Blog

by Julius Claybron

It was a Monday and my inbox was filled with the usual bulk messages colleges send to make prospective freshmen feel special. Or so I thought.

There was one email in particular that looked like an invitation to a freshman event but I didn't bother reading it because I knew I couldn’t travel miles to a school I probably had no chance of getting into. That night, however, I opened the email out of curiosity: "This special invitation is extended to you because of your strong academic performance and because you will be admitted to Cornell University's Class of 2015."

This was a joke. There was no way it could be true. Cornell was going to send an email the next day apologizing for the terrible mistake...but after reading it repeatedly, it finally hit me: I had been accepted to Cornell University.

I sighed a big sigh of relief. The past three years weren’t the easiest for me and dealing with school as a whole was a taxing experience. I had failed to reach many of the goals I previously set and dismissed any hopes of attending selective institutions because my faith in myself had become practically nonexistent. During the college application process, though, I still applied to some of the country's toughest schools because the little bit of faith I had left compelled me to do so. I took a chance and in the end, a pure leap of faith was all that mattered.

I don't have any spells that will get you into your first-choice college. No gimmicks, no tricks up my sleeves and no rabbits in my hat. I don't have any admissions formulas or surefire ways to land a coveted spot at an Ivy. Just believe you deserve whatever you are hoping for, even if no one else does. At times, a positive thought may be the only thing keeping your dreams afloat but with this thought in mind, you will definitely get you to where you want to be.

by Agnes Jasinski

High school students now have more proof that it's as hard to get into college as they think it is. A study released this week titled "Playing the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition" looked at the record number of students applying to the country's top colleges and the decrease in admission rates at those schools.

Not surprisingly, the "most pronounced increases in competition" were in the Northeast - New Jersey, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York - where the most prestigious schools are located. The number of applicants accepted there fell by about 25 percent between 1986 and 2003. But competition has also increased everywhere else. Between 1972 and 2004, there was a 9 percent decrease in admission rates to four-year colleges.

The study, done by scholars from Harvard University and the University of Michigan for the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked at potential reasons for the numbers. Students have become more competitive on their own, taking more AP classes and upper-level math courses, and the sheer number of applicants for the same number of slots at colleges has contributed to the frenzy.

So is this good or bad?

The study suggests that students are getting more stressed than anything else. Among those applying to the most selective colleges, more students are doing homework for 10 hours or more per week. But the majority are spending less time on homework than studying for and taking standardized tests. More students are taking both the ACT and SAT, multiple times. (The results of the latest batch of SAT-takers shows a drop in two points, according to the College Board.) Students are also applying to more colleges than ever before, perhaps a reflection of more schools using common online applications and the pressure to get into the most competitive schools.

One good trend coming out of the data and contributing to a more competitive applicant pool is the higher number of female applicants in recent years compared to the 1970s when the study's research pool began, an article by Inside Higher Ed says. Overall, it seems intense competition is here to stay, and it may do well for high school students to look beyond the most competitive colleges and make decisions based on whether a school has the programs they're interested in pursuing instead.

by Alexis Mattera

It’s not long into April Fools' Day but we’ve already encountered lots of fake educational news. First, it was revealed that GWU President Steven Schnapps’ fist pumping was responsible for the destruction in a campus residence hall. Next, Bryn Mawr announced it had partnered with Bithnian University of Science and Technology to take its alien research to the next level. And lastly, college acceptance rates plummeted at universities across the country. Oh wait, that last one wasn’t a joke at all.

The New York Times’ The Choice blog recently published a table of admissions statistics from 32 selective U.S. colleges and the data show a drop in acceptance rates across the board. Not surprisingly, the lowest acceptance rates were at Harvard (6.2 percent, an all-time low for the Ivy), Columbia (6.9 percent), Stanford (7.1 percent), Yale (7.4 percent) and Princeton (8.4 percent) but what’s interesting is that this year, records were broken for applications received. The schools’ explanations for the limited fat envelopes sent out? They just had far too many outstanding applicants.

