College Presidents Blog Too

From Wednesday's New York Times comes "Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging" by reporter Diana Jean Schemo.

Tips on writing college-entrance essays

10 tips for the dreaded essay(s) from The Arizona Republic.

Acceptance Rates

A frequent visitor to the Tactical College Consulting Blog emailed us her thanks that we mentioned the November 8, 2006 USAToday article covering college admissions tips. She also wanted us to let all of our readers know how soothing it was for her to click another link on the USAToday Website that supplies a comprehensive list of college admissions rates. Since it proved helpful, we have decided to link to it too. CLICK HERE for more.

Rejected applicant alleges bias against Asians

From Monday's Daily Princetonian comes an article bringing to light once again the dangerous territory admissions officials enter into when they begin to accept people based on ethnicity as opposed to merit. When working with your Tactical College Consultant, please inquire how colleges' "diversity goals" will affect you and your application.

Cracking the code of college admissions

"Predicting who'll get into a few highly selective schools is getting more difficult, but the overall selectivity rate hasn't moved much in the past 20 years because there are more places at four-year colleges"

These words of wisdom from a short but important article in today's USAToday. The article notes that the acceptance rate at America's four-year colleges still hovers around 70%.

Priceless admissions tips mentioned in the article include tailoring your application, researching thoroughly, visiting colleges, and thinking about your individual needs.

Having trouble getting started with any or all of these aspects of the college admissions process? Then call or email Tactical College Consulting today and get ready to develop and shape an aggressive college admissions strategy focussed on positioning you as a leading applicant for undergraduate admission at a select group of colleges where you can reach your academic and personal goals.

410-526-2558
tacticalcc@yahoo.com

College tuition, fees up more than 6 percent

View article at MSNBC.com.

Admissions Anxiety Spreads Far and Wide

Note: The following Associated Press story hit the wires on Saturday. We have chosen to include it on our blog to give parents and students a picture of the state of the current undergraduate admissions process/atmosphere. Tactical College Consulting prides itself on its unique initial Comprehensive Review at the beginning of the admissions process. Our Comprehensive Review, which includes interviews with both the student and parent(s), in-depth questionnaires for the student and parent(s), concurrent research tailored to meet the needs of the student, and ultimately resulting in a detailed and highly personalized list of colleges to which we recommend the student apply, helps bypass a great deal of the anxiety described below. If you can significantly narrow early on the colleges for which you would be a good fit, you can focus your energies on what will allow you to gain admission to those schools, and you won't be caught in a rat race with the imaginary masses of cut-throat students lurking just over the horizon (and according to the AP, in many homes near you).

Admissions Anxiety Reaches New Regions
By Justin Pope
DURHAM, North Carolina (AP) -- SAT tutors. High-priced essay coaches. Over-the-top parents who make selecting a college feel like a matter of life and death.

They have become commonplace in admissions "hot spots," largely in the Northeast and on the West Coast -- places where the college application process is palpably more intense than elsewhere.

But admissions anxiety is creeping into other parts of the country.

It shows up in this fast-growing region, where counselors at the public North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics are hearing more from pushy parents and seeing more pressure on students to apply to college early. Ravenscroft, a college prep school in nearby Raleigh, recently dropped an advanced placement class from the senior curriculum because students were already taking on too much.

A recent college fair in Chapel Hill attracted several parents researching colleges -- without their children. At Durham School of the Arts, senior Caitlin Millward says homework usually keeps her up past midnight, and she can hardly remember when she last read for fun.

"The colleges want to see kids who aren't just cogs in a wheel, but nobody has time to be anything else but a cog," says her frustrated mother, Cathy Millward. "I'm not really happy with the whole game."

The increasingly feverish pressure for slots in selective colleges has attracted widespread attention lately -- and several attempts to relieve it. Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia recently dropped their early admissions rounds. A national admissions group voted earlier this month to prohibit the growing practice of admitting some students even before the start of their senior year.

The attention focuses mainly on places such as New York, New England and California, and scattered pockets elsewhere -- Chicago, Houston -- which have long traditions of sending students to competitive private colleges. In those areas, Ivy League bumper stickers are coveted, and a child at a big-name school is especially valuable social currency. Students are more likely to take SAT prep courses, apply early, and apply to many schools -- and also to be literally losing sleep over the process.

