College Planning Blog

The start of a new academic year signals the beginning of the high stakes college application process for hundreds of thousands of young people around the country. After months, if not years, of thought and preparation, it’s now time to begin pulling credentials together so they can be ready for submission to a list of preferred colleges later in the fall.

While the process of assembling application materials would seem straightforward, it is not. In fact, it is fraught with complexity and procedural land mines such that even the most diligent students find completing the process to be an onerous task on top of the regular demands of the classroom. Your objective should be to get from where you are to where you want to be as a college applicant with minimal disruptions to your daily routine.

When students run into trouble in completing applications, it is usually because they lack focus, are poorly organized or fail to take ownership of the process. The following “Five Steps to Organizing Your College Applications” will give you a better chance of getting through the application process unscathed and emerging with happy outcomes.

1. Get organized—today! Read the directions on each application. Know what is required of you and when it is required. Enter this information on a planning calendar. Record meaningful dates/deadlines you must meet in completing your applications. Decide which standardized tests you want/need to take and enter the test dates as well as the registration deadlines. Finally, post the calendar some place where it is easily referenced by you and your parents such as your refrigerator or a family bulletin board.

2. Give yourself and others time to do a good job. Work back from the application deadlines by at least one week to establish your deadlines for sending in the materials. Then, from those deadlines, work backward to establish dates by which you need completed essays and letters of recommendation allowing plenty of time (6-8 weeks) for these documents to be generated. With those dates established, mark your calendar to indicate the dates by which you want to ask for letters of recommendation. By waiting until the last minute to get things started you give up control of the process and lose your ability to put your best foot forward.

3. Keep things simple. Eliminate schools from your list that are there because 1) you think it would be cool to see if you can get in or 2) you’d feel better with a few more back-up schools. You shouldn’t need to apply to more than eight schools—six is an even better number. Focus your energies on the applications for schools you have researched thoroughly and about which you really care—they fit you best. Time and energy are of essence over the next three months. Invest in the applications for the schools that are truly important to you.

4. Establish a game plan. Know how you want to come across to the admission committees at each school and take stock of the opportunities you have with their respective applications to make your case. Develop a theme that speaks to who you are and pulls together the sum of your parts. Keep that theme in mind as you prepare the different elements of each application.

5. Stay focused in the classroom. With all of the traditional senior year and college planning activities going on around you it will be easy to lose track of the work you need to be doing in the classroom. Believe it or not, the work you do in your senior year could turn out to be your most important credential. Make it count!

Your senior year should be one of good times and fond memories. The college application process is daunting but it can be managed effectively. My objective is to give you strategies that will help ease the stress and keep a smile on your face as you work to get from where you are to where you want to be!

Toward that end, on August 27 I will begin an eight-week series of blogs that walks you through the application process. You can learn more about this topic in Chapter 12 (“Time to Apply: Get It Done!”) of my book, Winning the College Admission Game: Strategies for Students and Parents (available in the TAG Bookstore, online at Amazon.com and in bookstores).

It is that time of the year to play the college rankings sweepstakes. U.S News & World Report is promoting its “America’s Best Colleges 2009” (available in print on August 22) and Forbes.com, a newcomer to college rankings, released its version of “America’s Best Colleges” on August 13.

Other ranking guides are sure to follow as editors can’t wait to ply the “science” of their surveys on an audience of consumers eager for a scorecard that quantifies the mythical pecking order of colleges.

Before you get out your credit card or rush to printout a list of the “best” colleges, take a moment to ask yourself three questions:

1. Who is defining the “best” and what does it mean for me/my child?
2. What do the editors of ranking guides know about me/my child?
3. Where is the evidence that rankings will make a difference in our college planning outcomes?

Let’s take a closer look at the importance of each question.

1. Who is defining best and what does it mean for me/my child? Don’t assume that there is a universal application of the term—and don’t assume the definition you are being given by editors is the most appropriate. References to the “best” in any context are heavily value-laden and are offered from the perspective of the person making the statement. Be discriminating. Know that the definitions of “best” that are thrown around to sell magazines may not—and, in fact, should not—be the beginning point for your own definition.

