Bowdoin was the first ‘very competitive’ college to announce that they would not require the SAT or ACT scores. It was a brilliant marketing move because applications increased along with rejections resulting in a lower percentage of admitted students. Not to mention that applicants who did score well, submitted their scores, thus creating a higher average score overall. That was when college ranking systems were becoming ubiquitous. The US News & World Report spawned a new and very profitable niche in magazine publishing.  

     Since then, over 800 colleges have instituted a “test optional” policy. Keep in mind, however, that all colleges place more importance on the rigor of the high school transcript and that means that more scrutiny will be placed there. That has ALWAYS been the case at the more competitive colleges.

     Having said that, however, many of those test optional colleges still buy the names of high test scorers from the “non-profit” gold mine called the College Board. How do you spell “hypocritical”? On the other hand, test optional Bard College in the beautiful Hudson River Valley of New York, does not buy names from the College Board. That means they look at the potential for success in an applicant in depth.

     Now what about the success thing? How do you measure success? Is success measured in material possessions, personal relationships, career satisfaction, happiness, financial security or optimal health physically and spiritually? Look around you. I would bet that if you were to know the SAT or ACT scores of adults you would not see an appreciable difference in successful outcomes between the high and average scorers. I have known a few scientists and engineers and even some members of Mensa who had perfect scores in high school and college but because they live completely in their heads, particularly the self-limiting left brain; they are sometimes challenged when in comes to personal relationships, critical thinking and common sense.

     Nonetheless, I do believe that preparing for the SAT is very helpful for a student regardless if he or she has college aspirations. The best test prep we have found over the last 20 years of reviewing such programs is right here. The reason is that when you come right down to it, the SAT is a reasoning test. And we all have to learn to reason and sharpen our skills there, do we not? If you are parent or a student, walk through the 30 sample questions and you too, will have a light bulb go on over your head.

The majority of college bound students do it the wrong way…is your student in the majority?  Fall is college application time for seniors. The Class of 2012 is the largest most competitive high school class in American history. High school seniors around the country are applying to their “Dream Schools”.

Every year the following scenarios are played out by countless ambitious students everywhere.

 SCENARIO ONE: The first is when a student falls in love with a single college but his   academic profile is in the lower 50% of the applicant pool. It could be a college that historically has less than a 10% acceptance rate or as “high” as 40%. He applies in one of the early application programs (ED or EA) thinking he will have a better chance of admittance. It is his “dream school” and, while he may grudgingly add a few more colleges to a list to satisfy a nervous parent, he never really looks beyond that “dream school”. Until, of course, the rejection letter arrives in December. Because his focus and enthusiasm was wrapped up in his dream school, he did not pay much attention to the requirements of his other colleges. Some of which had January regular application (RA) deadlines, none of which he is prepared to meet.

 SCENARIO TWO: This is more common. As above, the student may have what I call “brand name paralysis” and builds a list solely of “BNP schools.” These are schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley and Pomona where the acceptance rate is so ridiculously low that no matter how good your grades and test scores are, getting in is never a sure bet. Unfortunately, like the “dream school” students, they too are often disappointed. Likely they have been told by parents, teachers, or a guidance counselor that they are excellent prospects for these schools because they are so unique and special. So, they never really look seriously beyond those “lottery schools”…until, of course, the rejection letters start coming in the mail in the spring.

 Because of the huge increase in student applications, some of the top students are even being rejected by their “safety” schools .”  (Colleges do not want to be thought of as “safeties”, so they are sending a message basically saying we want you only if you want us.) Talk about humble pie!

 These two scenarios illustrate why I believe that college planning should start with an honest; realistic self-assessment. This means taking a critical look at the student’s academic statistics, interests, learning style and personality.

Obviously financial issues are important too. You can learn how to minimize student (and parent) debt here.

 In other words, begin the college search by identifying several schools where the student has a good bet of acceptance and – more importantly – where he/she would be happy to spend a few years. These are the schools where the student’s academic profile places him or her in the top 25% of the accepted student pool. Once students genuinely appreciate (if not love) at least one safety school, they can safely move on to more selective schools and, yes, even some of the aforementioned “most competitive” colleges.