But these days, regions that had been relatively sheltered from such pressure, such as the Sun Belt and Midwest, are seeing more and more of it.

"The Northeast and California and the mid-Atlantic are certainly the areas with the highest anxiety and hype," says Bill Dingledine, an educational consultant in Greenville, S.C. "It's not quite like that here. But it's moving in that direction."

Some blame the media for fueling admissions anxiety, but they point to other factors, too. Families who move from the hot spots may bring their high-intensity outlook with them. And there really is more competition because of population and economic growth. Many colleges in North Carolina are becoming significantly more selective, for example.

It's a trend measured in both anecdotes and some telling statistics.

In states below the Mason-Dixon line, enrollment in Kaplan SAT/ACT prep classes has grown at more than seven times the company's overall national growth rate over the last five years.

"I've got to do what I've got to do," says Lauren Grochocki, a senior at Rockwall High School outside Dallas, who took an SAT prep course last year and an ACT one this summer.

"It's a little stressful, but if I can get a 29, it'll be so much better in the long run," she said of a score that would put her in the 95th percentile nationally.

In North Carolina, the number of AP exams taken has increased from about 28,000 in 1998 to more than 70,000 in 2005. In Texas it has increased from 74,000 to more than 200,000. Students such as Millward say coursework demands are taking a toll. She's dropped out of the anime club and Venturing, and decided not to try out for soccer, just to keep up with work.

The number of private college counselors, often seen as a symptom of anxiety, is rising. Five years ago, a national organization of private college advisers had just one qualified member in Minnesota; today it has 11. Kentucky has gone from none to three, Virginia two to 13.

Bev Taylor's New York counseling service, The Ivy Coach, charges up to $21,000 for college advising and flies personal SAT tutors around the country. She says most of her students now come from outside New York, from places like Florida, Omaha, Neb., and Minneapolis.

College admissions officers say they can still usually tell where they are in the country simply from the questions they get. Tom Parker, Amherst College's dean of admissions, says in the hot spots he's usually asked about strategizing, while students elsewhere "are more interested in 'What's the difference between Amherst and Dartmouth?"'

But Parker notices the "hot spots" are moving into northern New England and the South, often as families migrate for work. He compares it to a spreading virus.

Terry Giffen, director of college counseling at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, says the competitiveness there is still noticeably lower than at Choate Rosemary Hall, the Connecticut prep school where he spent 11 years.

"Some parents will say to me, 'I'm sorry I'm kind of a nudge,"' he said. "I'll say, 'You're not on my radar screen compared to (parents in) New England."' But recently, a parent asked him to recommend a company to prepare her son for the PSAT, a practice test that generally isn't even used in college admissions.

Historically, the Northeast emerged as a hot spot partly because the more competitive private colleges are clustered there. Many good students in the South and Midwest have been steered to flagship public universities, where a good academic record was once enough to get in.

That's no longer necessarily true. Last year, the University of Florida turned down more than 1,300 applicants with high school GPAs over 4.0, for a freshman class of about 7,200. UNC-Chapel Hill turns away nearly two-thirds of applicants.

Less certain where they'll get in, students worry and apply to more schools.

"Fifteen years ago it was much easier," says Kathy Cleaver, head of college counseling at Durham Academy, where some students apply to as many as 15 schools. "It was a buyer's market. You had a pretty good sense of who would or would not get in somewhere. Today, it's more unpredictable."

"That puts panic in people," she said. And that uncertainty sends more scrambling to SAT prep classes.

"I've given up saying you shouldn't do it," she said, "because our kids are out competing against kids all around the country who are doing it."

In Texas, a law guaranteeing students in the top 10 percent of their high school class admission to any public university has made it significantly harder for suburban students outside the top 10 percent to gain entrance to the University of Texas' flagship Austin campus. Merit aid policies have significantly raised the bar at the University of Georgia, making it far harder for many students to get in than in their parents' day.

