typically means that taking a core subject course in replace of another core subject course is fine. If there are additional AP electives available, you can also take one of these in replace of a course subject course. For example, dropping an Honors or AP Spanish in order to take AP Psychology or two math or history courses is acceptable. On the other hand, dropping it for an art class (if you are not pursuing art in college) or because you want a study hall would be a bad move within the context of competition at selective colleges. You need to also consider what you may be pursuing as a major in college.  If it is math and/or science oriented then you should continue to pursue the most rigorous courses in math and science.

Don’t settle for “good enough.”

It is common for students to chart their progress through high school by working only to the level of their graduation requirements or to the course “requirements” posted by colleges. The problem is that selective colleges want to see what you will do when you have seemingly satisfied your “requirements”—when you don’t think you have to do anything else. Be careful, then, not to settle for the minimum or that which is “good enough”. If you want to increase your range of options as a college applicant, push past that which is good enough to that which will make you a better candidate. A common question from students regarding course selection sounds like this: “Is it better for me to take an easier course where I know I can get an “A” or should I take a harder course where I’ll probably get a lower grade?” The best way to answer this question is to take the harder class and get an “A”. God expects the best from us using the knowledge, gifts and abilities He has given us. In my mind, when you assume you will get a lower grade in a course, you are not only selling yourself short but also not trusting in Him to bring out the best in you. You know what you are capable of and what would be a wise choice of courses to take, but sometimes you will surprise yourself when you put your total trust in Him and work to the potential He’s given you.

It has been said that we spend approximately 6 months of our life waiting in line for things.  This is when we physically wait, whether it’s for transportation (airplane or bus), the bathroom, the doctor, in traffic, on the phone or for someone to be ready.  There is also plenty of time in our life when we wait mentally and emotionally but still move on with our lives.  Examples of this are when we wait to get a grade on a test or paper, for an answer after a job interview, an offer on a house, etc.

None of us like to wait.  Whether it’s physically and creates frustration because we want to be done with whatever we are doing, get where we want to go, not be late or waste time or whether it’s mentally and emotionally so we don’t get anxious, scared and fear the worst.  I think waiting in today’s day and age is even tougher because now with cell phones and social media, the goal is not to have to wait to get information or an answer. However, waiting is a part of life and waiting is a theme for God’s children.  Before you read any further I would encourage you to read the link below. Paul Tripp really puts into perspective why we wait as God’s children.

Paul Tripp Wednesday’s Word for 1/24/18

One reality of college applications is that seniors will have to wait to receive a decision.  This can be a difficult time because they have worked tremendously hard up to this point in their life. They have completed the application and all that the admission office’s require in order to apply and more.  Now they have to wait weeks or months to receive a decision that will impact their future.  It’s not easy but it’s what we have to do.  Below are four things that you can do while you wait for an admissions decision.

1. Keep the door open– I always tell seniors, until you send in that enrollment deposit to a college you decide to attend, do not close the door on applying to any more schools.  God’s timing is best…not ours.  He may bring to your attention or open the door to a school that you were not considering before and you need to be receptive to that.  Now, I am not saying apply to 10 more colleges, but applying to one or two more may be a possibility.
2. Keep taking care of the here and now– One of the toughest things about college decisions is that you are not in control.  Someone you don’t know or met briefly is making the decision.  You shouldn’t get too worried or anxious because it is ultimately in God’s hands.  What you are asked to do is your best at the tasks, assignments, responsibilities you are given now.  If you do this, God will ultimately use you and the gifts and abilities he’s given you in amazing ways.  Sometimes that takes running into some dead ends and moving in a different direction but as long as you persevere and persist through today’s challenges, you will be fine!
3. Keep looking for scholarships- While you wait, there are more than enough opportunities to be applying for scholarships. Make sure you have taken advantage and know of all of the incoming freshman scholarships at the colleges you applied to and once January roles around, there are number of private, local and national scholarship deadlines approaching in the spring.  Check with your local township, businesses, etc. and visit websites like Sallie Mae, Fastweb and Scholarships.com.  I list all of the scholarships in Naviance that come through my office under the COLLEGES tab and Scholarship List.
4. Surround everything in prayer– While we wait we should be on our knees in prayer giving control of our future up to God and not depending on ourselves.  Prayer, along with staying in God’s Word, will help us have the proper perspective. I like the way Paul Tripp end’s his devotional above by saying:

“Remind yourself that waiting is biblical, that waiting is beautiful, and that the God who calls you to wait is loving.  Waiting is changing you, and it’s also helping you to be a tool of change in others who are waiting. Find joy in that wait!”

