Friday, August 10, 2007

What Schools Should I Apply To? How Many?

You should probably apply to at least 5-7 schools, but the more you can find the time, money, and effort to apply to, the better.

Some College Application Tips:

  • Try to apply only to schools that you might actually want to attend as you will probably be attending at least one of them.
  • Break your applications into three tiers: Reach Schools, Strong Applicant Schools, and Sure Things.
  • Apply to two or three reach schools, three or four schools in which your GPA and SAT are within the middle 25th to 75th percentiles, and at least two sure things. This strategy will ensure that you get into at least one school even if you have a bad admissions cycle, after all, if you are reading this blog then you probably aren't considering taking the year off.
  • Research schools you are interested in thoroughly. Visits are strongly recommended. When I was applying to schools, I remember disliking (a certain state school) the moment I stepped foot on the campus. The feel of the campus will tell you more about the school than the GPA and SAT of its student body. Remember, you are going to be living there for four years. Make sure you can tolerate it.
  • Ask yourself: Do I want to live in a big city, small city, a college town, or what? I personally know that I don't enjoy living in the city, and that personal preference made a big difference in my eventual choice.
So what school should you apply to? I don't know... it all depends. See above :)

What Are The Hardest Schools To Get Into?

There is no doubt that college is not necessarily easy to get into. Even if you have good grades, test scores, and extra curricular activities, you may find that you will not get accepted into your dream school.. Top schools are incredibly competitive and often accept less than 10% of those who apply. Even if you meet the criteria required in order to get into a particular college or university, you must strive to set yourself apart from the competition. Show the admissions officers that you stick with whatever hobby or activity it is that you enjoy and that you do it well.

The hardest colleges from which to gain acceptance tend to be ivy league schools. Some say this is in order to filter out the people who they expect to succeed from the people who will not succeed at their school. Difficult coursework means they need to set much higher standards and expectations than other colleges do. Others realize that personal and family politics often play a role when these colleges are determining whom to admit. Legacy applicants, those lucky enough to have alumni in their families, are often accepted when they otherwise would not have been. Others are accepted because their parents are incredibly rich. Ivy league schools like Yale, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell are always looking for more money to add to their endowments. Luke Weil, heir to the Autotote gaming fortune, once remarked that despite attended less than 8 class periods during his freshmen year at Brown University, the school would not kick him out. Instead they sent him a letter voicing their confidence in the future of his academic career.

Of course, Ivy League schools are not the only hard colleges to get into. Other public and private institutions have stringent standards for admission and are also very demanding of their students. In order to determine which schools you should apply to you must ask yourself what it is you intend to accomplish by attending. Ivy league schools tend to have a liberal arts focus and less majors to choose from where state schools tend to have a greater variety of choices and more practical programs. The University of Virginia, University of Michigan, and UC Berkeley are all very respected and competitive state schools. Caltech, MIT, and Carnegie Melon are as hard if not harder to get into than many Ivy League schools, however, one would only attend these schools if they were interested in the physical sciences. Engineering tends to be a popular major.

All of the schools mentioned in this article are incredibly difficult to get into. Even applicants with perfect grades and SAT scores will often be rejected as there just aren't enough spots in the freshmen class to accommodate every qualified candidate. Some say an applicant either has the stats to get in or they don't. If they do then they still might only have a 50/50 shot at admission so spread a wide net and apply to as many schools as possible.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

College Acceptance for Sale

Unfortunately life isn't fair and neither are college admissions. Despite the veneer of a level playing field based on grades, extracurriculars, test scores, and accomplishments, many of the finest schools base their decisions on financial considerations instead. They often chose financial development admits over top students with top test scores because the schools want to grow their endowments.



Tell me what you think. Leave a comment.

My College Admissions Story

I had always gotten good grades, tested well, and been on the honors/ap track in high school, however, I did not research college as well as I should have. I applied to only two schools, and both of them could be categorized as safety schools. Both schools accepted me and I chose the one that had the best reputation as a party school. This is not the way you should approach college admissions.

As a result, I tend to be bored in class and I wont make as much money when I graduate as I would have had I gone to a better school. Also, there are some doors that are open only to graduates of top tier schools that I wont be walking through anytime soon.

You should apply to some schools that are reach schools(higher average SAT and GPA than you), some where your scores would be the average, and some safety schools where you are just about certain to get in. Your goal should be to go to the best school you can get into with respect to what you have to pay to attend.

Also, if you already know what you want to study in college then learn about what programs each school offers. Choose a school that fits your educational needs. For example, lets pretend you want to study electrical engineering. Harvard and MIT are both very good schools, but MIT is much better for those who want to study engineering than Harvard is so assuming you were accepted at both (riiiiiight) you should attend MIT.

I wish all of you the best of luck, but please please please take it seriously. It will set you on a path that will determine the rest of your life.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

10 Ways Not to Get Accepted Anywhere

1. Join as many clubs as possible. Don't participate in the club meetings, organization, and don't hold any leadership positions. Show up only for lunchtime meetings and only long enough to sign your name and put your email address on the roster so you can put this on your application.

