College visit: North Dakota State University
The next stop along Confluence College Admission Consulting's spring 2024 college tour is North Dakota State University, located in Fargo, North Dakota. Founded in 1890, NDSU currently enrolls just under 10,000 undergraduate students, plus an additional 2,000 graduate students. Originally founded as North Dakota Agricultural College, NDSU remains known for its program in agricultural science, which features over 18,000 acres in research extensions, but it also has a diverse array of other program offerings: 146 undergraduate degree programs, five undergraduate certificate programs, 84 undergraduate minors, 87 master's degree programs, 51 doctoral degree programs, and 210 graduate certificate programs.
But back to agricultural science: the NDSU Beef Cattle Research Complex, dedicated in 2011, is a state-of-the-art facility designed to meet the needs of beef cattle research at NDSU well into the future. The BCRC allows NDSU to accomplish the vast array of research needed to meet the challenges of twenty-first century beef cattle production. The cattle complex consists of a feeding area, animal handling, calving pens, office and laboratory space, and a feed storage and mixing area covering an impressive 22,900 square feet. Students interested in ranching or farming as a career tend to thrive at NDSU.
Another attractive feature of campus life at NDSU is that although it's a medium-sized institution, there is a strong sense of school spirit associated with its outstanding football team. The Bison play in the 19,000-seat Fargodome, which has a robust and fun tailgating tradition. The Bison have won 17 national championships and 37 conference championships. They won nine NCAA Division I AA FCS National Championships between 2011 and 2021, and they hold the record for most overall NCAA national championships. Since 2011, the Bison have a record of 149–12, which includes a record 22-game playoff win streak, making them the most successful college football program in Division I FCS this decade. For students wanting high-quality NCAA sports experience without the crowds of a larger university, NDSU offers a nice balance.
Use the contact form on my website to learn more!
College visit: University of Chicago
Our next stop on Confluence College Admissions Consulting's spring 2024 tour is the University of Chicago, whose tree-lined, architecturally magnificent 217-acre campus sits in the eclectic South Side community of Hyde Park, surrounded by charming neighborhoods on three sides and Lake Michigan on the other. The main quads are steel-gray Gothic, gargoyles and all, and other campus buildings were designed by luminaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, and Mies van der Rohe. The Regenstein Library, known colloquially on campus as "The Reg," is a national treasure.
From a curricular standpoint, the University of Chicago is fully committed to the view that a solid foundation in the liberal arts is the best foundation for future work or academic study. Thus, music students study musicology, but also learn calculus, as part of a robust Common Core that is among the most comprehensive sets of distribution requirements of any college or university in the nation. Students call the curriculum "intense."
The University of Chicago's main academic claim to fame is its economics department, which is internationally known as a bastion of free-market economics and has produced numerous Nobel laureates such as Milton Friedman, Robert Fogel, current faculty members Douglas Diamond and Michael Kremer, and 2023 winner Claudia Goldin. Other popular and high-quality majors include environmental and urban studies, global studies, biological sciences, mathematics, public policy studies, and English.
The University of Chicago is pricey: tuition alone for 2024-25 is over $67,000, with total costs that can exceed $93,000. Paradoxically, though, UChicago is a popular choice among my lower-income clients because it is need-blind, and the university meets 100% of demonstrated financial need in the form of grants, meaning no student loans. The tough part is getting accepted, as UChicago accepts only 6% of its applicants.
If you'd like to learn more about the college admissions process and building your college list, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#iec #collegeadmissions #collegecounselor #collegecounseling
College visit: University of Toledo
The next college on my spring 2024 college tour is the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio, home to 12,000 undergraduate students and 3,600 graduate students. With an acceptance rate of 92% and an average total cost of around $16,000, the University of Toledo is a great option for a diverse group of students seeking a quality education at an affordable price.
Popular majors include business management and marketing, engineering, and biological sciences, but by far the most popular major at the University of Toledo is nursing. Students in the nursing program get to work closely with some of the best nursing faculty in the country. They also spend a great deal of their time in the innovative and state-of-the-art Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center (IISC), which offers many ways for health care students to collaborate and work together. It is a virtual hospital with an ICU, trauma center, OB & delivery suite, operating room, ambulatory care facility, and pediatrics room equipped with human patient simulators, clinical equipment, and debriefing and control rooms. There is also an ultrasound lab and clinical skills area. It is an impressive facility where students gain valuable training before they begin working with live patients.