This is a question I am asked a lot each year.  It’s an important question because a student’s high school GPA is the most important factor when it comes to being admitted to a college.  A student’s GPA is a culmination of their hard work in the classroom over 3 years. I say this because  for college admissions, the grades earned in 9th-11th grade are what colleges guarantee they will evaluate.  Mid-semester senior year grades are also very important but whether a college evaluates these grades for admission depends on the college, when the student has applied, and/or how the student has performed academically.

I can also understand the questions about a good GPA because here at DC we utilize a weighted 5.0 GPA. There are many different grading scales and ways that high schools calculate GPA.  What is most important to colleges is that we are clear in communicating how we calculate our GPA because students are only evaluated in the context of their high school.  Students here at DC are not compared to students from another school that has a different grading scale.

What is an average GPA?  

The National Average GPA is typically around a 3.0 (unweighted).  When comparing that to our 5.0 grading scale here at DC, this would be around a 3.6 (weighted on a 5.0 scale).  The average GPA here at DC from year to year ranges between a 3.7-3.9.  Both a 3.0 on an unweighted scale and a 3.7 on a 5.0 weighted scale is a B average.

A student with a 3.8-4.0 (unweighted) GPA or a 4.5-4.9 (5.0 weighted) GPA is typically expected to be admitted to colleges who have a 25% or less admission rate.  However, this is only 5% of the four year colleges in the country.  The majority of colleges in the United States have a 50% admissions rate or higher.  Something that gets overlooked is that there are great colleges that have over a 50% admission rate.  To be accepted to a school that has over a 50% admission rate, you could have a weighted GPA in the 3.0 range.  However, there are still options for students whose weighted GPA is in the 2.0 range but they are fewer.  The concrete numbers are less important than your individual experience and the details of how you earned your GPA, which I will discuss below.

Determining a good GPA is based primarily on three different factors.

1. Your School Overall

Each year, we update our school profile which we send to colleges with senior transcripts. This profile provides each college with all of the academic information it needs to evaluate a senior from DC in the context of what we do.  This information includes the honors and AP courses we offer, graduation requirements, grading scale, SAT and ACT scores, AP scores, information about electives, SAIL, colleges that our students have been accepted to over the last 5 years and more.  You can click on the link above to view the 2017-2018 school profile.

Two students who have similar GPAs could be evaluated differently because one student has taken mostly honors and AP classes and the other has taken mostly college prep level classes.  Colleges will consider the student who takes higher level classes to be more qualified. Even though both students are earning As, one is earning them in more rigorous classes.

When using a weighted GPA, it may mean the student taking more rigorous classes is earning Bs and the student in the college prep level classes is earning As.  In this situation, colleges will still look more favorably on the student in higher level classes who is willing to take on a more rigorous course load.  The point is that a better GPA doesn’t necessarily mean a higher one; you should challenge yourself with your coursework first and foremost.  Don’t drop down a level in a course so you can get a A.  This won’t fool colleges into thinking you’re a more qualified applicant.

2. Success and Your Classes

What is success?  This is a very tricky question.  Ultimately, success is utilizing the gifts, abilities and resources you have been given by God to bring glory to Him and lead others to know Him more.  We grow up thinking that success is being the best, getting everything right, “checking off all of the boxes”, going to a “good” college, getting a good job and making a lot of money. This may be how the world views success and if we do achieve these things we may consider ourselves more “successful”.  It’s difficult to separate our intentions from this worldly view of success.  Nevertheless, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have to.  God made each of us unique with different gifts and talents.  We need to utilize these gifts and talents in all of the various ways that we can.  Alex Chediak says that “vocation equals passions plus gifts”.  As believers, it’s our responsibility to put in 100% effort as well as use the natural gifts we have been given.  If we do this, God will provide opportunities for us to succeed in a vocational area He has prepared for us.