There are many factors to consider – for example, high school seniors are applying to more schools than ever before to ensure they have at least one place to attend college – but nothing takes the sting out of "We regret to inform you..." topping a decision letter. Applicants, how have you fared in the admissions race? Were you rejected or waitlisted at a school you considered a safety? Did you score admission at your first-choice school? Are any of you still waiting to learn your higher education fates? Have you already sent in a deposit or are you still securing enough financial aid to pay for school?

by Emily

By now you've probably been told at least once to be careful what information you put online.  A survey conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling serves as a reminder of just how many people might be viewing your online presence, and just how high the stakes can be.

According to results published in Inside Higher Education, 26 percent of colleges admit to running students' names through search engines, while 21 percent use social networking sites, such as Facebook.  While this is far from everyone, it's still a significant portion of schools, and if you apply to even four or five, there's a chance that at least one of those schools has a policy of checking up on at least some prospective students.

This doesn't mean you need to agonize over the psychological implications of every single status update, though.  Schools that report viewing students' online profiles do so primarily in the context of reviewing candidates for prestigious scholarship awards or highly competitive degree programs, mostly to make sure nothing potentially embarrassing to the program surfaces when your name is announced.  Setting debates over privacy and potential discrimination aside for a moment, this information should give you an idea of what you should and should not post, and why.

If you're applying for scholarships or your college search is skewing towards the prestigious and highly competitive, you may want to have a chat with your friends about any incriminating photos they've tagged you in.  Similarly, you may want to avoid publishing any highly offensive or objectionable content on anything that appears high in a list of search results for your name.  All of this is good practice for life, since admission officers are hardly the only people who may think to look into your online life before offering you something you want.  Scholarship providers, internship programs, and future employers may all check out this information.

So before starting your scholarship search or writing your college application essays, do a search for your name and see what comes up.  If it's something that may embarrass you or hurt your chances of winning scholarships or gaining admission to your dream school, consider deleting it.  Maintaining a professional image online is going to benefit you in both the short and long term.

As we mentioned last month, financial aid application deadlines are fast approaching for the coming fall.  While students technically have until June 30, 2010 to complete a FAFSA on the Web for the 2009-2010 school year, state aid deadlines happen much sooner with some occurring as early as February--this February.  So if you're waiting to do your taxes first or just generally procrastinating on your application, check the deadlines below to make sure you don't miss out on state or campus-based aid programs. 

 
• Alabama:   Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Alaska:  April 15, 2009
 
• American Samoa:  Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Arizona:  March 1, 2009
 
• Arkansas: 
   
  • For Academic Challenge - June 1, 2009
   
  • For Workforce Grant - check with your financial aid administrator
   
  • For Higher Education Opportunity Grant - June 1, 2009 (fall term); November 1, 2009 (spring term)
   
   
 
• California: 
   
  • For initial awards - March 2, 2009
   
  • For additional community college awards - September 2, 2009 - date postmarked (additional forms may be required)
   
   
 
• Colorado: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Connecticut: Priority deadline February 15, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
 
• Delaware: April 15, 2009
 
• District of Columbia: June 30, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
 
• Federated States of Micronesia: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Florida: May 15, 2009 - date processed
 
• Georgia: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Guam: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Hawaii: Check with you financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Idaho:  Opportunity Grant - Priority deadline March 1, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
 
• Illinois: 
   
  • First-time applicants - September 30, 2009
   
  • Continuing applicants - Priority deadline August 15, 2009
   
   
 
• Indiana: March 10, 2009
 
• Iowa: July 1, 2009
 
• Kansas: Priority deadline April 1, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
 
• Kentucky: Priority deadline March 15, 2009
 
• Louisiana: July 1, 2009
 
• Maine: May 1, 2009
 
• Marshall Islands: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Maryland: March 1, 2009
 
• Massachusetts: Priority deadline May 1, 2009
 
• Michigan: March 1, 2009
 
• Minnesota: 30 days after term starts
 
• Mississippi: 
   
  • MTAG and MESG Grants - September 15, 2009
   
  • HELP Scholarship - March 31, 2009
   
   
 
• Missouri: April 1, 2009
 
• Montana: Priority deadline March 1, 2009
 
• Nebraska: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Nevada: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• New Hampshire: May 1, 2009
 
• New Jersey: 
   
