General Education Curriculum Series 4: Columbia

We are heading back to our General Education Curriculum Series and moving out of Virginia this week with an up-close look at Columbia’s curriculum. 

We chose Columbia because it is one of the schools with the most emphasis on a robust set of general education requirements for students in Columbia College, the Arts and Sciences division (students who enter into the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science will have different requirements).

It always strikes me as interesting that so many students who apply to Columbia don’t understand the Core Curriculum or realize that the academic experience there is very different from most other schools as a result of it. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the Columbia application includes more than one essay regarding fit - they want to know if you know that they have the Core Curriculum in the first place, if you understand what it entails and why they believe it is valuable, and the reasons you think it would be a good fit for you!

If you don’t mention it at all in your application, they are just going to assume that you are “checking off the box” and applying to Columbia “for the wrong reasons” - because it’s an Ivy League school, because it’s in New York City, and so forth.

Let’s dive in!

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Unlike the general education requirements we outlined at William & Mary and UVa, Columbia’s Core Curriculum requires that ALL students take the exact same course to fulfill many of their requirements - meaning that students in these courses are doing the same readings and assignments at the exact same time. 

Core CURRICULUM COURSES

Literature Humanities

This course is taken by every single first-year Columbia College student. Students read and discuss works by Homer and Dante (which haven’t left the required reading list since the curriculum was implemented 75 years ago!), as well as canonical texts like Montaigne’s Essays or Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Students read and discuss one text each week in seminars of about 20 students, and each seminar moves through the exact same texts at the same pace. 

University Writing

First-year students are also required to take one semester of a University Writing course. In this case, students do have the option to choose a topic: American Studies, Gender & Sexuality, Human Rights, Data & Society, and Medical Humanities are some of the options for students here. However, no matter which class you take, you will be writing the same four essay assignments as your fellow students: an analysis, a reading of multiple texts, a research paper, and an op-ed. This is different from many other schools, where first-year writing classes are left to the individual instructors to design. 

Frontiers of Science

You may be noticing by now that your first year schedule is getting pretty full! Freshmen must also take a one-semester course in modern science. All students attend a large lecture on Mondays, and meet with professors or TAs in small seminars throughout the rest of the week to discuss the lecture and any associated readings. So again, though the seminars may be small, the material is the same for all first-year students. 

Contemporary Civilization

This is the second-year core curriculum course. Like Literature Humanities, it is a full-year course where all students study the exact same texts at the same time, in small seminars. This original Core course has been offered since 1919 and includes texts like Plato’s Republic, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an. 

Art Humanities

Before their senior year, students must also take one semester-long course in important works of Western art. In 20-person seminars, students examine and analyze these pieces. Classes can make use of Columbia’s NYC location to visit buildings, monuments, and museums as part of their art exploration. The requirement to study art history or art analysis is very unusual for undergraduate programs of study.

Music Humanities

In addition to Art Humanities, students also take a semester-long course in important works of Western music. Like Art Humanities, Music Humanities has been part of the core curriculum since 1947, and is also a very unusual requirement for an undergraduate program.

In addition to these strict core courses, Columbia students also have general education requirements similar to those at the schools we’ve already discussed. However, they can be met by multiple courses and offer some flexibility. 

Requirements

Science Requirement

Students must take ten credits (typically three courses) in science in order to meet this requirement. The required Frontiers of Science course counts toward the science requirement, so students who take that course in their first year must take two additional courses in science before they graduate. These courses are typically in Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, or Physics, though this requirement can also be met by some Math and Computer Science courses. 

Global Core Requirement

Global Core courses typically explore the cultures of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East in a historical context. These survey courses are meant as a supplement to the Western-focused required core classes. Students must take two courses to meet the Global Core requirement. This requirement is met by many courses in History, Religion, and Cultural Studies. 

Foreign Language Requirement

This requirement, unlike the others, can be met by an AP test or by a Columbia-administered test for students who have already achieved intermediate proficiency in a foreign language. Otherwise, students are required to take an intermediate-level foreign language course to meet this requirement. Like many other schools, Columbia waives this requirement for students whose first language is not English. 

Physical Education Requirement

Another surprising one, although not quite as rare as the art and music requirements - Columbia is one of the institutions that require students to take a physical education course! Completion of two physical education activities is required in order to graduate. Student-athletes can also gain credits through their sport. In addition, all students are required to either pass a swimming test or take one semester of a beginner’s swimming course unless they have a registered disability that does not allow them to do so.

As you may be able to tell, Columbia is SERIOUS about its Core Curriculum. Here are our three takeaways:

1. You’ll get the breadth

No matter which type of student you are, Columbia’s curriculum will likely require you to take a class that you’re not too excited about. While some students may see this as a negative (I would have, for sure), others intentionally seek it out. They believe that it will help them to explore outside of their interests and maybe give them the opportunity them to fall in love with a subject that they never even knew about in high school! If you are looking for a true liberal arts experience, with a wide array of courses, this might be a great choice for you, but students who know what they want to study and don’t want to do a whole lot of writing and analysis may become frustrated with all of the core classes. 

2. You’re in good company

Did you read those dates earlier? Some of Columbia’s core courses have been around since 1919! That means that not only will you be learning the exact same material as your classmates, you will also be learning some of the same material as most Columbia alumni! The Core Curriculum will help you to connect and commiserate with your freshman hall-mates about the course material, and also provide you with a talking point for all of the networking you’ll be doing with alumni as a senior! 

3. You don’t have a lot of space

As you may have realized reading through that list of courses and requirements, Columbia does not give you nearly as much space in your schedule as some other schools. If you really want to dive deep into your major, or if there are other electives that you want the chance to explore beyond those listed, this type of curriculum might make you feel frustrated and stuck. So consider carefully how you will feel about these requirements before applying to a school that has a lot of them!

In case you missed it, don’t forget to check out our series kickoff post about undergraduate curricula!

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Weekly Update: April 30

Decision Day is almost here - good luck to all of the seniors who are making their decisions this weekend! Make sure to celebrate once that deposit is in :)

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

MORE COLLEGES REQUIRE VACCINATIONS IN THE FALL

Over 100 colleges and universities will require COVID-19 vaccinations for students this fall, with Emory, Wesleyan, Stanford, and others announcing that they will require vaccines. Colleges are still dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus, even as students are eligible to get vaccinated this spring. While many of the schools requiring vaccines are private, some public schools are requiring them as well - including the University of Maryland system. Other schools, like Baylor, are not requiring vaccinations, but are allowing vaccinated students to skip mandatory COVID-19 testing, creating an incentive for students to get vaccinated. The University of Wyoming is taking incentives a step further - vaccinated students will be entered into weekly prize drawings, and staff will receive an extra day off! 

PRIVATE SCHOLARSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE

I think it is hard for many students and families to realize how many scholarships are out there! Even for students who did not receive merit aid from their college of choice, there are still private options to apply for this spring and summer. Check out any local community groups you belong to, as well as any groups for your particular academic interest - there is a lot of money that you could find! Shannon even applied for a scholarship for tall students when she was going to college. As the article states:

“Do you love asparagus? There’s a scholarship for that. Are you left-handed? There’s a scholarship for that.” 

So do your research!

BIDEN PROPOSES FREE COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION FOR ALL

One of the components of President Biden’s $1.8 trillion (ouch) American Families Plan involves free community college for all Americans - regardless of income. While I am NOT a fan of increased government spending in general, I really do like this idea. I’ve written about this before, but I have always found it sort of puzzling that more families in our area do not consider community college to be a viable plan for their students. I get that most of us are hoping for a traditional college experience for our children, but you truly cannot beat NOVA’s guaranteed admissions agreements. Yes - guaranteed! You will automatically get a spot at the University of Virginia and other great schools if you spend your first two years at NOVA, take certain classes and achieve a 3.4 GPA or higher. That’s pretty incredible when you consider what it takes to get into UVa these days. And I haven’t even gotten into the cost savings! For a student who doesn’t mind sticking around for two more years, this could really be a path worth considering. Remember, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We’ve heard a lot about artificial intelligence in the last several years - how it might affect jobs and even everyday tasks. But higher education is not immune from AI, and many schools are increasingly relying on the technology to do everything from emailing students to grading assignments. Algorithms have even worked their way into admissions, raising questions about bias if we have programs, rather than humans, evaluating students. NYU, for example, uses a program to determine students’ interest in the school based on how they interact with the school’s website and respond to its messages. Georgia Tech pioneered a chat bot, not only to answer questions from admitted students, but to serve as a TA, answering questions about course material. We will have to wait and see if these technologies become more prevalent in making big decisions!

From a do-it-yourself graduation at the University of Tampa to arrivals in shifts at Vanderbilt and Northwestern, colleges and universities throughout the country are taking all kinds of approaches to graduation ceremonies this year. This New York Times piece details the various options, along with the frustration that the students and parents feel about the situation.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are so excited for all of our seniors who have sent in deposits, and have been busy talking through a few last-minute decisions over the past few days! Congratulations to everyone for such phenomenal success in such a difficult year. We are so proud of you!

We also passed a fun milestone - our first junior is 100% done with her main college essay, and we have about ten more right behind her in the final editing stage! Our students go through a very extensive soup-to-nuts process to make sure that their work is “17-year-old-perfect” and represents their best selves. It’s so nice for them to have this huge accomplishment out of the way and finished early.

For juniors looking for a weekend activity, we recommend attending NACAC’s Virtual College Fair, including live and recorded sessions from over 600 colleges - a great way to get an overview of many different institutions. 

Enjoy the sun this weekend and be careful out there in the wind today! I just heard from friends that a tornado hit Great Falls?! Yikes! No clue if that’s true but I sure hope everyone is safe!

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Weekly Update: April 23

Happy Earth Week! Don’t forget to check out our blog from earlier this week about some of the greenest colleges in the country if you are hoping to be eco-focused all year round.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

WEST POINT CHEATING SCANDAL

Back in 2020, West Point experienced its largest cheating scandal in decades, when over 70 cadets were accused of cheating on a calculus exam. 55 of the students who confessed to cheating were enrolled in the academy’s “second chance” program, which provides rehabilitation for cadets who break the rules. Now, the academy is announcing plans to scrap the second chance program, in an effort to crack down on cheating in the future. 

ACT SUPERSCORING

ACT has rolled out an option that allows students to submit their own ACT-generated superscore to colleges instead of sending multiple score reports and letting schools calculate, which has always been the process in the past. The concept is a good one, but in practice it’s been very confusing. Compass Prep did a great job of putting together a guide for students who are interested in sending ACT-generated superstores.  

HIGHLY UNUSUAL WAITLIST ACTIVITY

As I posted on social media earlier this week, we’ve started seeing waitlist movement already. For context, it’s EXTREMELY rare to see waitlist activity before the reply deadline of May 1, because it doesn’t make sense to start accepting students from the waitlist until all of the admitted students have responded and schools can determine how many spots remain. So this was either part of the overall enrollment management strategy, which is very possible in such a conservative year, or these schools are trending very, very poorly with their yield, which is also possible. Either way, the fact that this is happening so early means that any expressions of demonstrated interest, including LOCIs, need to happen immediately! The schools that have already turned to the waitlist include NYU, Barnard, Lehigh, SMU, Virginia Tech, JMU, and many more!

NEW BOOK OUT: YOUR TURN: HOW TO BE AN ADULT

This is a follow-up to one of our long-time favorites, How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success. The author, Julie Lythcott-Haims, is the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford and is so spot-on in so many ways. Truly, every parent should read the first book if they haven't already, and we're willing to bet that the new student version is just as great. Although if you are one of our graduating seniors or transfers, don’t buy it… a copy may be coming your way in the future! :)

You can get a sneak peak from Julie's famous Ted Talk on raising successful kids without over-parenting, as well as her recent NPR interview. Julie's experience with her own son really resonated with us, because we see this all the time: 

"He got a diagnosis of ADHD and anxiety when he was in the fourth grade... And I think in hindsight, my husband and I didn't quite understand what that meant. He seemed to be so smart and capable and kind and lovely and had good friends and was doing just fine …. [but] he really got into a downward spiral when he got to college. When the scaffolding of home and high school was taken away, this kid began to really struggle."

For many students, the most difficult part of the transition to college is learning how to manage their time - they see a lot more white space on the calendar, but really, that means that they have to figure out their own schedule and that can be incredibly difficult for students used to the structure of high school.