How does this view of success impact the classes I take? First, you should be putting in 100% effort.  Just understanding this and showing teachers that you are willing to work hard through adversity will open up more opportunities to take more challenging classes. If you do not do this then you will miss out on opportunities to take more challenging classes.  One phrase I really struggle with when I hear it is, “they haven’t worked hard up to this point but they have a lot of potential”.  As you approach your junior and senior year of high school, if you haven’t worked hard, you do not deserve to be in the more rigorous classes.

You should be taking the appropriate level classes in high school that match your natural giftedness. As students get to their junior year in high school, it becomes more clear that students are more English/History or Math/Science students.  This is a natural separation.  Now, there are a handful of students that excel in all four (or five if you add World Language) but this is rare.  Take the classes that you know you have a natural giftedness for and if you put in 100% effort, you should be able to get a B in the class.  You do not want to kill yourself with stress, but if there’s a subject you’re really interested in or think you might want to pursue as a major in college, try and push yourself to take the higher level class. Even if it brings your GPA down a bit, it will demonstrate that you’re a driven student who is willing to take risks to gain a better understanding of the subject.  Taking  progressively more challenging classes throughout high school, even if it doesn’t raise your GPA, makes your GPA “better” in the eyes of admission officers because it is hard-earned.

3. Your Goals for College

Do you want to attend a Christian College? Do you want to attend a larger state university? Do you want to attend a smaller private college? Do you want to attend an Ivy League school? These are all good questions that need to be answered because the GPA you may need to have for each of these will be different.

What are you looking to pursue as a major?  If it is specific to math and science or the humanities then this could play a factor in how they evaluate your GPA because they may be looking more specifically at how much you challenge yourself in specific classes that pertain to that major.

You will need to take a look at the average GPA for incoming freshmen at your colleges of choice to get a sense of where you need to be.  You should also use tools like the Scattergram feature in Naviance which shows you the GPAs of other students who applied to these schools from DC and whether they were accepted or not.  Other important numbers to consider as well are the overall admission rate, whether you are applying early decision or early action and what your SAT or ACT scores are because each of these factors could have an impact on how closely they will consider your GPA.

Conclusion

In the end, what is expected of us is our best.  Sometimes our best doesn’t get us an A in a class (or even a B) and that is okay! How did you respond? Did you grow and mature through a difficult time? These are also very important lessons that will greatly benefit us as we get older and face more adversity.  Your GPA doesn’t define you! It is just a number that is evidence of your hard work over the course of four years (four more if you count college) of your life.  I don’t want to belittle its importance at all because it is still a number that colleges will evaluate closely, but it is not the only thing colleges will see.  If you work hard, put in 100% effort, respond well to adversity, seek the advice of wise counsel (teachers, parents, coaches, etc.), serve others, stay involved in activities outside of school that you have a giftedness in and strive to grow closer to God, He has a great plan for your life and he will make it apparent in His time.

Before I begin this post, I want to emphasize that I think students can grow in their faith and relationship with Christ at a Christian or non-Christian college. I attended a Christian college and had a great experience and my twin brother attended a non-Christian college and had a great experience as well. Yes, there are different challenges and it will take students having to be much more pro-active at a non-Christian school, but there are challenges at a Christian college as well.

On the heels of the NACCAP Christian College Fair that DC hosted again on October 10th, I would like to share my perspective as to why students should consider attending a Christian college.  When I counsel juniors and seniors, one thing I emphasize is that every student should consider applying to at least one Christian college. Now, there are seniors that would like to attend a Christian college and that’s great.  There are others that apply to both Christian and non-Christian and also others that don’t want to go to a Christian college.  A student who has professed faith in Christ, and made the decision to follow Him, should at least apply to a Christian college so that they have the option of attending a Christian college when they evaluate their options to decide where they would like to attend.

However, when a student decides not to apply to a Christian college, which again is their decision and I will support them, I ask why and at times I get answers that I don’t think are very good reasons.  These can range from “I have to go to chapel”, “there are too many rules”, “it’s going to be like DC for another 4 years” and “it’s too small”.  Below, I want to speak to each of these “myths” about Christian colleges and hopefully, this will give juniors and seniors a better perspective of Christian colleges so they can make a wise decision as to where they will ultimately attend.