Many Georgia legacies at Savannah Country Day School "love Athens, they love the football of course, they love the size of the school," says director of college counseling Mary Beth Fry. But now "a family that has hoped for a generation that the ensuing generations would go to Georgia can't necessarily count on that."

Some say universities' aggressive recruiting is partly to blame for the admissions frenzy.

"Universities have been very effective at going out and shaking the trees around the country," said Steve Goodman, a veteran private college adviser. "When the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown goes to your city and has a dog-and-pony show, that does rustle up interest among the sophisticated students." The message, he said, is "we're great, but we're also really hard to get into," which feeds anxiety.

It's not that recruiting is inherently bad, Goodman and others acknowledge; it expands horizons and increases the odds of a good match. Last year, Savannah Country Day students chose a number of small schools far off the area's usual radar screen: Pomona in California and Carleton and St. Olaf in Minnesota.

The test-prep companies -- also often criticized -- say their expanding presence is helping students, not hurting.

"I like to think we're a solution for these kids," said John Polstein, CEO of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. "We spend a lot of time in our programs trying to demystify the (SAT and ACT) exam, trying to reduce the pressure."

Several counselors who have moved from hotspots like Los Angeles and the Northeast say they found lower anxiety levels in the South. They want to keep it that way -- but they also want to shake away some of the complacency they found, too.

Family loyalties to local schools "inadvertently put blinders on students who don't necessarily realize how much else is out there," said Scott Anderson, who recently moved from a Pennsylvania prep school to St. George's, an independent school with several campuses around Memphis. Giffen, the former Choate counselor now in Nashville, sees the trend with athletes.

"They say, 'I'm done. Now I want to go to Tennessee and watch great football,' rather than go to Amherst and play football."

At the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential public magnet academy, the students are among the best in the state. There is competition, but the students insist it is still pretty friendly.

"We don't get that here," said Morgan Kearse, an aspiring biologist with at least three Ivy League schools on her wish list.

Adds classmate Nicole Mack: "This school allows you to compare yourself against yourself. We're not so cutthroat to bring everybody else down."

Still, one student recently told counseling dean Gail Hudson she wanted to apply early to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because of the name, even though North Carolina State was a better fit. Last year, Hudson had to convince a parent that Carnegie Mellon really was a better fit for his son than Princeton.

"These are the kinds of parents who will call and say, 'Don't let my daughter leave your office until you convince her to apply to Brown,"' Hudson says.

The trick to keeping the anxiety at bay is for adults to set the right tone, the counselors say.

But keeping things calmer here than in the traditional hot spots won't be easy: Every state in the South except Louisiana will have more high school seniors graduating in 10 years than today.

Tactical College Consulting in the Community

Tactical College Consulting thanks those of you who visited our booth yesterday at the 3rd Annual JCC College Fair in Owings Mills, Maryland. We gave out a lot of college admissions advice to parents and students (and a lot of candy).

Many overwhelmed parents of high school seniors asked "Is it too late to get help?" The answer, of course, is that it's never too early and it's never too late to get Tactical. Call us today at 410-526-2558 for help no matter your stage in the college admissions process.

Tips from ‘How to Survive Getting Into College’

In a new book, Rachel Korn shares real-world advice from hundreds of former high school seniors based on their experiences applying to colleges. "Today" host Meredith Vieira talks with three high school seniors about their efforts to get into colleges and Korn shares some of the top mistakes students make when applying to schools.

SAT or ACT? It can't hurt to take both tests

Op-Ed by Thomas F. Black in the Contra Costa Times

Getting into college taxes teens, parents

USA TODAY's Mary Beth Marklein speaks with Marilee Jones, admissions dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and pediatrician Kenneth Ginsburg, co-authors of the new book Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond.

Gettysburg College Scraps SAT

Gettysburg College has become the latest college to make standardized tests like the SAT and ACT optional for admission. The subject came up at the National Association for College Admission Counseling meeting this weekend in Pittsburgh.

More: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Where the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College

Time lists where some of the most powerful CEOs went to college - and the answers may surprise you.

Applied Science

John Etchemendy, provost at Standford University, writes an Op-Ed in Wednesday's New York Times urging those applauding Harvard's and Princeton's decisions to end early admission to think again.