These are exactly the kind of skills that we teach students through academic coaching, which is a great idea for high school and college students alike who need a little extra help developing the executive functioning skills that will set them up for success! Interested in learning more? Book an academic coaching Meet & Greet!

FIRST ANNUAL MARYLAND DAY

If you are looking for a fun virtual activity for young students, check out the University of Maryland’s first virtual Maryland Day on Saturday, April 24! Sessions include “Fun Science for Kids,” “Build a Better Lemonade Stand,” “Dance and Movement,” “Engineering is Awesome!” and more! 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The lack of standardized testing this cycle, along with a nationwide focus on social justice, has enabled colleges and universities to welcome their most diverse classes ever. Relying on standardized testing often works to the advantage of more affluent families, who can afford tutoring and test prep, so the removal of the emphasis on standardized tests worked to level the admissions playing field this year. Last year, 77% of students reported test scores with their applications - this year, that number was only 46%. We are likely to see similar numbers this cycle, as many schools remain test optional for the Class of 2022. 

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that we take US News ratings with… a few grains of salt. But many students and families use rankings to consider their college choices, and in fact rankings do become more important for graduate schools like business and law school (as opposed to undergraduate programs, where rankings truly don’t provide much useful information).

The pressure placed on schools to retain their place in the rankings was brought to life this week when the former dean of Temple University’s business school was federally charged with fraud for falsifying information to ensure that the school would appear at the top of the US News list. This scheme doubled Temple’s enrollment for MBA programs, which rose from #28 on the list to #1 within two years. This just goes to show that US News does not audit the data that schools send in for rankings - and the rankings system may be even more precarious than we thought! 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon and I both attended an great discussion on Clubhouse this week called “What the Heck Just Happened?” - funny, right? But it’s a completely accurate description of the reactions we’ve seen from counselors after this “hectic and insane” admissions cycle! Everyone in attendance emphasized the need for a balanced, conservative college list, given the current upheaval (which is likely to continue for at least the next several years).

My colleague Joyce Wong, who serves with me on the Independent Educational Consultants Association’s Business Practices committee, is a prominent consultant in the Bay Area. I couldn’t agree more with how she summed up the list-making process:

“More than ever it is so important to have a balanced list… I don’t think our parents fully understand what unpredictability means. There is really no formula for guaranteed admissions and that’s a [mindset] that is hard to break.”

She’s completely right - this really is a mindset issue. This is not the college admissions process of a generation ago, a decade ago, or even a year ago - so it’s been a tough season for many students and families that didn’t know what to expect and didn’t have enough options spanning a wide range of selectivity.

However, that does not mean that there aren’t things you can do to help make your application as strong as possible. We keep reminding students that even with their activities severely limited by the pandemic, they can still include the passions they’ve taken on during their time at home - baking bread, learning to code, studying aquatic animals - there are so many things that students can do now to show colleges their drive and passion. Bob Carlton, another seasoned consultant who chairs the committee on which Joyce and I serve, noted:

“Personal stories seemed to be much more significant - their ability to find their personal story and their impact [for the] common good - how they are helping with an issue that they care about in society or in their neighborhood.”

Even with the crazy and unpredictable admissions cycle, we are so relieved to have a lot of happy students who followed our advice and made smart, strategic decisions. During this past week, we started to hear from transfer applicants and I have to say - these decisions on the whole are coming in much better than I expected! We LOVE to get emails like this one, which came from one of our favorite students last night:

I mean, how can you not read an email like that and want to jump up and down?! #lovethisjob

And for our seniors who are still trying to make their final college decisions, check out our blog post from earlier this week on choosing your college - we know it can be stressful to make this decision, but you have everything you need, and you can have a fulfilling college experience at whichever school you choose!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Earth Day Blog: Greenest Schools in the US

Happy Earth Day! In honor of the day, we have compiled a list of some of the greenest colleges in the country, as well as some unexpected environmentally-friendly majors to consider (beyond environmental science)! 

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Oberlin College

With the top spot on the Princeton Review’s list of the Greenest Colleges, Oberlin is a great choice for an environmentally-conscious student. In 2000, the Center for Environmental Studies was opened on campus, a “green building” with solar panels on the roof and waste water recycling. On campus as well as in the town of Oberlin, they monitor electricity and water use in real time, and recently installed 10 acres of solar panels. Their goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2025. 

Students can engage in the process by volunteering at the George Jones Memorial Farm, which grows a third of the produce consumed on campus. Sustainable food practices are important to Oberlin students - 25% of them are part of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, a student-run dining system that buys the majority of its food from local vendors. Students also run a Bicycle Co-op and other volunteer groups on campus.

The environmental studies program is one of the top in the country, as you may expect, but Oberlin is also a world-class conservatory with phenomenal opportunities for the budding musicians out there!

Middlebury College

Currently in the midst of an “Earth Week” lecture series for students and faculty, Middlebury College in Vermont is another school that keeps environmental sustainability front and center. Middlebury’s campus became carbon neutral in 2016, the final result of a student initiative that began in 2007. It is the first school of its size to achieve carbon neutrality. The school is currently in the process of working toward additional goals with its 10-year Energy2028 initiative. The initiative includes a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2028, as well as divesting fully from fossil fuels.

The environmental studies program at Middlebury offers 14 different concentrations, ranging from conservation biology to literature. Wow! And if you’re interested in combining your interests in environmental studies with a passion for cultures and languages, Middlebury has you covered. Their reputation as an international studies/foreign language powerhouse comes through in offerings that include the summer Middlebury School of the Environment program in China and an accelerated master’s degree in International Environmental Policy.

Pitzer College

Pitzer, one of the Claremont Colleges near Los Angeles, lists Environmental Sustainability as one of its five core values. The school “walks the walk” with drought-resistant native plants and LEED-certified sustainable buildings populating the campus. 68% of the residence halls on Pitzer’s campus are LEED-certified. More than 25% of the energy on campus comes from renewable sources. 

Environmental analysis is one of the most popular majors for Pitzer students. Pitzer was also the first school in Southern California to divest from fossil fuels, and is home to the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability. 

If you’re interested in taking a more active approach by starting your own project or research in the field, Pitzer might be a particularly good fit. As we mentioned back in November on our election day blog post on Schools for Politically-Minded Students, Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center offers funding to support individual projects!

Dickinson College

Students at Dickinson are currently in the midst of a sustainability-focused EcoChallenge for the month of April. During the challenge, students will form teams and work to lower their carbon footprint. Dickinson itself reached carbon neutrality last year in 2020, and uses real-time energy monitoring in over 20 campus buildings. 

Dickinson also has its own organic farm, which grows much of the produce eaten on campus. In fact, the dining hall has been named a Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association, making it one of 50 colleges in the US to achieve this status. The campus is also home to two honeybee hives, and students can volunteer to become part of The Hive Cooperative!

Lewis & Clark College

Students describe Lewis & Clark as collaborative, outdoorsy, open-minded, and inclusive. The campus sits on 137 wooded acres one block from a national park, giving students the opportunity to have a bucolic college experience only a few miles from Portland, OR. 

Lewis & Clark is nationally recognized for its environmental studies programs on both the undergraduate and the graduate level. The School of Law is ranked first in the country for its environmental law program, and undergraduate students can take advantage through an accelerated BA and Masters of Studies in Law (MSL) in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law that students can complete in four years. 

Colby College

Colby recently introduced a new concentration in ecocriticism, allowing humanities students to add their voices to the conversation around the environment. Years ago, Colby was also one of the first colleges in the country to reach carbon neutrality, becoming carbon neutral in 2013. 24% of the buildings on Colby’s campus are LEED-certified. The campus’ Buck Environment and Climate Change Lab connects and provides funding for students and faculty engaged in research on climate change. 

Students who want to get involved in sustainability on campus can choose from many different organizations, including EcoReps, the Environmental Coalition, the Colby Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and the Colby Alliance for Renewable Energy. And the latest student initiative on campus is the reusable mug program, which would require Dining Services to provide a reusable mug to each student in an effort to curb the use of paper and plastic cups to take beverages on the go. 

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Not interested in a green school, but still want to do your part for the environment? Check out the Princeton Review’s list of the top ten green majors. Some of these may surprise you - majoring in fashion design, urban planning, or entrepreneurship can definitely be an amazing eco-friendly choice!

Choosing Your College

Now that our Class of 2021 students have their last decisions in hand, it’s time for our students who weren’t admitted ED to choose which campuses they’ll be on next year and send their deposits in! While it would be nice if the stress ended with the arrival of the acceptance letters, and we always joke that too many choices is a good problem to have, this is typically the first major life decision that a student will make - and the pressure and anxiety that comes along with such a big decision can turn it into the most difficult part of the process for many. That has never been more true than this year, when many students in the Class of 2021 have never had a formal college visit.

So if you’re struggling with these issues, here are some tips that might help you to think through your final college decision!

P.S. If you are a parent hoping to help your student through this difficult time, check out our post from a couple of years ago - written especially for you!

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1. Make it familiar.

Part of the reason that choosing a college can feel so overwhelming is that it is an entirely new experience! We hear this from students and families all the time: “I’ve never even been to sleep-away camp! How can I choose?” And yes, college will absolutely be a big adjustment for many of those students. But it doesn’t have to be totally unfamiliar or unexpected.

Think about your high school right now. What do you love? What about your school will you miss after graduation? And what do you dislike? What are the things that make you say “ugh, can’t wait to get out of here!”? Try to list at least three things in each category.

Then, use your list as a guide for your preferences. Sick of seeing the same faces day in and day out, and ready to meet some new people? You might be interested in a school with a large, diverse student body. Sad to leave your friends and the favorite teachers that made high school so special for you? You might be looking for a close-knit community with small class sizes.

Remember, don’t be afraid to be honest with yourself about what really matters to you, even if others roll their eyes. After all, you’ve already established during the college search process that every one of the schools to which you applied would be a good fit!

So if all else is equal, and you suffered through four years of living with roommates through cold New England boarding school winters (cough cough this was me), toss those snow boots in the trash and cross off any of the schools north of the Mason-Dixon line. And don’t feel even a tiny bit guilty about going for the schools that will allow you to have a single during your freshman year! You’ll be so much happier this way…I know from experience :)

2. Think about the future

Where do you hope your next steps will take you? I’m asking this question literally, from a geographic perspective- you already looked at important percentages during your college search, so you know that it’s likely that every school on your list will result in employment or graduate school placement. But where?

Of course, you can certainly go to school in Virginia and end up with an amazing job in Denver after graduation. But for the most part, students from your school will likely migrate to the nearest large city after graduation, and that is probably going to be somewhere with a big alumni network that can help you. A William & Mary graduate in Washington, D.C. is going to benefit a lot more from the network and name recognition than one who is job searching in Los Angeles! 

On a similar note, if campus recruiting is important to you (i.e., for business and engineering majors), take a look at the geographic reach of the companies on the school’s recruiting schedule. Many school career centers will advertise the companies that recruit on their campuses, and this can be a good guide to help you choose the place with the right connections and geographic footprint. So if you’re a prospective business major and living in the windy city isn’t so appealing, you may consider bypassing Michigan after all - campus recruiting in the Midwest is very Chicago-centric.

3. Go beyond pros and cons

Making a pro/con list is a tried and true decision-making technique. But then again, these can get messy! After all, how do you compare “Has a really impressive maker space” with “No cars on campus freshman year”? Instead, think about the top three to five MOST important factors in your college search, and let those guide your decision.

When we are brainstorming with students, we call these the “must-haves” - important qualities that align with your values. These are going to be different from student to student, but may include things like a particular major or area of study, the community on campus, the location, the career opportunities, and the cost of attendance. If you didn’t do this at the beginning of your college search like our students did, or if you suspect that your “must-haves” evolved over time, it’s never too late!

For those who considered these from the start and now have a list full of schools with must-have characteristics, I have an exercise to recommend that actually came from my mom during my own college search. When we were sitting in a hotel room in Nashville and trying to differentiate between my top picks, Vanderbilt, Wash U, and Emory, she suggested that we not only make a pro/con list but actually rank those pros and cons so that we weren’t giving too much weight to factors that weren’t as important.. even if there were more of them.

