The College Process, Not “The Hunger Games”: Networking with Other Families

As a college consultant,  I am often surprised to learn that most families shoulder the stressful, confusing college process in isolation from an obvious, free, rich resource to which they have access: other families. This “go it alone” modus operandi may stem from:  a lack of connection with other families in the teen’s high school; an attempt to protect family privacy by taking a “close-to-the-vest” approach; a secretive strategy rooted in competitive, “zero-sum-game” assumptions; or simply a lack of understanding about how helpful other families can be as a resource. Let me discuss each of these causes in turn.

1. Lack of connection. There are many reasons your family could feel disconnected from other families in your student’s high school. You could be newcomers from a different town, state or country. Your teen may be attending a regional public or private high school in a different town; current classmates are not the neighborhood kids with whom your son or daughter grew up. If your family is comprised of two working parents or a single parent, with long commutes or heavy travel, there may have been no time for involvement with parent-teacher organizations or your kid’s extracurricular activities over the years. Maybe you have a shy temperament and are not outgoing with other parents. Or maybe you see your teen’s high school as his or her world, and you do not feel it is appropriate for you to become overly involved. Perhaps your independent–or rebellious–adolescent does not make you feel welcome.

All these reasons are understandable, but I  encourage you to reach out to other parents as much as your situation allows, as early in your student’s high school career as possible. You will probably find that other parents in the same life stage as yourself can be a source of rich, satisfying friendship for you, which may last even after your adolescent has gone to college. We all need friends, to share rites of passage and all the ups and downs of life.

Having parental cohorts in your teen’s class can keep you “in the know” about so many things: teachers to avoid for Spanish or Pre-Calculus next year; parties to forbid your son to attend because the parents are away and alcohol will definitely be present; or “mean girl” dynamics that may be stressing out your daughter but she cannot tell you about it. I am not talking about interfering in your teen’s life; I am referring to doing the “face time” with parents in your high school community to keep you informed about the world in which your adolescent is growing up. And being connected with parents will help keep you on top of the college application process as well.

2. Keeping “close-to-the-vest.” I understand why families do this. Sometimes it is appropriate, especially in the winter of senior year, when college acceptance stress can be so contagious and you want to protect your child by donning “blinders” to “run one’s own race.” If you have cultivated genuine friendships throughout the high school years, however, you can reach out to at least a few other families for mutual sharing of information and support. This approach is different than blabbing about your child’s applications and play-by-play results to every parent you meet. So keep a low profile if you desire, but try not to isolate yourself and your child from families you consider real friends.

3. Secretive competition. This is utter nonsense. As a college applicant, is your child a competitor? Yes, in a broad sense. If your child wants to get into, say, Columbia University, he or she is competing with some 25,000 applicants from all over the globe, hoping to be one of the lucky ten percent admitted. But your kid is not competing with everyone in your high school.

Ah, you say, but there are ten high-performing students in my kid’s class who have announced that they will apply Early Decision to Columbia this fall (some even wearing T-shirts from their campus visit). Columbia cannot possibly take all ten, so my kid is actually competing directly with his classmates, head to head. True enough. But let’s break that down a little. Your guidance department does not like to be overwhelmed with “ED” applications, and they do not want their credibility tarnished with Ivy admissions committees by sending them unqualified “ED” applicants. Guidance counselors from rigorous independent high schools might actually redirect unqualified Columbia “ED” applicants to institutions more appropriate for their credentials. In our hypothetical story, let’s say a few applicants decide, for whatever reason, to apply somewhere else Early Decision instead.

Let us say that by the time the November First deadline rolls around, there are only five Columbia “ED” applicants left. So, is your child competing directly with those kids mano-a-mano? Yes and no. This is not The Hunger Games.  It is certainly not personal, even though it might sometimes feel that way. Keeping your application strategy “secret,” as though a bona fide “back door” truly existed, will produce an ulcer…  but not necessarily a fat letter from Columbia.

In our hypothetical story, perhaps one of these five applicants has such perfect academic credentials that there is no way your teenager could be preferred on a pure merit basis. All your child can do is achieve to the best of his or her own ability. It gets more complicated if one of the five is a legacy, an underrepresented minority, a “development admit,” a boy, or a champion athlete. These are factors which may or may not enter the picture at any given institution, and over which an individual applicant has no control. These factors certainly cannot be changed by showing a secretive, coy, petty, jaded, cut-throat attitude. No matter what you may personally feel about institutional admissions policies, explicit or inferred, I suggest modeling good sportsmanship for your teen in the college process. PS, if your child does not get into his or her “ED” dream school, do not lose heart: there are over 2600 four year higher education institutions in the US.

4. Lack of understanding of how families can help each other in the college process. Ninety-nine percent of the time, your student is not competing directly “against” his or her best friend (if you choose to view it that way). So you have nothing to lose, and certainly much to give and gain, by collaborating with other parents who are going through the process or have already successfully navigated it with an older child. Networking with other parents can dial down the stress, if you connect with parents who have wise, balanced perspectives, rather than misguided, overly wired parents who infect you with their own high-strung anxiety. 

Consider the following ways in which you can help, or be helped by, another parent in the college process:

• Give or solicit feedback on campus visits, or even travel to a college together

• Become a “connector” between a family who is interested in a given college and another family you know whose child has attended that college

• Become a “connector” between a family whose child is interested in a given career field and a parent you know in that field (or a family whose older child is pursuing that field)

• Exchange information on college resources (local tutors, college consultants, financial aid workshops, books and websites)

Making such supportive networking gestures is more likely to help your child than it is to somehow put your child at a (perceived) competitive disadvantage.  It will also help another young person find his or her way, and whoever said we were put on earth to help only our own children? Even though I get paid for what I do, I consider my college guidance work  “paying it forward” in gratitude to adults who helped me when I was an adolescent; I am a believer in the old adage that “every man is every child’s father.”

Modeling a collaborative attitude is a precious gift to offer your child as he or she goes forth into a world that can easily be perceived as dog-eat-dog. No wonder The Hunger Games film resonated for our teens; they certainly want to succeed, but they also want to retain noble, compassionate qualities. The character Peeta, “struggling with how to maintain his identity…his purity of self,” makes a declaration that I believe rings true for idealistic adolescents: “I keep wishing I could think of a way…. to show… they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.”

