Last week, I attended the annual counselor admission breakfast hosted by The Ohio State University.
Each year, Dr. Mabel Freeman, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions, along with members of the admission team, meet with counselors in Cleveland to provide updates on admission statistics, and changes to admission policies and academic programs at ou

Last week, I attended the annual counselor admission breakfast hosted by The Ohio State University.  Each year, Dr. Mabel Freeman, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions, along with members of the admission team, meet with counselors in Cleveland to provide updates on admission
statistics, and changes to admission policies and academic programs at our state’s flagship university.

The most significant logistical change reported is that OSU will switch to the semester system beginning in Fall 2012.  This means that transferring and assessing credits will be a bit tricky for the next 3 years.  For incoming freshman in 2012-2013, it means that students will no longer be given the option of starting in the Summer Quarter.  All freshmen will be required to start in the Fall or Spring semesters.

The highly regarded Honors and Scholars programs have also been revamped for Fall 2012.   In the
past, the Honors Program was reserved for students with the highest credentials, and Scholars was for students right below them.  The distinction going forward is based less on academic record and more on fit of the program.  Students who want to challenge themselves academically and are interested in research should choose Honors.  Whereas, students interested in a small, close-knit community and thematically-based programs should choose Scholars.

Notwithstanding all of the updates and statistics, the single piece of information that was
stressed by Dr. Freeman and which I found most significant for my students is
the report that 83% – 99% students enter with MORE than the required number of
courses in each subject area. 

• 99% exceed the minimum in social science
• 93% exceed the minimum in math
• 90% exceed the minimum in foreign language
• 83% exceed the minimum in science

Every year when I meet with my students to plan their course schedule for the following year, I have several students who insist that they hate foreign language and that 3 years is the requirement not only for graduating from high school, but also for being admitted to most colleges of their choice.  And they’re right – that’s what the guidelines say.  However, in today’s competitive world of admission, most students pursue their foreign language to the 4^th, 5^th, and AP level.  Students who stop after the 3^rd level, although they aren’t automatically eliminated from consideration, will not be competitive against the majority of applicants (90%) with the stronger curriculum.  Dr. Freeman explained that
every year she fields calls from upset parents who tell her that their student’s grades and test scores were just as good as Johnny’s, so why was Johnny admitted and not their student?  Invariably, the answer is that Johnny’s academic record, unlike their student’s, included 4-5 years of courses in each of the 5 academic “solids” – English, math, science, social studies, and foreign language.  There is no substitute for rigor.  Rigor and strength of curriculum is the #1 factor in college admissions.

For students interested in attending selective colleges and universities, including their state’s flagship institution, they need to re-consider their course selection for senior year.  Don’t drop the science and foreign language.

As seniors prepare to return to high school for their final year, their thoughts inevitably turn to college applications. They have researched their colleges, completed their visitations, and finalized their college lists. As students measure their likelihood of admission to the college of their choice, they either celebrate their high school record or lament the activities that diverted their attention from their class work. Particularly for students submitting an early application, their high school academic record is already complete.

There is, however, one piece of the college application over which the student still has control. The essay or personal statement is the student’s opportunity to show the college who they are apart from grade point average and SAT scores. The personal statement can put a face on the application and humanize it. The essay should provide a window into the student’s soul. What makes them tick? About what are they passionate? What unique qualities will they bring to campus to make them a valuable member of the community? These are the questions that admissions officers at selective colleges and universities throughout the country will be asking.

But how do you go about conveying this personal portrait? First and foremost, you must write an essay that could only be written by you. If the same essay could also represent your best friend, you haven’t achieved your objective. Choose a topic that reveals a facet of your personality; that paints a picture of your special interests, talents and/or passions.

Most important, you should concentrate on personal growth rather than simply relating experiences. If you discuss your trip to the Olympics, don’t give a replay of the medal count and a description of the architecture. Describe the effect that the Olympics had on you and the way that you changed as a result. What did you learn about dedication, persistence, motivation, passion? How will you apply these lessons to your life in the future? Imagine the ways that your life will be impacted as a result of these lessons.

Plan ahead and leave sufficient time to write several drafts of your essays. Give yourself a few days’ break to get some distance before you reread and revise your work. As you review your essay, focus on depth rather than breadth. Discuss a smaller slice of your life in greater detail. Students generally benefit from writing a first draft and then choosing just one of the paragraphs on which to focus in the second draft. Pull out that information and describe it in even greater detail, expanding the one paragraph to compose your essay.

