College Question & Answers with College Advisor, Charles Slany

A broad topic. One of the many points of impact is negative. That is where the admissions office or the college coaching staff combs through facebook, or other social sites looking for prospective candidates and their stunning online disclosures, exposures, and confessions.

Social media could be a glitzy high-tech way to promote yourself, but the average high school college-bound student has to realize that colleges view everything online as fair game.

In-State -vs-Out of State Tuition aside, I try to get the parents to think outside the box--outside the box of the state they live in. Afterall, your automobile doesn't know what state it's in, why should you care either??

Sit down with the whole family and do this little exercise. You'll need a map/atlas of the United States and a math compass. (1) Take a math compass, and stick the point into your city on the map of the United States. Now draw a concentric circle. How big of circle? That's where the family discussion begins. How many miles away is Mom and Dad comfortable with? How far away is Kelly or Kyle really willing to live? It really has nothing to do with states. If your circle is a 6 hour driving circle from your home it will most likely include schools from several states.

This exercise is subject to change. I once had a student insist she wanted to go to an exclusive School of the Arts which was over 11 hours from home. Half way to the visit she made Mom and Dad turn around and go home. The most equitable and rational approach a family can take is to consider ALL APPROPRIATE SCHOOLS within a certain RADIUS.

1. One way is to know from prior experiences with other similar parents who mean well, but flunk the dress rehearsal. I know the usual entry points about where I anticipate them acting up and I PRE-ADVISE them in advance. The old western movie scene where we "head them off at the pass”, sort of. This provides a level of joint expectation.

2. A second less subtle approach is to talk with them when the student is NOT PRESENT (out of respect) and I play my PARENT-to-Parent card.

We have to remember that normally they love their kids but the whole college thing can be highly stressful on everyone involved

This could be a tough call as some students might be considered borderline. I would leave this up to the person who is going to PAY for the Four (4) Year extravaganza, because colleges cost $20,000+ a year for a public school and up to $60,000 for certain private schools. So we are talking about buying an education which might cost as much as someone's house. In today's economy, we cannot afford to mess this up. If you haven't shown that you are ready to be a FULL-TIME (40 hour/ week) student and/or if you just have no idea why college is YOUR next step (other than your buddies/friends are all going), then maybe going to the junior college will be an intermediate step which could help you make a GIANT second step later

(1). GUIDEBOOKS: In an age of websites it's hard to recommend guidebooks, but not long ago when my kids were going through the college process, we had hours of fun travelling to schools and reading the Princeton Review Best 376 Colleges (back then it was less than 300!!) New edition HERE.

It provided some useful info and enough meaningless data and opinions to make the trips seem shorter. Back then we read all the guidebooks--Fiske, Yale Insiders' Guide, Peterson's, etc., but the Princeton Review was just the right size for the navigator (my wife) to hold on her lap and compare two (2) colleges side by side!

(2). RELATIVES: You can gain from eveyone's insights and experiences, some more than others. Anytime you speak with anyone the easy questions are how, when, who, where. The difficult question to remember to ask and then have answered is--WHY??

(3) RANKINGS. How fitting that the US NEWS kicked off its Top 50 Colleges list with the coronation of the millenial generation (1983) and now that generation has a trillion dollars in debt. Along the way a questionable methodology such as; the mutual promotion of certain colleges pushing up each others rankings and institutions encouraging kids to apply in order to reject same students to make themselves look more "selective" went almost as unnoticed as the nations most intellectual college (St. John's, Annapolis) refusing to play the game being sumarily dropped.

There are no "best" colleges when it comes to a human being, only a good match. I don't have much nice to say about rankings. I know some people are going to read them. If you contact us through our website can go into more depth or perhaps suggest a couple of alternative rankings that might balance things out.

Rankings might be important, but the REAL question is "Whose Rankings?"

1. POPULARITY/PRESTIGE: Since the beginning of the birth of the millenial generation, US News has been promoting a highly popular ranking of the "Best 100 Colleges/Best 100 Universities". Some very good institutions no longer participate because of the assumptions and methodologies.

2. PRICE: Since parents are custodians of the college monies other rankings such as Kiplingers and Forbes, et al became popular as list publishers gave a half-hearted attempt to account for factors like price or net cost.

3. POLITICS: Other Books or "Best Lists" have appeared in the last decade or more like ISI's "Choosing the RIGHT College" (Pun Intended), etc. The inherent problem is that a school NOT on their list might actually produce the type of learning environment which is more conducive to their desired outcome than the schools on the list. My experience is that in the last 2 decades the word conservative has all but lost any meaning. Some of these rankings make for interesting reading and nothing else.