Networking with other parents in the college process is just one more way of demonstrating that being supportive of others is a way to achieve in life, while still retaining one’s caring ideals.

Read Full Post »

Off to College: How to Choose Your Freshman Dorm–and Roommate

Soon after families of high school seniors send in the enrollment deposit for the chosen college, a packet will appear in the mail with information on freshman housing and questionnaires that need to be returned with indication of preferences.  Most information can also be accessed earlier on the college website, either publicly or through an “accepted student” portal. Your student should also get the scoop from the college’s Facebook admitted student page. After the May 1 enrollment deadline, residential options are often chosen on a first come, first serve basis, so it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the alternatives as early as possible.

What housing choices does a freshman have at your chosen college, and how does one go about deciding? What are the relevant factors your teen should be considering?

1. Location. Consider the location of each dorm option on the campus, and how that location may impact your freshman’s daily life (i.e., getting to and from classes, need for a shuttle bus, proximity to the library and dining hall, safety at night). Most colleges offer freshman dorms in the same proximity (often built around a courtyard, lawn or  “quad”), creating spontaneous social opportunities for the new students to get to know each other.

2. Physical Features. The housing website will actually show dorm floor plans, so take a look. Does your student want a single, double or even a triple? A double is usually the most popular option, since most freshmen prefer to have a “buddy” to help them get oriented, even if they don’t end up being best friends with their roommate long term. Some residence halls use a “suite” concept, which is nice, because it allows a freshman to interact daily with more students, offering great “bonding” opportunities. What are the sizes of the rooms? Is there a common room, or lounge, on every floor? What furnishing is included in each room?

Age of the building is also a consideration. Older dorms may lack modern amenities, such as air conditioning. On the other hand, sometimes older residence halls may offer architectural character, larger rooms and closet space, or even a sink in the room.

3. Residential Colleges and Academic-Themed Housing. The original concept of a residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a relationship with the overall university. Prominent models for residential colleges are the colleges of the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in the UK and the institutions based on them in the US, including Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton, U Penn, Rice , Wash U in St. Louis, U Miami, U Michigan,  U Virginia, Middlebury, and Northwestern. For a full list, see CollegiateWay.org.

However, the term residential college is also used to describe a variety of other models, including housing with an academic or special interest theme, with some shared educational programming. For example, Bucknell University offers freshman housing with the following themes: Arts, Environmental, Global, Humanities, Languages & Culture, Social Justice, and Society & Technology. Freshmen choose a theme and pick a freshman seminar related to that theme. The students in that themed residence hall share activities and even go on trips together to promote bonding. Many colleges also offer shared housing for honors program students. For a list, see InsideCollege.com.

4. Lifestyle Housing. Most colleges today attempt to be sensitive to the different backgrounds, lifestyles, and value systems of their students by offering specialized housing options. Most schools offer a “wellness” or “substance-free” dorm. This approach not only gives substance-free students the freedom to live and study without the disruption caused by partying, but it allows them to connect with  students who share their preferences. Students who choose a healthy, substance-free lifestyle do not have to feel like they are a minority among college students; they will be able to see, right from the beginning, that there are many young people on campus who share their values.

Along the same lines, some colleges offer “quiet” dorms or at least “quiet” floors. What a concept! I wish they had thought of this when I was in college. For a list of colleges providing substance-free or quiet dorms, see InsideCollege.com.

Co-ed dorms, of course, are by far the norm. In fact, Catholic University‘s recent return to same-sex dorms has been met with predictable media backlash.  Many colleges offer gender-neutral housing, which means a student can room with a person of the opposite sex. Gender-neutral restrooms are also common. However, for privacy’s sake, many colleges do offer same-sex floors. Brown University, for example, offers same-sex floors within its co-ed dorms, with educational programming designed to help residents explore women’s and men’s issues through events focused on gender.

If your student has a physical disability that requires special consideration beyond the standard accommodations such as wheelchair access, I recommend that you contact your college housing office directly.

5. Roommate. Your college will typically send out a questionnaire that will not only capture your student’s dorm and room preferences, but your roommate preferences as well. Typical questions include smoking or non-smoking, early riser or night owl, quiet or noisy, Felix or Oscar, and so forth. Once your teen has been assigned a roommate, encourage contact before school starts, through email or Facebook, so both parties will have an idea of what to expect. Advance contact also provides a good opportunity to decide who brings what (i.e., TV, microwave-fridge, video game console, etc.).

It will be difficult to prevent all possible problems that might arise with a roommate, since beyond these basic questions there is quite a bit of randomness involved (or let’s call it serendipity). The freshman roommate situation is a great learning opportunity; it is probably the only random roommate selection your child will ever have to encounter, because afterward he or she will decide based on friendship. I myself had several roommate situations determined by computer selection; some became dear friends, others forgettable situational neighbors, but all were valuable learning experiences. If it’s a disaster, with your kid getting sexiled every night, or finding out the roommate is a nut job, a room change can certainly be arranged.

Relevant reading: Spark Notes: Dorm Life, About.com: Dorm Life 101, eHow: Choose Your Dorm, Crushable: How to Choose Your First Dorm Roommate, US News: How to Choose and Keep a College Roommate. Related posts: College Dorm Checklist: A Sneak Peek! and The College Transition Bible.

Read Full Post »

How to Decide on a College

Your high school senior will be receiving responses from most of his or her prospective colleges by the first of April, and the universal enrollment deadline is the first of May. After all the agony of completing applications and essays, and the excruciating anxiety of waiting, now the ball is in your teen’s court at last.

April carries a different kind of angst. How to decide?

I encourage you to turn to several of my posts for advice, empathy and support: Waiting for the “Fat Envelope“, Standing Out on the Waiting List,  Admitted Students Day: A Different Kind of College Visit, and Decision-Making 101. In this post, I offer three principles to keep in mind when making that final decision:

1. There is no “perfect” decision; compromise is part of life. There may have been a time, earlier in your son or daughter’s senior year, when he or she thought, “There is only ONE college for me!” Perhaps this all-or-nothing ideal has already faded, if your student was denied, deferred or waitlisted at an early notification or regular decision “dream school.” Your teen has probably become wiser and more realistic over the past few months. How nice that this painful process has resulted in enhanced maturity!