  • June 1, 2009 if you received a Tuition Aid Grant in 2008-2009
   
  • All other applications - October 1, 2009, for fall and spring terms;
   
  • March 1, 2010, for spring term only
   
   
 
• New Mexico: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• New York: May 1, 2010 (additional forms may be required)
 
• North Carolina: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• North Dakota: March 15, 2009
 
• Northern Mariana Islands: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Ohio: October 1, 2009
 
• Oklahoma: Priority deadline April 15, 2009 for best consideration
 
• Oregon: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Palau: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Pennsylvania: 
   
  • All 2008-2009 State Grant recipients and all non-2008-2009 State Grant recipients in degree programs - May 1, 2009
   
  • All other applicants - August 1, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
   
   
 
• Puerto Rico: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Rhode Island: Priority deadline March 1, 2009
 
• South Carolina: Tuition Grants - June 30, 2009
 
• South Dakota: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Tennessee: 
   
  • For State Grant - Priority deadline March 1, 2009
   
  • For State Lottery - September 1, 2009
   
   
 
• Texas: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• U.S. Virgin Islands: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Utah: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Vermont: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Virginia: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 
• Washington: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• West Virginia: Priority deadline March 1, 2009 (additional forms may be required)
 
• Wisconsin: Check with your financial aid administrator
 
• Wyoming: Check with your financial aid administrator (additional forms may be required)
 

by Agnes Jasinski

For some of you, next fall will be a fresh start on a new campus, whether you’re transferring from a community college to complete a bachelor’s degree, or whether you were unhappy at your four-year university and needed a change of scenery. You’re not alone. The transfer experience is a reality for about one-third of all students who go to college, according to a report issued this week by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) on the transfer admissions process.

The study, which used data from the 2006 NACAC’s annual  Admission Trends Survey and pieces of a dissertation project from Michigan State University, looked at not only the number of college students who transfer schools but what transfer students can expect to be judged on when they apply to new schools, an important piece of information for students worried about how their applications will be perceived by admissions officials. Overall, about 64 percent of all transfer applicants are admitted to their intended colleges; about 69 percent of all first-time applicants are admitted.

According to the study, your academic achievements from high school become much less important than what you’ve done so far at the college you’re currently at. (Both public and private institutions overwhelmingly agreed on this point, according to the study.) College-level GPAs were ranked as the most important thing schools look at when they receive applications from potential transfer students. Grades in transferable courses are also ranked high in terms of what college officials look for. Private colleges are much more likely than public institutions to pay attention to things personal essays, recommendations and interviews. Larger, public institutions viewed the following more positively than private colleges: having 60 or more hours of transferable credit, being more than 25 years old, and planning to enroll part-time.

As far as what else admissions officials considered fairly important on a transfer applicant’s file, the results were a mixed bag:

• Scores on standardized tests are important to 3.8 percent of public and 8.5 percent of private schools.
• The quality of prior post-secondary institutions is important to 7.4 percent of public and 13.2 percent of private schools. (The study does not describe how “quality” is judged.)
• A student’s ability to pay is considered by 3.4 percent of private schools. (This was a non-issue for public institutions surveyed for this study.)
• Student interviews were considered by 11.1 percent of private schools. (This was a non-issue for public institutions surveyed for this study.)
• Race/ethnicity was important to 2.4 percent of public and 2.6 percent of private schools.
• Essays and writing samples were important to 6.1 percent of public and 25.5 percent of private schools.

by Suada Kolovic

Sure, we’ve discussed the skyrocketing cost of college tuition on a daily basis and considering every other add-on you’ll have to endure when it comes to paying for college – room and board, books and supplies – having to pay an outrageous application fee is downright cruel.

According to a U.S. News report, the average application fee to apply to colleges is $38.44 and $46.78 at universities, which is a steal compared to the fees charged by the institutions listed below. Of the 1,474 undergraduate programs that supplied application fee data, only 39 claimed to have no fee. And for those schools that did have fees, many waived them for students with financial need or for those who applied online, U.S. News also reported. Check out the list below and share your thoughts. Let us know if these hefty fees will ultimately decide where you’ll apply.

by Emily

Want to get into college but don't have the best grades?  Consider making friends with some prominent politicians, then apply in Illinois.