My impression, from walking around the campus and interacting with students, is that the University of Toledo is a great school for students who are serious about turning their undergraduate education into a productive career. Students approach their studies in a serious way, and with an eye toward getting the most return on their investment.
If you'd like to learn more about colleges and build your college list, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#iec #ieca #collegecounseling #collegecounselor #collegeadmissions #collegeadmissionsconsultant #collegeadmissionsconsulting
College visit: Bennington College
As part of my annual spring tour of colleges, this past week I visited Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. I'd lived in Bennington briefly about 20 years ago, but had never actually visited Bennington College until this year.
Bennington is a small college of about 730 students with a charming campus filled with eclectic and thoughtfully constructed learning and living spaces. What stands out to me most about Bennington is its innovative curriculum. Rather than declare a traditional major, Bennington students develop an academic plan focusing on a single, challenging, often interdisciplinary intellectual problem or question. Students then embark upon an ambitious research process, including multiple internships, classes, and tutorials, culminating in a 30-60 page research paper as well as some sort of public-facing presentation or performance. Similar to a dissertation committee, a committee of faculty members works closely with each student to hone their research questions, ask questions of their own, provide feedback and support, and help direct the student toward opportunities after they graduate. Many Bennington students go on to graduate school to continue and deepen their research pursuits. It is an innovative, rigorous, and inquiry-driven approach to undergraduate studies, and the students I spoke to were extremely excited about the projects they had embarked upon.
The type of student most likely to succeed at Bennington is someone who is, or aspires to be, self driven in their intellectual pursuits, who does not expect a uniform or cookie-cutter design to their program of study. Students enrolling at Bennington don't necessarily need to be natural leaders among their peers, but they do need to be community minded. Bennington students are generally oriented toward helping to make the world a better place, and are people seeking to use their educational experiences to make a difference.
If you'd like to learn more about colleges all over the country to develop a robust and diverse college list, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
#iec #ieca #collegeadmissions #collegecounselor #collegecounseling
Comfort with discomfort
This week Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times, pushing back against the conventional wisdom that high school students should look for a college where they feel "comfortable." The idea of "comfort," he argues, could be interpreted to mean finding a place where other people look, act, and think they way you do. Roth suggests thinking in another way: students should look for colleges where they will "encounter ideas and experience cultural forms that push them beyond their current opinions and tastes."
I agree with Roth's reasoning. If you attend a college that is very similar—geographically, demographically, ideologically—to the high school attended, or where most of the student thinks and behaves the way you do, you may miss out on an important growth opportunity.
That said, the optimal type of education you're looking for can be elusive and difficult to define. Diversity of opinion is a good thing generally, but diversity for diversity's sake isn't great if it isn't accompanied by critical thinking. A culture where campus activism and protests are welcomed can be a sign of robust care and concern for the state of the world, but under less optimal conditions it also can create a campus culture that is ideologically rigid. Professors who design courses to address thorny problems create a forum where students can sort through complicated issues, so long as the professor treats all thoughtfully considered perspectives fairly. Ideas should be under constant critical examination, while at the same time, individuals should always be made to feel safe.
The tricky part is knowing which campuses foster healthy intellectual debate, and which ones don't. I think Edward Fiske's annual guide to colleges does a good job of looking under the hood at campus culture. Reading the student newspaper can be illuminating if you want to get a sense of what perspectives are welcomed on campus. Colleges That Change Lives is a robust list of colleges that teach students vital critical thinking skills.
I'm here to help! Use the contact form on my website to reach out and schedule your free one-hour consultation.
College mental health crisis
According to a recent study, the majority of today's college students (more than 60 percent) meet the criteria for at least one mental health problem—a nearly 50 percent increase since 2013. The depth of these mental-health issues has become so severe that it’s affecting college students’ ability to persevere in their studies. Four in 10 college students have recently considered withdrawing from college. The number-one reason why? Emotional stress. When asked what emotional stress means to them, many students told researchers that coursework can be overwhelming, especially in combination with jobs or caregiving duties. Some mentioned depression and anxiety, or concerns about paying for college.
For these reasons, it's important for students—including those who may not perceive themselves as immediately suffering from, or at risk for, mental-health issues—to know how colleges they're considering applying to support students with mental health needs, and how to access those resources once they're enrolled.