Compromise is part of good decision-making. Sometimes we can’t have everything we originally wanted, but that does not mean we can’t have anything. Hopefully, we can be resilient enough to de-invest in the original choice, process the disappointment, and redirect our energies toward another worthy option.

For example, just because the most beautiful girl in the senior class has turned you down for the prom does not mean you cannot persuade another desirable girl to go with you. And who knows, you may actually have more fun with that girl than with the original one, if you approach the situation with openness, flexibility and enthusiasm. This simple metaphor applies to getting into college, finding a job, a spouse, and many future life choices. Hopefully, it is a life lesson you yourself have successfully learned, and you will be able to guide your child in learning it.

2. The “wow” factor is something worth considering, but not everything. It is certainly desirable for the chosen college to offer a “wow” factor that gives you and your student a feeling that this long struggle has had a rewarding outcome. By “wow” factor, I mean your teen’s gut feeling that he or she can be really happy at this school, driven by the perceived “fit” from college visits.

Yes, the “wow” factor can even include jazzy features like being located in a “hot” city, offering academic prestige or a social caché that enables a kid to hold his head high among peers, and so forth. We’re all human, after all, and we don’t have to be so morally superior so as to pretend these things don’t count. It is okay for these elements to be a part of the “wow” factor, within reason, as long as they do not become more important than the student’s authentic belief that he or she will be happy and successful at the school.

So it’s desirable that the chosen college offers a “wow” factor. But just like any big-ticket, complex purchase, the buyer needs to look beyond that overall good feeling. For example, if you are buying a car, you probably want a “wow” factor, such as snazzy styling and speed, or prestigious, classic luxury. A car is more than transportation; let’s face it, nobody wants a boring, ho-hum automobile that offers no excitement.

But you also need to pay attention to attributes beyond the “wow” factor. Can you afford the car, or can you get financing that will be acceptable to you? Does the car offer the practical features you need, such as: four wheel drive if you live in a snowy, mountainous area; high safety ratings if it is for a first-time driver; large trunk if you will use it for family travel; or economical gas mileage if you have a long commute?

You and your student need to look beyond the “wow” factor for college, too. Affordability (now that financial packages are in) and numerous other dimensions all need to be analyzed now, with a much sharper pencil. You may be comparing two or more schools, and the one with the slightly higher “wow” factor may lose out once you have compared all the relevant factors in this complex decision.

Below is a checklist of the key factors to be considered, most of which you have examined before. These features need to be revisited again, however, because your teen has evolved over the past year. Your son or daughter’s perspective has changed, and priorities have most likely shifted.

• Affordability (family financial situation, need-based aid, merit scholarships, estimated future debt your child will carry under each school alteranative)

• Public or private university, or liberal arts college (visits may have shifted student’s preferences)

• Academic program (student’s likely major, changing academic interests, flexibility for further mind-changing)

• Extracurricular activities (student’s changing priorities)

• Size (visits may have shifted preferences)

• Urban, suburban or rural setting (visits may have shifted  preferences)

• Physical campus (visits may have shifted preferences)

• Social atmosphere (visits may have shifted preferences)

• Geographic region (visits may have shifted preferences)

• Distance from home (student’s tolerance for distance, transportation costs)

• Support services (for physical, learning or emotional challenges)

 

3. Remember, this is not the only important decision your adolescent will ever make.  The college choice is the first of many major, multi-factor, life decisions your son or daughter will make in the future; decision-making is a “lifetime sport.”

The beauty of this situation is that you are sharing the decision, providing guidance and role modeling, and you obviously have major skin in the game. Since you are most likely financing college, this decision will not be entirely left up to your child, no matter how autonomous, mature, or determined he or she may be. From my perspective, it should not be totally up to your student, who is, after all, only seventeen. Your son or daughter should have significant input, but I feel it needs to be a collaborative decision, leveraging the parents’ wisdom and experience.

This decision should be a participative learning experience, in my view, that will set the stage for your adult child’s optimal, independent decisions in the future. When your student chooses internships, a job, a place to live, graduate school, and other key decisions in the next few years, he or she will have a valuable template upon which to draw. Choosing one’s college, with parental support, is one of the initiating “rites of passage” to adulthood!

Read Full Post »

Admitted Students Day: A Different Kind of College Visit

As April First approaches, your high school senior has probably already received responses from some prospective colleges. Certainly in a few weeks, all the returns will be in.  You will soon have three pieces of information on the table to help your teen make the decision of which college to attend.

1. Acceptance, Wait List, or Denial. This feedback is the college’s decision about the applicant. Obviously, acceptance means your student is in the driver’s seat.

If your student is waitlisted at a school that is still your teen’s first choice, your student should  inform the guidance counselor and communicate it directly with admissions as well. But make sure that a deposit is sent in by May 1 to a school your student would very much like to attend which has outright admitted him or her. For further advice, take a look at my post: Waiting for the “Fat Envelope.“

If your student has been denied at a top choice school, it may be emotionally difficult (although spring denials tend to be counterbalanced by acceptances, with a less “all-or-nothing” feeling than December denials). This is an opportunity to offer parental support for a painful, but valuable, life learning experience. See my posts: College Acceptances and Denials: The Best and Worst Things that Could Happen and The College Process: Dealing with Rejection.

2. Financial Packages. With the acceptance letter or shortly thereafter, your family will receive information on the college or university’s need-based and/or merit-based financial award package for your child. For most families, this information will be pivotal in determining the final choice between college acceptances. For advice on comparing packages, read my post, Waiting for the “Fat Envelope.“

3. Admitted Students Day. In April, many colleges and universities host an open house day, or even an entire weekend, for accepted students to visit the campus before making their decision. I encourage you to begin planning visits to schools to which your student has already been accepted, or where you expect he or she will gain admission (register online). Hopefully, admitted students day will not be your teen’s first visit to the campus (see I’ll Only Visit Colleges I Get Into). This time, however, the focus will be different. The college is now trying to “sell”  the admitted student and family on actually enrolling. Your son or daughter will now be in the choosing position, “kicking the tires” and making sure this is the place where he or she will really want to spend the next few years.