Earlier this month, The Chicago Tribune revealed the existence of a special admissions list at the University of Illinois main campus that consisted of politically connected applicants.  Now, records from University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University have been subpoenaed in the ongoing federal investigation of corruption charges against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  Investigators want to determine whether Blagojevich recommended candidates for admission into state colleges in exchange for money or favors.

While going for the wow factor of a big name is an understandable strategy when it comes to letters of recommendation, it looks like more may have been going on with some applications in Illinois. There are concerns that some well-connected applicants received extreme advantages in admissions, in some cases getting in seemingly solely based on who they knew, even over the objections of the admissions officials reviewing their college applications.  The University of Illinois has suspended its special admission list and claimed to have not followed practices out of line with what other colleges do in considering applications.

The practice of relying on political connections in the college application process is not unique to Illinois, but in light of recent scandals in the state, it is garnering a lot of attention.  Using clout to get into college is still a  highly contentious practice in any case, whether the applicant is connected to university officials or state government figures.  Hopefully, this scandal will influence colleges to think twice before overlooking merit in favor of connections in future admissions decisions.

by Agnes Jasinski

An obvious increase in the number of students who submitted plagiarized essays as part of their applications to Pennsylvania State University’s business school this year has forced the college to go public about their use of plagiarism detection software.

An article in Inside Higher Ed today described how admissions officials at the college discovered they may have a problem, and how bold students have been getting when it comes to turning in essays lifted from Internet sites and elsewhere. Essay answers on the topic of “principled leadership” as part of the college’s M.B.A. program application led admissions officials to discover at least 30 essays that “borrowed” from outside sources without the proper attribution. According to the article, a number of students plagiarized the same article on the term, lifted from a business school association’s newsletter.

In the article, the school’s admissions director says students have surprisingly only gotten worse at plagiarizing. One year, she said she looked over an application that included an essay lifted in its entirety from another source. The applicant didn’t even change fonts before sending in their essay.

According to Inside Higher Ed, a number of schools across the country already use software to detect plagiarism when evaluating students’ college applications. (The article mentions that it’s typically used by graduate and professional schools that often have multiple essay requirements.) But Penn State is the first to be so vocal about it. Faking one’s way into college has been a popular topic lately, thanks to the efforts of former Ivy League student Adam Wheeler, who faked his way into Harvard University and was able to nearly transfer to Stanford University before his deception was finally discovered.

Plagiarism software is more commonly used in the classroom by professors and instructors on high school and college campuses. Being found out typically means at least a failing grade on an assignment, and depending on the school’s policy, may mean expulsion as well. So, there’s only one way to avoid getting yourself into trouble. Don’t do it, even if you’re struggling in an essay-heavy course. Don’t try buying term papers online, either, as that won’t keep you from being detected by the software. (You didn’t think you were the first one to use that paper, did you?) If you’re concerned about attributions or references, talk to your instructor about properly citing sources. And if you need help on where to start with your application essay, check out our tips on how to do so.

by Alexis Mattera

Once you’ve graduated from college, what do you do with the pages upon pages of writing assignments you completed during your tenure? You could go green and recycle them, I suppose…or you could try to make some green off of them, like the subject of our next story.

Having been there and done that once himself (or herself), one Georgetown alum knows that writing essays for admissions, scholarships and college classes takes a lot of time – time frazzled students just don’t have – and is attempting to profit from that burden by selling their own admissions essay, multiple class papers and a graduate school scholarship essay on eBay via the handle and alzheimers_caregiver. Georgetown’s own Vox Populi reported that while there are currently no bids on the items, the eventual winner (and I use that term very loosely here) will be e-mailed the materials and is free to edit the pieces as they see fit before turning them in.

Yes, we know the writing that goes into getting admitted to and succeeding in college is no small amount (just ask Harvard grad Natalie Portman) but if you’re truly committed to making the most of your college experience, crafting a few thousand words into an original essay isn’t going to kill you. Passing someone else’s work off as your own won’t either…but it could make your time at Big State U or Fancy Private College a lot shorter than you anticipated. An equally terrible but less-academically-poisonous bet? Buying alzheimers_caregiver’s other offering, a VHS copy of Look Who’s Talking Now.