Are college tours really important?

College Visits in the Age of Online Shopping

You’ve scoured the school websites for detailed information and statistics. You’ve read though the printed flyers and magazines that have started to fill up your mailbox on an almost daily basis. As important and helpful as these college research tactics can be, there is nothing quite as eye-opening as stepping foot on a physical college campus as you attempt to discover your best-fit school.

In our current “online shopping age,” there’s a common feeling that we can now research and buy what we want without having to actually see it in person. While this may work for toasters or televisions, narrowing down your top college choices often needs a little something more in order to boost one school to the very top of your list. Many students are surprised to find that different campuses really do have a distinct feel and atmosphere to them, and that’s something that you’ll need to be there to experience. Even a short, candid conversation with a campus tour guide or some passing students can frequently produce stronger feelings or opinions on a school than anything posted on their website.

The surrounding area and home city of the campus can also make a huge difference. Are you hoping to experience the busy, social environment of a university set in New York City, or would a peaceful, countryside college setting be more your speed? Visiting local shops, cafes, restaurants, etc., to get a better feel for the area can also be a great way to discover if the school’s location would be a good fit for you.

How many different colleges should I tour? When should I start arranging these tours? How do I fully prepare for in-person college interviews? Your CPSi consultants can answer these common questions and many more, and will help you make the most of your college touring experience.

The answer varies

Do college admission committees prefer Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs?

Students, that’s the wrong question. A better question is, “Which of these rigorous programs will best serve me?”  And the answer is not the same for everyone. Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) are structured differently with different objectives for student learning.

Here are just a few key differences to consider:

AP Programs.

AP classes and exams are widely accessible. High schools around the country and internationally offer AP classes (and often quite a number of them), and anyone is eligible to register and take the AP exams offered each May, regardless of whether they have taken the class. An AP class focuses on a single subject, which allows students to take these college-level classes in the areas of their ability and interest. A high school student interested in STEM, for example, could take up to 3 math AP courses and as many as 4 or 5 science AP courses. This would be one way to demonstrate ability and achievement in math and science on an application to a college engineering program.

IB Programs.

The IB program is less known but becoming more common in U.S. high schools. An interdisciplinary program structured to develop knowledge across disciplines, IB also places learning in global context. Students focus on five of six areas of learning: language & literature, language acquisition, individuals & societies, mathematics, sciences, and the arts. To earn the IB diploma, students must also complete a project in the community and write an extended essay on a topic of their choosing. This is a structured program that does not allow for much class choice or electives, but provides a rigorous, yet holistic education to students in the program.

Choosing if you have both options. If you have the option to choose between AP and IB, choose the one in which you can succeed while also exploring your interests and passions outside of the classroom, allowing you to create the strongest profile for your college applications. To make your decision, consider these questions:

• Where do my strengths lie?
• What is my learning style?
• What level of rigor can I handle while still making time for meaningful involvement in extracurricular pursuits?

AP and IB courses are not right for every college-bound student. For others, one program is a better opportunity than the other. CPSi guides students and families in making choices such as this one to help enhance their learning now and improve their college opportunities in the future.

What’s the AP Capstone?

Look for a discussion of that topic in a future post.

5 Questions to Help You Choose

Fall and the November Early Decision (ED), Restrictive Early Action (REA), and Early Action (EA) deadlines are looming for thousands of college applicants. The complexity of choosing the application option cannot be overstated. Definitions are easy to find, but definitions alone do not give you the student (or your parents) the expertise to choose the option that will best help you:

• Get in – Improving the admission odds for you to get admitted to the college you most desire; and
• Know whether a school is your best-fit option before applying. It’s too late to consider the question once you receive an Early Decision offer, and applying REA is wasting an opportunity if another school is a better fit.