Admitted students day is an incredible opportunity, not only to enjoy a congratulatory celebration among fellow accepted freshmen, but to do true due diligence. Typical offerings are student panels, performing arts events, exposure to a classroom experience, student organization fairs, sports activities, financial aid discussions, and campus/dorm tours. Some schools will even allow an admitted student to shadow a current student for a day, or host an admitted student for an overnight stay: a chance to really see what campus life is all about! Take a look at schedules for a sampling of colleges: College of William and Mary, Colgate University, Skidmore College, University of Richmond, Lafayette College, Connecticut College and Emory University.

It is once again essential to play the role of an anthropologist, just as your family did during that first visit months ago, making every effort to research and observe the campus culture so that your teen can assess his or her fit, as I described in Tips for College Trips. The video below shows an example of how one student accepted at Brandeis University took full advantage of admitted students day to ask questions and learn what it would really be like to attend the school:

There are only so many weekends in April. Some schools have more than one admitted students days, and some center it around one big weekend, so it helps to be on top of organizing these trips as early as possible, saving the obvious dates and registering as soon as you can. If attending an accepted students day is not possible due to scheduling or cost, some schools offer regional receptions. Example: Vanderbilt University. Virtual contact with the school through social media has also become a great way to connect with the college and fellow accepted students. Example: Denison Class of 2015 Facebook Page.

There is another difference between an admitted students day visit and campus trips of the past. Before, you and your student were window shopping. Now, it is coming down to a decision. It can be emotionally stressful, especially if your family is comparing two or more colleges on multiple criteria, ranging from financial award packages to academic programs  to size of the freshman dorms. There may be added pressure if your student is also on a waiting list for the school that was originally at the top of his or her list. And time is of the essence, knowing the decision must be made before May First.

The decision-making process will certainly be easier if it is not the first time your student has visited the campus. As a parent, you can prepare by crunching the numbers on affordability of each acceptance option as soon as you have need and merit-based financial aid information in hand. But there will be late-April game-changers, such as your student’s reaction to new information at an admitted students event or moving off a waiting list. So stay flexible, be ready for late night discussions, and offer patient support as your adolescent makes the first big decision in his or her life.

Related posts: March Madness: College Acceptance, Waitlist, Denial…and Money,   Waiting for the “Fat Envelope“,  I’ll Only Visit Colleges I Get Into,  Tips for College Trips, Video Interview: The College Visit, Decision-Making 101, Standing Out on the Waiting List, Last Chance College Admission Opportunities, First Day of May.

Read Full Post »

College Consultants? Who Needs’em?

Our current economy permits few luxuries. Why should families hire an independent college admissions consultant? (An encore post with the addition of my recent video interview on college consulting.)

1. Focused one-on-one attention. In the middle of this decade, studies by the U.S. Dept. of Education and National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) pointed to average public school counselor-to-student ratios in the range of 300-500 to 1. Guidance counselors can only devote part of their time to college advising, since their duties often include scheduling and discipline issues.These professionals are doing their best in a difficult situation. But for families who would like more individual attention for their high school student, an independent consultant can play a helpful role.

2. Rising college competitiveness. S. P. Springer et al, authors of Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting Into College, identify three factors that have made the college process more competitive and stressful than “back in the day”: the “echo” boom (or baby boomlet), social changes, and the internet. They describe the demographic explosion which causes students to be “edged out” of top colleges at which their parents were accepted–supply & demand. “More high school graduates than ever are competing for seats in the freshman class…In 1997, there were 2.6 million graduates…by 2009, the number of high school graduates had grown to 3.3 million…they are projected to stay at or above 3.2 million at least until 2022.” (p. 2).

Social changes have dramatically increased the complexity and competitiveness of the college process. “Application numbers have grown much faster than the age cohort…Not only are there more students graduating from high school each year, proportionally more of them want to go to college…At the same time, colleges themselves have increased their efforts to attract large, diverse pools of applicants.” (p.3).

The internet intensifies competition as well, because online applications (e.g., Common Application) have made it easy to apply to multiple colleges. (p. 3-4).

This competitive, complex landscape requires more guidance than it used to. It can be misleading, unrealistic (and unfair to the child) to rely on parental historical benchmarks: “I went to Penn and my son is as smart as I am, so why shouldn’t he be accepted?” (I went to Penn in the 70’s, Wharton in the 80’s, and Columbia in the 90’s, but who knows if I could get in today!) A consultant can provide an updated perspective.

3. Mistakes are costly. I am talking about cost in terms of student self-esteem as well as time and money. It is essential to have a realistic college list, with an appropriate number of “target” schools, not too many reaches or safes.

Unrealistic expectations may exacerbate the anxiety and stress of the college process, and result in your teen having to “settle” for a school that is not the best fit. They say, “You can always transfer,” and it’s true. But having to “start over” at a new campus can be emotionally challenging.

And don’t forget, transfer students are not always considered for many scholarships for which freshmen are eligible. If the new college’s requirements differ from the original school’s, the student may have to spend extra time and money taking additional courses. Why let a high school student go through this potentially costly “guinea pig” experience? Advice from an experienced counselor can prevent unnecessary expenditure of time, money and angst. You are about to shell out as much as $200K (for a private college), one of the largest investments you will ever make. An initial advisory service seems like a reasonable course of action before launching into such a venture.

4. A third party can help navigate the tricky parent-teen relationship. The college process creates the perfect storm in an already tense parent-teen dynamic. Your teen is legitimately struggling for autonomy, trying to find his or her authentic voice, while you are seeking to protect your evolving young adult from disastrous consequences of high risk behaviors. A third party mentor can lower tension. Often a teenager is more willing to listen to a third party than to parents!

5. An independent college consultant can help broaden opportunities for your child. A seasoned consultant has knowledge of many colleges and universities of which you may not be aware. He or she is experienced with resources (books, internet, individuals) to assist you in efficiently finding schools with strengths in your child’s fields of interest, or “great fits” with your child’s personality and social style.

An experienced consultant will also be familiar with excellent high school summer, gap year and study abroad programs. Although most college consultants are not financial aid advisors per se, they are acquainted with the process and can point you in the direction of specialists. They also can put you in touch with tutors for standardized testing and even educational consultants who can help with learning disabilities.