Myth #1- “Chapel is going to be like chapel in high school”

I am answering this question based on my experience at Cedarville University. Not one of the chapels I attended in college is like a chapel here at DC.  First, there are over 3,000 students in a chapel; second, the special music and worship is performed and led by more experienced musicians and the speakers, outside of the president of the university, are almost always from outside of the college and are very experienced (well known authors, pastors of large churches, etc.). Another aspect that is important to understand is that most college students are going to be more spiritually mature than high school students.  So the particpation and eagerness to learn is definitely noticable.  The best way to know the difference though is to attend a chapel at the college you are applying to and experience it for yourself.

Myth #2- “There are too many rules”

I understand that once a student gets to their senior year, they antipate the time that they don’t have to be under their parents roof anymore.  They can be “free” to make more choices for themselves and do what they want to do with all of their time.  They don’t have to check in with Mom or Dad anymore to let them know where they are going, when they will be back, who they are with, etc.  They can go to bed when they want, wake up when they want, eat meals when they want, dress like I want, etc.  So they think, why would I go to a college that tells me I have to go to chapel a certain amount of times, I have to dress a certain way, I can’t be in anyones room that I want to be in and I have to be in my dorm at a certain time at night?  Well, I am going to give you one big reason why having rules at a college can actually be a good thing…ACCOUNTABILITY.  For high school students though, accountability is something they try to avoid because it means someone is checking in on them, helping them avoid make sinful decisions and helping them grow spiritually. When you get to college though, if you are serious about growing in your relationship with Christ, you realize that you need accountability because you can’t do it alone.  If you go to a non-Christian college you will realize that you will need this accountability as well, maybe even more so than if you go to a Christian college because of the environment you are in.  At a Christian college, the accountability is somewhat built-in and easier to obtain.  I found this very helpful and reassuring when I attended Cedarville.

Myth #3- “It’s not as strong academically”

I am not going to come out and say that across the board, Christian colleges are just as strong academically as any non-Christian college. What I am going to emphasize, however, is that there are very impressive programs/majors, professors and job placement numbers at Christian colleges just as there may be at non-Christian colleges.  I have found that there are professors at Christian colleges that have taught or could teach at any Ivy league school but they want to teach in a Christian enviroment where they can be open about their faith.  There are Christian colleges that have success placing students in jobs in certain majors that are as successful as any non-Christian college.  So forming an opinion that Christian colleges are not as strong academically is just not true.  You have access to professors who want you to succeed in your field, but they also want you to be equipped to use your degree and knowlege you have gained as a ministry to reach those you work for and with for Christ.  This should be the mission for each and every one of us.

Myth #4- “Christian Colleges are too small”

Being a “small” college doesn’t just pertain to Christian colleges.  There are many other non-Christian colleges that are also small.  I wanted to address this myth, however, because when I talk to students about Christian colleges, one of the reasons they say they will not consider applying is because of the size of the student body.  Students who attend a school like DC get the impression that a “small” school is going to be just like high school.  I don’t think juniors and seniors understand how many 2,000 or over 3,000 students really is.  They think that a college has to have 15,000 students in order for them to have a “real college experience”.  This is definitely a myth and one that can only be debunked by a student visiting a college, taking a tour and seeing how the environment is, sitting in on a class, eating a meal at the school, attending a chapel, etc.  This is why the College Bus Tour is really profitable.  Students will experience first hand what various campus sizes are like.  A student will not know everyone and everyone will not know them at a school that has 2,000 or more students.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate that when it comes to the college a student attends, it is about fit.  Fit encompasses many areas such as cost, academics, geography, school environment, major, talent, etc. but the one factor that every follower of Christ needs to consider is whether to attend a Christian or non-Christian college.  There is not a wrong decision in my mind when it comes to deciding to attend a Christian or non-Christian college, but students can get distracted with perceptions and not the reality of what a Christian college experience is like.  Nevertheless, there is something really exciting about going to college where professors encourage you in your faith while preparing you for your chosen field of study and being at a college where most of the students have a similar worldview than you.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.