Some colleges are offering innovative programs to support student mental health. For example, the Health and Wellness Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is actively challenging its students to stay well. The UCSB Wellness Challenge and the UCSB Happiness Challenge both offer students the chance to improve their personal well-being. The UCSB Challenge works via an app which tells students about current wellness opportunities. When students participate in these activities, they earn wellness points, which allows them to win prizes. Colorado State University's Bikram yoga program is the result of extensive research on how the practice improves minds and bodies. The University of Oregon's Duck Nest, located in the college’s health center, runs initiatives such as meditation, yoga, healthy eating on a budget, aromatherapy, therapy dogs, wellness presentations, and more.
For more information about college readiness, applying to college, paying for college, and much more, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation today!
#collegeadmissions #collegecounselor #collegecounseling #iec #ieca #pnacac
The adjunct problem
In American popular culture, there exists a pervasive and malignant myth that college professors make tons of money, live extravagant lifestyles, and impose their ideological dogmas on unwitting students. I hear all the time that colleges and universities are "brainwashing centers" for "socialist elites," or various permutations thereof.
I taught college students for thirteen years at several different types of institutions. I can assure you that this is not the case. Few college professors make a lot of money (the exception would be some faculty in engineering and business). Few lead fancy lifestyles. The people I worked with are passionate about their subject area of expertise, but not about ideological indoctrination. In fact, many of the people teaching college students today are adjuncts—meaning they don't have a full-time position, don't receive health insurance or other benefits, and in some cases, live on the edge of poverty. Many are just barely getting by financially.
That is why, when selecting colleges, it's important to consider what percentage of a college or university's faculty are full-time, and how many are tenured or tenure track. These things don't guarantee a higher quality of education, but I'd rather attend a college that treats its faculty humanely than one that has part-time faculty coming to class after spending the night in their cars. Faculty who live on a decent salary and receive good health care are likely to be far better equipped to assist students than those who are being exploited by a corrupt and inequitable system.
Some colleges with the highest percentage of full-time faculty include the following:
College of the Atlantic
University of Wyoming
University of Pennsylvania
Beacon College
University of Delaware
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Centre College
Utah State University
Johns Hopkins University
Kenyon College
There are so many factors to consider when selecting a college—or even deciding whether or not college is the right path for you. Let me help. If you'd like to receive timely expert advice on your college process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free consultation.
#collegecounseling
How, not where
I work closely with all my clients to make sure that the colleges that land on their final college list are good fits, and that they and their families feel good about their plans to pay for college. I spend a lot of my time and energy figuring out which colleges are the right ones for each student.
That said, there's a significant body of research suggesting that how you go to college matters a lot more than where you go to college. The Gallup-Purdue Index (2014), which studied 30,000 college graduates in the United States to measure the most important outcomes of higher education, found that college selection had no impact on future workplace engagement or long-term well-being. What did affect these outcomes was how students engaged on campus, not where they went to school.
I have three pieces of advice for students about to enroll in college for the first time:
1. De-emphasize the importance of where you are accepted and emphasize what the college experience might be like. Talk about how you want to engage on campus when you get there. What activities or clubs appeal to you? What will dorm life be like? What classes pique your interest?
2. Visit campus before you commit to a particular school. Students who had a good experience visiting campus were more satisfied and were more likely to graduate from that school, and were more likely to graduate in four years.
3. Limit how often you visit home during your first year of college. Understandably, you may feel homesick and want to return to comfort and familiarity on the weekends. Your parents likely will welcome you home. However, research shows that frequent returns home negatively affect student satisfaction. Too much time away from college, especially in the first few months, limits your ability to fully engage in student life, create strong bonds, and get involved in campus offerings. Validate your desire to return home and the feelings driving that urge, while staying on campus on the weekend and getting actively involved in campus life. This will pay off in the long run.
For more information on success in college, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation! #iec
Storycraft and discovery
Confluence College Admissions Consulting is accepting new clients for 2024-25 senior packages, including our Essays and Applications package. Now that the 2023-24 admissions cycle is drawing to a close, I'm now scheduling new clients to start work on their personal statements and supplemental essays. In my observation, summer is an ideal time for students to work on their essays because they have more brain space and more time in their schedules to think deeply about their writing.