For information on choosing an independent college consultant, check with the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) or the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).

Any consultant you consider using in your area should be a member of one of these organizations, in addition to a professional background in counseling, school guidance, or admissions. Other credentials include the IECA Training Institute or College Counseling Certification by UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, or UCLA.

To offer further insights, I am sharing a segment from a recent interview I did on Hometowne TV, a local access cable network based in Summit, NJ, hosted by Myung Bondy. You can find additional segments of this interview covering a number of key college application topics on my YouTube.

Related posts: Your Target Colleges…And It’s a Moving Target, Parents of 11th Graders: Get Set for Junior College Night, High School Juniors Apathetic About College Applications?

Read Full Post »

Colleges for B Students

Nobody’s perfect. Not every teenager is bound for the Ivy League. While parents who interview me as a potential consultant for their college-bound superstar ask about my track record with elite institutions, it is in fact a greater challenge to help a B student find an ideal college match.

I am not talking about a teen who gets a B or even a C in a course or two; I am referring to a student whose GPA throughout high school averages slightly south or north of 3.0. Alas, we no longer live in a world of the “Gentleman C”—it has probably become more like “Gentleman B.” We live in an age of grade inflation, as well as fierce population-driven competition for spots in selective colleges. According to College Board, the percentage of applicants accepted with GPA’s of 3.0-3.24 is generally under 10%, and those accepted with GPA’s of 2.5-2.99 is 1-2%, even at colleges of average selectivity. So the competition is definitely tough out there.

The “B student” moniker covers a broad range of students, with diverse abilities, backgrounds and aspirations. After high school, their trajectories could include: immediate employment; vocational training via a technical institute, art school, or career college; four years in a college or university with an immediate vocational emphasis, such as business; or four years in a college or university with a liberal arts orientation and/or preparation for graduate school.

B students can have any number of individual stories. Some might be late bloomers, distracted from academics early in high school, but catching up junior or senior year as they mature and find their feet. Some may be solid students with an Achilles’ heel in one academic area, such as math or language, that drags down the GPA. There may be a learning disability, attentional disorder, or psychological condition to be diagnosed and addressed. It is also possible that the student’s passion is focused on a less academic field, say, culinary arts, dance, music, photography, fashion design, or graphic arts; he or she is therefore simply not engaged by abstract college prep courses such as Latin or Calculus. His or her true talents are not measured in the high school GPA; the B performance is not indicative of the student’s potential.

First, let us consider B students who are late bloomers, inconsistent performers, learning challenged, or emotionally fragile. They have special individual needs that should be considered in the college application process. It is not enough to simply find colleges with accessible admissions criteria. I suggest that families of B students consider small-to-medium colleges, if affordable, with a favorable faculty-student ratio, academic support, a close-knit student body, focus on the undergraduate, and a nurturing environment. B students are not entering college as finished products, ready to grab the brass ring; they are, in fact, underprepared, and need a transformational environment to help them mature and gain skills for success.

Where are these colleges? Pick up Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges. Pope describes these colleges as having “a familial sense of communal enterprise… a faculty of scholars devoted to helping young people develop their powers, mentors who often become their valued friends.” Of Pope’s schools, the most accessible for B students include: Beloit (WS), Knox (IL), Ohio Wesleyan, Hiram, College of Wooster (OH), Kalamazoo (MI), Earlham (IN), Juniata (PA), Goucher, McDaniel (MD), Lynchburg (VA), Guilford (NC), Hendrix (AK), Hampshire (MA), and Marlboro (VT). Full list at ctcl.org.

Check out “Hidden Gems” from Steven Antonoff’s The College Finder: Choose the School That’s Right for You. Of Antonoff’s hidden gems, the most accessible for B students include:  Hobart & Smith (NY), Champlain (VT), Endicott (MA), Bryant (RI), Fairfield (CT), Drew (NJ), High Point (NC), and College of Charleston (SC). For Antonoff’s complete hidden gem lists, visit InsideCollege.com.

If your B student is challenged by standardized testing, take a look at the SAT/ACT test optional schools listed at Fairtest.org. Many are also listed by Pope or Antonoff. Schools most accessible for B students include: Hobart & Smith (NY), Drew (NJ), Providence, Bryant (RI), Fairfield (CT),  Hampshire (MA), Marlboro (VT),  Goucher, Loyola (MD), Guilford (NC), Knox (IL), and U of Scranton (PA).

I hesitate to recommend large universities for students who have struggled academically in high school relative to their peers. The mission of land-grant universities is to serve the public; therefore, these schools are accessible, even for applicants with less competitive credentials. After matriculation, these schools gradually separate the wheat from the chaff. For B students unprepared for a sink-or-swim situation,  however, I suggest a more intimate college atmosphere, in which somebody notices if a freshman cuts class.

Such an environment could be public; Penn State‘s satellite campuses, for example, offer a small-scale “junior college” experience to prepare late bloomers to eventually succeed at the flagship campus in University Park. The student will eventually get to enjoy the “rah-rah” Division I sports and Greek life college experience that many middle class families seem to consider a rite of passage, a socio-cultural phenomenon unique to American society.

Second, let us consider the student with a well-developed artistic or technical interest that is better honed in a vocational institute, career college, or conservatory program than in a traditional four year college. The student could be a high academic performer, or a B student, who may simply be more of an artistic or technical specialist at heart. This situation can be especially tricky for middle class suburban families, whose general expectation is that their children will attend four year colleges. Should this student  be encouraged to attend a traditional four year liberal arts college or go the specialist route instead?

The traditional college route will provide a well-balanced education, of course, arguably important for all members of our complex society. But for the B student, it could result in continued mediocre performance, since the student is not pursuing a field in which he or she naturally excels, perhaps resulting in not graduating or not finding a job after graduation. The more vocationally-oriented route may lack prestige, depending on what kind of program it is, and most likely will not offer a comprehensive liberal arts foundation. It will, however, provide a venue in which the student will thrive. The student will be thoroughly trained in his or her passion, and will be equipped to find an occupation in that field upon graduation.