Finally, although you should never have a parent or counselor rewrite your essay, it is acceptable to have them review the essay and offer advice. Seeking input from those who know you best is helpful in confirming that you have chosen an appropriate topic and written in the appropriate tone. Often friends are best able to tell you if your essays have captured the essence of who you are.

At this time of year, students begin receiving their acceptances from colleges, which also include financial aid and scholarship packages.  Invariably, families find that the moneys offered from colleges are never enough.  We always want more!  Where can families look for additional scholarship opportunities?

This is the time (winter of senior year) when seniors should check in the college guidance office at their high school for local scholarship opportunities.  Most schools maintain a file with scholarship applications.  Local groups such as the Rotary, Kiwanis, and junior women’s clubs all offer scholarships.  The scholarships offered through these organizations are small, but they are helpful in offsetting personal expenses and the cost of books.  Because the pool of applicants is local, it is smaller, and scholarships are easier to win.  I strongly encourage EVERY senior to check for local scholarships that match their profile.

Families often ask, “But how do we find a larger scholarship – one that pays one-half the cost of tuition?”  As I’ve mentioned previously, the most lucrative scholarships are awarded by colleges and universities.  These scholarships are based on academic merit, athletic skill, or special talents.  They range anywhere from several hundred dollars to the full cost of attendance.  Unfortunately for families with students who are in the spring of their senior year, not all colleges offer merit scholarships, and the college the student has chosen to attend may be one of those. 

Early planning is the key to finding the best scholarships.  If scholarships are a priority, students must incorporate this factor when they begin their college search.  If you’re working with an experienced Independent Educational Consultant (IEC) this will be an integral part of the process.  Finding a good scholarship is dependent upon finding the right college match.  There are many wonderful colleges and universities that offer merit scholarships.  You need to look for colleges that match the academic and personal profile of the student and that also offer scholarships.  With over 3,000 4-year colleges, the opportunities are abundant.  But you need to start investigating when you first look at colleges, not after you file the FAFSA and have received your financial package.

College admission professionals continually stress the importance of making the right college match.  With a good match, the student will have a successful and happy college career.  An important by-product of a good match is a more attractive scholarship package.  Understanding how a student’s strengths and talents match up to a college’s profile is the key element to making this match and obtaining the most scholarship dollars from the colleges.

The media loves to focus on IECs, (Independent Educational Consultants) who promise that they will “get a student in” to ultra selective colleges and universities.  These consultants charge exorbitantly high fees ($15,000+), promise that they know how to game the system, and imply that they have “pull” at these institutions.  Their work is based exclusively on winning admission, not on the growth and actualization of their students.

But there is another kind of consultant – on who, rather than focusing on “getting in,” focuses on the unique talents and special needs of every student.  These consultants strive to understand the student’s learning style, academic strengths and career interests, extracurricular talents, personality style, and emotional needs, and who then work hard to identify colleges and universities that match these factors for every student.  It’s not about getting in; it’s about finding the college or university where the student will succeed and be happy; one that will maximize the student’s abilities, support his emotional needs, and enable him to pursue his passions.  Ultimately, the college journey is about the student’s success and growth into adulthood, not the name of the college or university s/he attends.

This certainly requires the IEC to have knowledge of academic, extracurricular, and financial aid programs.  But there is much more.  In order to really serve the needs of the student, the IEC must understand learning disabilities, adolescent depression, anxiety, and much more.  These factors must also be part of the process.  Last week, on my Facebook page, I included a link to access an article on depression on college campuses:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-lurie/everyones-battle-confront_b_813685.html    

Not every student suffers from depression, has a learning disability, is an athlete, a musician, or a debater.  Each student is an individual.  It isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, and the most selective university isn’t the best one for every student.  (By the way, if a student applies to every Ivy League institution just because they’re Ivies, it’s a huge mistake.  The student who thrives at Princeton will not be happier in the larger environment at Harvard, and vice versa.)  The key is to identify the important factors for every student and find the colleges that will suit their needs.

It makes good news to focus on the sensational – consultants who charge $25,000 and promise admission to any Ivy.  However, it’s more sensible to work with someone who understands the individual needs of your student and who knows which colleges and universities will maximize their talents and support their growth into productive adulthood.  This is what I promise my families.  As a parent of one of my students said recently, “As a parent, what more could I ask for?”

As little as three years ago, I recommended that students remove themselves from MySpace and Facebook.  At the time, I felt strongly that the risk of college admissions officers accessing inappropriate material about students was too great.  Today, however, social networking sites are supplanting email and phone calls as an important means of communication.  Facebook is the third largest “nation” in the world!  I have concluded that it is unrealistic to think that we can communicate without using social media.  Nevertheless, students must be careful about the material that they put on their site. 