Rather than asking my clients to brag about their accomplishments—something they will do anyway on their Common App—I teach them how to reveal something important about themselves through the subtle art of vivid, perceptive storytelling. The result of this spacious process is a personal statement that brings each student's unique experiences alive for the reader in the student's own authentic voice. Whereas some of their peers will undoubtedly resort to AI or their parents to write their college essays for them, my clients will have a leg up on college admissions because their essays will be written in a way that only they can write. They'll also have the pride and satisfaction in knowing that their work is theirs alone.
I help my clients build powerful, emotionally resonant essays through simple sentence-level prompts, followed by conversation, questioning, and reflection over multiple drafts. Nearly all of my feedback for my clients comes in the form of questions. Some writing coaches treat this process as a kind of "boot camp" (some use that phrase!), whereas I prefer to think of it as storycraft and discovery.
The essays my students write are not conventional five-paragraph essays that many students learn to write in middle school and high school. The Common App personal statement is brief—650 words maximum—so students must learn to pack a lot of meaning into a concise story. Students who invest their time and energy in the process I teach them nearly always come away feeling proud of what they accomplished. Admission to a great college is only one aspect of this valuable learning exercise.
Want to learn more about my approach to writing college essays? Sign up today!
Getting caught up in numbers
This time every year, news outlets begin to focus on high school students who have been accepted at some incredible number of colleges, and who have received millions of dollars in scholarships. Last year it was a student from New Orleans who was accepted to 175 colleges and received over $9 million in scholarships.
Now, I'm not making a judgment about whether or not these results are worth celebrating. But I do think they need context. Obviously, only top students will be offered admission at Ivy League and other highly selective colleges and universities. But the sheer number of colleges offering admission doesn't really tell us very much. Many colleges have no application fee and do not require supplemental essays, so students can submit an application with no additional effort beyond the work they've already done for their Common App. Colleges do this when they are trying to boost their total number of applications received and reduce their acceptance rates, which are then factored into college rankings.
The scholarship money also doesn't tell us much. Many colleges offer merit-based financial aid. Let's suppose you've applied to a college with a $70,000 tuition sticker price, and that college offers a $40,000-per-year merit scholarship worth $160,000 total. Let's say you get seven colleges to make similar offers. That's over a million dollars in scholarships! But that's not all money you can use, since you're not going to attend all those colleges. And it's also not free money you can spend. It's a discount that brings down college costs into a range that, one hopes, your family can afford to pay.
In reality, most (93%) of the big chunks of scholarship money will come in the form of either need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarships from the colleges where you're applying. Only 7% of scholarship dollars come from private scholarships. Should you still apply for private scholarships? If you're qualified and competitive, absolutely! But unless you are a top student, you're unlikely to receive massive private scholarships. You might be better off angling for merit scholarships at schools where you'd be an above-average student. #ieca #iec
Rolling out the new FAFSA
While the Department of Education's new FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) ultimately will be beneficial to families because the form has been vastly simplified from the version used in past years, the rollout of the new FAFSA has been anything but smooth. There have been significant delays this year in the new form being made available to students and parents, and only now are colleges and universities beginning to receive the data they need to make financial aid awards to incoming students. A number of schools have pushed back the deadlines by which students need to commit to a particular school, and this has created an unsettled situation for both families and admissions departments.
Here's my advice to families who are waiting on financial aid offers before making a final decision: don't feel pressured to make a decision before you receive your financial aid awards from all the schools where you've been admitted. If necessary, contact the admissions offices at the schools that you think are still in play, and let them know that you're waiting on the financial aid offer.
In the meantime, you should have some idea at this point whether or not you'll qualify for need-based financial aid. On your completed FAFSA, there is a number called the Student Aid Index. This number is a rough estimate of what the Department of Education believes your family is able to pay this year toward your college education. If the college or university where you've been accepted meets 100% of your financial aid, you can the amount they ask you to pay to be close to this amount.
Colleges that don't promise to meet all of your financial need may instead come through with a generous merit-based aid package. If your grades and SAT scores are above the 75th percentile at a particular college, there's a decent chance, depending on the school, you'll be offered a merit-based package. So even without the specific offers from each college, you can estimate them. But I don't recommend committing to any school until all your offer letters arrive.
For more information about financial aid, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
#iec
Why hire an IEC?