Can an artistic or technical specialist student have his or her cake and eat it too? Yes, there are some institutions that do offer deep preparation for an artistic or technical field within a traditional university setting, all along the selectivity continuum. Antonoff’s book and website, as well as Rugg’s Recommendations on the Colleges, 27th Ed., by F.E. Rugg, are helpful resources for identifying such programs. Also check out the Majors section of CollegeToolkit.com and MyMajors.com.

In my practice, I have encountered B students from many backgrounds, with diverse individual stories. The only generalization I can offer is that there is no “one size fits all” path for the B student. I feel that parents need to be careful about projecting their own expectations onto their adolescent; rather, parents need to guide their student in identifying the higher education environment where he or she will thrive and be best prepared for a satisfying career. Related posts: Preparing for a Major in…the Performing Arts, Why Study Liberal Arts in College?

Read Full Post »

A College Consultant’s “Words to Live By”

As a longtime fan of QuoteGarden, ThinkExist, and BrainyQuote, and a recent convert to Pinterest, I could definitely be called a quotation junkie. I love discovering a clever, pithy line that articulates a fresh insight or ancient nugget of wisdom, pointing out irony and offering hope. In this post, I would like to share some of my favorite quotes pertinent to raising and guiding young people, which have helped me as a parent and a college consultant. I hope that these pearls of wisdom will give you inspiration as you continue to do the most noble and difficult job in the world: preparing your children for adulthood.

PARENTING

“I was a wonderful parent before I had children.”-Adele Faber

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.” -John Wilmot

“A mother understands what a child does not say.” – Jewish Proverb

“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.”  -Robert A. Heinlein

“We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.” -Harry Edward

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” -Rabbinic saying

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.” -John Locke

“To an adolescent, there is nothing more embarrassing than a parent.” -Dave Barry

“It’s not enough to do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.” -Sir Winston Churchill

“The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child’s home.” -Sir William Temple

“Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.” -C. Everet Koop, M.D

SELF-DISCOVERY AND DECISION-MAKING

“Live the life you’ve imagined.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Be yourself: everyone else is taken.” -Oscar Wilde

“If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.” -Billie Holiday

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” -Walt Disney

“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” -Lucille Ball

“All children are gifted. Some just open their presents later than others. “-Anonymous

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” -Joseph Campbell

“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” -The Buddha

“It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.” –Sir Winston Churchill

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our lives our made. Destiny is made known silently.” -Agnes De Mille

“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”  -Wallace Stevens

“Once you make a decision, the whole universe will conspire to make it happen.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” -JK Rowling

“Begin with the end in mind.” -Stephen Covey

Related posts: College Applications and the Lost Art of Reading and Writing, Honorable Adulthood, Parents of College-Bound Teens: The Power of “No”, Not Just Getting into College: Parenting for Purpose.

Read Full Post »

College Applications: Don’t Follow the Lemmings

When any market, such as real estate, the stock market, or the college market, becomes so competitive that it is difficult to gain a foothold, the wise “investor” is best served by finding the less traveled path. Success means not following the lemmings; rather, today’s college applicant needs to become an alpha consumer, a trendsetter who stays ahead of the curve by finding the “next hot college.”

In  College Applications: The Restaurant Analogy, I wrote: “When looking for a great restaurant, it is not wise to choose the most famous place, the easiest to get to, at 8 PM on Saturday night. This is a no-brainer. Maybe you go at 6:30 or 9:30 PM instead. Or go on a Thursday night. Perhaps you choose a different restaurant altogether, a hidden gem with an innovative new chef; it may require more research to find such a place, but it is well worth it. Or maybe you try a bistro that is a little harder to get to, that may have some inconvenience factors that will discourage other would-be patrons, such as lack of parking space or an urban location that is not gentrified enough for some.”

In the Northeast, there are many excellent but accessible Common Application colleges that offer non-binding early action programs without burdensome supplementary essays, such as Villanova, Northeastern, Marist, Providence, and Fairfield. There are also highly elite early action colleges, such as Georgetown, Tulane, and Boston College.  In addition, there are plenty of state university “priority application” and/or “rolling admissions” programs; for most Northeast kids, a SUNY, Rutgers, Penn State, U Maryland, U Delaware, and U Michigan are probably on their radar screen.

Anything wrong with applying to some of these colleges during fall of senior year? While not too individually customized, it is a reasonable approach. Applying early does help one’s chances in “priority application” and “rolling admissions” programs. Early action programs, however, do NOT help one’s chances. Unlike binding early decision, which gives the institution guaranteed yield and therefore translates to an admissions advantage, EA does not help one’s chances. In fact, as aggregate psychology drives thousands to apply to an attractive school’s EA program, it can overwhelm the admissions department and they may not get to all the applications before the holidays, forcing them to defer candidates whose applications they have not even had a chance to review.

So, if one of these schools is a reach, if everybody in your teen’s senior class is applying there EA, if your kid has not visited the school and does not particularly want to go there, does it really make sense to apply? I know it’s easy, so why not? It is nice to have one school “in the bag” before Christmas. However, it may not be in the bag, especially as more students flock to these EA options, driving up the competitive quality of the applicant pool. This year, in my practice, I noticed that some students, who would have probably been accepted to these EA schools in previous years, were deferred or even denied.

Is this a bad strategy, then? No, but it is better to zero in on EA schools realistic for one’s credentials, and visit/interview to prove “demonstrated interest.” Even better, apply early decision, if your family starts the  process early enough so that your teen can comfortably commit, and if your financial situation allows you to enroll without comparing need-based or merit aid packages in the spring. Early decision is a Faustian bargain that is not for everyone. However, if it is feasible to make a decision six months earlier, rather than prolonging indecision, enabling the applicant to get into a slightly more competitive college, why not consider this option?

I am a believer in geographic adventure. I understand that, as a practical matter, the three-hour radius around one’s hometown allows transport without air travel and inexpensive weekend trips home. But here is the other side to that argument. You only go to college once. Why be so insular and provincial that you believe you can only be happy in your own backyard? How will you ever branch out and develop as a human being? Applicants write sincere essays about study abroad, diversity and global citizenship, and yet so many are afraid to even visit a college outside the region of the United States where they grew up.