2. What do the editors of ranking guides know about me/my child? Where, for example, do they talk about the colleges that are best for the bright but timid student who wants to study classical archaeology or the student who learns best through engagement in the classroom or the young person whose sense of self and direction is still emerging? Despite editorial acknowledgments that the choice of a four-year undergraduate education is “one of the biggest decisions a typical American family can make” what tangible take-aways do college rankings offer that apply to your situation?

3. Where is the evidence that rankings will make a difference in our college planning outcomes? More specifically, you need to ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” Unlike the purchase process with regard to other commodities (cars, appliances, etc.), the ultimate choice of a college is the product of a mutual selection process. Rankings don’t get kids into college nor do they point you in the direction that is best for you. This is illustrated by the inevitable headlines in early April that read, “Record Numbers of Talented Students Rejected at Top Colleges.” Who is really being served when the effect of ranking guides is to shine a brighter light on a handful of institutions that already turn down 80-90% of their applicants?

The college-going process has been turned upside down by ranking guides. Whereas the focus should be on the kids—and what is best for them—college ranking guides put the focus on destinations that are presumed to be desirable. The rankings are artificial metrics for quality in education that detract from sensible, student-centered decision-making.

Herein lies the disconnect. If ranking guides are truly useful to consumers, why do so many students apply to schools where the chances of gaining admission are less than one out of four? And where is the usefulness of college ranking guides when barely half of the students entering college this fall will graduate from any college in 4-5 years?

There are no shortcuts or easy substitutions for thoughtful and reflective research in the college planning process. The choice of a college is one of the most important decisions in the life of a family. Avoid unhappy outcomes by establishing the student, not the destination, at the center of your deliberations

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Contact me at Peter@TheAdmissionGame.com for a free copy of “Seven Tips for Interpreting College Rankings.” In addition, my book, Winning the College Admission Game, (available in the TAG Bookstore, online at Amazon.com and in bookstores) gives students and parents strategies for working together to find and gain access to schools that represent the best fit for the student.

I would like to share a note I received from someone who wrote in disagreement to a statement I made in last week’s blog, “The Magic Numbers.” You may recall that I suggested the young woman’s test results (ACT: 34; SAT: 680/760/730) would put her on the competitive “playing field” at any school in the country. The writer disagreed and, pointing to the average SAT scores posted by the Ivies in the mid-700’s, predicted “she would be knocked out with her 680 Critical Reading.”

On the surface, this response makes good sense. After all, logic would suggest, “if your numbers don’t match or exceed those reported by the college, you’re not likely to get in.” This is where it is important, however, to understand what the numbers mean.

The student’s scores are actually projections of her ability to do the work in the first year
of college. The higher the number, the greater the probability she can do well in more challenging academic environments. That’s why I suggested that this young lady has scores that would put her on the competitive playing field at any school in the country. Please note, however, that this should not be construed as a guarantee of admission. Without compelling credentials in other aspects of her application she remains a long shot for admission at elite institutions.

Now let’s take a look at how scores are often regarded by colleges. Admission officers know from experience that students within a certain range of scores can do the work in their respective environments. While some students might be projected as successful at the Phi Beta Kappa (high honors) level, others might be able to “just get by.” Regardless, students with scores at either end of the spectrum, as well as everyone in between, are on the competitive “playing fields” at those schools. In reality, most students who apply to most colleges fall somewhere within that range.

Therefore the numbers reported by a given college reflect the average score performance for the students admitted to that college. They are not minimal or threshold requirements as, frankly, those numbers (i.e., the lowest possible SAT for an admitted student) are rarely publicized. Therefore, the average scores cited by my reader for the Ivies are actually the mid-points of scores of accepted students, half of which were above the average and half were below.

That said, it is important to remember that the Ivies, and many other highly selective institutions around the country, routinely turn down students with scores above their averages just as they accept kids with scores below their averages. My point in my previous blog posting was that they could take the candidate in question if they wanted to without any worry about her ability to do the work as they certainly take other applicants with scores below their averages. I didn’t say her credentials would guarantee her admission anywhere in the country—only that they would put her on the competitive playing field at any school in the country. She is a viable candidate.

And really, that’s all she or anyone else can ask for—a chance to compete. The trick is to find places that look beyond your scores to see what you have to offer the communities they are building through the admission process. The places that value you for what you do well will be those at which you have the greatest chance of gaining admission.