College Planning Blog

The odds are that among the admission decision letters received by college applicants in the coming days will be a few that bear the curious message, “We are pleased to offer you a place on the Wait List.” If you receive such a message, you might find it puzzling. You can’t find the word “congratulations” anywhere in the letter, yet the school is “pleased to offer you…”—what?

Your instincts say that if you are not “in” you must be “out.” Rejected. At the very least, you might convince yourself that it is just a polite denial letter. Before you draw too many conclusions, read the letter carefully. Your application hasn’t been dismissed. It’s simply been put on hold.

Rather than a polite denial, the Wait List offer is a “definite maybe.” Whether you knew it or not, you were on the competitive “bubble” among the candidates at the college in question. You were certainly qualified—deserving of consideration in a close competition—but you were not a shoo-in. When it came time for the admission committee to make very fine distinctions, it chose others over you. By offering you a place on the Wait List, though, the committee is really saying, “We like you. Since we might not get the number of enrollments we need from the initial round of acceptances, we might be able to admit you later.”

While such an explanation does not feel very reassuring as you read it for the first time, you may well have options before this whole thing is over. Hang in there. Most of the selective colleges in the country will admit students from the Wait List every year in numbers ranging from half a dozen to well over 100.

Information about Wait List status and movement is closely guarded. Colleges are sensitive to negative inferences that are made about the “need” to go to the Wait List and prefer to be discrete about the extent of their reliance on it for enrollment. Here is what you need to know—and do—in order to give yourself a competitive edge.

1. Wait Lists will be active because colleges are constantly gambling that their yield on initial offers will be better than expected. They are usually wrong.
2. When they go to the Wait List, admission officers have efficiency in mind. They want to fill their empty seats as quickly as possible. Rather than mailing offers of admission to hundreds of students, they will call or email candidates one at a time until they receive the number of commitments they need.
3. Make sure that the school knows it is your first choice. Write a letter confirming your interest. Visit. Send new grades. Provide new insight into your performance as well as evidence of recent accomplishments that might not have appeared on your initial application.
4. Stay on the radar screen of the staff member who recruits in your area. Make sure they know you are available and ready to accept an offer of admission. Continue to show your interest without becoming a pest.
5. Be sure to provide evidence of your potential “hooks.” Colleges re-define their needs as they go to the Wait List. For example, they may have acquired plenty of tuba players, but now have a need for an oboist.
6. Colleges may need students who won’t require financial assistance. If there had ever been a question about your need for financial aid, be clear about what your family can afford. Your need of assistance could well be a determining factor. Movement from Wait Lists prior to May 1 will probably be limited to students who do not need financial aid.
7. Many Wait List offers will come after the May 1 deadline for submitting enrollment deposits. If such a call comes, you need to be prepared to decide quickly (often in 24 hours) whether you want to forfeit an earlier enrollment at another school in order to take advantage of the acceptance from the Wait List.
8. Don’t allow yourself to become so preoccupied with the Wait List situation that you lose track of your more immediate options. If the Wait List offer doesn’t come, you need to be ready to embrace one of your other options.

So, take heart. The enrollment opportunities from the Wait List are very real. In fact, competing for admission from the Wait List is like playing in a contest that has gone into overtime. If you assume the game is lost, you can’t win. Keep “playing,” then—hard and smart—to give yourself a chance for a happy outcome.

Over the next two weeks I will continue to provide guidance for students as they sort through the process of making final college choices. Contents of this posting are excerpted from Winning the College Admission Game: Strategies for Students and Parents.

Within the next ten days, the annual college admission lottery will finally be played out. After months of waiting, most applicants will find out where they have been admitted to college. If past experience is any indicator of the likely outcomes, nearly 85% will report they have gotten into their first choice colleges. And that bodes well for you!

By the time all of the mail is open and the admission decisions are in, you should have options–quality options. There might be two or three–or, if you’re lucky, half a dozen. If that’s the case, congratulations! Your hard work has paid off and you get to make the final choice of a college destination.