For years admission officers have scanned the Internet for portions of essays that they suspect may not be the student’s own.  Amazingly, hundreds of applicants are disqualified each year for plagiarizing their essay.  Currently, I have heard admission officers speak of Googling a student to verify the information on their application.  In one instance, a student was found to have falsified awards. In another, a student was rejected because of the inappropriate content of his Facebook page.  In a third case, however, the admissions officer read a portion of a student’s blog which he found to be articulate and mature.  “This kid really has something to say.”  That student was accepted.

Students must be vigilant about the safety and security settings on their page.  They should NOT allow friends to upload photos or other content to their page.  It’s too easy these days to snap a photo with one’s camera at a party – a photo of someone doing something silly, or worse; 10 seconds later it’s uploaded to the worldwide web.  Once it’s on the web, there’s no control.  It remains in cyberspace forever.

What Students Should Do Right Now

• Adjust security settings so that no one can upload material to your site except you.  For everyone’s safety, make sure that photos do not contain friends’ names. Everything on your site should be such that if a college admissions rep sees it, you will not be embarrassed or ashamed. 
• Make sure that any photos or discussions about you on your friends’ sites do not mention you by both first and last name!

A few precautions will enable you to communicate safely on the worldwide web.  Go ahead and join Facebook – but be smart.

Your college search is complete and applications have been submitted.  In January, it is time to turn your attention to the financial aid process.  If you worked closely with your counselor or an educational consultant and conducted a comprehensive college search, financial aid, both need-based and merit-based, was an integral part of the process.  As college costs continue to rise, it is just as important to investigate scholarship opportunities as academic programs.

The best source of merit scholarships is the colleges. Merit scholarships can be awarded for academic excellence or special talents, such as music, art, or debate.  Colleges use merit scholarships to entice students to attend their college.  Many colleges automatically consider all applicants for merit scholarships as they review their applications.  However, in some cases, special applications and forms must be submitted.  It is incumbent on the family to know what forms are required and to submit them in a timely manner.

The most common errors made by families when applying for financial aid are missing institutional deadlines, providing incomplete information, and not submitting all the necessary documents.  These errors can result in thousands of dollars of lost aid.

The need-based financial aid process is based on the family’s EFC, or Expected Family Contribution.  This is the amount that colleges and the government expect each family to contribute toward the student’s education.  The EFC is determined by a formula based on information from the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  The FAFSA is the first step in obtaining need-based aid.  This form should be completed and submitted as soon after January 1 as possible, but not later than the end of January.  The FAFSA is available online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.  The online format features pop-up screens that provide helpful tips.  In order to complete the FAFSA, you will need to refer to your 2010 tax return, bank account information, and investment records.  If you can’t complete the 2010 tax return in time, refer to your 2009 return and make your best estimate.  Both parent and student finances are considered.  If the parents are divorced, the finances of only the custodial parent (along with the stepparent’s if the custodial parent is remarried) are taken into consideration.

The CSS Profile is a form used by many private colleges in addition to the FAFSA.  It considers additional factors, such as home equity, private high school tuition paid for siblings, extraordinary medical expenses, etc. If any of the colleges to which you have applied require the Profile, you must adhere to the institutional deadlines for submission of this form.

Once the FAFSA is submitted, you will receive your Student Aid Report (SAR) within four weeks.  The Student Aid Report will detail your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).  This figure is also forwarded to all of the colleges you list on the form.

When a college receives notification of your EFC, the financial aid office will prepare a financial aid package.  The package is often included with the acceptance letter, or is forwarded shortly thereafter.  This package is usually a combination of grant (gift aid, not requiring repayment), loans and work study.  Merit scholarships awarded from institutional funds might also be part of the package.  Because of generous financial aid awards at many private colleges, the cost of attendance at an expensive private college will often be lower than the cost at a public university.

Once a family has received all of their packages, they are ready to begin the decision process.  Cost of attendance is just one of the many factors the family will consider when making the final college choice.  Size, location, academic and extracurricular programs, as well as “ambiance” should all factor into the final decision.   The least expensive college is not always the best choice for the student.

As December drew to a close, the results from early decision programs started coming in.  I’m a statistics guru, so I always like to review the changes in numbers of early applications, acceptance rates, and percent of class filled early for the colleges and universities that my students most often apply to.