4. PERFORMANCE: In the last few years a new type of list or ranking has surfaced based on actual choices that peer groups make. The leading site is called MyChances.NET It ranks schools on head-to-head choices that were reported by students and uses an ELO POINT algorithm. This takes the list creation out of a publisher's hands and tries to show what might happen if two schools--who BOTH accepted the same student--went head to head.

Ultimately each family has to decide what is important in a school and develop a preliminary list which meets the four critical dimensions of that family. More on this later. Also check out my postings on HIGHLY SELECTIVE COLLEGES.

First, many colleges now have virtual campus tours right on their websites. You certainly can make time to check out those. Another must- do is to read the more popular college directories such as The Best 376 Colleges (Princeton Review), The Insider's Guide (Yale), or Fiske Guide to Colleges. Their write ups are a little more revealing than just a standard directory. Last, have you checked out YOUTUBE? There are some videos of tours available and more are being added as we speak.

Some colleges might or might not be sympathetic to the "I-don't-have-the-time" thing.

Many of the smaller schools are looking for demonstrated interest, which means your physical visit(s). Perhaps in your case this might translate to your "touch" via email, skype, facebook, video, etc.

The Search should begin with the most important piece of the puzzle--YOU THE STUDENT. We--the counselor, the parents, everyone need to focus on who the student is--their personality, their interests or traits, and other characteristics like values and skills. Why is this important?? Simply it is the KEY to everything. How can you begin a college search until you know what AREA of STUDY or Major you should be looking at?

Young people who skip this process are sorry later (see Gates Foundation, Public Agenda Report) and are certainly more prone to multiple changes in majors and/or colleges.

Because of the heavy workloads, many high schools no longer provide meaningful assessments, but not to worry because many independent counselors have assessment tools to help you with understanding yourself/your student. This assessment process should be the first step and can begin in 9th or 10th grade.

Lao Tzu said that "Understanding ONESELF is TRUE enlightenment."

Absolutely. Originally the idea was to have an interactive learning process through question and answer--"the socratic method". Unfortunately in many of the current university environments this could not possibly happen. In fact if your class is NOT small enough for discussion or questions then HOW are you learning from the other presumably bright students in your class?

Our modern institutions "slant" the teacher:student ratio numbers various ways, so sometimes it is difficult to compare apples to apples when comparing schools.

Obviously not all classes lend themselves to discussion/debate, eg: certain lab sciences and math or engineering lower level courses. Ideally, ALL classes should make an effort to encourage questions and some type of interaction.

SMALL IS GOOD

I advocate the entire family should go (whenever possible). I have strategic reasons for this which I share with my client families. But it makes sense just from the standpoint that while you are trying to focus on asking a question, you may need an additional set of ears and eyes to collect the answers and then "compare notes" later.

Too, those extra sets of eyes and ears will gather additional data which you didn't pick up on because you were checking out the sample dorm room, the new student center or the attractive student standing next to you.

First a definition of terms. Words mean different things to different people. So I am going to answer this question for those students or parents who are asking about the most elite schools in our country.  Over time I've developed a proprietary guideline to help me in deciding whether a student should seek candidacy at an elite school. Elite schools to me would be, for example; the eight (8) Ivy League schools or their reputational equivalent; (presidents 568 group, former seven sisters, etc etc.) Without going into the details, this guideline focuses on 2 characteristics: (1) Intellectual Curiosity and (2) Drive. If a student is in the "upper quadrant" of BOTH IC and Drive then I think an undergraduate degree from an elite school would probably be a wise investment. Otherwise, I think MOST STUDENTS should keep their powder dry, save their money, and try to use their God-given talents to get into one of the other thousand schools which WILL GIVE THEM A MERIT AWARD. The family can then strategize on going to an ELITE INSTITUTION later for graduate school or professional school.

A few groups beside my so-called "upper quadrant" which MAY ALSO benefit from an undergraduate degree from an elite institution, (not in any particular order) are:

(1) underrepresented minorities, (2) athletes, (3) legacies, and (4) children of the very wealthy. Underrepresented minorities will probably be judged from a different set of standards. If they can attend and graduate from an elite institution, they should take advantage of this coveted opportunity. (2) The same goes for athletes. No institution is going to admit that the academic "bar" would be lowered for an athlete, but in some cases this will happen. I've seen 17 year olds turn down an opportunity to go to an elite college, so they could play at a "higher level" of division I. Any high school counselor or parent that encourages this behavior is in need of some serious psychiatric counseling themselves. Honestly, 6 years from now do you think your daughter is going to the WNBA or that your son is going to play professional lacrosse??? Wake up!!! You need to be using your talents to be getting the best education you can get. (3) Ditto for legacies. They might be getting a slight statistical break and if they're family can well afford it, then they should consider taking it. (4) Finally the rich. Although I've known some very AFFLUENT parents who wanted the biggest merit awards their students could bring home, most elite schools have NO MERIT MONEY. A few have athletic money-- if they are a DIV I or II (non-IVY) school. If a family has enough money not to worry about money, then an elite school for undergraduate studies could give them a leg up later in the job market.