Choosing well, however, is critical to the experience you will have once enrolled. Now, more than ever, you need to be attentive to the details. As you enter the final phase of decision-making, start by rechecking your priorities. What was important when you initially constructed your list of colleges? Has anything changed? Why? The answers to these questions will be your compass as you make decisions in the coming weeks.

The elements of a good college fit apply now more than ever. Even the “best” college (by acclaim) won’t help you reach your goals if getting through four years at that school is likely to be a struggle academically. Choose wisely. Stay within your ability to comfortably embrace the academic programs and achieve the educational goals you set for yourself.

Using your priorities as a guide, take another look at the colleges that accepted you. You have until the end of April to choose one of them. Return to their campuses where you can immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and overall culture of the places. How do they feel to you? In doing so, try to accomplish the following:

• Spend a weeknight in a residence hall, eat at least two meals in the dining facilities and go to two classes in different disciplines including an introductory first-year class.
• Talk with professors from the academic departments that interest you as well as the appropriate pre-professional advisor for those programs. Do you see a home for yourself in those environments?
• If you are a recruited athlete, visit with the coach as well as members of the team. These folks may be your support system for the next four years. Where will you fit best?
• If you have academic support needs, talk with the person on campus who coordinates the Special Needs Support Center or the Writing Center. Look for evidence that you will get the support you require.
• If you have financial concerns, make an appointment with the financial aid office. Take copies of your financial aid application as well as any relevant tax returns for reference. Don’t assume that troubling financial differences will be worked out later.
• Hang out. Watch people. Listen to them talk. Ask them what they think about campus life, politics, sports, religion, or whatever is important to you.
• Inquire about safety information, crime statistics and campus escort programs.
• Use good judgment as you explore the social scene. Know your limits…

In other words, take in as much as possible. It might be tough because you’ll also have to juggle academic and social demands at school. On the other hand, the choice of a college is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime. In the end, you can only choose one college! Do what you can to make sure you get it right the first time.

Most students who emerge from this process acknowledge that much of the decision-making comes down to a gut feeling. Let your gut go to work for you. Make sure the college you choose fits comfortably and feels good before you commit yourself.

Finally, a word of caution. As the good news begins to arrive, your life will change instantaneously as colleges roll out the “red carpet.” You’ll be invited to parties and open houses in your honor. Prominent alumni will call to wish you well. Some schools may even offer to fly you to their campuses for the weekend. In the midst of all the ego food being tossed your way, however, you need to stay focused. Do your own detective work and remain true to your priorities. Much of the stuff that goes on over the six weeks prior to your enrollment decision is staged by colleges for your benefit. And that’s fine. Just make sure you sort through the excitement to find evidence that the school in question truly values you for what you do well.

Over the next two weeks I will provide guidance for students whose situations might be complicated by Wait List options, financial aid comparisons, or even the need to find new college options. Contents of this posting are excerpted from Winning the College Admission Game: Strategies for Students and Parents.

Editor’s note: Periodically, I invite folks to share valuable insight into an element of the college planning process. In this installment, I am happy to introduce Karl Schellscheidt. Karl has developed a fascinating and educationally sound approach to test prep that I am happy to endorse — he actually teaches you so you can understand the tested subject matter better! Check out his video-based SAT preparation at www.ePrep.com.

How You Can Prepare for the SAT on a $25 Budget!
No, the title of this blog is not a cruel joke! You really can prepare for the SAT on a $25 budget. All you really need to do is (1) get motivated and (2) follow the advice below:

First, you need to understand the preparation methodology employed by teaching experts. It goes something like this:

1) Practice under simulated conditions;
2) Grade your practice test; and
3) Review the problems you:

• answered incorrectly;
• skipped;
• answered correctly, but with a guess; and
• answered correctly, but only after a long struggle.

Second, repeat this “practice-grade-review” cycle as many times as possible before test day. It’s that simple. The following offers a closer look at the detail and some of the logic behind this methodology.