Vanderbilt had more pros for me than Wash U and Emory, so if we were tallying up pros and cons it would have been the clear winner. But they had no traditional undergraduate business program, and I wanted to major in business…. while I was prepared to work around it, that was still a pretty big deal at the end of the day.

Almost 20 years later, I’m still relying on that train of thought when I help students calculate a weighted average to determine which preferences are more important than others. For example, if you have five very important factors, but one is clearly more significant than the rest, followed by a second, maybe you decide to weight factor #1 as 40% of your decision, factor #2 as 30% of your decision, and the remainder as 10% each.

4. Go with your gut

Don’t underestimate your instincts! Sometimes, you will just have that feeling that a school is the right place for you as you walk around the campus, and that factor is just as important as any listed above. 

5. But don’t stress if you don’t know what your gut is telling you

This has been a difficult year for all of us. If you haven’t had the chance to visit many schools or see a campus in full swing, you may very well not have been able to experience any kind of “gut feeling.” No big deal, really.

Honestly, even in a normal year, I often have students express concern about this - it’s easy to feel like you’re doing something wrong when other kids at the lunch table talk about how they “felt right at home” after stepping on a given campus, but you don’t feel that kind of passion for any particular school.

I think it’s more of a reflection of personality type than anything else - some people are fact-finders and others make decisions quickly. Those people might fall in love at first sight down the line, too, but that doesn’t mean their relationships will be any stronger.

Whichever strategy you use, be confident in your own decision-making skills and know that in the end, the college experience is what you make of it, and you can be happy at a lot of different schools - there is no “the one”!

If you are still struggling with making a decision, you can always come and talk to us! Current clients can go ahead and book a meeting, but for those who are not clients, we have recently introduced our new Post-Decision Senior Strategy Session to help you make the best choice!

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Weekly Update: April 16

Another Friday, another weekly update!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT DOWN 25%

In our world, it seems like college is all students are thinking about - we’ve talked about institutions dealing with huge application increases, students applying to more schools than ever before, and historic numbers of waitlisted applicants. But when you focus on the small slice of selective colleges (a tiny fraction of all the higher education institutions in the US!), you can sometimes miss the bigger picture. According to one study, the pandemic has led to a 25% drop in college enrollment - that is a huge number! Many students were forced to postpone college due to financial hardship from the pandemic, and these students are significantly less likely to attend college at all after putting it off. Community colleges, which educate half of the students who eventually obtain bachelor’s degrees in the US, saw on average a 10% drop in enrollment.  

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CONTINUE TO REQUIRE COVID VACCINATION

Since Rutgers University announced that they would require the COVID-19 vaccine for students to return to campus in the fall, over a dozen other colleges have followed suit. The list includes highly selective institutions like Cornell, Brown, and Northeastern. While these requirements have seen some legal pushback, for now it is legal for these colleges and universities to require vaccination in order to help the community develop herd immunity.

FCPS EVENTS THIS SPRING

FCPS and APS’s virtual career fair is starting next Monday, April 19. This is a great opportunity for high school students to learn more about internship opportunities, as well as take part in mock interviews and resume workshops to prepare them to apply for summer jobs and internships!

(And if you’re still looking for the right summer opportunity? Don’t forget to check out our Summer Opportunities Database - we add new listings every week. Future psychology or education majors should definitely check out the special position I shared on our facebook page yesterday. Not only is it well paid, it would look amazing on applications and you’d be helping out a really wonderful family and incredibly sweet little girl!)

Back to virtual events - parents may be interested in FCPS’s annual Special Education Conference this Saturday, April 17, to learn more and talk with other parents about supporting students through hybrid learning and the slow emergence from the pandemic.

NCAA EXTENDS STANDARDIZED TESTING POLICY

As we’ve seen more and more schools announce that they will be test-optional this cycle, there has always been that important caveat - not for hopeful DI and DII athletes. But the NCAA finally announced this week that it will extend its test optional policy for the Class of 2022. Yay! The NCAA is convening a task force this spring to discuss their testing policy moving forward.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We found this article that emphasizes the “specialist approach” to parenting really interesting! The author is right that many people who are exceptional in their fields start honing their skills at an early age. Does that mean that you should have your six-year-old specializing in piano and quitting the soccer team? We’re not quite sure if it works that way, but we’re confident that it works that way in the college process!

Remember: the well-rounded students of earlier generations are out, and colleges now want to see depth, rather than breadth, from students who know*** what they want to pursue and demonstrate their passion through their course selections, summer plans, and extracurricular activities throughout high school. If you are a high school student looking to maximize your college admissions chances, specialize!

***Totally fine to change your mind. We all do. But have a plan going in!

TIME published an article this week about the impact of climate change on higher education. Particularly, the number of majors that address climate change has expanded from just environmental science to architecture, engineering, business, and more! Interested in studying at a college that emphasizes environmental issues? Check back next week for our Earth Day blog post spotlighting some of the greenest colleges in the country!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon did a lot of different sessions this week, including one with the Common Application to collect data about 2020-2021 college admissions cycle. For our post-game assessment of the data and some key takeaways, check out our post from earlier this week.

We have been getting a lot of questions this week about double-depositing. If my student hasn’t decided where she wants to go, can we put down a deposit at two different schools until we have a chance to visit in person this summer? The answer is a resounding NO! Colleges share lists of students who have deposited, so they will know if your student has deposited at more than one school. This will likely result in both admissions offers being rescinded. It is absolutely not worth the risk! And with the length of waitlists this cycle, it is also unfair to other students who may be waiting on one of those spots at their dream school.

Of course, it has long been considered acceptable (in fact, encouraged!) for students to put down a deposit at one school while they are on the waitlist at another - or on multiple waitlists. If admitted from the waitlist, the student simply has to withdraw from the first school. Make sure to read the fine print, though, because we mentioned a very strange example earlier in the week with a school that had a rather unorthodox waitlist requirement.

And today, we heard about a school that required a student to accept the offer before technically receiving it. How does that work, you ask? We were wondering the same! The school required the student and his parent to sign a binding statement promising to enroll if admitted from the waitlist. Sort of like early decision, waitlist edition? And then he got in ten minutes later. I swear this year gets crazier and crazier..

All of the upheaval has led to a lot of questions from current seniors who are looking for help with waitlist strategy, decision appeals, or just deciding between college options when many schools still aren’t open for in-person tours. So, by popular demand, we are introducing a one-time Strategy Session for Class of 2021 seniors who need help navigating their post-decision landscape.

Have a great weekend!

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The Post-Game Analysis: Everything You’ve Been Dying to Know about Class of 2021 Admissions Data

As we’ve mentioned, decisions are out, so we took some time this week to dive a little bit deeper into what the statistics are showing us for schools that have already released their admissions data for the current cycle. Of course, none of this is fully complete because we do not have final waitlist numbers yet, but we are so excited to be able to share some of our key takeaways with you!

Note: These are based on the 100+ colleges and universities who have released data so far, and may change as we hear from more schools, so we will make sure to keep you updated with what we learn!

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1. Colleges are receiving more applications.

It seems like we’ve been talking about this all cycle, but initial data is showing that it is absolutely true. Overall, the Common ApplicationⓇ saw an 11% increase in applications this cycle. What is interesting to note is that the increase came mostly from students applying to more schools, not an increase in the number of students using the app. 9% of students applied to additional colleges, while the rise in different students applying accounted for only 2% of the jump.

On average, students who used the Common App submitted 5.8 applications each. We recommend looking at this number as a baseline, encouraging students to aim for the 8-12 range with an absolute minimum of 6.

Of course, the total number of schools to which a student should apply is closely linked to the probability of admission to each individual school. Remember that selectivity and predictability are inversely proportional - so a straight-A student with a perfect test score hoping for a highly selective school will have a very unpredictable outcome no matter how qualified she is. As such, that student will need to apply to more schools than a peer with a less competitive academic profile.

The unpredictability factor offers one explanation for the unequal distribution of application increases during this cycle. We learned that “dream reach” schools, those highly selective schools with admissions rates in the single or low double digits, saw an average application volume increase of 28% year over year! Yikes.

We collected some of the data from schools that are popular with our students:

And at the University of Florida, which was one of the only schools in the country to still require students to submit test scores? An increase of only 6%.

2. Early decision REALLY matters.

We have always emphasized to our students that ED is one of the best tools in the college application process for students that do not need to compare financial aid offers, and this was more true in this cycle than ever before (we say that each year, by the way - every year it just becomes more and more important).

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that we’ve been posting nonstop about the plummeting acceptance rates across the board that we saw this year. But ED applicants experienced an entirely different landscape at many schools - in fact, those numbers are moving in the opposite direction! Yes, it was actually easier, on the whole, to be admitted ED during Fall 2020 than it was in Fall 2019! That’s wild when you consider how enormous the applicant pools were.

Overall, the differential in acceptance rates shifted another 4% this past cycle in favor of ED applications. At many of our students’ target schools, however, the ED rate saw an increase of 10% year over year. 

At BC, the ED admit rate went up 9% from last year. Johns Hopkins saw an 11% increase from last year, while UVa’s went up 6%. Bucknell and Villanova had the largest increases - with ED admit rates soaring over 15% higher year over year!

3. We did see some deferral impact after all.

At the start of this cycle, many colleges tried to assure students that the high rates of deferral for the Class of 2020 would not impact their selectivity for the Class of 2022. We even wrote about it!

However, this did not turn out to be accurate at some schools - particularly at smaller institutions which had less of an ability to absorb the deferrals.

Duke, for instance, had already filled 9% of its Fall 2021 class with students who deferred admission. Williams, which already has a tiny entering class in and of itself, filled a whopping 21% of its spaces with students who deferred! This cut the admit rate for regular decision students in half, from 13% to 6.5%. 

Given what ended up happening this year, we anticipate that we will continue to see an impact for the Class of 2022 - particularly at smaller schools that couldn’t fully absorb the impact in one year.

4. Regular decision has taken a big hit.

Looking at the factors above, it is no surprise that regular decision admit rates plummeted the way they did. The combination of more applications overall, more students admitted ED, and more spots filled by deferrals led to an incredible drop in regular decision rates across the board.

At Bucknell, for instance, students who applied early decision were 42% more likely to be admitted than those who applied regular decision. At BC, early decision applicants were 22% more likely to be admitted.

Just a note that the information above applies to ED I applicants at most schools. ED II, a binding option with a later deadline, has an extremely varied impact depending on the school. At BC, for instance, the ED II admit rate was similar to the ED I rate - in other words, significantly higher than the regular decision rate. At Emory, by contrast, ED II had almost no statistical impact on admission, because ED II applicants were admitted at around the same rate as regular decision applicants (to be fair, they may have been a less qualified group overall, so there was probably a slight difference).

5. Test scores do matter - a bit.

This is the information that many students and parents were most eager to hear this cycle: does it matter if I submit test scores or not? The answer is, again, it depends. At the most selective schools, those with the single-digit acceptance rates, it is so difficult to be admitted that test scores don’t really seem to make much of a difference from a statistical standpoint. Depressing, right?

But here’s the interesting thing - schools in the moderately to very selective range (as compared to the “most” or “ultra selective” ones mentioned above) did actually wind up leaning more on test scores than they claimed they would. On average, the admit rate for students who did not submit test scores was 15% lower than those who did. And then, because nothing is ever simple in our world, test score submission stopped mattering again for schools a little further down the selectivity ladder!

Take UGA, for example: students who submitted their test scores were 16% more likely to be admitted than students who did not. The graphic above might give you some idea as to why - with a 39% jump in applications, they needed some way to sort applicants! 

Again, though, we can’t emphasize enough this is such an individual decision and general statistics will not paint an accurate picture for a given student. A straight-A student with an “average” test score should not jump to submit; more often than not, that student is still better off withholding for any school (of course, this depends on extracurricular involvement, course rigor, and so forth). If you are wondering whether you should be submitting test scores to your schools, chat with us or check out our blog post on the topic: Is Test-Optional a Trap?

6. It is truly the year of the waitlist.

Again, this is something we’ve discussed on the blog before, but it bears repeating: wait lists, this year, are big. And I mean really big. Schools are putting together these lists with the expectation that they will have a low yield on admitted students, due to the fact that students applied to many more schools and that they may not have had the opportunity to visit before applying, so may be more likely to change their minds.

