"That's why I chose Yale!"

This week, Yale University posted a new recruiting video. It's a little over-the-top, but I kind of can't help but like it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

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From The Choice Blog: More College Tours

There's a fun post on NYT's "The Choice" blog today about another high school counselor's summer college tour. This tour was unique for its vehicle: a touring bike à la the Tour de France. Suddenly the 1997 Chevy Blazer I borrowed from my aunt and uncle in New England seems a lot less stylish.

You can read the post on "The Choice" here. This is a pretty neat idea for a college tour, I think: like my long drives through the wilds of Vermont and Western Mass, taking a bike tour is a great way to get an intimate sense of a place. The counselors' tour in this post took counselors from across the country to several of the best schools in the Mid-Atlantic region, and it sounds like they covered a remarkable amount of ground. If you take anything from this article, I hope it's a quick laugh and a quick Google search for the schools he mentions. Several--especially Franklin and Marshall, Skidmore, and St John's College--are really special places, and I'd love to get them on your radar.Continue Reading...

Interesting Article: College Cost Cuts

As I was traveling over the last two weeks, one question I asked of each admissions rep and student I met was the following: How has student life changed on campus as a result of the economic downturn? I got a wide variety of answers. Some schools were putting construction projects on hold; others were keeping only one cafeteria open on the weekends rather than two. In almost every case, though, the message was clear: colleges across the country are looking to become leaner and more efficient without sacrificing any part of the student experience. In most cases, changes have come that the students won't notice at all.

There's an article in today's New York Times that speaks to this point. Read it here: For Colleges, Small Cuts Add Up to Big SavingsContinue Reading...

Links for the day

There are some interesting stories going today as we move toward the release of the Ivy League's decisions today at 5 PM EST. Here are some links to distract you until that time.

First, there's a new college admissions blog, The Choice, over at the New York Times. Though I don't quite understand why they waited to start it until the end of March (the drama of decision day? an emphasis on the post-waiting days of April?), it's pretty compelling thus far. Check it out here: The Choice Blog


Additionally, NYT had an article yesterday about the growing trend of need-aware admissions. This means that some schools are taking a family's financial need into the equation as they admit students--and not in the way you might expect. That is, as college endowments suffer in the economic downturn, colleges are choosing to admit students who can afford to pay tuition out of pocket. This is a sea change in many ways, not the least of which speaks to a middle-class family's relationship to the FAFSA (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). In the past, many families have told me that they didn't want to fill out the FAFSA because they didn't think they'd qualify for any aid and didn't see any point in doing so. However, if this trend continues and colleges have less money available in the financial aid budget, it may be advantageous to demonstrate that your family does not have large demonstrated financial need. It's unlikely that this would make or break an admission decision, but it certainly might not hurt. NYT: Paying in full may be the ticket into collegeContinue Reading...