Again, MOST bright, above average students can get an excellent education at any number of small private schools of the arts and sciences and have the schools award them merit money while they get a four (4) year diploma in four (4) years, and THEN they will be in the competitive and highly enviable position of being a low-debt candidate at an elite institution for graduate studies.

I think Athletics can be one of the GREAT college hooks.  After all it's NOT a coincidence that somehow, a college gets the correct number of young men and women on each of its many athletic teams each and every year.

Look at little Davidson College for example. Roughly 1600 students; yet, they boast 19 Men's and Women's Div I sports and this does not include Club or Intramural sports!!  Davidson is an elite college and highly regarded by most consultants. It ranks as #11 this year on the U.S. News Rankings.(Nat'l Liberal Arts) My point is think how important athletics are. My guestimate is that over 1/2 of the student body are either Div I athletes or participates in some type of sports.

If you want a highly selective school, gpa and test scores aren't always enough. You need a resume. And high level athletics can be one of the strongest resume entries you can boast

It is important for a student to see themselves as "marketing" themselves to colleges for 2 reasons: (1) Because you are competing for limited number of seats at an elite or selective school, and/or (2) Because you are competing for limited merit awards (scholarship money) at most institutions.

Nowadays, many colleges PREFER the online application. Check to see if the college offers a "free" application (fee waived) if done online versus an application fee if submitting a pdf or or other paper version.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in my experience, parents are NOT the best source of editing or proofing a student's essay. Most parents don't really know what the admissions office is looking for, and many parents are sufficiently removed from writing that their proofing/editing skills are not helpful. 

I think in today's world it's probably unbelievable to an admissions official that someone--parent, English teacher, essay coach, guidance counselor --DID NOT read and help "proof" the student's essay. That DOES NOT MEAN that anyone should write it for you, or dictate it to you while you copy it down word for word and say you wrote it.  It simply means that most students today are having some adult help proof their essay. 

Having said that, I would believe that the admissions professional may find your essay refreshingly imperfect and forgive the occasional spelling or grammar gaffe, if the essay is highly unique, insightful or humorous, or just demonstrates great writing and self perception, 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in my experience, parents are NOT the best source of editing or proofing a student's essay. Most parents don't really know what the admissions office is looking for, and many parents are sufficiently removed from writing that their proofing/editing skills are not helpful. 

I think in today's world it's probably unbelievable to an admissions official that someone--parent, English teacher, essay coach, college counselor --DID NOT read and help "proof" the student's essay. That DOES NOT mean that anyone should write it for you, or dictate it to you while you copy it down word for word and say you wrote it.

It simply means that most students today are having some adult help proof their essay. 

Having said that, I would believe that the admissions professional may find your essay refreshingly imperfect and forgive the the occasional spelling or grammar gaffe, if the essay is highly unique, insightful or humorous, or just demonstrates great writing and self perception, 

The reason independent college counselors or essay coaches--and this is a generality--could be more helpful is that often (not always) they spend more time and effort up front on COACHING the essay for topic, originality, creativity and HOW to approach writing. What many parents (who may love you, but often just are NOT good writers themselves) or an overworked guidance counselor does is to take a trite, or unoriginal or hackneyed essay and dwell on punctuation and spelling. It's like going to the junk yard and waxing a rustly heap.

DON'TS: Please DO NOT write on global, macro themes like solving the world’s problems, or the world's AIDS problem, or the country's hunger problem, ad nauseum. Also DO NOT tell us about how great your Dad or Mom is.  Nearly any topic COULD produce a well-turned essay in the hands of highly skilled highly intelligent, highly experienced writer which most high-school students are NOT. 

DO'S: So make it easier on yourself and more enjoyable for the poor professionals in the admissions departments across America who have to read this stuff. Write about the one topic in the WORLD that you can write about better than anyone else--with MORE INSIGHT than anyone else. Write about You.

More later.....

Very important. Long before it was fashionable to go "Test Score Optional" (Fairtest.org), the most intellectual college in America--St John's(Annapolis) was primarily interested in using your written expression as a gauge for admissions.Most competitive colleges use 9-14 factors for admissions and the essay is one of these factors. If you are a senior and many of the 9 factors are already beyond change (eg:class rank, gpa, etc) one of the remaining ways to impress admissions is your yet-to-be-written essay!!