And in truly mind-boggling news, we know of at least one highly selective school that will not allow accepted students to deposit if they plan to remain on other school’s waitlists. Can you imagine? In a scenario like that, a student would have to choose between depositing at the one they have vs. remaining under consideration at schools they prefer. This particular school has agreed to grant some extensions to students who wanted to remain on waitlists, but it’s unclear as to how many and for how long. Insane!

If faced with that choice, my advice would be to go with the bird in hand, but this is unprecedented. It’s exactly what I was talking about last week regarding the lack of regulation in our industry, now that NACAC’s “Code of Ethics and Professional Practices" no longer exists.

If you are on a waitlist, or you simply have a lot of decision letters and are unsure what to do next, we are happy to help! In the past week, we have heard from so many brand-new Class of 2021 seniors looking for advice that we added a strategy session just for non-client seniors who need post-decision help - let us guide your next steps!

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CHECK OUT THE POSTS BELOW FOR MORE ON DATA AND TRENDS IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS!

General Education Curriculum Series 3: William & Mary

The next school curriculum we’re considering as part of our core curriculum series is at another excellent Virginia institution - William & Mary (if you missed last week’s post on UVa’s curriculum, check that out as well!). 

Luckily for all of us, William & Mary’s curriculum is a bit less complicated than UVa’s! Both schools are in the middle of shifting from one core curriculum to another, so it is important to note that the curricula we discuss in our posts are for students entering this year - current students may be following a different core curriculum. 

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All William & Mary students follow the College Curriculum. In addition to the required College Curriculum courses, students must also take one elective course in each of three Knowledge Domains. Let’s start by diving into the College Curriculum. 

Year 1: COLL 100 & COLL 150

In their first year, students are required to take one college curriculum course each semester. COLL 100 encourages students to explore “big questions and big ideas,” giving them a broad theoretical knowledge within one or more disciplines. Some examples of COLL 100 courses this year include “Selfies: Self-Representation and Mediation,” “Designer Genes,” “Earth, Science, and Society,” “Africa Rising?” and “What Can We Learn from Babies?”

COLL 150 classes are small seminars aimed at improving students’ writing and analytical abilities, focusing on more narrow topics than COLL 100. Some examples of COLL 150 courses this year include “Travel Writing,” “Emerging Diseases,” “Sports & Economics,” “Law & Film,” and “Geology & Science Fiction.” 

Year 2: COLL 200

During their second year, students need to take three COLL 200 courses, one in each Knowledge Domain (see the next section for a deep dive into Knowledge Domains). These courses are meant to familiarize students with the connections between different disciplines, highlighting similarities and differences across academic areas of study while focusing a little deeper on an academic discipline of the student’s choice. Many introductory courses meet this requirement, such as “Introduction to African Studies,” “Introduction to Engineering Design,” “Introduction to Archaeology,” “Foundations of Education,” or “Introduction to Global Health.” COLL 200 courses enable students to gain a broad foundation in different subjects, and to learn more about academic disciplines to make sure they make the right choice of major at the end of the year! 

Year 3: COLL 300 & COLL 350

Third year students are also required to take a college curriculum course each semester. COLL 300 attempts to familiarize students with the larger global community. As a result, this requirement can be met through study abroad programs, research experiences abroad, the W&M in DC program, or selected courses on campus. Many students will meet this requirement through a semester abroad, though. 

COLL 350 courses are meant to explore issues of difference, equity, and justice, and are offered across disciplines with an added component to connect course material with contemporary life in the United States. 

Year 4: COLL 400

COLL 400 is the requirement that graduating students at W&M participate in a capstone experience. This experience may include an honors program or honors thesis, independent study, research project, or upper-level seminar. 

Knowledge Domains

To meet the COLL 200 requirement, students at W&M are required to take one three-credit course in each of the three Knowledge Domains:

Arts, Letters, and Values asks students to look at their own and others’ values and how they are expressed and evaluated. This requirement is met by courses in the arts, English, philosophy, or music. 

Cultures, Societies, and the Individual is a domain that explores human cultures and how they develop and interact. Courses in cultural studies, anthropology, economics, history, politics, religion, or psychology often carry this designation. 

Natural World and Quantitative Reasoning is the domain that includes many hard sciences and mathematics courses. Students can take a class in chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, kinesiology, or psychology to meet this requirement. 

Proficiencies

Yes, there’s more! In addition to the College Curriculum, there are certain proficiencies that William & Mary students also have to meet in order to graduate. The difference between the proficiencies and the rest of the curriculum is that most proficiencies can be met by classes that students took in high school or AP credits, so it is possible for a student to come in having met two of the three proficiencies already (this is how Shannon entered William & Mary, and she was very excited that she didn’t have to take a college math class!).

The Foreign Language Proficiency is met if a student has already taken four years of a single language in high school. If you haven’t done this (and we think you should!), the proficiency can also be met through AP or IB credit or by taking a 200-level language course at William & Mary. Students whose first language is not English can petition for an exemption from this requirement. 

The Math Proficiency can be met by AP credit for calculus or statistics. If a student does not complete calculus or statistics in high school, they can meet this requirement with ANY William & Mary math course (for students who are less than enthusiastic about math, might we recommend “Math-Powered Flight”?). 

The Creative and Performing Arts Proficiency is the one that does need to be met through a William & Mary course. Students can take a two- or three-credit course in music, dance, art, drama, or creative writing to meet this requirement. 

As always, we’ll highlight three key takeaways from this curriculum:

1. You are in the same boat AS YOUR PEERS

Unlike UVa’s curriculum, there is really only one pathway through William & Mary (unless you are in a special program like the joint degree programme with St. Andrews). That means that you will be able to share interesting theories you learned in COLL 100 with your freshman roommate, or commiserate over the heavy COLL 150 writing load together. This type of curriculum, with small required seminars, can really help students to connect with others in their class year who are taking some of the same required courses.

2. But you still have options!

As with UVa’s curriculum, none of the William & Mary requirements are met by only one course. In fact, the number of courses that restrict a student to pursue one particular discipline are very few (only three courses total over the four-year period). That means that you can meet the requirements with the classes that are most interesting to you, while still gaining a breadth of experience early on to help you explore new disciplines and select your major.

3. HIgh School Courses Help

Believe me, it is really nice to get to college and realize that those foreign language and math proficiencies are already taken care of! While a strong curriculum can definitely help you in the admissions process, it is also worth putting in the work to get those requirements out of the way and build more flexibility into your schedule (did we already mention that Shannon didn’t have to take a single math class in college??). 

In case you missed it, don’t forget to check out our series kickoff post about undergraduate curricula!

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Weekly Update: April 9

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to our students who received the last of their RD decisions this week - you did it!!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

LAST ROUND OF DECISIONS IS IN

After the Ivy League’s delayed release date of April 6 and Stanford’s April 7 release, all decisions are finally OUT! This has been a particularly difficult admissions cycle, as we’ve now said a million times, but you can see the hard facts on College Kickstart’s admissions results list. Those are some tough numbers! Regardless of the decisions you received, I want to be able to celebrate, commiserate, or strategize with you, so if you are a current client - let me know how you’re doing!

WAITLIST NUMBERS EXPLODE THIS CYCLE

This has been an extraordinary year for waitlists - the record numbers of applicants, combined with test-optional admissions and schools’ concern for yield numbers, have led to extensive waitlists and a lot of uncertainty. The Washington Post quoted UVa’s Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts, who reflected: “I’m not sure I’ve ever gone into a summer so uncertain about what is going to happen.” Well said - same here!

If you are one of the students who received a waitlist decision, check out our blog post about handling difficult decisions - and get to work on that LOCI (unless you’re waitlisted at UVa - they don’t want these letters)! Need help with your letter of continued interest? Book an appointment with us and we can walk you through it. 

TOURS AND INFO SESSIONS RESUME

Many schools have brought back some form of on-campus tour, and more than a few have brought back info sessions or one-on-one meetings with admissions counselors as well. This is great news for Class of 2021 students trying to make a decision before May 1 as well as Class of 2022 students who are still putting together their college lists. That said, visit options are changing all the time, so make sure to check your schools of interest before booking those summer trips!

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ACCIDENTALLY ADMITS 500,000 STUDENTS

It does seem like every year we hear about some unfortunate admissions errors! The University of Kentucky sent acceptance emails to 500,000 high school seniors for its selective College of Health Sciences program, which typically admits only 35-40 students per year. Luckily, most of the students who received the email were not interested in the program - and had not even applied to the university! So while this was a big error, it doesn’t seem like there will be too many disappointed students once everything is cleared up. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The miniscule admissions rates at top colleges this cycle are prompting a lot of thoughts about how to expand the number of students who are able to benefit from an education at an elite school. Should Harvard admit more students? Should Stanford create a second campus? And here’s my biggest question - would Harvard and Stanford even be as attractive to applicants if they weren’t as selective? While some of these ideas might drop the schools a rank or two in U.S. News, it does seem like a good trade-off for expanded access. We’ll have to wait and see whether this incredibly selective admissions cycle has any real impact for Ivy League schools in the long-term future. 

We are only beginning to understand some of the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One seems to be a decrease in young adults interested in becoming teachers. Teaching as a profession has been upended this year, and as a result, teaching programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level are seeing a drop in enrollment, while applications for organizations like Teach for America are also down. On the other side, attrition of teachers has increased with all of the uncertainty the profession has seen this year. This is just the latest decline in an industry that has been slowly losing candidates since 2006, and we’ll be watching to see whether there is a rebound from this latest drop.

You may have heard this week about the absolute chaos at Notre Dame Law School. Students were warned via email that they needed to deposit before the deposit limit was reached, or they would be unable to secure their spot. In just six hours, Notre Dame Law filled its class and all admitted students who wanted to consider other options, were unable to pay immediately, or just didn’t check their email were moved to the waitlist. This situation clearly disadvantaged students who did not have the money to deposit immediately, as well as those who did not have reliable internet access or work during the day. 

This instance of inequity in the admissions process is just an indication of a larger underlying problem. With everyone in our industry occupied with COVID-19 in 2020, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling slipped a major change under the radar because of pressure from the DOJ: they replaced the required "Code of Ethics and Professional Practices" with the optional "Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission." The situation at Notre Dame may just represent the beginning of what’s to come, now that less regulation exists in the admissions space.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

I’m coming at you from Day 2 of a spontaneous road trip back from Florida on I-95. We had plane tickets and decided to drive at the last minute so my daughter wouldn’t have to quarantine for a week. I have seen a lot of teenagers in college gear at rest stops, which makes me so happy! Although - pro tip, don’t go crazy with the sweatshirts until you have an acceptance letter in hand next year!! ;)

Still not sure what to do this summer? Many of our students have reported great experiences at Cornell’s Precollege Summer Program, which will be holding an information session next Wednesday, April 14 at 8:00 pm. The application deadline is May 17, so interested students still have plenty of time to get an application in (or book a session with us for some help!). 

Closer to home, JumpStart NOVA is providing graduating seniors with the opportunity to take two free courses at NOVA this summer and get ahead on their general education requirements. Interested students should apply by April 30. And if neither of these options work for you, check out the summer college courses list on our Summer Opportunities Database for some more ideas! 

Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!

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General Education Curriculum Series 2: UVa

We are continuing the curriculum-focused blog series that we began last week with our first deep dive into a school curriculum: UVa!

UVa is the perfect school to start with because they have a wide variety of core curriculum options within one school - some that are open to all students and some that are application-only. Keep in mind that we are only going to look at the requirements for the College of Arts & Sciences, so the information in this post may not apply to your specific situation. 

Buckle up, because this is about to get complicated.

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To start with, UVa’s core curriculum has three components. It is helpful to become familiar with the three components at the start, because each of the available curriculum pathways incorporates some variety of these components. 

The curriculum components are: Engagements, Literacies, and Disciplines. 

Engagements

The College of Arts & Sciences defines Engagements as “small, seminar-style courses that put you face-to-face with many of UVa’s leading scholars and teachers…they ask big questions, and invite you to think and talk about what you know and value.” Sort of reminds me of UVa’s “flash seminar” essay question, if you remember that one!

There are four Engagements: Aesthetic Engagement, Empirical & Scientific Engagement, Engaging Difference, and Ethical Engagement.