So what is the best approach to deciding whether to choose one of the restrictive application options, ED or REA?  To arrive at your decision, answer the following 5 questions:

1. Is the college the right environment for you; i.e., are you likely to succeed among the other students who typically thrive there?
   • If not and you are admitted, you are at risk of plummeting self-confidence, severe loneliness, even depression.
2. Are your academic credentials above the college’s median point in their published range for admitted students?
   • If not and you are admitted, you will see yourself beneath other students with better credentials. No one deserves four years of that.
3. What about your test scores; are they above the median point in the college’s published range for admitted students?
   • You should have 100 points above the SAT median, 40 points above for SAT Subject Tests, and/or a score of 35 or 36 on the ACT by the application deadline.
4. Do you have a genuine, demonstrated capability that sets you apart from other students who can answer “yes” to 1, 2, and 3 above?
   • Demonstrated is the key. Making things up and writing about something you heard because it is interesting is not the same as a demonstrated capability. Something made up lacks supporting details, is inconsistent with other parts of the application (including recommendations), and is easily identified as false.
5. Have you prepared an outstanding essay with a high degree of integrity, one that vividly reveals your aptitude for independent critical thinking?
   • A winning essay is full of energy, written clearly with simple words, and has a young and innocent tone in an authentic voice that doesn’t mimic an adult.

If the answer to at least 4 of the 5 questions above is YES, then you should select the ED (or REA) application option for that specific college.

IF NOT, then applying ED or REA could mean that you miss out on applying ED or REA to another college where you would be more likely to achieve college and career success beyond your imagination!

Here’s the secret. . .

What would impress the college admission officers? 

What do they want to see in an essay?

In a quest for admission at elite colleges, students writing college application essays often ask such questions. They hope to present themselves as the student they imagine those colleges want. In the process, they lose what the colleges truly seek: authenticity.

Recognizing exaggeration, fabrication, and other attempts to impress with false writing is easier than you might think, but that’s only one of the problems. An even bigger problem is that such essays portray the authors as unreal, unattractive plastic images. Surprised?

It’s similar to photographs. Most students prepare extensively for a formal high school dance–the clothes and shoes, a corsage and boutonniere, the car or limo, usually the hair and nails. But after all of that effort and expense, the formal picture of the handsomely-dressed couple posing at the dance almost never looks great. Instead, it looks unnatural, a plastic, unattractive image. In contrast, the casual snapshot taken when they were hanging out with friends, not even aware they were being photographed, typically looks far more attractive; it’s real, genuine, and authentic.

Advice to students: Be yourself when writing your essays. Write in our own voice, be honest, and hold yourself to the highest level of integrity. That’s the kind of writing that truly impresses.

The Lunar New Year 2015

May this year bring you each health, prosperity, and great fortune!

College Data on Value: A Few Colleges Offer It Up

Colleges and universities have largely balked at calls to provide a quantitative measure of the value of their education. The Wall Street Journal reports that colleges have the data, but they aren’t sure how it will be perceived.

But Kalamazoo College is now using test results as a selling point. They tested their 2005 freshman class “to measure their problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking.” When tested again as seniors, they had improved by an amount “at or above the 95th percentile in each category.”

WSJ reports that Kalamazoo College, along with St. Olaf College, and Sarah Lawrence College, are “. . . betting that a whiff of fresh air will give them a competitive advantage—and woo back parents and employers whose faith in the value of a college degree has been rattled.” A perusal of these college websites confirms their approach.

Good strategy! We hope this is what Gladwell would call a tipping point on this issue. Meanwhile, CPSi continues to compile data to guide families in making decisions about higher education.

Read the article by Douglas Belkin, “College Uses Test Data to Show Value.” The Wall Street Journal, 2/20/2014, (online: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391513428597546)

Number THREE: Focus on strengthening the student’s honesty, integrity, thirst for knowledge, and commitment to improvement; these are the foundation for long-term success.

It might sound pretty high-reaching, but you know it’s the truth. Successful people don’t just go through the motions for temporary glory; they focus on building a strong foundation. It is the most intelligent approach, and it is the right thing to do.

A real-life example is reflected in the story of a highly intelligent and very capable student I met a while ago. When I offered him admission to enroll with our college planning program, he and his parents jumped for joy and enrolled. Soon I realized, however, that his work ethic leaves much to be desired, and that his arrogance and pretentiousness would likely get the best of him; I’ll just call him “Mr. Pretender” to protect his identity. Realizing my error in enrolling him, I nonetheless couldn’t go back on my agreement; I had already committed myself and my organization to give our best effort for Mr. Pretender, plus 10% more (as we teach our students).

