As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I plan to spend this week commenting on different services available to you as you move through the college admissions process, with a special focus on how to connect to the most useful tools out there that are either A) free, or B) already being paid for through your school tuition. I encourage you to post your own "favorite things" in the comments sections of these posts, both to share your own experiences and to ask questions of me and other families.
Today, I'll talk about the heart of the college admission process: the application itself.
APPLICATION MATERIALS
In the category of "things you already pay for", there's me. I'll be the one handling your transcript, counselor recommendation letter, teacher recommendation letter, mid-year report, and final report from the school. Your family already pays for this service, and I'm happy to do it.
For your information, all materials are tracked through a spreadsheet I back up online at the end of every day, through return receipt postcards I send with all materials, and with follow-up phone calls between me and the schools to which you'll apply. Please know that any time a college says that they don't have something and we're certain that they do have it, I'm glad to call and stay on hold for more than an hour until we get things sorted out. (There's a reason that I now know U of H's holding music by heart.) I keep redundant records of everything I send and a record of when it went and who signed for it on the college's end, so your materials and information are well tracked and well protected. If this sounds a little over-the-top, please know that it's indicative of how seriously I take this process. Each of you has worked hard in high school and you'll work hard on your applications, and it's important to me that all of your materials make it to their intended destinations in the best form possible. It's all part of my commitment to advocacy for each of you.
APPLICATION ADVICE
This is the real heart of the article I posted about yesterday. As many of you know, I have two and a half hours of office hours every day, and I'm glad to meet with you and your families at any time. I also do workshops on a nearly monthly basis, and I cover topics including financial aid, college visits, the application process, and issues and trends in college admissions. I'm open to doing more workshops if the demand is there, and I also do a big college night for ninth through eleventh grade parents in early October. There's a senior parents' night during the first week of school, and I have my annual senior application workshop coming up in August. I also do tons of work with seniors as they write and edit their essays, and I'm glad to have people submit their applications from my computer. My office is also a home base for students during the day when they need to call colleges regarding parts of their applications.
In addition to these services, I've built the College Counseling web portal in Edline, I've created this blog, and I'm always available via phone and email for your questions. As always, I encourage you to take advantage of my time and tools as much as possible. I'm here for you, and I'm glad to help.
While that's a lot of resources, some families might choose to get more information outside my resources. My favorite resources out there are from non-profits that give detailed, nuanced information about colleges and the college admissions process. My favorite website is http://www.collegeboard.com, because its search tools are powerful and can be customized via a connection to your past PSAT scores. I adore their college search tools and their information on choosing majors and careers. I also love big books that offer profiles of colleges. I think there's only one good way to list colleges: alphabetically. Books like these offer deep insights into what different colleges have to offer and what it takes to get in, so I find these books are great to have around and peruse.
I also have two favorite books that I've recommended to you. The first is Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope, which I've referred to elsewhere on the blog as a resource for learning about the landscape and priorities of a fit-centered college admissions process. CTCL is a book that spotlights forty outstanding schools around the United States that offer an outstanding undergraduate education. Many will be completely new to you, and there's a lesson in that: you may not have heard yet of the school that will be perfect for you, and there are a lot of great places out there beyond the schools you hear about frequently in the news or in the BCS standings.
The other is Less Stress, More Success, by Marilee Jones, the former director of admissions at MIT. It's a great book about how to construct a college search whose focus is all about fit. Yes, college admission is more competitive than ever, but that fact doesn't have to bog you down or guide you as you move through it. It's possible to focus on the more important things about college (size, campus culture, educational offerings, student life, career placement, graduate placement) rather than getting preoccupied with statistics and rankings.
The two sources I caution you against most are lists of colleges (like the US News and World Report) and college admission message boards. Lists are frustrating because they never tell the whole story. For example, in the 2009 rankings, UT is ranked 47th among "National Universities" [which isn't even a real thing, outside of the US News and World Report], while Texas A&M in College Station is ranked 64th. But what does that mean? What is it that makes UT 17 units "above" A&M? There are big differences between those schools that 17 units can't adequately describe; one is urban, the other more rural. One has a vet school, the other doesn't. One has an outstanding journalism school; the other is exceptionally strong in business and engineering. There's so much more to knowing about schools than some arbitrary ranking, so don't ever let a ranking be the only tool you use to measure a school. There's always more to the story.
Finally, I can't overstate how much I HATE college admissions message boards. There are a couple of particularly offensive ones out there, and I can't caution you enough against them. Remember, the internet is a large and anonymous place, so there's nothing to stop someone from going on to the Harvard Class of 2014 message board and posting that her fictional daughter has a 2400 on the SAT, 5's on 14 AP tests, and a Nobel Peace Prize. The other people on those message boards are NOT NECESSARILY TELLING THE TRUTH, so they're 1) not a reliable source of information, and 2) just a quick way to psych yourself out. Sadly, there are people out there who enjoy intimidating others, and my experience is that such characters tend to troll such message boards with alarming frequency. Just stay away from these people. They're no fun.
In the end, please know that no one source--not even me--is the final word on the landscape of applying to college. I encourage you to check out lots of sources as you search for information on college admissions. There's a lot to know about this process, and every source you find is going to give you just one of its many dimensions.
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