To meet the Engagements component, all first-year students must take one 2-credit course in each Engagement. Here are some examples of Engagement courses from the 2020-2021 academic year:

Aesthetic Engagement: “Are Movies True?” “Art: Inside/Out,” “The Aesthetics of Trauma,” “The Politics of Popular Music,” “On Ghosts”

Empirical & Scientific Engagement: “The Big Bang,” “Poverty Counts,” “Thinking Like a Scientist,” “Why We Hold Hands,” “Exploring Your Genome”

Engaging Difference: “#StayWoke,” “The Individual & Society,” “Other People’s Music,” “Unnatural”

Ethical Engagement: “Mortality & Morality,” “Ethical Dilemmas and Science,” “What is Engaged Citizenship?” “Why We Work,” “The Ethics of Piracy”

With me so far?

Literacies

The next component, Literacies, “equip students with the necessary skills and fluencies needed to succeed in a rapidly-transforming world.”

Literacies has three aspects: World Languages, Rhetoric for the 21st Century, and Quantification, Computation, and Data Analysis. Students must achieve intermediate proficiency in a language and take 6 total credits (or two courses) in each of the other literacies. 

The Rhetoric for the 21st Century literacy is met first by a first-year “Writing and Critical Inquiry” seminar, and second by a more subject-specific writing course or an advanced writing seminar. The Quantification, Computation, and Data Analysis literacy requirement is met by many mathematics and statistics courses, as well as logic-heavy classes in other disciplines - such as Statistics for Psychology or Symbolic Logic for Philosophy. 

Disciplines

If you’re caught up on Engagements and Literacies, we’ll move into the third and last component: Disciplines. Defined as “the varied ways our faculty approach knowledge, learning, and discovery,” the seven disciplines more or less align with core academic subject categories.

The Artistic, Interpretive, & Philosophical Inquiry requirement can be met by many courses in cultural studies, anthropology, art history, studio art, drama, music, creative writing, literature, history, media studies, philosophy, political theory, religion, and more. 

The Chemical, Mathematical, & Physical Universe requirement can be met by courses in the hard sciences, such as astronomy, chemistry, physics, and environmental science, as well as mathematics courses.

The Culture & Societies of the World requirement can be met by many courses in cultural studies, anthropology, history, politics, sociology, and religion, as well as global studies courses across many departments. 

The Historical Perspectives requirement can be met by many history classes, including art history, as well as American History and other cultural studies courses with a historical focus. It can also be met by English courses that focus on historical works (like Shakespeare), as well as historically-focused philosophy, religion, and politics courses. 

The Living Systems requirement is looking for biology, chemistry, psychology, or environmental science courses, as well as select courses in anthropology and physics. 

The Science & Society requirement can be met by a large number of economics courses, as well as certain classes with a scientific focus in anthropology, philosophy, and sociology, and some select environmental science classes.

Lastly, the Social & Economic Systems requirement is fulfilled by a huge number of courses in economics, politics, and international relations, as well as some classes in anthropology, cultural studies, history, sociology, psychology, and media studies. 

BA candidates must earn 3 credits (usually one course) in each discipline, by taking courses across at least 6 different departments. But for BS candidates, the disciplines are a little more complicated. BS candidates can take 9 credits in disciplines 2, 5, or 6, and double-count one 3-credit course to meet both 3, 4, and/or 7. BS candidates must take courses across 5 different departments.

If that seems like a lot of information, that’s because it is! But don’t worry, students will have academic advisors who can help guide them through this process (and as previously noted, we have helped students with this kind of thing for years as well!). But at this point, if you’re thinking okay, I get it, I just have to take all of those courses… - nope! There are a few different pathways through the curriculum at UVa, some of which require separate applications and others which are randomly assigned to students in the incoming class. 

Here are the two most common options to which incoming students are randomly assigned: 

Engagements

Nope, this is not the Engagements component from above - this is Engagements pathway.

Students in the Engagements pathway take courses in all three components described above, and they take the credits exactly as we listed. That was easy! 

Disciplines Plus 

Students in the Disciplines Plus pathway do not take Engagements component courses at all. Instead, they fulfill their requirements through 30 credits of Disciplines courses. In addition to the requirements described above, they take an additional course in Discipline 1, an additional course in 2, 3, or 4, and an additional course in 5, 6, or 7, for a total of 9 additional credits (or three additional courses). They complete the regular Literacy requirements as detailed above. 

When it comes to these two pathways, students are notified of their randomly assigned pathway in May. Current high school seniors can apply to switch pathways between May 22-June 1, 2021 by submitting a 500-word statement detailing why they wish to switch.

In general, students who enjoy debates and discussion may prefer the Engagements pathway, while students who prefer a more traditional lecture approach to coursework may prefer the Disciplines Plus pathway. Regardless, students seeking to switch pathways need to make sure that their 500-word statements show that they clearly understand the differences and have well-thought-out reasons for seeking these changes.

But didn’t I mention more applications earlier? You bet!

There are two more selective approaches to the general education requirements at UVa, as well:

Forums

Forums are made up of 40 students who take a tailored group of courses around a particular topic or theme. Forum faculty select the courses that students will take over their first two years. In addition to this selection, students must also complete the World Languages and Rhetoric for the 21st Century requirements. All Forum students must take a required forum class for the first two years in addition to other required courses. Forums in 2020 included “American Dreams,” “Information and Disinformation,” and “Democratic Statecraft.” Students apply separately to this program in the spring before they enter UVa. 

Echols

Echols Scholars are exempt from General Education requirements entirely, though they must complete them in order to transfer outside of the College of Arts & Sciences. First year Echols Scholars also participate in the living-learning community and receive priority registration. Students also have the option to declare the Echols Interdisciplinary Major. Students are selected as Echols Scholars by the Office of Admissions when their applications for admission are reviewed, without a separate application. However, students who are not initially selected can apply for admission during their second semester, with the application deadline in May of their first year on Grounds. 

Whew! If your head is spinning, you’re not alone. Let’s highlight three key takeaways from the College of Arts & Sciences’ curriculum:

1. You’ve got options!

While this list of requirements may seem daunting, students really do have a lot of flexibility to complete core classes. There are a huge variety of classes across multiple departments that fulfill most of the requirements, so you have some structure while still being able to take classes that interest you.

2. You can explore

Despite all of the flexibility mentioned above, the College of Arts & Sciences does require that students take classes across five or six different departments! This means that you can’t stick too close to your comfort zone, so you can explore other things while still playing to your strengths. For example, an English major who loves to write could explore courses in history, anthropology, and philosophy while a chemistry major who loves science could focus on fulfilling her requirements in physics, environmental science, and psychology. And if you want to take something totally outside of your field, you have that option too! 

3. You need to know this stuff

Once you are on campus, you will have an academic advisor who will help to guide you through your course selection. However, there are 12 advisors for all 12,000 or so Arts & Sciences students at UVA, so you will definitely still need to keep track of requirements on your own. You also need to be aware of the pathways with May due dates - often, these can sneak up on students who don’t think they need to worry about course selection until August! You don’t want to miss out on any interesting curriculum opportunities.

Still feeling overwhelmed? Book a strategy session with us to begin mapping out your four-year curriculum plan. We can help you make the best course selection choices for your goals! 

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Weekly Update: April 1

We will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday, but don’t worry - we’d never leave you hanging on the weekly update! Here it is a day early..

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

PANDEMIC IMPACT ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

There is no getting around the fact that the transition to college can be difficult for many students. This is often the first time that students live away from home, and the increased independence can also sometimes feel like the loss of the support system that they’ve had throughout high school. While colleges try to make mental health resources easily available to all students, mental health on college campuses has been a big concern in recent years, and is only increasing with the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Make sure to check in with your new college students this fall, even if they are still learning from home!

BROWN UNIVERSITY VOTES FOR REPARATIONS

Over 2,000 undergraduate students at Brown voted last week on the question of whether students who are descended from enslaved people should receive preference in the admissions and financial aid process. Over 80% of students voted yes. While the vote does not directly impact the school’s policies, we will be watching to see what the administration does in light of this overwhelming support for reparations from students.  

STUDENT ATHLETES TRANSFER IN RECORD NUMBERS

Why have college coaches and sports journalists been glued to the NCAA’s transfer portal this cycle? The portal, which lists student athletes looking to transfer, is not new - it debuted in 2018. But what is new is the potential change in the NCAA transfer rule. Up until now, athletes in certain sports like football and basketball were required to sit out for a season as a penalty for transferring schools. But now, the NCAA is scheduled to vote on a change to the rule that would enable these students to transfer once without penalty. The vote was originally scheduled for January, with the new rule taking effect in August 2021. Though the vote has been pushed back, students and coaches anticipate that this new transfer rule will still apply to the 2021-2022 school year - and as a result, we may see a LOT of transfer movement from student athletes. 

WATCH OUT FOR FAKE COLLEGES THIS APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

Have you heard of the Southern Rhode Island Institute of the Arts? Us either, because it doesn’t exist! Some high school seniors blew off steam during this more-stressful-than-usual admissions season by creating a fake university, complete with a website, mascot (the soft-shell crab), and emotional admissions acceptance videos. Hopefully, “SRIIOTA” creates a bit of fun for other students as well! 

IMPORTANT VACCINE DEVELOPMENTS FOR ADOLESCENTS

Lots of great news this week on the vaccine front! First, the Pfizer vaccine was found to be 100% (WOW!) effective in adolescents ages 12-15 - and no major side effects occurred. According to the New York Times, middle and high school students may be able to be vaccinated by the end of the summer, followed by elementary students.

For our sophomores through seniors, some very promising news out of Gov. Northam’s office today - all individuals ages 16+ will be eligible to register for the vaccine later this month! Shannon and I actually just wrapped up a meeting in which we were discussing our own reopening plans. Right now it looks like our clients prioritize having in-person essay coaching meetings vs. in-person college counseling meetings, so we plan to start with those this summer with our vaccinated students as we begin the transition back into a new normal. We’ll be in touch with more information for our Class of 2022 families over the coming month.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The pandemic has made boarding school seem like a very attractive option for many parents and students. For students unable to attend classes in person in their local schools, boarding school provided the opportunity for face-to-face learning. Boarding schools, like selective colleges, have seen a rise in applications this cycle as students and families look for a chance to get “back to normal” in a new environment. 

We have a lot of personal and professional boarding school experience here in our office: in addition to working with a lot of boarding school clients (both in terms of admissions and exmissions), clients who have seen the banner over my desk know my Choate pride! What you may not know is that Shannon is also a boarding school alum - she graduated from Andover, where she also gave admissions interviews and evaluated candidates for admission. And Staci also has a substantial amount of experience teaching and working at boarding schools!

If you are considering a switch for your student during this difficult time, book a strategy session with us and we can help you think through your options and the boarding school application process. For some students, repeating junior year or pursuing a post-graduate year can be the right choice on the journey towards college - particularly if athletic recruitment is involved.

And if you’re just plain interested in what boarding school life is like, add All Girls: A Novel to your summer reading list. E! Online noted, "If Gossip Girl meets Curtis Sittenfield sounds like your jam then All Girls is extremely your jam. [E]ngrossing.” Gossip Girl and Curtis Sittenfeld are very much my jam and I can attest that it was a page-turner for sure - but it went deeper than that. It led me to reflect upon issues of consent and institutional betrayal, along with the anxiety, pressure, and expectations that are so present in the lives of teenage girls. If UVA keeps their long-time Arts & Sciences essay prompt for the upcoming application cycle, this book could lead to a very compelling response.

On Choate’s campus in Fall 2019 - the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Many students come to us looking to pursue business-related careers, and investment banking is a big one. But this passion may have dimmed this week in light of multiple reports from young Goldman Sachs analysts about the dangerous workplace culture at high-level firms. As cultural norms shift, more young people become much more interested in work-life balance and a healthy mindset than making a lot of money - and larger firms may find that their work cultures have to keep up.  

There have been a lot of waitlist-related blog posts this year because the uncertainty relating to COVID  made the current admissions cycle the unofficial "cycle of the waitlist" in highly selective admissions. I'm actually going to take this opportunity to proactively share a piece with which I do NOT fully agree and I think should be read with some caution, especially because it's on a very popular admissions blog that I normally love and recommend to families all the time. 