Most of the time when I tell people what I do for a living—that I work with high school students as an IEC, or independent educational consultant—people immediately respond enthusiastically, "Oh! That is something that's sorely needed!" To which I agree. Occasionally, people ask me to explain why someone would hire an IEC—in other words, what it is I can provide that students aren't already getting through their schools and their parents. Here are some top reasons why families hire me:
1. Families lack familiarity with the college admissions process in 2024. The landscape of college admissions has changed a lot since parents of today's college applicants applied to college. It's extremely helpful for families to have someone familiar with the latest trends to help guide them.
2. Families want to enjoy their student’s last year at home without feeling they must nag them about college applications, scholarships, and essays. Bringing me in to shepherd their student through college admissions reduces stress for everyone.
3. The high cost of college has raised the stakes for families as students decide which colleges to apply to, and how they plan to pay for college. I help students find an affordable option, get the best possible deal from the college, and ensure they have a sensible plan to pay for it. The fee for one of my packages is often a drop in the bucket compared to the money I save families by providing informed, timely advice.
4. Students who are considered “gifted” or have learning disabilities have unique needs in their educational search. This is also true for exceptionally talented artists and athletes. Because I work one-on-one with each of my clients over a period of time, I provide the specialized support they need to maximize their opportunities and their potential.
5. I begin working with clients as early as ninth grade, ensuring consistency in the support they receive.
If you'd like to learn more about the services I provide to help students with both college readiness and college admissions, please use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
Return on investment
I've pointed out in previous posts that colleges are often run like businesses. Because this is true, I often encourage my clients and their families to approach their enrollment decisions not only with "fit" in mind, but also finances. An important factor we consider when choosing a college is return on investment.
When it comes to college, there's more that goes into calculating return on investment than just stacking up tuition against average starting salaries out of college. We need to consider financial aid packages (both need-based and merit-based), scholarships, and total cost of attendance including room, board, books, transportation costs, and fees. We also need to consider the specific field the student is thinking of studying, and how graduates from that program tend to do on the job market after graduation. And of course, there are other factors, such as the school's reputation, culture, and quality of education, that may be less quantifiable. But the quantifiable numbers do allow us to ask more tangible questions: is it worth an additional $10,000 per year to attend your number one choice? Or would it be better to attend a school that's cheaper or closer to home?
Each year, U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges by return on investment. Here are some of their top choices for 2024-25:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Georgetown University
Lehigh University
Duke University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Georgia Tech
Columbia University
Santa Clara University
Boston College
Colorado School of Mines
Yale University
Dartmouth College
If you'd like to learn more about return on investment, researching colleges and universities, scheduling college tours, developing your college list, paying for college, and much more, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation today!
#collegeadmissions #collegecounseling #collegeadmissionsconsulting #collegeadmissionsconsultant #ieca #pnacac #collegecounselor #collegeadmissionscounseling
It’s not you, it’s them
When I work with clients who are interested in applying to selective colleges, I encourage them to increase their chances of admission by studying hard in rigorous courses, participating in activities they feel passionate about, working to be helpful to others they care about, studying for and excelling at their standardized tests, and spending time preparing good applications.
We're now at the point in college admission season when students in the regular admission pool are hearing back from Ivy League and other selective colleges and universities. If you're one of these students, now is a good time to cut yourself a break. You've worked hard. You've done everything you could to tip the odds in your favor.
That said, it's not all about you. In fact, and this may seem counterintuitive, but it's mostly not about you. It's about the colleges where you are applying and their institutional priorities. Colleges operate like businesses. They are concerned about putting together a whole freshmen class. Highly selective colleges have many qualified applicants and can fill their classes ten times over with incredibly accomplished, intelligent, kind, deserving students. At universities like Harvard, the majority of applicants have perfect or near-perfect test scores and grades. This is the part of college admissions that many students understandably find baffling, even unfair. The social media culture in which students share their college admissions misadventures further contributes to their sense that college admissions is impenetrably labyrinthine.
For these reasons, I encourage my clients to "fall in like" with multiple schools, set themselves up for success with admissions, and then treat the actual admissions results, including financial aid offers, as information they can use to make a final decision about which school they attend. This way, they can be much more adaptable and resilient when rejection letters (usually emails) arrive. Students who embrace this approach almost always end up very happy at the college where they eventually land.
For more information about college admissions, use the contact form here on my website to schedule your free consultation.
Financial aid appeals
After weeks of delays related to the rollout of the new FAFSA, colleges will soon be coming through with need-based financial aid offers to admitted students. The next step for families will be comparing and evaluating these offers, and potentially negotiating or appealing.