Step 1: Practice Under Simulated Conditions
Before you begin practicing, take the time to acquire the highest quality practice SAT tests available. They can be found in The Official SAT Study Guide. Yes, The Official SAT Study Guide is the College Board’s book…you know, the big fat one with the light blue cover. It will cost somewhere around $20.

Once you have the book, you’ll be ready to take your first practice section under simulated conditions. So what exactly is meant by simulated conditions? First, if the header of the practice test says “20 questions in 25 minutes,” you should set your timer and limit yourself to 25 minutes. Don’t give yourself 40 minutes. If you do, you will not be simulating the time pressure that will exist on test day. Second, if you’re taking the practice test at home, don’t sit on a couch or in a comfortable chair while taking the test. Instead, sit at your kitchen table in a wooden chair or at a desk in a classroom after school. Doing so will help simulate test-day conditions. Finally, do not practice in perfect silence. You will not experience perfect silence on test day. Train yourself to ignore a moderate amount of background noise and commotion.

Step 2: Grade Your Test
This step is simple. Immediately after completing the practice section, grade your test using the answer key provided.

Step 3: Review
Right after grading your test–while everything is still fresh in your mind–launch into a review of the problems you:

• answered incorrectly;
• skipped;
• answered correctly, but with a guess; and
• answered correctly, but only after a long struggle.

So how do you review your problem areas listed above? Ideally, you will have formed a study group prior to completing the first practice section. Study groups should be composed of somewhere between 2 and 5 diversely talented individuals. (It may sound kind of geeky to invite someone into a SAT prep study group; but trust me, you’re going to have a really good time and you’re going to learn a whole lot!)

After your SAT study group is established, schedule a time to take a practice section in a classroom after school. When time has expired, each member should quickly grade his/her test. Note: There will almost always be someone in your group who answered a given problem correctly (without a guess or long struggle). Such person will be responsible for explaining his/her solution to those who fell short.

If no one from the study group can provide a good explanation for a particular problem, tap into the knowledge of other college-bound teenagers through an online forum. That’s right, simply go to a test prep forum and post something like, “Hey, I’ve been preparing for the SAT and I can’t seem to find a good solution to this problem. Please help.” Depending on the popularity of the forum, you should have multiple solutions within an hour.

At this point you might be thinking, “The College Board Book only costs around $20… so how do I spend the remainder of my budget?” The answer: Buy yourself a snack for the test (it’s a long one) or treat yourself to ice cream afterward. You deserve it.

Good luck!

Karl Schellscheidt is a master teacher and Princeton University graduate who co-founded www.eprep.com in 2005. ePrep currently offers the world’s only online, video-based SAT preparation courses.

Recent news reports about Ivy League colleges offering “free education” to students from middle-class families paint a highly unrealistic picture of the challenges facing the majority of college-bound students.

With college costs weighing heavily on many Americans, it must have seemed heartening when NBC news anchor Brian Williams introduced a segment on the March 7 NBC Nightly News by saying: “Finally for American middle class families there is long overdue help on the way…”

The segment reported by Rehema Ellis profiled a high achieving young woman from a hardworking, middle-income family who is waiting to hear back from several Ivy League institutions to which she has applied. While the admission outcomes are still unknown, the young woman is clearly relieved by news that these schools have declared that middle income students can attend tuition-free. “Knowing that the tuition will be free just takes a huge load off,” she says.

Ellis tells viewers that many of the nation’s wealthiest institutions have reached out to middle income families by redefining “middle income” and converting need-based loans to scholarships for these students.

Unfortunately, this report perpetuates the great myth about higher education–the notion that academic quality exists only at the wealthiest and most elite colleges. Most cruelly, however, it offers false encouragement to many families of college-bound students. While Ellis is careful to point out that opportunity is out there for young people who “make the grade,” it’s not clear to whom she is referring.