In The Waitlist. Why?!, Georgia Tech's Rick Clark shares some very helpful background about waitlists, including why they are needed and how they work. He's spot on about a lot of this, including the need to deposit elsewhere, the slim chances of waitlist admission, and the fact that no amount of begging (or yummy cookies!) will supersede institutional priorities. But I don’t agree that demonstrated interest doesn't matter. In my own experience, time and time again, demonstrated interest actually matters a heck of a lot more in a waitlist situation than at any other point in the admissions cycle. 

This is because admissions officers at many schools are often instructed to recommend waitlist admission for a certain number of students that meet the institutional priority criteria. For example, "Find me 5 female chemical engineering majors from the Mid-Atlantic." In these situations, I cannot emphasize enough that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the metaphorical grease. That doesn't mean you should go crazy, but you also HAVE to make sure you're "known" - in a good way - to get one of those coveted spots. After all, there might be 100 chemical engineering females on the waitlist from the Mid-Atlantic! 

My experience has been (time and time and time again) that once it gets to this point, demonstrated interest actually outweighs any other factor - because every student on the waitlist has already been deemed to be qualified. At this point, the admissions committee is primarily concerned about yield protection and only wants to admit students who they are sure will accept the offer. While it obviously doesn't work like this at Georgia Tech, it does at the vast majority of other institutions.

Anyway, I’m concerned that families could get the wrong idea from this post. One of my fellow educational consultant buddies was so surprised to see this advice that she actually started a text chain with a group of us about it the other day to make sure that she wasn't losing her mind (we all agreed: she wasn't!).

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Speaking of Rick Clark, Shannon was able to chat with him and several other admissions officers at an Atlanta-area counselors event. Rick mentioned that Georgia Tech has not yet decided whether to be test-optional for next cycle, so we will have to wait on that news for Class of 2022 applicants. The admissions officers at the event also spoke about the “demographic cliff” that they expect to see in the next few years, when 15% fewer students are expected to graduate high school and apply to college. Some schools may admit more students over the next few cycles in an effort to combat this anticipated drop in applications. 

This year, however, applications are up - but attendance may not be. Georgia State is up in applications and admits, but actually down in students who have deposited or registered for orientation. This suggests that while students may have applied to more schools this cycle, they still have to choose just one, and schools like Georgia State are often dependent on waitlist releases from more selective state schools like UGA and Georgia Tech.

Speaking of UGA, this has been an incredibly difficult cycle for students from out of state. We have already told our students who were admitted that they should be very proud of themselves!! For students who are still waiting, UGA plans to release their waitlist by the end of June or early July. 

We have been hearing from several of our students about the grading changes at FCPS this semester, which will let students change F grades to “NM” (no mark) and C or D grades to simply Pass. While some students and families may see these changes and think of them as a positive in the college admissions process, students should assume that any information about grading provided to them is also provided to admissions officers. In other words, colleges will know that an NM grade is on the transcript instead of an F, and that a P likely means the student received a C or D in the class.

The upshot is that these grade changes won’t really make a difference for a student in the college process, and the same is true of grade changes at other high schools. Some students think that if they have a 4.0 GPA, for example, they should select for even A- grades to be reported pass-fail to keep the GPA intact. But keep in mind that colleges may see that “P” in the context of the information provided by the school and wrongly assume that the student’s grade was much lower. If current clients have additional questions about grading options for this year, please feel free to reach out to us. Or better yet, book an academic coaching session to learn about how we can help your student stay on track and out of a grading dilemma!

Lastly, we are so excited to announce the opening of our new and improved Membership Vault! If you are looking for a DIY approach to the college admissions process, the vault is for you. And if you are a current client, you have access to the vault (with easy, one-stop access to all of our many resources) automatically included in your package.

Current clients should check their email for an access code, and others can learn more or register for membership on our Membership Vault page.

Enjoy the weekend, and a very happy Easter to those who will be celebrating! I will be out of the office during the week ahead, but Shannon will be holding down the fort!

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General Education Curriculum Series 1: Understanding Undergraduate Curricula

Many of our seniors have already committed to their schools for next year - hooray! At this point in the cycle, we tend to get a lot of questions from students about how to approach their freshman year. Soon, students will receive information about housing, course registration, healthcare, orientation, recommendations for sorority recruitment… no wonder it can get overwhelming! 

[Side note: if any of our current seniors do need help with this, let us know and we can assist! We don’t typically advertise this but we help a whole bunch of students each year with all of the above upon request! Just last week I had a meeting with a graduating senior to start mapping out her four-year plan at UVa, which inspired this post!]

At the same time our seniors are getting bombarded with course registration information, our juniors continuing to plan their lists, and many don’t have a sense at all about why it’s important to pay attention to the types of general education requirements that their schools of interest have.. let alone the differences between curricula and figuring out where their own preferences come in to play!

In our new midweek blog series, we’ll be covering some of the different general education requirements across several different colleges and universities. But to kick it off - what are general education requirements, anyway?

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The answer definitely depends on the school. At some colleges and universities, there are certain required courses that every single student must take. At Notre Dame, for example, every single student on campus has to take the Moreau First Year Experience course during the fall and spring of their freshman year.

At other institutions, there are types of required classes (i.e. students must take one history class, one math or science class, etc.), but within that category, there’s a lot of variation between the flexibility offered. At Vanderbilt, every student needs to take a lab science class - that’s hardcore for a non-science major - but there’s choice involved because the students can pick from chemistry vs. biology and so on. Other schools approach the idea of choice from a more flexible and liberal standpoint, with a lot of options for courses that fulfill a very broad requirement (so students can take the Mathematics of Flight instead of Linear Algebra if that is more their speed!).

There are also schools that have only a few requirements, typically including one or two writing-intensive courses and a language requirement, but no other general education requirements. And finally, there are the supremely liberal schools which don’t have required classes at all! 

But that isn’t all that students have to consider. Sometimes, specialized colleges, divisions, or programs within a university will have their own curricula that are separate from the general curriculum of the institution (our post next week on UVA’s curriculum will offer some examples of this from a liberal arts standpoint). This is true in many schools’ pre-professional divisions; for instance, during the first year of an engineering or business program, most students take a very similar course load before choosing a specialty in their second year.

So with all that confusing information, is it really worth the time it takes for prospective students to parse through the curriculum options when choosing a college? YES, YES, and YES! At the end of the day, this is one of the criteria that is most going to impact your college experience. Here are some things to think about when deciding which undergraduate curriculum is right for you:

1. Do you know what you want to study, or do you need more time to explore?

Students who are eager to jump right into specializing in their field might get frustrated with a core curriculum - why am I taking this history course if my true passion is engineering?? These students might look for schools that will allow them to focus on their major right from the beginning, with fewer breadth requirements. 

Some students don’t know exactly what they want to do, or they want to consider a few different options. Students like this might benefit from the structure of the core curriculum, that will allow them to stretch in new directions and take classes that they might not have considered on their own. The core curriculum can really aid students in discovering their passions and strengths! 

2. Do you like to forge your own path, or do you thrive under structure?

At a school like Brown with an extremely open curriculum (which we’ll describe in more detail in a later post!), students really need to be self-motivated in order to make the most of their opportunities. For a student that does not have a clear vision for their college experience, this huge amount of choice can feel more overwhelming than exciting. It’s like the college version of the menu at the Cheesecake Factory!

For students that like more structure and guidance, especially in the first year or two at a new place, required courses (such as a mandatory, small-sized freshman seminar) can make it more comfortable to ease into course selection and meet classmates. If everyone on your freshman hall is taking some of the same classes, it gives you something to bond over while working on those papers! 

3. Do you intend to pursue more education after college?

Some post-graduate programs, like law school or medical school, will have particular classes that they want to see on a student’s transcript. While pre-professional advisors on campus can help with that, it is important for a student who is interested in further education to make sure that their intended school’s curriculum provides them with enough flexibility to take the courses they need, and enough structure so that nothing gets left out. 

4. Do you really struggle with certain subjects or really find success with others?

If having to take a math class is going to ruin your entire first semester, it is better to know that sooner rather than later! While some schools have so many options for their requirements that any student could find something that would enjoy, others really stress a breadth of knowledge. Only you can know for sure whether having to take a certain class is a dealbreaker for you when thinking about your college of choice. 

5. Do you like to be pushed outside of your comfort zone?

Some students who answered “yes” to the question above may still be better served by a core curriculum which allows them to push out of their comfort zone and expand their knowledge base. Some core curricula even include experiential learning opportunities, like internships and community service experience, as part of the requirements for students to graduate. If you are someone who really likes to take on new adventures, but isn’t sure quite where to start, a core curriculum that forces you to move outside of your comfort zone could be for you! 

In every single one of our initial brainstorming sessions with students, we bring up these issues. One thing we’ve learned is that curriculum considerations can present a brand-new idea for many students - but we hope that as you’ve read this post, you’ve discovered that it is worth doing the research!

One important thing to remember is that wherever you go to school, it is unlikely that the core curriculum will look like what you are used to from high school. Rather than only a handful of courses to choose from, you may have hundreds, and you likely will have a lot more flexibility in your schedule - even at the school with the most strict requirements (looking at you, Columbia!). 

You might also surprise yourself. When I applied to college, I was positive that I wanted a flexible curriculum because I knew exactly what I wanted - and didn’t want - to study. I am one of the only people I know who never took calculus (yep - in high school or college!) and I was dead set against going to a school that would require me to take specific courses. But then I ended up changing my entire major and undergraduate division because I fell in love unexpectedly with the subject matter from the ONE course that Wash U did require. Go figure, right?

Whatever curriculum you choose, we hope that your college experience will open doors and let you explore new subjects as well as specialize in something you love. 

Stay tuned for an in-depth look at the curricula at some of our students’ top choice schools!

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Weekly Update: March 26

We are so excited for this spring weather! We hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the sunshine.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

JMU AND UIUC JOIN THE COMMON APP

YES! We cannot tell you how excited we are to see JMU join the Common Application this cycle, along with the University of Illinois and over 30 other colleges and universities. This addition will definitely make it easier for our students to apply to these schools, and will save students and families a lot of time! Now if UT Austin could hop on board, all my application dreams would come true…

ADMISSIONS STATISTICS CONTINUE TO COME IN

We’ve reached that point in the year where new regular decision releases are happening every day, and as a result, we are starting to see more statistics come in for this year’s admissions cycle. Check out this list for some of the overall admit rates that we’ve seen so far this cycle, including a recently released 19% admit rate from Boston College, 21% from UVA, and a miniscule 4% from MIT! Dean J also released a more detailed breakdown of admissions statistics at UVA that encouraged students not to pay much attention to that 21% average. Instead, students should look to two different admit rates - 28% in state, and 17% out of state - since residency is such a large factor in UVA admissions. 

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY REQUIRES VACCINES IN THE FALL

Rutgers was the first college to announce this week that they will require students to be vaccinated in order to return to campus this fall. Other schools are also considering how they will encourage students to pursue vaccination - Dickinson State in North Dakota will not require vaccinated students to wear masks on campus. UNC, Michigan, and the UC schools have said that they are not currently requiring students to be vaccinated, while Notre Dame has not yet decided on a vaccine mandate. 

Most colleges already require students to have certain vaccinations in order to attend: MMR, meningitis, and Hepatitis B vaccines are commonly mandated before students arrive on campus, so there is some precedent for the Rutgers requirement. We’ll wait and see if other schools follow suit! 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear the case of NCAA vs. Allston, which addresses the question of whether lucrative NCAA programs should compensate their players. This article breaks down why the NCAA’s refusal to pay players may be a violation of federal antitrust laws. If the Supreme Court agrees, it could mean a lot of changes for Division I college sports - but it is unlikely that this will happen.

We’ve covered before how colleges are using mass testing to try to keep students safe on campus. But colleges are not bubbles, and even if students are being tested regularly, there is a chance for spread in the surrounding areas. This New York Times article argues that colleges (and other businesses) would benefit from increasing mass testing not only for students and employees, but for the surrounding community as well.

While many schools are opening their doors for the first time, some have already been open for months, and there are definitely some lessons to learn from how they have managed the pandemic. This article has some interesting things that have been discovered from in-person learning, some of which go against conventional wisdom (for instance, that it is actually safer for students to have fully in-person classes rather than hybrid, since students who split their time are exposed to more people). 

We love Coursera! The site offers free online courses in hundreds of subjects, and it is a great way for students to delve deeper into subjects that interest them, as well as displaying an interest in those subjects to colleges. This course on the science of well-being was a popular one for our students this year, and according to this New York Times article, over 3 million people agreed! We really recommend this course not only to students but to anyone who needs to focus more on well-being these days.