First, you’ll want to be clear on whether the financial aid offer you’ve received from a college or university is need-based financial aid, a merit-based scholarship, a hybrid of the two, or a combination of both.
If the financial aid offer you’ve received is need-based, and you think an error was made or if you have special circumstances that warrant reconsideration of your family’s finances, your appeal should be sent to the college’s financial aid office. In your letter, focus on any new information you can provide that may update or illuminate what the college already knows from reviewing your FAFSA. If you’re comfortable doing so, you might also let the college know how much your family is reasonably able to pay.
If the offer is merit-based, you’ll be submitting your appeal letter to the admissions office. If you have superior merit-based offers from schools the college considers peer institutions, attach those to your email. If the school you’re appealing to is your first choice, tell them that, and explain why. If this is true—and only if this is true—you might also consider saying that if the school can match a competing offer you’ve received from a different school, you’ll attend. Colleges love to admit students whom they think will love it there, and be successful.
I’m currently reviewing financial aid appeal letters for several of my clients. I don’t write these letters, since they need to come from you and be written in your voice, but I do proofread them with the same attention and care that I put into reading personal statements and supplemental essays. My process doesn’t end when students gain acceptance to their top school—it ends only once they are committed to their dream school with their family’s financial house in order.
If you’d like to learn more about college readiness, college admissions, and paying for college, schedule your free consultation with me today!
Best college towns
What's the best college town in the United States? According to the popular apartment rental website RentCafe, it's right here—Bozeman, Montana.
The college towns that made it into RentCafe's top 20 this year are places that offer a balance between a great education, high quality of life, and affordability. The rankings are based on 12 metrics, including cost of living, tuition fees, scholarship availability, graduation rates, natural amenities, air quality, entertainment options, admission yield, and more.
The fact that affordability is incorporated into the rankings raised an eyebrow for me, as housing in Bozeman is expensive if you're not planning to live on campus. But it's tough to argue with everything else. Bozeman has many miles of spectacular trails for hiking and mountain biking, world-class skiing nearby, and excellent whitewater. Although Bozeman isn't a large city, there are great restaurant options for tacos, brunch, sushi, Italian, Korean, Thai, and pizza, not to mention a variety of high-quality, comfortable coffee shops for socializing and doing schoolwork. There are several small to mid-sized music venues that are among the best anywhere. There's even a highly successful comedy club. On-campus dining is rated among the best in the country.
Other college towns on the list are as follows:
Pullman, Washington
Clemson, South Carolina
Gainesville, Florida
Boone, North Carolina
Moscow, Idaho
Laramie, Wyoming
Amherst, Massachusetts
College Station, Texas
Storrs, Connecticut
Athens, Ohio
Provo, Utah
East Lansing, Michigan
Bloomington, Indiana
Ellensburg, Washington
Stanford, California
Oxford, Ohio
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oneonta, New York
Davis, California
I've visited many of these, and I can confirm that many of these are great choices (I'm thinking especially of Moscow, Pullman, and Bloomington), and there were also some that surprised me (Oneonta, Oxford).
Which college town is your favorite, and why? Tell me why in the comments, and maybe I'll schedule a visit there this spring!
#iec #collegecounseling #bestcollegetown #ieca #pnacac #collegecounselor #collegeadmissions #collegeadmissionsconsulting #collegeadmissionsconsultant
March Madness
The phrase "March Madness" takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to college admission season. With many college admissions decisions coming in this month, the season is already proving to be one of the wildest yet as it draws to a close. The number of applications to the more than 1,000 universities included in the Common Application has increased by 6% over the previous year's already record-breaking level. It's a continuation of a pattern that started in the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic compelled hundreds of highly regarded universities to waive their standardized test score criteria, sparking an increase in applications.
As students pour more applications into the system, colleges are spending more and more time thinking about how to forecast who will actually show up if accepted, and shaping their policies to lock in those students and maintain or increase their yield rates. They have rolled out a complicated menu of admissions options, each with its own requirements, deadlines, restrictions, and risks for students, but all designed to bring as much certainty to the college as possible.
Admissions policies instituted by schools at or near the top of the rankings have ripple effects at less selective schools, which, in turn, also make changes to protect their yield rates. For example, less selective schools have embraced a strategy of increasingly deferring applicants in early rounds to see if they’re serious—or even denying them outright when the school thinks it’s being used as a backup.
