College Wait Lists: Admissions Purgatory
For those of us who have grown accustomed to having our most trivial inquiries answered in seconds by our favorite search engine, not knowing the answer to a question instantly can be frustrating. I hit my personal rock bottom of information impatience the day I actually pulled out my smartphone to search for the answer to Final Jeopardy while the contestants were still writing their answers on the television screen. The college application process can seem like an archaic and slow motion process for the need-to-know-now generation of students who are just graduating from high school. Even though most colleges and universities now offer fast and easy online applications, the acceptance procedure at some schools can still take several weeks or even months, and is often painfully slow. After all the anticipation and uncertainty, when the school’s letter arrives in the mail, it should come with a sense of some finality: acceptance or denial, and at least the agony of waiting and wondering is done. But what if you receive a letter that neither confirms your acceptance nor denies your entry to the school? What if the letter informs you that you have been placed on the college’s “wait list”? Read the rest of this entry »
One College Answers the Call for Lower Tuition
There is no doubt that making college more affordable would ease some of the burden being felt by economically struggling students and families.
Public Agenda is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public opinion research group dedicated to researching and publishing the American public’s opinions on a range of issues. In February, the organization published its findings from a November 2010 phone poll of 1,000 adults living in the U.S. In the poll, respondents were instructed to identify whether they feel that they are “struggling” in the current economy, and if so, to what degree. Of the respondents, 40% identified themselves as struggling “a lot,” and 42% said they are struggling “a little.” The results of the survey may provide some insight into the situations of average American families who feel that their current financial situations are bleak. Read the rest of this entry »
Just for Parents: Meltdown in Higher Education?
Seth Godin is considered by many people to be a marketing genius. He is a best-selling author, an entertaining and in-demand speaker, and a self-described “agent of change.” Seth is also a prolific blogger; his posts are thought-provoking, insightful, funny, and always worth reading.
Last week, one of his posts was titled “The coming meltdown in higher education (as seen by a marketer).” He argued that most colleges, even the top ones, are homogeneous and therefore interchangeable; that they all game the system to appear more selective rather than just focusing on improving their schools’ curriculum; that it doesn’t matter where, or if, you go to college, and that the college experience is more important than the actual college education. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Hide, Get Noticed by Colleges
Have you ever played the board game, Risk®? I never won, nor fully understood the game. But, I did recognize that a well-thought out strategy was important to winning. Much like Risk, strategy is an important component of the college search and application process. A college contact strategy is a vital plan to ensure that a college knows who you are beyond your college application and knows that you are serious about attending their institution.
Most college admissions offices have software that tracks your contact with them. So, each time you place your college contact strategy into action, you should remember to inform the admissions department whom you spoke with, when and where—and be ready to explain why the meeting was so important to you—in order for your meeting to be tracked by the college. But remember, you can’t get tracked unless you have a strategy in place: Read the rest of this entry »
Put Your College Application on Video!
Get the video camera out; it’s time to apply for college! Nope, that’s not a typo; your eyes do not deceive you. Several colleges this year are allowing students to supplement their applications with a short YouTube video. The video below, from a Tufts University applicant, actually went viral. (And as of this post, the video has been viewed 102,261 times!)
So what does that mean for you? Read the rest of this entry »
Decisions, Decisions…But No Need to Make Them Just Yet
Hello, I’m Toby Waldorf and I’ve been an educational consultant for 20 years, working with high school studentsand helping them make good college choices. I’ve traveled the country visiting campuses big and small, urban and rural, highly competitive and a little less selective. Surprisingly, in all these years I’ve never been on a campus that I didn’t like! Truth be told, every college has something appealing about it. Put a lot of 18-22 year olds together and there’s a certain magic that happens.
So how do you decide which of the schools is the best of the best? Good news! It’s only November and you don’t have to make that decision for another six months! (Unless you applied Early Decision in which case you’ve already made that choice.) If you’re going the “Regular” Decision route, your focus for now is on applying, not accepting. Put all of your energy into creating the best possible application that you can. Then, when they’re all sent in, take a deep breath and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.
In the coming months you’ll hear from each of the colleges you applied to. That’s when you’ll begin to analyze which schools are the best match for you academically, socially, and financially. For now….just focus on the task at hand. GOOD LUCK with those applications and let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be on the WiseChoice Community Forum during our special November Experts Month, answering your questions.
College Fairs: I Missed This Part, But That Doesn’t Mean You Should
Just the other day I learned that colleges and universities like to see prospective students actively demonstrating interest in their school. Attending a college fair or fairs is one of the early steps in demonstrating that yes, you really are interested in a particular school and this makes the inevitable decision process of “which college do I attend” that much easier on you.
Think of it this way: let’s say that you attend a college fair at the end of your sophomore year of high school. You will already have an idea of the type(s) of school(s) you would like to apply to, thus giving you an opportunity to see whether or not a school might be the right fit for you. Read the rest of this entry »
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