We found this Atlantic article interesting because it shows how oftentimes, what parents and even students themselves think is the problem with their learning, the actual problem is even deeper. These parents are concerned that their student isn’t remembering what he learns, but the article suggests that maybe he isn’t actually learning it in the first place - the issue isn’t with memory, but with comprehension. This is a really common issue that can make it difficult for students to find the help that they need with learning in the classroom.

As an academic coach, Shannon sees this kind of confusion all the time! That’s why in her first session with a student, she always takes the time to ask questions and get to the root of the problem. We recently had a parent tell us that she is GREAT at asking the right questions! If you are looking for extra support in the classroom, you can hear more about how we can help by booking an Academic Coaching Meet & Greet.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

2021 is quickly shaping up to be “the year of the waitlist.” A lot of students learned decisions this week and will continue to hear decisions next week. Remember that in a waitlist situation, a letter of continued interest is EXTREMELY important! For tips on writing an effective LOCI, check out our blog post. And if you are a student who received a decision that wasn’t what you hoped it would be, read this! If you are a client who received a waitlist decision, please let us know so that we can support you. If you are not a client but are looking for some extra help, book a strategy session with us!

And adults, we know it is difficult, but the best way to support teenagers during this time is refrain from asking them about decisions. Of course, that doesn’t apply to your own children - but if your group of friends agrees not to ask each other’s children about their decisions, it takes the pressure off for all of them. While we know this is a tough process, and a rejection is absolutely not an indictment of the student, many students still feel shame over a deny decision, so try to respect their space during this part of the process. 

For those who are itching to get out and visit colleges - today is the LAST DAY of Amtrak’s big Northeast Corridor sale on train tickets. This is a fantastic sale that we wanted to let you know about - only $19 for a ticket to NYC! The sale applies to trips taken before September 30, so this is a really great deal for students planning to visit colleges in NYC, Boston, or anywhere in between over the summer. 

Shannon has been really enjoying conversations with students and families during drop-in hours (especially when she gets to talk about her alma mater, William & Mary!). Have a quick question about your course schedule for next year, or having difficulty completing a form or research assignment for us? Drop in on Thursdays between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm and Shannon is happy to chat with you and get you on the right track. 

Have a great weekend!

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A Day in the Life, Part II

Shannon is joining us again today to share her perspective from a day in the life here at DC College Counseling - truly, there is never a dull moment!

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If you have been following us for a while, you may recall Colleen’s blog post a couple of years ago giving a glimpse into a day in the life of our office! Today, I wanted to share my version of a behind-the-scenes look at how we do things here at DC College Counseling.

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7:00 am -

My alarm goes off. The first thing I do is check my email, to make sure there is nothing urgent to address. Thankfully, no crisis today! One of my favorite things about working at DC College Counseling is the later start time, because I am able to get through my morning routine. Every morning, I meditate, do some yoga, and get my workout in - this is really such important time for me. 

As I have breakfast, I check some email and send off a couple of quick responses. I also log into our project management system, Asana, to see my tasks for the day and start to create a plan of action. While I try to keep some balance in my work life, I usually can’t resist getting a head start by completing a couple of quick tasks in the morning. It makes me feel that much more prepared for my day.

10:00 am -

11:30 am -

Head to the office. We need to be available after school to meet with students, so my day in the office doesn’t start until noon on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’m a podcast junkie, so my 15-minute commute is the perfect time to catch up on the news with The Daily or get a glimpse into the world of owning a small business (considering that I work at one!) with Stacking Your Team - check out this episode featuring Colleen!  

11:45 am -

Arrive at the office. Honestly, no matter how hectic my day is about to be, I always get a little wave of calm from walking into our office - it’s just so beautiful! The first time I came in, I was thrilled to see William & Mary represented on our wall. Colleen is already busy meeting with a client, so I’ll have to check in with her later. On days like today, both of us have so many meetings it is hard to find a spare minute!

12:00 pm -

I’m starting the day by adding content to our monthly newsletters, so that our current clients can get some important information from us and our prospective clients can learn more about our process. I am especially excited to spotlight some of our college profiles for our Class of 2022 and 2023 students. I’ve been working hard to build up our profiles library for our clients. Get a sneak peek of this month’s featured school, the University of Richmond.

12:30 pm -

In my first meeting of the day, I’m working with one of our clients who is applying for an MBA program. I really enjoy working with our graduate school and transfer applicants, so I’m excited to get into another MBA application.

Colleen and I are both vaccinated, so we don’t have to wear masks in the office anymore when it’s just the two of us here! The rest of our team has not been vaccinated yet and are still fully remote.

1:30 pm -

Jumping out of Meeting #1 and straight into Meeting #2! Another current college student looking at graduate programs.

2:30 pm

Quick break for lunch. On a nice day, I love to order from Zoe’s Kitchen - so close to our office, and it is great to get outside for a little walk in the middle of the afternoon :)

2:45 pm -

Fire off some more emails and reminders to current clients.

3:00 pm -

Back to my meetings - a couple of brainstorming sessions with Class of 2022 students. I prep for each meeting by looking at their college preferences, so I can come prepared with some good matches to add to the list. I love this part of the process, and it really helps me get to know all of our clients as we start to build their college lists. 

6:00 pm -

Wrap up meetings for the day - phew! Double-check that all of my detailed recap emails have gone out to each student, and they have all the information they need to complete their action items. Reward myself by raiding the candy jar - one of the best DC College Counseling perks!

I swear there’s some chocolate at the bottom somewhere!

6:05 pm -

Update our Summer Opportunities Database with some new opportunities that have come in throughout the day, and add in some others that I found interesting.

Colleen finishing up some last emails before heading out - we try to stagger our schedules to offer more availability to our clients!

6:15 pm -

Record some instructional videos that we can add to the website to help our clients with systems like the Wow Writing Workshop - now that Common App essay topics have been released, we want our students to be able to hit the ground running!

7:00 pm -

I like the opportunity to turn my attention to some longer-term projects and ideas once things quiet down a bit and I have the time. We have some great stuff coming your way, including my drop-in hours pilot and academic coaching sessions. We are also working hard to launch our new and improved Membership Vault this spring!

A lot of really great information is coming your way!

8:00 pm -

Finish up any emails that have come in later in the evening and head home!

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Weekly Update: March 19

We hope everyone had a happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great week (and isn’t too tired from springing ahead)!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

REGULAR DECISION RELEASE DATES

It is that time of year again - many of our students are receiving regular decision news from colleges! Fordham, American, Bucknell, Northeastern, and Dickinson were among the colleges to release decisions this week, and we expect to hear from UGA, Swarthmore, UCLA, and Boston College today! For more updates on release dates, we recommend following College Kickstart’s list - it is updated almost every day with new information. 

US CANCELS DEBT FOR STUDENTS OF FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES

For-profit colleges in the US have a long history of taking advantage of students, and the Department of Education has decided to forgive $1 billion in debt for students who have been scammed by these institutions. DOE will also work with these students to improve their credit after carrying loans from these private, for-profit college systems. 

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

CNN released an interview with the Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management at NYU, discussing the impact of the pandemic on college admissions. As we’ve recounted on the blog before, schools that interest our students are seeing huge application increases (17% at UVA; 42% at Harvard; an enormous 103% at Colgate!). 

But community colleges and other institutions are seeing enrollment fall due to COVID-19, and are providing incentives like debt forgiveness and extended application deadlines to encourage students to enroll. Mills College, a private women's college in Oakland, CA, is the latest institution to close its doors due to economic struggles caused by the pandemic.  

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

This week saw the release of Netflix’s Operation Varsity Blues on Wednesday - check it out! This interview with one of the creators is also worth reading. Those who made the movie believe that with the notoriety around the scandal, this type of “side door” into college admissions will never open up again. I hope this is the case! We were also excited to see other independent consultants featured in the film… and thought it was funny that we got invitations to some watch parties this week! Maybe we will host one ourselves :)

Schools across the country (and here in Fairfax!) are starting to reopen, and some students are headed back into the classroom for the first time in a year. This New York Times article captures some of the excitement and nerves that students are experiencing during this time, as well as some of the safety measures that schools are taking right now in line with new CDC guidelines on the reopening of schools.

This WSJ article provided more information that aligned with the interview above, including raw numbers. I liked the quotation from Sam Bigelow from the Middlesex School, who disagreed that test-optional admissions is ”tipping the scale on access and equity.” He noted (and I completely, 100% agree with this): “More than anything else it’s just making these applicant pools disturbingly big. It’s by and large just making more kids for them to reject.”

And as our juniors are busy with their college essay work, this piece from the New York Times gives a great sampling of college essays from the Class of 2021. I enjoyed reading about the breakdown of topics submitted:

The coronavirus was the most common theme in the essays submitted to The Times, appearing in 393 essays, more than 40 percent. Next was the value of family, coming up in 351 essays, but often in the context of other issues, like the pandemic and race. Racial justice and protest figured in 342 essays … Family was not the only eternal verity to appear. Love came up in 286 essays; science in 128; art in 110; music in 109; and honor in 32. Personal tragedy also loomed large, with 30 essays about cancer alone….Some students resisted the lure of current events, and wrote quirky essays about captaining a fishing boat on Cape Cod or hosting dinner parties. A few wrote poetry. Perhaps surprisingly, politics and the 2020 election were not of great interest.

All things being equal, I maintain that it’s better to break away from trends in essays if possible. I definitely remember how tedious it felt to read the same type of essay over and over and over again when I worked in admissions. That said, I understand that all things aren’t always equal, and sometimes writing about a popular topic is the right choice for a given applicant.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon attended a series of talks this week for CACHET Counselor Conversations, learning more about many different STEM programs. We are definitely starting to see how different schools will handle testing going forward - as we anticipated, extremely selective private schools and large state schools will be looking to use testing in admissions as soon as possible, while other institutions may leave it behind for good. MIT will be placing “more weight” on APs in admission than in the past in the absence of SAT Subject Tests, while WPI has shifted from a test-optional to a fully test-blind model going forward. Case Western expects to admit more students than last year and see a lot of waitlist movement to make up for a smaller class in the previous cycle, while Purdue does not expect to see much if any waitlist movement for their engineering program. 

One thing we were happy to learn was that this cycle overall, as a Purdue admissions officer put it, was the “most empathetic review” of student applications that many of these schools have ever done, taking into account the impact of COVID-19 on applicants. Want to learn more about the STEM programs who make up CACHET? Check out their Virtual College Fair for students March 29-31. 

If STEM programs aren’t your thing, there are still plenty of upcoming college fairs to check out. Register for the National Catholic College Admission Association fair on March 25, or the Colleges that Change Lives fair on March 23-24. 

Lastly, this blog post would feel incomplete if we did not mention that we were deeply saddened and angered by the events in Georgia this week. We stand in solidarity with our many AAPI clients and the wider Asian community. If you are looking to do more to combat rising anti-Asian violence, we recommend participating in this free bystander intervention training or making a donation to one of the organizations on this list to support Asian communities.

Enjoy your weekend! 

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Creating Your Four-Year Plan

As we’ve mentioned here before, a strategy session for an 8th grade student can be an incredibly valuable way to set yourself up for success in this process. Some advice that we always give these students is to start creating a four-year plan. Yes, that’s right - make a plan for all four years of high school, now! 

This can seem really overwhelming for a lot of students and families. Several weeks ago, we had a parent reach out to ask if we had a template that families could use to create this type of plan. Our first thought was, why didn’t we think of that?? (We LOVE getting great suggestions from students and parents, so if there are materials or tips that would be useful to you in a future blog post, let us know!)

So here it is - our DC College Counseling Four Year Plan Template!

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Wondering why it is necessary to come up with a four-year plan? For families with middle school students, it can be difficult to see the big picture, but the truth is that for better or worse, the curriculum students take in middle school will set them up for high school, college, and beyond.

Students who are successful in Algebra I in middle school, for instance, will be primed to jump into high school geometry as freshmen and more advanced math courses in subsequent years. This is especially important for students interested in math or engineering, who will be expected to take calculus before entering college.

Making a four year plan is the best way for you to see where you will be when you graduate high school and start college, and it helps you be prepared early for the admissions process. 