So I convinced myself there must be a way to teach Mr. Pretender the power of a strong work-ethic, high integrity, and the strength and courage to change; after all I had successfully taught other students before.  But no matter how many different ways I tried to convince him that any gain from a short-cut is only short-term and not the way to get ahead. Nevertheless, he continued his last-minute wheeling and dealing for projects and tests; he simply would not budge. Often he simply dismissed the whole conversation, declaring that his approach was working for him and he saw no reason to change.

The summer before his senior year, he came in to work on his college application essays (as we require from all of our students). Only he struggled to write even one meaningful paragraph. Bear in mind, he was attending one of the most rigorous high schools in the area with a decent GPA, and he had almost perfect SAT scores. After 2 to 3 weeks of excruciating work with him, he completed his essays and applications and applied Early Decision to one of the top 20 colleges. He got in. Honestly, I was disappointed with the system, knowing that he did not have what it takes to succeed there, nor did he deserve to attend such a high-caliber college. But sometimes we have to accept things as they happen.

Six months later, I got a distraught call from Mr. Pretender’s mother saying they needed to speak with me. Concerned, I asked what about, and she told me that her son (Mr. Pretender) had been caught cheating on a test at school and suspended from school. When the school reported the incident to his college as required, the college withdrew its offer of admission.  And by mid-May, the application deadlines for most colleges had already passed; now he needed to figure out his options.

The greatest thing we can do to succeed – whether adults or students – is to focus on the foundation of success: uncompromising honesty, a high degree of integrity, care and consideration for community, the development of an unending appetite for knowledge, and a devotion to improving ourselves and our community. Gains based on anything less is short-lived at best.

“Where there is an open mind, there will always be a new frontier.” ~Kettering

In the ever-evolving world of college admissions, a new admissions option has emerged in recent years that has raised completely new questions and decision options for high school seniors – the Spring Start time.

When most students think about college, they are thinking of the “traditional” college experience – graduate from high school in May or June, have a great last summer with high school friends and family and start at your dream college in August or September.  The Spring Start time admissions option has thrown a curve-ball to many students who were thinking of this more “traditional” path.  What if you gained admission to your dream college, but were not able to start there until the following January?  This Spring Start option begs the question – just how badly do you want to go to your dream college?

For students entertaining the Spring Start admissions option, they need to quickly get creative with alternate plans for the fall when most of their high school friends will be starting their college experiences.  These alternatives include options such as pursuing employment and internship opportunities, looking into travel/education/volunteer abroad options, and even community college courses that will easily transfer to that dream college.

Depending on how you look at it, the Spring Admissions option can be seen as either an excellent opportunity, or a tormenting curse.  No matter how you look at it, this option is changing the way many high school students look at their potential college futures.  As a professional college planning consultant who has seen this option work out very well for some students in the past, I encourage HS seniors to keep an open mind if offered Spring Admission and to at least consider the possibility rather than considering it an effective rejection.

“Where there is an open mind, there will always be a new frontier.” (Charles Kettering)

Number TWO: Visit Colleges To Identify Best-Fit Undergraduate Programs and Overcome Brand Names

In the first post of this series, I emphasized the importance of finding and choosing the student’s best-fit colleges. One way to identify the best fit colleges is through organized, objective college visits.  A first-hand campus visit is the most important tool for students and their parents to gain perspective regarding what they like and hope for at the undergraduate program the student will attend.

Yes, focus should be placed on understanding and finding the best undergraduate program. Conversely, I’ve seen that, both in the U.S. and internationally, most parents are following the 70s and 80s line of thinking about colleges and college brands, unaware that this is actually a better guide for choosing a graduate school or program. Many famous colleges (e.g., UCLA, U of Michigan, U of Minnesota, U of Wisconsin, U of Illinois, U of Washington) are among the top 50 best graduate programs. Their fame stems from ground-breaking research, which is in part achieved by admitting students who graduated from their best-fit undergraduate colleges and learned to think creatively and critically – “outside of the box.”