As I stated in my Restaurant post, “I am not saying that your kid has a better chance of getting accepted to Case Western Reserve because its admission folks are so bent on getting such a great New Jersey applicant.” There are simply less competitive Northeastern kids applying to many of the “harder to get to” colleges in the Midwest or Southeast.  Confirm this by a little self-directed US News & World Report College Ranking research.

Take two national universities that US News ranks similarly: Georgetown in Washington DC (ranked 23) and Emory in Atlanta (20). Both are on gorgeous campuses adjacent to desirable cities, two hours plus from the NYC metro area, one by plane and one by train (similar price if traveling by Amtrak Acela). Both have great pre-med and pre-law (one has great year-round weather). Georgetown’s acceptance is 20%, Emory’s is 29%. Why the difference? There may be fewer Northeast high performers who are willing to venture forth beyond the cozy Northeast Corridor. I am biased—my son graduates from Emory in 2012—but there are many more examples.

29-ranked Tufts has an acceptance rate of 24%, with its powerful Boston caché.  Consider, however, beautiful Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, ranked higher by US News at 25, with 40% acceptance. The lemmings forgot to apply. Or, look at two schools tied for rank 38: Lehigh, in Bethlehem PA, with 38% acceptance, and Case Western, in Cleveland, with 67% acceptance. Consider two schools at the 60-rank level: Northeastern U (rank 62, 38% acceptance) versus University of Pittsburgh (rank 58, 58% acceptance). Check the tuition price tag (Pitt is public) and recent press on the highly liveable, and yes, artsy, city of Pittsburgh. For equivalently ranked schools, how much is the Boston caché worth?

Let me offer a few comparisons among the elite private liberal arts colleges. Bowdoin, in Maine, has a 6 ranking and 20% acceptance. Carleton, in Minnesota, shares the 6 ranking but has 31% acceptance. If you have not heard of Carleton, chalk it up to Northeastern parochialism, and if you think it’s colder in Minnesota than it is in Maine, think again. Hamilton, in upstate New York, ranks 17, with a 29% acceptance rate, while Grinnell, in Iowa, ranks 19, with a 43% acceptance rate. Just like in the days of the California Gold Rush, to the adventurous go the spoils.

So, alpha consumer about to spend as much as $200K, start looking for the next “hot” school. It’s right under your nose. It is probably an institution that is already highly ranked for academic excellence, but it might not be located in the “sexiest” city. Ask your child to “stretch” just a little, suspend prestige-label consciousness, and visit at least one college that the lemmings have not found.

To offer further insights, I am sharing a segment from a recent interview I did on HomeTowne TV, a local access cable network based in Summit, NJ, hosted by Myung Bondy. You can find additional segments of this interview covering a number of college application topics on my YouTube channel.

Related Posts: College Applications: The Restaurant Analogy, College Consultants: Who Needs’em? Your Target Colleges…And It’s a Moving Target, Why You Should Apply to College Early Decision, and Choosing Colleges in Cool Metro Areas.

Read Full Post »

College, Passion, Purpose: Readiness is All

Your teenager has been given all the opportunities you never had growing up. You child has been offered material blessings, an affluent suburban community with a competitive high school, as well as parents willing and able to support his or her expensive extracurricular hobbies and finance spectacular enrichment summer programs and travel. Of course, you will pay for academic tutoring, diagnosis and treatment for learning disabilities or attentional disorders, and college consulting to ensure acceptance at a prestigious college.

It is frustrating, however, to find that all your generous, nurturing support has not yet translated into success for your high school student. Your son or daughter does not seem to be driven (as you undoubtedly were). Your teenager has lackluster grades, does not seem to fully appreciate, or take advantage of, enrichment opportunities, and does not appear to have much of a life mission. Rather than seeing your child go beyond you and your spouse, you have the sinking feeling that your child could become yet another sad example of regression toward the mean.

I have written extensively on the role of adversity in building determination and purpose in a young person’s life in my book and blogs. If you are discouraged, read my posts: Not Just Getting into College: Parenting for Purpose, Antidotes for the Race to Nowhere, The College Process: Dealing with Rejection, and Finding a Job in a Tough Economy.

Throughout our children’s lifetimes and most of our own, we Americans have been blessed with a strong economy, affluence, and peace. Our kids have only recently begun to encounter the impact of a recessionary economy. Perhaps in our own complacency, we have been deceived into believing that our children need a “perfect” environment in order to survive and thrive. Greg Esterbrook challenges this idea in The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse.

As our Greatest Generation parents or grandparents will confirm, it is adversity that builds inner strength, determination, grit and character. We human beings need adversity just as muscles need resistance to build strength and tone. Ironically, by trying to give our children everything, we may have actually worked against their sense of purpose and their ultimate success.

There is, however, hope for our sheltered, indulged and entitled kids, as there is for every generation. The first thing I advise you to do is, do less, and let your child do more. Then have faith in life, that life will teach your child, and have faith in your son or daughter, who will process those lessons, dig deep within, and find those inner resources. Your young adult will begin to make a shift—I guarantee you–from your ownership to his or hers. Yes, your young adult will genuinely OWN his or her life, find the passion, and the ultimate purpose. You, however, need to get out of your child’s way, as I wrote in How Parents Can Launch Their Young Adult Children By Being, Not Doing.

If you do not see this happening right away, do not become discouraged, because it is happening below the surface. Like gestation in the womb, development is mostly an inner thing; manifestation is a result, a culmination, an end-product, that occurs when everything has finally come together. As I wrote in High School Juniors Apathetic about College Applications?, parents simply need to be patient, because profound growth and tumultuous change is always going on inside an adolescent, and when ready, the young person will care about the future, and begin to prepare for it.

The spiritually wise psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Flach, MD, wrote about the intersection of inner readiness and the serendipity of circumstance in an intriguing book called The Secret Strength of Angels: Seven Virtues to Live By. He presented a powerful quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “If it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.”

Let your child’s life unfold, with life as the teacher.

Related posts: Parents, Teens…and the Dance of College Applications, How Parents Can Launch Their Young Adult Children By Being, Not Doing, Not Just Getting into College: Parenting for Purpose, Helicopter Parents: College and Beyond, and Honorable Adulthood.

