Tips On College SelectionWritten by Reecy Aresty
It is highly recommended that early in college selection process, parents and student(s) visit some schools to determine if they’ll be suitable. The criteria that must be considered before any college is applied to include:•Average GPA, SAT I, class rank for acceptance •The school should offer enough choices in event student changes their major •Size, location, Greeks, religious affiliation •Percentage of freshmen that return for year two •Percentage of freshmen that graduate in four years •Percentage of financial need met •Percentage of gift aid/self-help awarded •On or off campus job opportunities •Meal plans and dietary situations met •Name recognition •Student/teacher ratio •Average class size, semester or trimester •Percentage of professors who teach and percentage of teaching assistants •2 or 4-year college or university •Co-ed dorms •Freshman cars permitted •Handicap accessibility •Cost of sheepskin It is also recommended that you determine if school uses a need-blind or need-sensitive admissions policy. Need-blind is a practice where student is evaluated without any regard to family income or assets. Need-sensitive is a shameful policy used by a host of elite schools such as Duke, Emory and Stanford. These schools will admit a less than qualified rich kid in anticipation of a large contribution to their own endowment funds. In essence, wealthy family has bought an admission ticket to a school where their student might never have otherwise been accepted! It’s anyone’s guess how many other schools enrich their coffers in this deceitful, unprincipled manner. Duke has even been brazenly open about this policy, and I find it curious that shortly after reaching their $2 billion fund raising goal in 2003, they reduced their freshman acceptance percentage from 7.5% to 4%. The words of Former U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) come to mind here, “When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.” Parents and student(s) should make official unofficial visit to potential schools no later than 10th grade. Colleges are always impressed when a 9th or 10th grader pays a visit. By keeping in touch with officials you’ve met, in essence, you will have added points to both your GPA and SAT I scores by establishing a rapport. When time comes, administrators will be able to associate a face with your application. This helps a merely qualified student become a far more acceptable one.
| | The All-Important College ApplicationWritten by Reecy Aresty
H.G. Wells once said, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe,” which emphasized importance of continued schooling. As fate and future not only of any great nation – but world, is dependent on education of its youth, a far brighter light is cast upon college application process. It is in application process, more than anywhere else, that academic future of any student is determined. There is only one moment in time when student’s stuff shows up in admissions office – and it better shine! Negligence in this arena leads to failure, and this cannot and must not be an option in any student’s life. The first item that is reviewed by admission committees is student’s transcript. It immediately determines whether or not student is qualified. Simply put, it either contains qualifying grades and scores or it doesn’t. If not, rest of student’s stuff, no matter how carefully prepared or impressive – will be tossed in waste basket! Given student passes round one, next item carefully examined is application. I strongly advise all of families I counsel to avoid Common Application unless school being applied to doesn’t have it’s own form. I also highly recommend use of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or higher to prepare application. In my view, PDF file format is most professional looking document you can submit. Using school’s form and preparing it with Adobe silently announces student’s intention of making a very positive first impression. If for any reason you cannot use an application in a PDF file format, contact each school and have them send you their application packet. Be careful not to make all-too-common mistake of trusting that sincere sounding, reassuring admissions person who promises that application package will be mailed immediately. Leave nothing to chance. Be creative and take steps to insure that it actually does get mailed quickly. Offer your credit card to pay for a $15.00 overnight or $5.00 second day delivery. Wherever possible, do not rely on school administrators in application process, and keep your own thorough and accurate records for all schools applied to. Do not anticipate and rely on documentation from schools.
|