But attending such universities where large classes taught by TAs are standard does nothing to mentor the young undergraduate student. It doesn’t nurture or guide their interests and curiosities to discover their academic or career paths. It doesn’t help them connect with their passions.

So one effective way for families to grasp this important concept and identify the student’s best-fit colleges is to visit the schools. Virtual tours? Not enough; a movie clip doesn’t truly provide the vital information needed to consider the school, nor does it justify the burden of a $150k – $240k price tag.

Here is a short list of what to do and look for on your college visit:

• Go to the information session and sit through the whole thing. Listen to find to find out what priority is given to undergraduate school.
• Take the campus tour, and find out how accessible the spotless labs are to undergraduate students.
• Make time to speak with the students and faculty if possible.
• What percent of FRESHMAN and SOPHOMORE classes are taught by PHD professors?
• Beyond the student/faculty ratio, what are FRESHMAN class sizes? The student/faculty ratio can be misleading because it includes professors who write/publish, research, are on sabbatical, and who focus on graduate school.
• What is the campus food like, and what are the meal-plan?
• What’s the social scene like? Is it dominated by specific groups such as sororities/fraternities; does a certain mentality pervade?
• What is the diversity and the makeup of the current freshman class?
• What kinds of activities are available?

We provide detailed information and evaluation tools to help families get the facts when they visit colleges. Identifying and attending a best-fit undergraduate program helps the student gain admission to top graduate schools and receive more than their share grants and assistantships, even for social science graduate programs.

PS: Don’t forget to pick up business cards on your visits, too, so you’ll have a real, live contact if you have a question about admission or financial aid.

Come to the edge, he said.
They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he
Said. They came. He pushed them,
And they flew. . .
Guillaume Apollinaire

In celebration of CPSi’s 20th anniversary this March, I will write a new blog post each month for the next 10 months to share the 10 most important factors for a student’s success in college admission and far beyond. In more than 20 years in the field of independent college consulting, it has been my privilege to mentor students to grow and achieve even greater success than they dreamed. Along the way, I have identified these factors and seen their importance in achieving admission at amazing colleges.

Number ONE: Pushing for the Best Fit Colleges

The first factor is finding and choosing the student’s best-fit colleges. When we push a student until he or she embraces the idea of making logical college choices to find their best-fit colleges, great things are bound to happen for them.

More and more, parents and students are recognizing the power of a “best fit” college and its significant impact on success in college and beyond, but students may initially struggle with identifying or accepting what factors matter in the choice. They need to get past hype and emotional factors such as prestige, location, and perceptions of social life; once they do, students have a vested interest in making logical choices based on facts. Here are a few facts that matter in choosing best-fit colleges:

• School and class size matter a lot. Football win-and-loss statistics matter little.
• Caring professors who are focused on teaching undergraduate students how to overcome challenges and who are willing to create a challenging but encouraging environment for learning matters big-time. The number of books a professor publishes each year has little or no impact on the life or learning of an undergraduate student.
• Availability and variety of study-abroad programs matters in this global economy. A student body composed of mostly students from one state is a contradiction.
• A college with zero tolerance for cheating and violence is worthy of your attention. Stay far away from the college where students cheat or behave violently and the professors and administrators keep quiet or look away.
• A “best fit” college requires students to learn to write well and communicate clearly, whether the student’s major is in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, or the humanities. Choosing a program or school because it does not require writing can handicap a student’s opportunities after college.
• Colleges that encourage students to go above and beyond their coursework and sink their teeth into knowledge, to explore new ideas and territory, and to focus on interdisciplinary studies (combing courses from three different fields) lead in creating innovators and creative, outside-the-box thinkers. Specializing too early limits opportunities.

Several hundred conversations with current and former CPSi students have validated this basic premise for me: Strong relationships with professors who mentor students and a collaborative spirit of teamwork among classmates greatly increases a student’s confidence, employability, and success in post-graduate pursuits. Employers hire and graduate schools admit students who think critically and innovate to join their team or institution.