Read Full Post »

College Applications: The Restaurant Analogy

As a college consultant, I spend the holidays helping applicants digest admissions feedback. If your teen is struggling with disappointing news, you can find consolation in my posts: Colleges Acceptances and Denials: The Best and the Worst Things That Could Happen, The College Process: Dealing with Rejection, December 15 College News: Deferral or Denial, and A College Consultant’s Grown-Up Christmas List.

In this post, I propose a less orthodox perspective that will help applicants to not take admissions feedback so personally. I offer  a template for strategic selection of potential “hidden gem” schools. Rather than viewing the admissions process as a kind of “judgment day” that pronounces the final verdict on how well you parented your child, or how well your student succeeded in high school, I propose a“restaurant analogy.”

In Woody Allen‘s classic film, Love and Death, the überphilosophical Tolstoy-esque Russians Boris and Sonja wrestle with Kant’s categorical imperative while attempting to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte. Woody Allen asserts, “If everyone went to same restaurant on the same evening to eat blintzes, there’d be chaos!” while Diane Keaton sarcastically assures him, “But they DON’T.” What does this have to do with the college admissions process? Everything. Stay with me.

Ever notice how something “goes viral,” whether it is a trendy restaurant, a new HBO series, a hot stock, or a YouTube video? No big mystery. There’s word of mouth, a rising phenom feeling, an awareness that this new thing is the NEXT BIG THING. There’s a build that reaches a critical mass, as described in Malcolm Glidwell’s bestseller The Tipping Point. There’s powerful group psychology going on, on a grand scale. That’s what drives the stock market, the real estate market, technology bubbles, global currencies, everything. Group psychology. Should it be any surprise that such aggregate psychological dynamics could influence the college process as well?

For the past four years, U.S. News has ranked “up-and-coming” colleges. Guidance counselors, college consultants, education journalists, and families catch on to schools out there that are becoming “hot.”  That information trickles through to students. Just like a new fashion trend or music fad, rising colleges magically begin to appear on applicants’ radar screens.

Northeastern University is a great example of the restaurant analogy. NU ranks eighth on U.S. News’ “up-and-coming” list, cleverly repositioning its co-op intenship program as “experiential learning” to capitalize on students’ new desire to gain job experience in college to prepare them for a tough job market. Further, Northeastern  brilliantly offers an attractive application alternative: non-binding early action, via the Common Application with no supplemental essay. Not to mention that it is in smack in the middle of Boston, the most popular location for today’s cosmopolitan, academically competitive, Northeast Corridor Amtak-riding applicants. This is what I would call a “white-hot” restaurant, where it would be tough to get a table at eight o’clock on a Saturday night.

Let’s look at another great college city, Washington DC, as a city of academic “restaurants.” For “Georgetown lovers” who think the Hoyas are the only game in town, think again. The triune forces of the baby boomlet population explosion, increased expectations for college attendance, and college app technology have made it more difficult to gain acceptance at colleges we may have considered accessible “back in the day.”

As Georgetown has become out-of-reach for many excellent students, applicants who would enjoy college in our nation’s capital are enthusiastically exploring the other great DC metro area “restaurants.” Once they get over the idea of a linear pecking order, they realize that each school offers unique benefits for each student’s individual interests. George Washington University is hotter than ever, with its prime Foggy Bottom location, its highest-internship-per-capita distinction, and strengths in business, foreign service, and medicine. Budding performing artists can find superb programs at GW, American or Catholic. U.S. News’ up-and-coming schools, U of Maryland-College Park and George Mason, are nearby. Howard is still one of the country’s best historically black colleges. Not to mention premier specialty schools such as Concoran or Galludet. There is a “restaurant” in DC for every appetite!

When looking for a great restaurant, it is not wise to choose the most famous place, the easiest to get to, at 8 PM on Saturday night. This is a no-brainer. Maybe you go at 6:30 or 9:30 PM instead. Or go on a Thursday night. Perhaps you choose a different restaurant altogether, a hidden gem with an innovative new chef; it may require more research to find such a place, but it is well worth it. Or maybe you try a bistro that is a little harder to get to, that may have some inconvenience factors that will discourage other would-be patrons, such as lack of parking space or an urban location that is not gentrified enough for some. Do call ahead for a reservation–don’t just show up.

In today’s competitive college app environment, families would do well to consider the less traveled path. A college consultant can help identify colleges beyond the “usual suspects,” but the family needs to keep an open mind. Don’t simply follow the lemmings and apply where everyone else is applying. How about a sense of geographic adventure, outside the three-hour-drive comfort zone? If you are from the Northeast, read my posts about the Midwest, South, or West. Some of my creative, independent-minded New Jersey clients have been brave enough to venture abroad to McGill, NYU Abu Dhabi, and U Edinburgh, as well as U.S. schools far from home such as  U Miami, College of Charleston, Elon, Wake Forest, Emory, U Michigan, Wheaton (Ill) and USC.

I am not saying that your kid has a better chance of getting accepted to Case Western Reserve because its admission folks are so bent on getting such a great New Jersey applicant; CWRU may or may not have an institutional objective of broadening its geographical representation. Everybody in your teen’s competitive private school class is probably not applying to this impressive, highly selective Ohio school, ranked 38th among national universities by US News; most of them are, however, applying to Northeastern (ranked 62nd) and American (ranked 82nd). Just think of how many competitive New Jersey applicants are NOT applying to Case Western. If your kid is, there just might be an opening. Geographic flexibility is like Warren Buffett choosing a less obvious, perhaps less sexy, stock, and laughing all the way to the bank…but it doesn’t take a genius to do this.

The “reservation” part of the restaurant analogy is about early decision. Early decision is binding, so it is not for everybody, but it does carry an admissions advantage. Early action gives the applicant early notification, but it does not carry an admissions advantage. So if your kid is applying to a “hot” school, is sure this is the dream school, and your family does not have to compare need and merit packages in the spring, encourage early decision. If your student is a senior who was disappointed with early action news in December, consider EDII for the school he or she feels is at the top of the January application list. If you really want that table, get a reservation.

Bon APP-étit!

Related posts: College Consultants: Who Needs’em? Your Target Colleges…And It’s a Moving Target, Why You Should Apply to College Early Decision, and The College Process: Dealing with Rejection.

Read Full Post »