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Rhodes College

     But if you are looking at very competitive colleges and not taking the most challenging courses offered at your high school, it may be much harder.  A few aberrant C’s will not automatically exclude you from consideration, but you may have to explain the reasons behind the lower grades. Many college application supplements, in fact, ask students to explain any performance that is inconsistent with the larger academic record. It is not uncommon for a strong student to experience a downturn in grades due to an illness, injury, family or school relocation and so on. (“I did not like the teacher” is not a good reason.)

     In any case, print out and put on your fridge the steps you need to take over the course of your junior year. If you have any questions or want to know more about our services, do not hesitate to email or call…anytime.

     We are celebrating our 20^th year of guiding students (and parents) through this milestone step teenagers take in life’s journey. We appreciate the opportunity to be part of it.  

     Yes, on the surface it does not bode well for the current undergrad. However, there are steps that both the student and the college can take to brighten that outcome. I was very encouraged recently when I saw the attention given to sophomores at some colleges during the annual ritual of newly minted college freshman saying “good bye” to parents.     

     It is encouraging to see more and more colleges taking their role as advisors more proactively. For instance look at Lafayette College’s website.They are not hesitating to open their books to prospective students with information as to what past graduates have been able to accomplish.

     If you are a college student, how much research into the advising and internship options have you done? If little, start to familiarize yourself with the career services office, even if you are a freshman. By the way, one student who took the matter of interning VERY seriously has turned her experience into a business. Meet Lauren Berger, the InternQueen.

     Once the freshman year has been successfully navigated and you know what is expected academically, it is now time to really get serious and think about why you are in college.                                                                                      

     The passing of Steve Jobs reminded me of his 2005 graduation talk to Stanford graduates. It is without a doubt, one of the finest commencement speeches ever delivered in history! Here is the transcript and video of his life changing message. Think about what he said. For me, it was one of the most insightful and spiritually aware statements of purpose I have ever heard. Let me know what you think? 

     Speaking of “insightful” if you have done the self-assessment called “Do What You Are” with us, do not forget that is a rich resource of career descriptions and academic concentrations that are matched up to your individual natural strengths and innate characteristics that will comprise your personality for your lifetime on this planet we call Earth!

     It is literally at your finger tips for years to come. Take advantage of that. If you have not “book marked” the link, I will send you the link. In addition, if you have any questions regarding your choice of major, send me an email ~ help@SmartCollegePlanning.org

     Finally, all undergrads (or grads) that complete this survey by October 20, (in celebration of our 20^th Anniversary) my gift to you will be the book Getting From College to Career. Now is the time to think beyond the “now”.

Because college admissions counselors want to see the side of you in class that does not always come out in your application elsewhere, it is important to help the teacher focus on something that you did in class. Writing a “thank you” letter like this immediately following the teacher’s positive response to your request is a sure-fire way to get a stellar recommendation.  

Of course, not all recommendations will be as powerful as this one sent in for William Smith, but send that thank you letter and you will come close. By the way, if you are a full service client, read the expanded recommendation tips in your handbook and pay attention to paragraph four of the model thank you letter.      

Finally, here are five steps toward getting that stellar teacher recommendation. They support the points made above. Keep them in mind if you are a current undergrad looking for professor recommendations for a job and/or graduate school. Learn now to be professional in your approach, it will serve you well.

That is, which colleges on your list recommend or require interviews. If so, are they informational (most say they are) or evaluative? What time of year of year are they offered?

All those questions can be quickly answered when the student does his due diligence at each college web site using the AAA method. That issue I addressed in detail in the past as well here.

But for another look at this topic, the New York Times is always a good source for up to date views on this and other topics. Be sure to read the comments too. Several are from alumni interviewers at the most competitive colleges.

The interview can be before the application deadline or after. If it is required, the interview is obviously an important part of your application. If you are a client of ours with interviews in the future, be sure to contact us. We can do some practice together.

 Some colleges require that you request an interview. By the way, if you are not yet a senior, most colleges will not be interviewing you unless you have traveled from a great distance to visit the college. Check with your regional admissions counselor for each college. Most of the elite colleges may simply contact you after your applications is submitted. These are generally conducted by local alumni of that college and are limited. Sometimes, depending on where you live, there may not be an opportunity for an alumni interview. In such instances, the schools may strive to offer you a telephone interview. If that’s not possible, then you will not be penalized for not having an interview. It is the effort you put forth that counts, so don’t worry.