The straight “A” record shown in the on-screen graphic could belong to any of the approximately 50,000 soon-to-be high school graduates who rank first or second in their respective classes. And that number doesn’t include other highly-ranked students at extemely competitive high schools around the country. You don’t need to be a math major to see there are more straight-A students than available slots at elite colleges.

So, who is really being served by this media coverage? Not the average consumer. By rough count, less than one-half of one percent of young people entering college next fall will actually benefit. The relative handful of students who will be affected by the largesse of the wealthy elite institutions are only those fortunate enough to have been invited to “join” in the first place!

For the rest of us, these news stories represent little more than sheer fantasy.

It is disingenuous to suggest that de facto merit scholarships at these institutions create more access and opportunity. The elite colleges are merely doing what’s necessary to shore up their own enrollments. Don’t think for a minute that they are expanding their enrollments to include larger numbers of middle-income students. It simply isn’t going to happen.

Middle-income students do have affordable, quality options at hundreds of colleges across the country. Finding them requires a student-centered approach to college planning. Assuming the best measure of a good and fulfilling college education is the experience a student can take from it, students need to be coached to look past the obvious cachet of an institution for evidence that it is a good “fit” for them. Here’s why.

The likelihood of receiving scholarship assistance at any college goes up in direct proportion to the student’s desirability at that college. As a result, the formula for affording college expenses is fairly simple: find institutions that value the student for what s/he does well. Colleges that are good “fits” will invest in the student’s success.

Does that mean that loans will convert to scholarships for every student? It’s highly doubtful. But college can be more affordable to every student if the selection process is approached prudently. By putting themselves into competition at places that value them for what they do well, students give themselves better chances of receiving the funding support they need while benefiting from productive and fulfilling educational experiences.

It is a mistake to assume that the “gold” standard of educational access and opportunity rests with the wealthy elite. Rather, the efforts to improve access felt by most Americans are being implemented without fanfare on the campuses of hundreds of lesser-known institutions around the country. Perhaps, focusing on “fit” instead of famous names will reveal that the “long overdue help” for middle class families has been within reach all along.

A question that seems to circulate among high school Juniors at this time of year as they make course selections for the Senior Year sounds something like this: “Is it better for me to take a course where I know I can get an ‘A’ or should I take a harder course and risk getting a lower grade?” And the answer is: “Take the harder course and do as well as you can–why not shoot for the ‘A’?!”

There are two perspectives to consider here. One revolves around the college admission process and what colleges want to see from you academically. Generally speaking, the harder it is to get into a college the greater is the likelihood that its admission officers will be checking to see if you are continuing to stretch yourself academically. Because they are choosing from among thousands of well-qualified candidates, they can afford to use the strength of an academic program as a competitive credential or “filter” in deciding whom to admit.

Here’s another way to think about it. If highly selective colleges know that they are setting the competitive “bar” at a certain level in their own classrooms, they will be looking at your record to find evidence that you can meet that “bar.” What confidence do you give them in your ability to do so when you have chosen to compete at a comfortably lower level in high school?

That doesn’t mean you should register for every high level course you can get in order to compete for admission. Rather, you need to know your capacity to tackle challenges and make a conscious effort to move to the next logical level of rigor for you in each academic discipline. Don’t over-reach your capacity! The key, then, will be to focus on colleges that will value you for your experience in those courses.

The second and often overlooked perspective on selecting courses has to do with your ability to prepare yourself for the next level of rigor in college. Wherever you go to college, you are likely to find academic expectations that exceed any you encountered in high school. If you have continued to step up academically through each year of high school, the step into the college classroom will be one for which you are prepared. On the other hand, if the academic challenge you give yourself in your Senior Year of high school is not that different from the one you experienced as a Junior, then the step up to college will be much more awkward if not painful.

The bottom line with regard to course selections–and your eventual college selections–is this: Do what makes sense for you. Take stock of where you are on your learning path, set your college sites reasonably and build a strong foundation through your coursework in high school that will propel you into a successful experience in college.