Figuring out how to navigate this all can leave applicants and their families feeling like they need a Ph.D. in game theory just to get into college. This is an area where having an experienced IEC (independent educational consultant) such as myself in your corner can be extremely valuable. I can help students figure out what to do when they're deferred or waitlisted, which may include scheduling a campus visit or writing a letter of continued interest (LOCI) to the admissions committee.
For more information about the college readiness and admissions process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#iec
Is the SAT returning?
Over the past month or so, several highly selective colleges have announced that they will be requiring applicants for Fall 2025 to send standardized test scores (SAT or ACT). Among these are Dartmouth College and Brown University. Applicants to Yale University will have to include test scores with their applications, or else report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in place of SAT or ACT scores as part of their new "test flexible" policy.
Colleges' reasons for this return to the SAT/ACT requirement may vary, but several of these schools cite research over the past decade which suggests that standardized tests, considered alongside an applicant's overall academic record, is both a helpful predictor of academic success in college and a tool that admissions offices can use to help promote equity and diversity.
I predict that some other elite colleges will follow suit, since trends such as these in college admissions tend to swing like a pendulum. I also believe that many colleges are happy with their current "test optional" policies and have no plans to change them.
This development does not significantly affect my advice for high school students considering college. My recommendation for most students, particularly those applying to elite colleges and those wishing to keep their options open, is to take the SAT or ACT sometime during their junior year. A high test score can only help you with both admissions and scholarships. A low test score may mean adjusting your strategy to include more "test optional" colleges on your list.
For those students wanting a full course with an instructor to help them prepare for the SAT, I make referrals to local tutors. Most of my clients, however, find that taking Khan Academy's free online course, and working together with me to analyze their results and adjust their study strategy, is all the extra support they need. I discuss options with my clients to devise a strategy for them that is both affordable and effective.
To learn more about the college admissions process, including standardized testing, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
Buyers and sellers
Jeff Selingo, author of Who Gets In and Why, provides a useful perspective on which colleges and universities are “buyers,” which are more likely to provide merit-based financial aid, versus “sellers,” which tend to be more generous with need-based aid.
Selingo describes the sellers as the "haves" of admissions. They receive an overwhelming number of applications, many of which are from top students. They do not have to lure students with tuition discounts to fill their classrooms. Most sellers only provide financial support to those who actually need it or are truly exceptional.
In terms of admissions, the buyers are the "have-nots"—despite the fact that they may provide a better undergraduate education. Rather than "select" a class, admissions administrators must work hard to recruit students and offer tuition discounts through merit aid to fill classroom seats and beds.
The search for the right fit in a college should result in one that measures up in three ways: academic, social, and financial. But too often, when students and their families start looking for schools their quest is guided by academic and social needs as well as geography.
While cost is a concern, families have only a hazy idea of what their tuition bill might look like. So they don’t think about the price of college until it’s too late.
Check out Selingo’s helpful video on “buyers” and “sellers.”
Beyond “we’re small”
Some years ago, I was a faculty member at a small liberal arts college. It was my feeling that a lot of exciting things were happening at the college: faculty doing cutting-edge research, departments offering creative programs and majors, sports teams winning championships, and fancy new facilities being built. Something that always struck me as odd was the way our college president spoke about students and graduates of our college. "Whenever you meet a graduate of our college," she'd say, "you just know you're talking to somebody from our college. There's just something about them. You can't explain it. You can't define it. You just know it. There's just something about that *x* college spirit."
I always thought this was a peculiar way of talking about our college. Really, you can't define what makes our graduates special? You can't think of any qualities or descriptors? Couldn't you ask someone in your English department for some words?
What's funny is that I hear this kind of thing all the time during college tours. Putting myself in the shoes of a prospective student or parent, I experience this type of language as a kind of red flag. The same goes for comments such as "our small size means we have a tight-knit community." You don't say?
When I visit colleges and universities, I want to know what makes that institution—and its graduates—stand out. At College of the Atlantic, for example, every student designs their own course of study in human ecology. Goucher College has a major emphasis on international studies and requires every student to study abroad. Mesalands Community College has the only college degree program (that I know of) in farrier science. A team from Auburn University won the 2023 college championship in bass fishing. I encourage prospective students and their families to look for these unique aspects of a college's identity that make it special, and that would make it an exciting and welcoming place to live and learn.
If you'd like to learn more about planning college tours and the college admissions process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#collegeadmissions #collegetours