Navigating an altered admissions landscape

"Now that Harvard and Princeton have announced they will stop early admissions, the frantic chess game of applying to top colleges seems to require some new strategies. So what's an ambitious kid – or parent -- to do?," asks Leslie Brody of New Jersey's Record.

NorthJersey.com tries to provide some answers (including contradictory ones).

University of Virginia Drops Early Decision

UVA is the latest school to make the college admissions process even more complicated.

Without Merit - Inside college-admissions offices

The National Review's Anthony Dick reviews the new book The Price of Admission by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Daniel Golden. Dick asserts the book makes a convincing case that college admissions offices at the nation's top universities lower their standards when looking at the applications of the rich and powerful.

University of Baltimore Offers Free Freshman Year

To help promote the fact that it will have its first freshman class in three decades, University of Baltimore will offer free tuition and cover other expenses for its 2007 freshman class. For years the school has only offered classes to juniors and seniors. UB expects its 2007 freshman class will have between 100 and 130 students.

More: UB freshman to get free first year, By Gadi Dechter, Baltimore Sun

Who Needs Harvard or Yale?

BusinessWeek explores the growing phenomenon of American students studying across the pond at elite British universities.

Penn won't jump on admissions' latest trend

The University of Pennsylvania will not be making any changes to its early admissions policy in the near future. That according to Dean of Admissions, Lee Stetson, who said Penn's decision to admit nearly half of each year's freshman class early plays a large role in creating a positive campus culture (meaning Penn is filled with students happy to be at Penn).

From The Daily Pennsylvanian article: "He estimated that Penn was the first-choice college for 75 percent of students here, which makes a demonstrable difference in their dedication and involvement."

Related: Harvard Admission Change Not Likely At CMU, The Tartan (Carnegie Mellon's Student Newspaper)

Princeton Cuts Early Decision

Princeton has followed Harvard in deciding to cut its early admissions program. Princeton currently offers Early Decision, which is binding. Harvard is to cut Early Action, which is not binding. The new rules will take effect for the class entering in Fall 2008.

More: Princeton Ends Early Admissions, Week After Harvard, Bloomberg News

Taking aim at admissions anxiety

The Associated Press takes a look at Marilee Jones, the Dean of Admissions at MIT, and her quest to make the college admissions process less stressful for high school students.

Stats Reveal Harvard's Trap

Harvard's decision to drop early action can only hurt the competition, according to an Op-Ed in Sunday's New York Times by David Leonhardt. Included with the essay are revealing collegiate match-ups, and the rates at which accepted students choose one school or the other.

Is early admission unfair?

The Christian Science Monitor is the latest publication to anaylze this week's decision by Harvard to scrap Early Action. The article is worth reading, particularly for those new to the college admisssions process, as it includes useful definitions of regular decision, early decision, early action, and restrictive/single-choice early action. The article also includes the below chart from "Equity And Excellence In American Higher Education."

Admissions Myths

Forbes.com provides its top admissions myths. My favorites are "colleges prefer the SAT to the ACT" and "more extracurriculars are better."

More: The New Business Of College, College Admissions Myths by Melanie Shor

When Early College Admissions Goes Extreme

Time.com provides further analysis of Harvard's decision to end Early Action.

Harvard To End Early Action, And Urgers Others To Follow

Convinced it can set a nationwide trend, Harvard has decided to end its early action admissions program. Harvard said it made the decision so as not to put poor and minority students at a disadvantage and to ease some of the pressure to decide early for the world's the best students. This plan may very well backfire, causing elite students to waive a chance at Harvard for a guaranteed spot at Yale, Princeton, Penn, Dartmouth, etc. Other top universities are wisely taking a wait and see approach.

Opinion/Reaction: Early Unfairness, The Harvard Crimson
Harvard's Fairness Lesson, The Boston Globe
Eliminating Early Admissions, The New York Times
Veritas in College Admissions, Los Angeles Times
Harvard, Ending Early Admissions, Increases Pain, Kevin Hassett Bloomberg News
Harvard's Attempt to Equalize Access, Miami Herald

Getting In To Become Easier?