Your essay can provide the Admission Officer with insight into at least three of your personal qualities:
1) How well you think
2) How well you write, and
3) Who you are

Your college essay is an important part of your application. An outstanding essay can have a positive influence on the decision. Likewise, a poorly-written, hastily done or sloppy essay can have a negative influence on the admission decision. It is worth your time to produce your best work.

Without a doubt, high school students fear writing the personal essay more than anything else, especially those who are not “writers.” It doesn’t have to be that way, if you follow some proven techniques for organizing your thoughts, writing, editing and typing.

Quite possibly the most important thing to keep in mind is that you should be expressing yourself – who you are and what you believe in. Your goal is to make the admissions staff notice you…and to show them what you’re all about…and why they should accept you.

There are no right and wrong ways to write essays – only what is right for you.  Since you may have different essays to write for different colleges, the first part of this section are specific hints, do’s, don’t, tips, suggestions and techniques.

                       Just How Important Is the Essay? . . . VERY!

Sometimes, in the hoopla about SAT and ACT test scores, class rank, AP courses and GPA, the weight of the personal statement/essay is overlooked. Most admissions counselors will tell you that the essay ranks right up there as an important piece of the puzzle, and can often be the final deciding factor between candidates who are otherwise equally qualified.

To show you the relative importance of the essay, here are a couple of paraphrased comments about the essay made by guidance counselors and college admissions:

*The better the college or university, the greater the importance of the essay, and the more it contributes to the final determination.

* At a very large university receiving over 15,000 applications per year, every
essay is read.

* College admissions staffs use the essay to get to know the student more
personally to go beyond what the numbers show.

* Many admissions staff views the application as a “flat” document, but they
view the essay as a third dimension, to bring life to the application.

                         Just What Are They Looking For?
On a very broad plane, the admissions staff is looking for these characteristics in your essay – regardless of the topic – they want to see your ability to: 

* Communicate thoughts in a coherent manner
* Use the English language correctly
* Produce a clear, grammatically correct paper
* Think and write about a particular topic
* Illustrate your depth of insight into a subject
* Think about yourself and your feelings
* Convey those feelings about the chosen topic
* Be creative, innovative and original

 In analyzing admissions officers’ favorite essays, that is, those which made the greatest impact, we see several trends:

 * Essays which discussed fears, concerns or uncertainty about doing something (i.e. singing a song on stage, volunteering in a hospital, discussing sex with parents) which showed how the student handled the situation.

 * Essays which struck a chord in the admissions officer, enabling him/her to be an advocate for that candidate; it wasn’t a case of the student and admissions officer both being skiing enthusiasts, but perhaps how the student reacted to his/her first run down the slope.

 * Admissions staffs have read thousands of essays, and recognize fluff, boasting and a lack of preparation miles away. They react negatively, in general, to cute approaches and other means used to cover up an essay which took no thought.

 In short, they want a good first impression about you, so they can get a handle on the kind of person you are. They want to know who you are, without fanfare.

 For example, here is a college essay written by Hugh Gallagher who now attends NYU; in no small part due to his 450 word essay. It was so popular in the admissions office there that it went viral around the country. CAUTION! Do not read this if you do not have a sense of humor or believe in being politically correct 100% of the time.

 Remember, a good essay is a personal statement that reveals something about the character and personality of the applicant. There is no doubt that this one does. If you have any questions or want help with your essays, call Eric Goodhart @ (800) 835-9215

One of the first questions I will often ask students is, “Why do you want to go to college?” The question can sometimes be taken as rhetorical. It is not. What really is the purpose of college? This thought provoking inquiry may seem strange from someone who enjoys being part of this milestone step many teens take following high school.

But since I have been taking notice of such things in 1984, I have noticed a lowering of academic standards in our secondary schools and since 1992, our colleges. I do not believe the fault lies with teachers and professors as much as it does with the Departments of Education and governmental bureaucracy. Even in the highly touted “brand name” colleges across the country, too many graduates have not fully developed the critical reading and thinking skills they need to make sound life decisions.

