That is the question.
COVID impacted (and continues to impact) everyone on the planet to some extent. We have one hard and fast rule in the essay writing for application process: if anyone can say it, it isn't the right thing to say. So for the vast majority of us, we should NOT write about COVID in our applications (and no one should write about it in the essay itself). The Common App and Coalition App both have places dedicated for students to write about this topic if they need to. The question is, do they need to? To answer that question I have found several resources. Tulane University's blog always has amazing topics and this is no exception. Funny, but straight to the point, they give good examples of when and when not to write about this pandemic. But more importantly, they talk about how to write about it. The College Essay Guy also has a tremendous resource for exploring this. It is what he does, teaches you how to write. However, as much as I like Ethan's work, I am leaning toward being more conservative, and will be advising more along the lines of Tulane's advice for students.
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Despite the constant and public push for diversity, it remains blatantly clear that if you want to attend some of the most highly selective schools in the nation, you better be born under a sign, specifically, you better be born to a parent who went for undergraduate to the same institution. Legacies have an advantage, plain and simple. Perhaps a bit hypocritical, these advantages have grown proportionally with the increased “commitment” to diversity. For the Class of 2000, admit rates of legacies and athletes were four times higher than their peers. For the Class of 2017, the advantage was nine times.
Schools provide an advantage to athletes, and the sports in which elite colleges and universities excel are Varsity Blues “rich sports” i.e., water polo, rowing, sailing, squash and other sundry country club pursuits. As The Harvard Crimson reported recently, 43 percent of white admits to Harvard are legacies, athletes or children of faculty and donors; in the Class of 2022 alone, 36 percent are legacies. Additionally, money talks. Many private schools rely heavily on donors and/or alumni to fund their operations. It is no surprise that some school may give significant consideration to applicants of significant donors. The Varsity Blues scandal should be clear indication of the length people will go to buy their way in. And that is not to say that all financial gifts are illegal or shady - they aren't. However, how many of us can be 10 million dollar donors? But they are out there and they get seats. This is not the place to discuss the other factors that weigh into admissions decisions, namely underrepresented populations (ex., countries and states with few current students or applicants, race, gender, and sexual orientation diversity), choice of major, rewarding local applicants, etc. This post was originally started to make the point that students who have good grades, good test scores, and good extracurricular experiences - once the golden ticket to admission - are now struggling to be competitive at highly selective schools. However, things changed in the Spring of 2020, and now we are probably further away from understanding how decisions will be made than we have been in the last decade. With the addition of COVID-19 wrecking havoc on universities around the world, we expect to see more changes. With literally hundreds of schools in the US announcing that they would employ test optional polices (to some degree) for at least a year to come, it raises the question of how admissions will be considered. Will schools revolutionize their use of holistic admissions or will special categories like those above dominate admissions for years to come? Resumes have their place in college admissions. What, where, and when is not always clear. At times, they seem unnecessary; after all, the same information is often available on the Common App. Some schools will ask for a resume, and students are left scrambling, trying to piece together a document. What to add? You are, after all, a student, and you may not have a lot of work experience or other activities to speak about.
The University of Richmond has put together a nice article giving students tips about how to best construct the resume. The University of Toronto also provides some professional tips. Start yours, update it often, and avoid the rush. ![]() Community colleges get a bad rep from too many people. These schools are thought to be last ditch options or for people who couldn't cut it at a 4-year institution. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only do they provide a fine educational experience, they might be superior in several ways to direct entry to a university. One such reason is that it allows a student to erase their high school - good grades and credits earned in college could be all a student needs to apply, where as bumps in high school or standardized testing may limit their options out of high school. Another reason is time - time to take courses and mature, making the ultimate destination of the student one that is better thought out than those selected with a year left of high school. The last, and most significant, is cost. Tuition can cost $40,000-$50,000 per year at some schools. At a community college, you can go for $7500 for the year in the Bay Area of California!! My favorite community college system is that of Foothill and De Anza. It is consistently ranked #1 and #2 for transfer success among all community colleges in California. More international students transfer into the University of California system from here than anywhere else. If you are looking for guaranteed transfer, great resources, an excellent location, and a large number of international students at a fraction of the price of other schools, look no further. Foothill and De Anza transfer numbers to the University of California Campuses for Fall 2018 are below: List of transfer schools for Foothill and De Anza Straight from their website: Top 10 Reasons to Study at Foothill + De Anza!
It's where you finish, not where you start, that matters. What do you want your last diploma to say??? It's lunchtime and, if like me, you hear sandwich, a vision of delicious whole-grain bread, juicy meat, gooey cheese and a spicy mustard has invaded your thoughts. But then I realize I am at work, nothing like that will be served today, and that this term actually refers to a different, yet no less appetizing, option to some students.
In the middle of taking courses, students can undergo a placement experience in their field. This decision obviously has many benefits, from developing skills to connecting with potential employers. Of course, sandwich isn't for everyone, and lots of discussion and thought should be had before applying to such a course. In the seemingly never-ending discussion of "hidden" factors of admission, we find ourselves circling back on legacies, or applicants who are children of alumni. Just when the frustrations of all this secretive nonsense appears to hit its max, we get thrown another curveball. Some schools are abandoning legacies as part of their admissions consideration; others are pulling in record numbers. Who even counts as a legacy these days?
Check out this Bloomberg article. The results may surprise you. Baylor and Notre Dame admit more legacies than Harvard or Yale. And just when you wrap your head around that, check out The Atlantic for a review of John's Hopkins efforts to drop legacies from admission criteria. We hear a lot about nationalism these days. Please take a look at this article from The Atlantic reminding us that there is more and more reasons these days to value what international students bring to the table at US universities.
The Anti-Defamation League award Sacha Baron Cohen this year. In his acceptance speech, he attacks social media moguls for their blatant tolerance of hate groups and criminals. Powerful words. Everyone should watch this and think about what is really happening in the world. Reposting on trends on Early Decision as well as a nice article to outline the realities behind it.
Some interesting things are happening in the world of early admissions. Inside Higher Education - Early Admit Rates Boston College Changes Again Early Decision: No-Brainer or Big Mistake? |
AuthorOlder blog posts were for the UCLA Ext course "Using the Internet for College Counseling" Archives
February 2023
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