Applicant Bubble On the Brink of Bursting, The Daily Pennsylvanian (Penn)

As Goes Harvard...

Donald Kagan, a History professor at Yale, writes an intriguing Op-Ed in Commentary Magazine about Harvard's curriculum - of lack there of - and many students and parents may find the information discussed both disturbing and appalling. It is instructive that a school many "experts" declare to be the best in the nation has serious problems like seniors graduating "without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers."

SAT Optional Colleges

While The New York Times highlights the growing number of schools opting to make the SAT or ACT optional for applicants, the truth is that the vast majority of colleges and universities still require standardized test scores to gain letters of admission. And this is not changing any time soon. Interesting article nonetheless.

More: Students' Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass the SAT, The New York Times

"...selective colleges seek quality, not quantity"

This is true. Too many parents, and by extension, their children, believe that high school students need to be "scheduled" in some sort of impressive activity during every waking hour. While it is not bad to be involved in multiple extracurriculars, it is bad if it's just for the sake of having more than the kid next to you. Colleges would rather students find one true passion and take it far instead of being a mediocre member of all 75 clubs offered at their high school.

Parents must remember to allow their teenagers to be teenagers. This means having a social life and not judging your child for taking some afternoons and evenings "off" to unwind or just relax.

More: Teen schedules should stress quality, not quantity; Classes, work, social life add to pressure, Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York)

Placing Rankings in Perspective

Great and simple advice from a director of college guidance in northeastern Pennsylvania. The best line comes at the end "A good search should begin within the student, who assesses what he or she needs and wants in a college. Then the student can compare his or her criteria to that employed by a specific rank and determine its relevance. This process, however, takes time."

More: College Countdown - School rankings may not match student’s need by Karen Mason, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader

Princeton Review on Bloomberg.com

Bloomberg News joins the growing number of news organizations heralding the arrival of this year's Princeton Review College Survey.

The Washington Times Highlights Princeton Review

With the release of The Princeton Review's The 361 Best Colleges 2007, The Washington Times' Jennifer Harper writes an article reminding students that it's not all about getting into the Ivy League. According to The Princeton Review, Rice University ranked the highest in "quality of life," while University of Texas edged out University of Wisconsin to take top party school, and the U.S. Air Force Academy ranked #1 for "professors who make themselves accessible."

As the school year begins, new rankings and college guides seem to come out everyday, and it's important to remember that each list and guide has unique criteria that may or may not jibe with every student's criteria for picking a school. Therefore, always take these guides and "best lists" as important points of reference, but not as "the end all be all" when determining the school that's right for you.

More: Collegiate ranking looks beyond books, The Washington Times

NBC's Today Show Goes Back To School

Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, author of What Colleges Don’t Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You to Know), was a guest on the Today Show on August 15. She answered questions from students and parents about college admissions, providing some good advice on how students should approach the process considering "how competitive the college admissions process has become..."

NBC's Back to School site includes many articles directly related to college admissions and the freshman experience. Some of the best are What Colleges Don't Tell You, which includes an excerpt from Wissner-Gross' book, How to Survive Getting Into College, in which former Ivy League admissions officer Rachel Korn gives tips to high school students applying to college, an informative article by Today Show contributor Dr. Ruth A. Peters on Getting your teen ready for college will help to get parents thinking, and Peters is at it again in How to prepare your child for freshman year. Finally, a must-read for students and parents: Kid college-bound? Teach him how to budget is a good reminder of how to get out of college with some money to spare.

More: "Today" Goes Back To School"

College 101

FoxNews.com has created an informative subsection of its news site called "College 101." It includes articles on everything from paying for college to dorm life. A particularly valuable article analyzes the growing debate in academia between the importance of a liberal arts education vs. professional training.

More: College 101 at FoxNews.com

Will You Make The Cut?

What better time than now - as we bask in the serenity of summer - to envision what your application will really face once reviewed by a full admissions committee at one of America's most competitive schools? This report, filed by Mark Clayton in 1998, is as applicable today as it was 8 years ago.

More: Christian Science Monitor