Admissions Academy Blog

Trading Down?

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on October 30th, 2008 in Articles of Interest
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The Wall Street Journal recently published an article profiling a high school senior who decided not to apply Early Decision to Northwestern, her dream school, because of concerns over college costs. Two disturbing observations about the article:
1. Northwestern University is committed to meeting the full demonstrated financial need of its students; additionally, Student Financial Services will consider appeals of financial aid decisions should a family’s financial situation change. Their website even includes a site dispelling common myths about financial aid: http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/myths.
2. What exactly is meant by forcing students to lower their sights? “She had worked hard to get good grades and write her application essays, but as the deadline neared this fall …” she may have to settle for a “lesser” college? The subtext here further reinforces the idea of absolute, ordinal number rankings of colleges. If this student can’t afford her “tier 1″ college, she’ll have to lower her sights to tier 2 or tier 3 colleges. Rather than take the opportunity to talk about looking beyond highly selective colleges, the author appears to support the notion that colleges are good or bad, better or worse.

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The “pre-pre-pre SAT”?

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on October 23rd, 2008 in Admissions, Articles of Interest
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The New York Times recently reported that the College Board will roll out a new standardized test for 8th grade students to help test basic skills in reading, math, and writing. While proponents of the test, ReadiStep, claim that it will provide students and parents with important information about a child’s future college-readiness, critics fear that ReadiStep will further fuel anxiety and stress without solving underlying educational inequities, and push the college admissions process upon younger and younger students.

Read the College Board’s report here, and a critique from FairTest here.

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Essay First Impressions

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on October 9th, 2008 in Articles of Interest
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First impressions, in person and on paper, set the tone for what’s to come, and in college essay writing, they help readers anticipate what they’ll learn about an applicant in the subsequent 480 or so words. What ultimately makes an essay successful is its ability to capture the authentic voice and personality of its writer.

Stanford Magazine recently published an accumulation of memorable first lines written by undergraduate admissions applicants, everything from the very succinct (“I have old hands.”) to the very unexpected (“Unlike many mathematicians, I live in an irrational world; I feel that my life is defined by a certain amount of irrationalities that bloom too frequently, such as my brief foray in front of 400 people without my pants.”).

Click here to read the full list.

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