Somewhat surprising this year is the fact that early decision applications at several of the Ivies and other highly selective schools actually decreased.  Of course, these institutions were already receiving thousands of early applications.  For example, early applications to Cornell decreased by 4% over 2009 figures, and Brown decreased 3%.  At Amherst, a highly selective liberal arts college, early applications were down 5%.  Most notably, at Wake Forest University early applications were down 11%.

Unfortunately, this information does not reflect the trend.  Consider the following:

Bucknell (PA)	up 30%
Colorado Coll. (CO)	up 39%
Davidson (NC)	up 40%
Denison (OH)	up 115%
Furman (SC)	up 59%
Geo Washington U (DC)	up 19%
Kenyon (OH)	up 19%
Lafayette (PA)	up 27%
Marist (NY)	up 54%
Northwestern U. (ILL)	up 26%
Oberlin (OH)	up 13%
Reed (OR)	up 43%
Richmond, U. of (VA)	up 38%
Rice U. (TX)	up 19%
Rhodes (TN)	up 28%
Santa Clara (CA)	up 27%
Trinity (TX)	up 60%
Vanderbilt U. (TN)	up 31%

Why do these numbers continue to increase?  Why do students apply early?  This is because students (along with their parents and school counselor) sign a contract that goes along with Early Decision applications, pledging to attend the college, if admitted early, and withdraw all other college applications.  This application process is binding.  Because it is binding, colleges love to admit students under the Early Decision plan.  They are guaranteed a 100% yield (yield = the percent of students who actually accept a college’s offer of admission).  Colleges want this number to be high.  It makes them looked loved and increases their panache.  To follow the reasoning, since Early Decision applications provide a 100% yield, colleges are willing to be more generous with their offers, often offering admission to students in the early round who would never be admitted in the later round.

Everyone has heard the horror stories about admission rates.  However, students often have twice as great a chance of being admitted in the early round.  Over 1/3 of the students who apply to Cornell, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin and Northwestern (all highly selective institutions) were offered admission under the Early Decision plan this year.  Consider these numbers, all from other highly selectives:

Bowdoin (ME)	34% accepted
Bucknell (PA)	61% accepted
Columbia (NY)	20% accepted
Davidson (NC)	47% accepted
Hamilton (NY)	43% accepted
Harvey Mudd (CA)	29% accepted
Haverford (PA)	49% accepted
Johns Hopkins (MD)	39% accepted
Kenyon (OH)	60% accepted
Lafayette (PA)	49% accepted
Middlebury (VT)	39% accepted
Northwestern (ILL)	34% accepted
U. Penn (PA)	26% accepted
Pomona (CA)	31% accepted
Rice (TX)	29% accepted
Richmond, U of (VA)	43% accepted
Sarah Lawrence (NY)	67% accepted
Smith (MA)	59% accepted
Vanderbilt (TN)	30% accepted
Washington & Lee (VA)	47% accepted
Williams (MA)	40% accepted

These numbers are all significantly higher than the admission rates for the regular round.  So why shouldn’t all students submit an Early Decision application to their top choice college or university?  First, not all students have a true top choice school by November 1 of their senior year. Second, for families who need to compare financial aid offers and leverage awards, applying to only one school is not in their best interest.

Finally, let’s take a look at the percent of the freshman class filled by selective institutions through the early application process.  The greater the number of students taken through early admission (remember early decision acceptances provide a 100% yield), the fewer the places left in the freshman class to be filled through regular decision.  Consider these facts:

Amherst (MA)	33%
Bowdoin (ME)	39%
Bucknell (PA)	35%
Columbia (NY)	45%
Cornell (NY)	38%
Dartmouth (NH)	40%
Davidson (NC)	39%
Duke (NC)	38%
Hamilton (NY)	34%
Haverford (PA)	40%
Johns Hopkins (MD)	42%
Kenyon (OH)	33%
Middlebury (VT)	38%
Northwestern (ILL)	35%
U. Penn (PA)	49%
Rice (TX)	31%
Richmond, U of (VA)	32%
Vanderbilt (TN)	31%
Washington & Lee (VA)	37%
William & Mary (VA)	39%
Williams (MA)	42%

Of course, counselors always caution families that highly selective colleges, such as the ones represented here, are only a small percentage of the over 3,000 colleges and universities in the U.S.  The great majority of institutions accept well over 50% of the students who apply each year.  The most important factor for every student is the fit.  A good academic and personal fit, not the name or prestige of the institution, are most important for every student.  The name of the institution is irrelevant if the student does not perform well once there.  Be assured that at Northcoast Educational Consulting, we focus on the fit. The success and happiness of our students is paramount.