When the pandemic hit and schools closed down, I not only missed out on working directly with my students, but I also lost the chance to meet with many college reps where I learn a lot about schools, programs and trends in admissions. Thankfully, many schools took to the web to share info about their school in the way of interviews, virtual sessions, and campus tours. I attend sessions with 100+ people on a call and I had more than one with 2 students on a call joined by 4 admissions people. Some schools were dynamic and insightful, including voices from several stakeholders while others could not appear less interested in getting your application. In fact, it is the highly selective schools who were the least helpful. Only a couple of them (example: Duke, Dartmouth) had virtual information sessions and I found them very boring and uncreative. Harvard and UPenn had virtual tours but no sessions. And more than a few "elite" programs had nothing at all - literally nothing. What does that tell you? They are basically saying, "We don't have to do anything special when you can't come to us because you will still apply anyway." And they are right. I wish we could change that.
The experiences have varied widely, but here are some of my impressions. Google and Microsoft are among the top employers of graduates of Case Western Reserve University. But where is CWRU? California? No, Cleveland, Ohio. I recently attended a session with a small liberal arts college in Ohio where four of their comp sci grads were employed by Google. Four! For a school and major that size, this must be a very high proportion. The next time someone tells me you have to go to Berkeley to get a job in Silicon Valley, I am just going to smirk. Average class size under 20. Student to teacher ratio under 15:1. Think these are unique? They aren't. Every liberal arts school I listened to could boast this. Pretty much no public school is going to meet these standards. But what does that mean? Some schools merely flashed the statistic on a slide and moved on. This tells me nothing about the student experience. I was much more interested in the schools that talked about how that is helpful for you, the student. Some programs cited 1-to-1 meetings with professors in their freshman year. Others had faculty mentors from the first or second semester. Don't be fooled by stats - push to see what the stat actually means from a student experience standpoint. Retention rate 90%+ when national average is 65%. What does this really mean? What are the reasons people my not continue at a school? I wager this has much more to do with personal and familial circumstances than it does with anything happening at a particular school. My advice in the search process is to not consider certain statistics like these unless you can really justify what that means for you and why it is important. 66, 75, 90, and even 100% of students study abroad at some of these liberal arts schools. The Ivy League ranges from 20% on down to 4% with an average of 10%. What does it say about a school that encourages (or requires) students to take their learning on the road? I believe the opportunity to study abroad is essential; it allows students to learn from others in a new place in our world, be challenged in ways they have not been, and to experience cultures previously unknown to them. Some schools give priority admissions and scholarships to students who want to stay involved in Fine Arts. Not major in them. Just stay involved in them at college. Schools will talk all about service, athletics, performances. Top schools don't talk about this because people that go there give up all of their exploratory options to stay in the competitive hunt. It is refreshing that there are schools that are sending the message to high school students that instead of skipping out on activities like art, theater, and music to focus on test prep, you will not only be recognized for your passions, but rewarded for them. A lot of questions were asked, some good, most bad. In fact, many times the questions were asked by parents. Here are a few of my favorites:
Whether or not a school has an ultimate Frisbee team apparently is important to many students because it was asked a lot. Also asked often were very poorly worded questions like #2 and #3 above. How is a rep supposed to answer that? When you ask questions of a rep, ask them something that they can actually provide examples on. And never ask them questions like bullet points 4 and 5 above. These can be found online in barely more time than it takes to ask the question. If you do not do your research, it shows. And finally, if you not only spell "COVID" wrong but also put the wrong year, maybe college isn't for you. I even got waitlisted at UPenn for a financial aid talk. So it can happen to all of us! However, I do have several major takeaways in addition to the points made above. First, I have never been more convinced that smaller liberal arts schools have just as much, if not more to offer than the big name schools, privet elite or large public research university. Second, I reinforced my belief that every school has something amazing to offer. If you never talk to them, how will you know if it isn't right for you? I am excited about virtual sessions. The playing field for those of us who cannot travel to visit schools has been leveled. I hope everyone out there takes advantage of the new way of sharing information.
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AuthorOlder blog posts were for the UCLA Ext course "Using the Internet for College Counseling" Archives
February 2023
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