Basic Admissions Information

During this summer of 2011 we took a tour of many of the Ivy League Colleges as well as several other private liberal arts colleges. We visited - in order - Cornell, Harvard, Brandeis, Brown, Yale, Vassar, Bard, and Oberlin. We also took a stroll through Wellesley, but didn't go to an information session or take a tour because it was a Sunday evening.

We wanted our 14 year old daughter, Mollie, to have a sense of these schools as she enters high school and we thought that looking at colleges now might help make the process much more relaxed when the time comes to make important decisions. We also visited family and friends in the Boston area and that made for a really nice trip. Last spring we also visited Princeton and Columbia when we visited family in the New York City area, and we took a weekend trip to visit Oberlin and Kenyon here in Ohio as well.

After visiting all these colleges we are beginning to get a sense of certain patterns and certain concepts that almost all of the admissions officers say. Those generalizations are what I want to include in this section of the blog.

What do selective colleges look for in an applicant?

HIGH SCHOOL GRADES
The admissions officers in all the colleges we looked at said that the most important piece of information is the high school academic record. They want to see not only a strong GPA (Grade Point Average), but they also want to see that a student has taken advantage of what their high school has to offer and has taken Honors and AP classes that are available to them.

All the schools said that they look at "context" - in other words, the type of high school a student goes to. If a high school only offers 3 AP classes, a student who attends this school will not be compared unfavorably to a student who attends a high school that offers 30 AP classes. Admissions officers operate in different regions of the country and it is their job to become familiar with the different types of high schools and what they have to offer.

Every admissions presentation also made it clear that they want to see an upward trend in the student's transcript. They expect that a student's grades and the rigor of a student's classes will increase rather than decrease. If they see a downward trend in grades as the student goes through high school they get concerned.

SAT AND ACT SCORES
In the highly selective schools everything counts and I've included the middle 50% of scores in the blog postings for all of the schools we have visited. However, most of the admissions officers downplayed these tests in their presentations, although they did tell us the average scores.

The good news is that most of the schools said they will take the highest scores in each area to give students the benefit of the doubt, so it is a good idea to take these tests several times.
Students in 7th and 8th grade can take the SAT and the ACT through several talent search programs around the country. Mollie took them through the Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS) and it was a very good experience for her. Several of my students have done the same thing and the feedback I have gotten is that it was a real confidence booster to do this.

Schools are definitely not just looking for perfect scores and made it clear that, although the scores are a factor in acceptance, they try to look at the whole person.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
The trend seems to be that selective colleges are looking for students who have developed an interest in several activities or clubs and have stuck with those things throughout high school. This is more interesting to a college than a student who is involved in many, many activities, but has not really developed leadership or skill in any one area. The admissions officer at Brown said something like, "If you tell us that you are involved in 20 clubs or activities, not only does it look like you are padding your resume - you ARE padding your resume."

We heard a number of people talk about being interested in what students are passionate about and how they spend their time outside of the school day - even beyond school extracurricular activities. One example was given of a student who babysat for her neighbors to help them out and was downplaying the way in which she had spent her time. The admissions officer was actually very interested in what she had done and it turned out that she had really been of service to these neighbors. The point was that all activities are important in that they indicate a student's character and quality.

ESSAYS
Some of the admissions officers said that the essay is important in getting to know the student, some said that grades are the most important thing they look at, and some said the essay is the most important part of the application because it gives the college the clearest understanding of the student as an individual.

Whatever the case, all of them said that students should write about what they know in words they know, and that they want to hear the student's voice. The essay is a window into the student's life and they want to be able to see through that window clearly. They said that they like to read essays that bring them into the student's world, that make them feel that they can see what the student is feeling and perceiving.

The admissions officer at Vassar said that it is OK if a student hasn't changed the world yet because most 17 year olds haven't. She said the best things to write about are the simple things and she gave an example of a student who wrote about the things that are in her bedroom and how those things were a reflection of her as a person. She also said it is important to indicate the ability for self-reflection. Some students write beautiful essays about a person who has impacted them, but the essays are all about the other person and not about the applicant. The admissions officer said something like, "It would be nice if we could admit the person to Vassar who was written about in the essay, but that is not the person who is submitting the application!"

Everyone also said that it is important to edit and proofread!! The admissions officer at Brown said to be very careful, if you are going to apply to Brown, that your essay does not say, "I really want to go to Yale." A point well made!

OTHER FACTORS
There is so much to learn about this and I realized that I need to find some books that are written by people who have worked in Admissions because not everything can be said in these information sessions. Right now I'm reading a book called, "Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting Into College" by Sally Springer and Marion Franck. It has a lot of very frank and helpful information in it. I just went to our local library and checked this one out - but I'm sure there are a plethora of books about this topic on the market. It is a very hot topic right now!!

One last thing I want to say is that I developed a strong opinion on this college tour that it is really important for students to be true to themselves and to pursue things they are genuinely interested in and passionate about. They shouldn't try to calculate only what elite colleges are looking for because what these schools seem to be looking for are genuine people who will make the most of their experiences at their colleges. I think that admissions officers are pretty well trained to sniff out students who simply add experiences to their lives because their parents have paid for them to attend expensive camps or take expensive trips. The woman who gave the presentation at Yale said that they want students who will give back to the community. They are not only looking for students who have strong opinions, but they want students who will also listen to the opinions of others. So, it seems like it is important for students to develop from the inside out - to cultivate curiosity, integrity, commitment, compassion and determination. If they do these things, keep their grades up, prepare for the standardized tests, carefully complete applications and turn them in on time they will find success in whatever they do.