In the last State of the Union address, President Obama called for more Americans to go to college. In referencing one of John Kennedy’s goals in space, he likened this goal as “our generation’s Sputnik moment.” In the sixties, their certainly was a spike in the advancement of the sciences and humanities, but what now, fifty years later, has changed? Perhaps former President G.W. Bush unwittingly exemplified the answer best when he said, “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”

According to authors and researchers, Richard Arum and Josipa Poksa, the primary problem today is the lack of academic rigor. In their recently published tome, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses they have confirmed what many observers believed regarding higher education… it is not delivering it. Recognition of the problem, however, is just the first step toward positive solutions. College English Professor, William Pannapacker, has written a very insightful analysis of why the vast majority of college undergraduates are not learning. He writes, “Why should we send more students to college—at an ever greater cost—when more than a third of them, according to Arum and Roksa, demonstrate “no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills” after four years of education? “What good does it do to increase the number of students in college if the ones who are already there are not learning much? Would it not make more sense to improve the quality of education before we increase the quantity of students? In the Chronicle of Higher Education, he beautifully outlines the reasons for such diminishing results and offers some solutions. Here they are.

“You can not solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem.”

Albert Einstein

Chronicle of Higher Education 

Lack of student preparation. Increasingly, undergraduates are not prepared adequately in any academic area but often arrive with strong convictions about their abilities. So college professors routinely encounter students who have never written anything more than short answers on exams, who do not read much at all, who lack foundational skills in math and science, yet are completely convinced of their abilities and resist any criticism of their work, to the point of tears and tantrums: “But I earned nothing but A’s in high school,” and “Your demands are unreasonable.” Such a combination makes some students nearly unteachable.

Grade inflation. It has become difficult to give students honest feedback. The slightest criticisms have to be cushioned by a warm blanket of praise and encouragement to avoid provoking oppositional defiance or complete breakdowns. As a result, student progress is slowed, sharply. Rubric-driven approaches give the appearance of objectivity but make grading seem like a matter of checklists, which, if completed, must ensure an A. Increasingly, time-pressured college teachers ask themselves, “What grade will ensure no complaint from the student, or worse, a quasi-legal battle over whether the instructions for an assignment were clear enough?” So, the number of A-range grades keeps going up, and the motivation for students to excel keeps going down.

Student retention. As the college-age population declines, many tuition-driven institutions struggle to find enough paying customers to balance their budgets. That makes it necessary to recruit even more unprepared students, who then must be retained, shifting the burden for academic success away from the student and on to the teacher. Faculty members can work with an individual student, if they have time, but the capabilities of the student population as a whole define the average level of rigor that is sustainable in the classroom. At some institutions, graduation rates are so high because the academic expectations are so low. Failing a lot of students is a serious risk, financially, for the college and the professor.

Student evaluations of teachers. Although a lot of emphasis is placed on research on the tenure track, most faculty members are not on that track and are retained on the basis of what students think of them. The common wisdom, for the untenured, at least—whether it is true or not—is to find ways to keep the students happy: Expect little, smile a lot, gesture freely, show movies, praise them constantly, give high marks, bring cookies on evaluation day. Wise administrators may read confidential evaluations in context, but students can now use the Internet to retaliate against professors in ways that can damage their ability to sustain minimal enrollments in their classes.

Enrollment minimums. Students gravitate to lenient professors and to courses that are reputedly easy, particularly in general education. Some students may rise to a challenge; many won’t. They’ll drop, withdraw, or even leave a college that they find too difficult. If you are untenured and your courses do not attract enough students, then you can become low-hanging fruit for nonrenewal. If you are tenured, then it means being “demoted” to teach service courses. In such contexts, the curriculum—populated by electives and required courses competing for the lowest expectations—is driven increasingly by student demand rather than by what a community of scholars believes undergraduates should know.

Lack of uniform expectations. It is impossible to maintain high expectations for long unless everyone holds the line in all comparable courses—and we face strong incentives not to do that. A course in which the professor assigns a 20-page paper and 200 pages of reading every week cannot compete with one that fills the same requirement with half of those assignments. Faculty members cannot raise expectations by themselves, nor can departments, since they, too, are competing with one another for enrollments.