2. Don't participate in any activities outside of school - especially if you are likely to win awards or excel by participating. You should have no way of accounting for the time you spend outside of the classroom. Your schedule should be as follows: Wake up, go to school, play Xbox live until its time for bed, repeat.

3. If your school offers honors, advanced placement, or international baccalaureate classes, avoid them at all costs. Do the absolute minimum required to earn your high school degree. Take gym all four years. Take only three years of math. Home economics and shop class will also surround you with other quality students whose goal is the same as yours - not getting into college. Better yet, go get your GED and/or that job at McDonalds that can really take you places.

4. Never research schools before you apply. Apply only to several Ivy League schools even though your SAT score makes you borderline retarded. You are God's gift to the earth, and no college is going to tell you otherwise. Who cares if Harvard only accepts people with stellar grades and test scores they will look past their otherwise stringent standards for you. After you are rejected from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, proclaim to your friends that "College admissions is just a crap shoot anyways. If it weren't for affirmative action I would have gotten in to all three."

5. Senior year is for slacking off. You should spend your time by the pool, smoking joints, or playing video games. I recommend negotiating with parents and counselors for a half day schedule. After all, you're only 17 once.

6. Forget about test scores. Whatever you do don't make any effort to prepare before test day. In fact, smoke a joint before you take the test. You are a genius, and the picture you made on that scantron sheet would make Van Gogh bow down with praise. The people who score the test will immediately realize your artistic genius and send photocopies of the scantron to the schools you apply to instead of your score.

7. Tell them about how you will solve the worlds problems in your admissions essay. Your plans to air drop twinkies on Darfur, bitch slap the Chinese president into democracy, and blow up all the terrorists are pure genius. Write one draft while stoned.

8. Choose your gym teacher for one of your recommendations. Your gym teacher knows you better than anybody. I mean, come on, the guy has seen you naked more times than he can count, and you have taken his class all four years. Now I know some of you are thinking, "He can barely write his name, much less a recommendation," but this is where it might help to think a little. If he can't write then he can't write anything bad about you - Right on! If you need another one use your dad's lawyer buddy who doesn't know anything about you. Make sure he uses paper that includes his law firms header.

9. Become a scientologist. Write an addendum explaining that your poor GPA is due to the time you spent locked in their 'purification chamber.' Getting evil spirits out of your body is much more important than going to class, and surely the admissions officers will understand. Plus, this allows you legal recourse when you aren't accepted. Sue them. Your dad's lawyer buddy will help.

10. Schedule a college visit and interview. Don't shower or shave. Ask other students where you can find a doobie loud enough for someone important to overhear. Then, sexually harass female staff members. Wink at the admissions officer during your interview and surreptitiously slide your number to her at the end of the interview. Afterwards, file a complaint about the situation claiming that she was hitting on you.

School Profile: Davidson College

Davidson College, sometimes referred to as the Harvard of the south, is a small, selective liberal arts college in North Carolina. It is known for its dedication to intellectual and cultural growth and instilling those values in its students. It is also known for its lack of grade inflation atypical of many other schools of its caliber.

Ivy League Admission Statistics

Ivy league schools have always been hard to get into, but in recent years competition has become fierce. The number of applicants to these schools has skyrocketed while the freshmen class size has remained steady. Here are the admissions statistics for the Ivy League for Fall of 2007's entering class.

Brown

Acceptance Rate: 13.5%
Early Action/Decision: Early Decision
Early Acceptance Rate: 22.7%
Top 10% HS Class: 94%
SAT 27/75: 2010-2290

Columbia
Acceptance Rate: 10.4%
Early Action/Decision: Early Decision
Early Acceptance Rate: 24.4%
Top 10% HS Class: 88%
SAT 27/75: 1980 - 2200

Cornell
Acceptance Rate: 20.5%
Early Action/Decision: Early Decision
Early Acceptance Rate: 36.6%
Top 10% HS Class: 87%
SAT 27/75: 1280-1490 (Includes only analytical and verbal sections)

Dartmouth
Acceptance Rate: 15%
Early Action/Decision: Early Decision
Early Acceptance Rate: 29.7%
Top 10% HS Class: 87%
SAT 27/75: 1350-1530 (Includes only analytical and verbal sections)

Harvard
Acceptance Rate: 9%
Early Action/Decision: Neither
Early Acceptance Rate: N/A (it was 21.8%)
Top 10% HS Class: 90%
SAT 27/75: 2080-2370

University of Pennsylvania
Acceptance Rate: 17.7%
Early Action/Decision: Early Decision
Early Acceptance Rate: 29%
Top 10% HS Class: 91%
SAT 27/75: 1980-2250

Princeton
Acceptance Rate: 10.2%
Early Action/Decision: Neither
Early Acceptance Rate: N/A
Top 10% HS Class: 95%
SAT 27/75: 2050-2360

Yale:
Acceptance Rate: 8.6%
Early Action/Decision: Early Action
Early Acceptance Rate: 19.7%
Top 10% HS Class: 95%
SAT 27/75: 2080-2370