P.S. Almost every tour guide made some reference to Harry Potter! Residence Halls, dining areas, Yale's lawn for Quidditch...


Friday, August 12, 2011

Yale




I have to say that we were completely pleasantly surprised when we visited Yale. I almost skipped over it because I thought that, being in the middle of New Haven, Connecticut, it would not be a very nice place. Wow, was I wrong! Yale has one of the most beautiful campuses we saw! And it is so obvious that the school has resources as you walk around and look at the buildings. Many of them are old, Gothic, and have stunningly beautiful architecture. They are also well taken care of so the atmosphere on campus is nice, nice, nice.

Downtown New Haven is sort of part of the campus, so you are right in the middle of the city when you are at the college. Mollie and I noticed, when we walked around after the tour, that only a block or so away from campus in one of the parks things started to get a bit seedy like many big city downtown areas. We all had to use the bathroom and the Starbucks that was a block from campus wouldn't let us use theirs unless we bought something, but the Starbucks across from campus let us walk right in. The feeling just a block away was noticeably different. I think it would be important simply for students to be aware of this, but it doesn't need to deter anyone from going to Yale! And it could be helpful for doing community service and also also for staying more in touch with reality.

Yale College has 5000 undergraduates and Yale University has 6000 graduate students. The distribution requirements offer students a lot of choice along with some structure and 50% of students change their major while at Yale. I actually think this is a good sign because students are allowed to explore their interests. The students can take 2 years to decide on their major - like many of the other schools we visited. There are 36 required classes and 12 of those can be in whatever the student chooses. The others are requirements for a major and core writing intensive classes. Yale also has a "shopping period" for the first several weeks of class so that students can look at a number of classes they may want to choose from, sit in on class, get a copy of the syllabus, hear a few lectures. This is the same kind of thing that Brown does and, in fact, when we visited Yale we began to have difficulty distinguishing between Yale and Brown because they have many similarities.

We really liked the woman who did the information session. She is a Yale graduate and looked like she was in her mid-thirties. She was articulate, but very down to earth and seemed accessible in a way that surprised me. She said that the atmosphere at Yale is collaborative and it is not a competitive academic environment, and she also said that it feels like a small liberal arts college even though it is fairly large for
a liberal arts school. About 80% of graduating seniors have some kind of international experience and most go abroad during the summer. There is a Yale program in Bejing, which sounded good in terms of Mollie being able to continue to learn about the Chinese culture. Yale is better known for its humanities department, but the sciences are developing there as well.

One of the most interesting thing about campus life for students at Yale is the Residential College system. Students are placed in a living environment called a Residential College where they stay for all 4 years. There are 12 colleges and each one has a separate area on campus where students live and eat. There is a dean for each college who helps students with academics and there is also a faculty member who is a "master" - someone who is in charge of the social activities for the college. So, for example a master might take students to see a Broadway play or go on an excursion to a museum. The master also arranges for famous people to come to Yale and have tea and a discussion with students in the college.

The campus definitely has some Harry Potter-ish places. One is a large lawn on which the Quidditch team plays (yes, I guess Quidditch has become an official game!), and the other is the main dining hall that looks suspiciously like the Great Hall at Hogwarts! I know that the Harry Potter movies were filmed at Oxford, but the Yale dining hall really makes you feel like you are at Hogwarts! I also kept looking at the old paintings on all the campuses we visited and thinking that they were going to start talking and
moving! There is also a rare books library that is amazing - I mean truly amazing! We saw original notebooks written by Henry Miller, notes by Langston Hughes, and many, many more primary sources. We could have all spent hours in there just looking at the displays. Students can use the rare books, but they have to be taken off the shelf by a librarian because the books are kept in a place where there is less oxygen so the books don't deteriorate. The books can't be checked out of the library, but what a treat it would be to get your hands on some of those books!!!

I liked what the Admissions officer said about what they are looking at in students who are accepted to Yale. They have only a 7% acceptance rate and I asked her how they decide among so many really good applicants. She said that there are many students they would like to accept but they just don't have enough space and she said that it is a very human process. She did say that they are not just looking at the top GPA or the top SAT scores, but that they are interested in who the student is as a person and a community member. One thing I thought was very interesting was that she said that they are looking for students who not only have strong opinions, but also for students who can listen to other's opinions. I hadn't heard that before and I think it was well said. The context of where a student has gone to high school is considered (all the colleges said this), so if a student has attended a high school where only 2 AP classes are taught they don't expect them to have as many AP classes as a student who attended a school with 30 AP classes. But she also said that they like to see how a student has ENGAGED with their high school and with what was available to them. I thought that was an interesting way to phrase this statement. Yale is looking for students who will make the most of their opportunity at Yale and they want to know what the student will give back to the community.

All in all, our visit to Yale was surprising, pleasant, encouraging, interesting, engaging - we loved it!! I can also see us revisiting Yale as a possible place for Mollie to apply. It is in her top 3 favorites right now.

Statistics from College Board
Middle 50% of SAT scores:
Reading 7oo-800
Math 710-790
Writing 710-800
ACT 32-35

Percent of applicants accepted: 8%
Percent of returning sophomores: 99%


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