Contingent teaching. Perhaps the most damaging change in higher education in the last few generations has been the wholesale shift in the composition of the teaching staff. Formerly, full-time, tenured faculty members with terminal degrees and long-term ties to the institution did most of the teaching. Such faculty members not only were free to grade honestly and teach with conviction but also had a deep understanding of the curriculum, their colleagues, and the institutional mission. Now undergraduate teaching relies primarily on graduate students and transient, part-time instructors on short-term contracts who teach at multiple institutions and whose performance is judged almost entirely by student-satisfaction surveys.

Time constraints. Contingent faculty members, who are paid so little, routinely teach course loads that are impossible to sustain without cutting a lot of corners. One would think that tenured faculty members, at least, would have the time to focus on student learning, but, as the proportion of tenured professors has declined, the service expectations on the ones remaining have increased considerably, turning a growing number of tenured professors into part-time administrators. At the same time, research expectations for tenure-track faculty members have escalated steadily. Teaching becomes a distraction from the activities that are most highly rewarded. The easiest way to save time in the classroom is to limit assignments that require personalized feedback and to give grades that are higher than students expect.

Curricular chaos. Many colleges are now so packed with transient teachers, and multitasking faculty-administrators, that it is impossible to maintain some kind of logical development in the sequencing of courses. Add to that a lack of consensus about what constitutes a given scholarly field and a lack of permanent faculty members to provide coverage of a discipline. As a result, some majors have become an almost incoherent grab bag of marketable topics combined with required courses that have no uniform standards. Students are now able to create a path through majors that allows them to avoid obtaining what were once considered essential skills and disciplinary knowledge.

Demoralized faculty members. Students may be enjoying high self-esteem, but college teachers seem to be suffering from a lack of self-confidence. It starts in graduate school, when we begin to fear we are destined for unemployment, when we compare our pay with that of comparably educated professionals, and when we realize that—for all the sacrifices that we’ve made, often with idealistic motives—we are held in slight regard. Many people even think of us as subversives who “hate America.” During the latest economic crisis—perhaps the endpoint of a 40-year slide—many of us have felt as if we’ve become expendable, if we are employed at all. That makes it hard for us to make strong demands on our students, or, perhaps more important, to stand up for any kind of change in our institutions.

I have presented the issues affecting undergraduate learning as a list, but it makes more sense to think of them as a Venn diagram of overlapping and mutually reinforcing circles. Of course, they do not amount to a complete overview of the problem; I have tried to represent a cluster of concerns that I believe are common among faculty members in the U.S. educational system.

As Arum and Roksa note, any attempt to shift the responsibility for raising standards entirely onto college teachers is bound to fail, because we “operate in broader social, fiscal, regulatory, and political contexts. The responsibility for change rests not only with college campuses but beyond.” The authors propose “externally mandated accountability systems on public colleges and universities,” similar to No Child Left Behind, but they also note that the causes of the declining educational outcomes are broader than anything that can be dealt with by the government or educational institutions alone. Education is a billion-dollar tail on a trillion-dollar dog.

More than anything, change in four-year colleges depends on choices made by millions of parents and students.

One might think that a nationwide assessment project like the Collegiate Learning Assessment would help students and their parents to select colleges on the basis of documented educational outcomes. Such data comparisons might introduce market-based competition that would encourage support for stronger academic programs. But Arum and Roksa doubt whether “greater institutional transparency in reporting student academic outcomes” will lead consumers to seek a more challenging education. The authors write that they are “profoundly skeptical that students, in general, empowered as consumers or clients, will necessarily place much of an emphasis on this particular collegiate outcome.”

If they are right about that—and I hope they are not—it means that our “failing” system of higher education actually is working the way it is supposed to, according to the dictates of the market. The patterns of selection and resource allocation—and the rising costs of college education—are not driven by educational needs so much as they are the result of competition for the most enjoyable and least difficult four-year experience, culminating in a credential that is mostly a signifier of existing class positions.

And that’s why, in the next column, I want to reflect on this system from the perspective of students and their parents. What could they possibly be thinking? What kind of interlocking system of perverse incentives is motivating them to make such choices?

Thomas H. Benton is the pen name of William Pannapacker, an associate professor of English at Hope College, in Holland, Mich. He writes about academic culture. (And very well, if I do say so myself, Eric.)