This slide from Shannon’s recent presentation on Academic Planning for Middle School Students at the College of William & Mary shows how a very advanced student in middle school will be able to take highly advanced math courses as a high school junior or senior.

If you’re convinced that you need a four year plan, you might be wondering: where do I start?

First, look at the requirements and typical progression for courses in your high school. Depending on whether you are at a public or private school, you may have very different options and expectations for courses.

If you have a dream college or program in mind already, take a look at the college’s requirements too - many schools will want students to have three to four years of all their core subjects, including a language.

And if you are debating transferring from a public to a private school or vice versa, comparing the curricula is a great way to assess rigor and how each school will prepare you for college. 

Once you have a sense of the courses available and typical progression, you get to the fun part: what do you love to do? Are you passionate about science? English? History? Choose your passion, and let it guide the courses and extracurriculars that you participate in throughout high school.

Now is the time to start thinking of yourself as an “expert” - how can you explore and deepen your knowledge throughout your time in school? Our template provides reflection questions that you can use to think more deeply about your interests and how you can explore them fully as a high school student. 

We hope that this resource helps you break down the next four years and think clearly about your passions and goals.

Questions about how to make a plan? Book a Grades 8-10 Strategy Session now, or let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear your ideas for future posts and other content that you and your family would find helpful. 

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LOOKING FOR MORE INFORMATION FOR K-12 STUDENTS? CHECK OUT THESE POSTS!

Weekly Update: March 12

We hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful weather!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UMD CONFIRMS TEST OPTIONAL FOR 2022 AND 2023

The University of Maryland is the latest school to announce that admissions will be test-optional for the classes of 2022 and 2023. They specify that students who choose not to submit test scores “will not be disadvantaged” in the admissions process. Living-learning programs and merit scholarships will also be test-optional, though the English proficiency test requirement will remain in place. 

AN INTERESTING SPRING BREAK IDEA

We’ve written before about the variety of plans that colleges and universities have this semester to prevent students from traveling for spring break. From starting in February, to ending in April, to giving students single days off throughout the semester rather than a week-long block, we thought we had seen it all. But UC Davis has a different plan - offering $75 gift cards to local businesses as a “staycation” grant to 2,000 students who agree to stay on campus during spring break. That’s one way to incentivize students to follow CDC guidelines!

TJ ADMISSIONS LAWSUIT 

Last Wednesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against Thomas Jefferson High School, alleging that the school’s admissions policies are discriminatory against Asian-American students. This comes after new admissions criteria were put in place for TJ’s incoming class of 2025. These changes include increasing the class size, eliminating the application fee, and no longer requiring teacher recommendations.

This case definitely recalls the affirmative action case against Harvard, as well as those that other Ivy League schools have faced recently. For more of my thoughts on these cases, you can check out my Newsy interview on our Facebook page!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

This article by Jeff Selingo examines the future of admissions in light of all of the changes we have seen during the pandemic. One of the things that is most fun (and most challenging!) about this work is that things change all the time, but Jeff thinks that some of the changes will stick. Here is an excerpt from the article: 

"The numbers from this year’s early-decision rounds were reaching high-school seniors just as many of them were applying for regular decision. For a certain set of prospective applicants — namely upper-middle-class and wealthy students — the early numbers seemed to indicate that applying test-optional might be the way into a selective college."

Key word here - SEEMED! Sure, the early numbers seemed that way to applicants, but that’s not necessarily what they actually said. Test-optional admission alone in the absence of other positive attributes wasn't enough to help a typical upper middle class or wealthy applicant gain admission to a selective college. As always, our current clients should speak with us first before deciding whether the test-optional route is the best choice for them, given their applicant profile. 

Quite an article from The Atlantic this week - “Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene.” I was actually interviewed for this piece last summer, though not ultimately quoted. COVID-19 has definitely thrown the major differences between public and private schools into the spotlight this year, especially as schools have decided whether or not to offer in-person instruction. 

It is worth noting, though, that just because more private schools send students to highly selective colleges, that isn’t necessarily about the school - it could be about the student. The sort of highly-motivated, full-pay student who attends an elite private school is often the same type of student who is admitted to an Ivy League school. The article also mentions the endowments at Exeter and Andover without noting that these schools, like Harvard and other Ivy Leagues, are also need-blind, admitting students regardless of demonstrated financial need. 

But it was a funny read nonetheless and I love the author. This was my favorite line:

College admissions is one of the few situations in which rich people are forced to scramble for a scarce resource. What logic had led them to believe that it would help to antagonize the college counselors? Driven mad by the looming prospect of a Williams rejection, they had lost all reason.

Tongue-in-cheek, but also SO TRUE. As I’ve said before, a student’s [school-based] college counselor at school plays an essential role in the admissions process. This is NOT the person to antagonize, trust me!

Bad news for some class of 2021 students from the Wall Street Journal - college wait lists are likely to be longer than ever this year. This is in part because schools, concerned about pandemic yield numbers, have chosen to be conservative with admissions (which may mean that more students are admitted off the waitlist in the end). But it could also be a symptom of the sheer numbers of qualified applicants that applied to highly selective schools, just the latest sign of a crowded playing field. 

This is also a great reminder to NEVER DOUBLE DEPOSIT - not only could it end with two rescinded offers of admission, but you may be taking a spot from another deserving student who won’t be able to attend that college because the school didn’t have an accurate idea of enrollment numbers until it was too late. 

Something else that can lead to rescinded admission: not being careful with your social media use. Check out our blog post from earlier this week, from guest blogger and hiring expert Jayana Garvey, for more tips about keeping your social media in tip-top shape.  

Students might enjoy this list of secrets and surprises from former college admissions officers. There is some great insight here, but keep in mind that some of these come from admissions officers at less selective schools and may not be true about the schools where our students apply. Legacy students certainly aren’t always accepted (though for more on the impact of legacy status, check out this blog post!) We definitely hope that students keep #15 in mind: “One thing that’s really important to know is that at schools with really low acceptance rates, probably 50-60% of the applicants are equally qualified, and only 5-10% will be admitted.” So true! You can only control what you can control - at some point, even the most qualified applicants are relying on luck! 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are really excited to introduce a new offering to past, present and future clients alike - academic coaching! We've proven that breaking down the college admissions process into manageable chunks makes it more successful and less stressful. Now we are officially helping students from ninth grade through graduate school approach their regular academic work in the exact same way! Check out yesterday’s blog post to learn more about this offering and set up a session.

Lastly, I couldn’t finish this without acknowledging the one-year “Covid anniversary.” Exactly a year ago today, March 12, was our last normal day seeing clients in the office. I wish I had something meaningful or insightful to say about the past year, but nothing could come close to capturing the challenges we have all faced. From a business standpoint, though, everything has moved forward so seamlessly and I’m incredibly grateful for that. And we are so close to the finish line now!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Introducing: Academic Coaching!

We are so excited to formally announce a new offering to our high school clients starting this spring - academic coaching! Shannon is an experienced academic coach and looks forward to working with our clients in this capacity.

Many of our students struggle with executive functioning challenges, and we have been so grateful for the opportunity to support them throughout the college application process. Families have seen what a difference it makes for their students to have us acting in the role of “project manager” and breaking daunting tasks down into manageable and accessible chunks.

Over the years, families have noticed how effective our method has been for their students and asked for our assistance outside of the active stage of the application process - helping students to develop their skills so they are more successful in high school with much less stress.

With so much interest, we decided to transition from offering this service upon request to including it among of our formal service offerings!

Think your student could be a good fit for academic coaching? Keep reading to learn more!

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What is academic coaching?

Academic coaching is offered to help high school students who struggle with time management, organization, study skills, or academic anxiety. Our process gets to the root of a student’s difficulties and equips them with the practical tools they need to be successful in managing their workload, in their current academic stage and beyond! 

What isn’t academic coaching?

Academic coaching is not a replacement for psychotherapy! Coaching focuses on helping students implement actionable skills to achieve specific academic and personal goals. A coach is not a teacher or tutor - instead, a coach is a partner in helping your student be successful. Coaching can work in tandem with psychotherapy, medication, and other strategies as part of a treatment plan - or just by itself.

Academic coaching is also not subject tutoring. We will not work with your student on a paper, or teach them math skills - instead, students will learn organizational and time management skills that can be applicable across any academic or professional discipline. We can also work with an existing tutor or academic support professional to provide the best possible coaching for your student. 

Who could benefit from academic coaching?

Academic coaching is helpful for a range of students. Students with executive functioning difficulties, including those caused by ADD/ADHD or ASD, are great candidates for coaching. High-flyers who struggle with test-taking or other forms of academic anxiety can also learn coping skills from working with a coach.

Some students only need an hour or two of coaching on a periodic basis, to get them on track during busy weeks like finals, or through a recovery period from an illness or injury that led to missed schoolwork! Our flexible options let you choose what works best for your family. 

DOES THE STUDENT HAVE TO BE A CLIENT OF DC COLLEGE COUNSELING TO PURSUE ACADEMIC COACHING?

While academic coaching is open to current, past, and future clients, it’s also open to students who have no affiliation with us. The services are completely separate.

What does a typical academic coaching session look like?

This is a hard question to answer, because we hope that our sessions look like help to your student - and every student’s needs are different! Here are some things that might happen in an academic coaching session:

1. We work with your student to plan out their schedule for the next week - when and how they will complete their homework, as well as any upcoming major tests, projects, or papers 

2. We work with your student during a busy time of year, like finals, or after they are injured and are struggling to catch up with work. We help them to plan out a schedule to get through their busy season, and look ahead to what is coming up next! 

3. We help your student come up with a plan to tackle a particular project, like studying for a major exam or writing a paper. We break the project down into manageable steps, then build a schedule to guarantee that it is completed on time. (Does this sound familiar? Yes - we can teach students to approach ALL projects just like they approach the college admissions process!)

4. We work on study skills, test-taking strategies, or suggestions for note-taking in class or while reading. Working on these skills now will leave your student ahead of the game in college, where many students will arrive without ever really learning how to study. 

5. Anything you need it to look like! Is your student having trouble sending an email to a professor or signing up for a time to meet with their academic advisor? Stop nagging and let us step in. We can provide support for a variety of executive functioning challenges as well as academic anxiety - feel free to reach out to us to learn more about how we can support your family.

Packages and Fees:

Our flexible packages let you choose the best fit for the needs of your student and family. 

HOURLY COACHING - Introductory Rate of $200/session on an as-needed basis

WHAT YOU GET: 

• One-hour student coaching session to discover and address particular needs and challenges. 

• Follow-up email including any materials or strategies covered during the session, along with tips and instructions for implementing them at home. 

• One fifteen-minute follow-up phone call to check in on student progress and make changes to strategies if necessary. 

MONTHLY COACHING - Introductory Rate of $600/month with minimum commitment of three months

WHAT YOU GET:

• Monthly parent meeting to talk about student needs and parental concerns. 

• Weekly one-hour student coaching sessions to discover and address particular needs and challenges. 

• Follow-up emails after each session including any materials or strategies covered during the session, along with tips and instructions for implementing them at home. 

• One check-in text message each week to remind student of important tasks and deadlines. 

• One check-in parent text message each week to further discuss student’s progress.

Shannon loved her work as an academic coach at Boston College before joining our team, and is excited for the opportunity to support more students in this role!

We are so excited to introduce this additional way to provide support for our students, and help prepare them to take the next step in their education.

Questions about academic coaching? Reach out to Shannon for more information.

Ready to get started? Let us know you’re ready for monthly coaching and we’ll send a contract your way, or sign up for a one-time coaching session here.

Social Media, College, & Careers

This week, we have our promised guest blog post! Recruiting and hiring guru Jayana Garvey is here with us today to share some great tips for cleaning up your social media.

While Jayana’s primary focus in this post is on the hiring process for a student’s first job or internship, everything she says is applicable to the college application process as well!

Think we’re exaggerating? Check out this timely article from this week’s Washington Post about the impact that the use of social media can have on your college applications.

And for other potential red flags for admitted students (yes, even after you have been admitted!), don’t miss last week’s post on staying out of trouble.

Now, here’s Jayana!

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Do my social channels matter while I’m in high school and college? Can they impact my career search? 💯yes.

Studies show that 70% of employers are using social media to screen candidates during the hiring process. Some companies and organizations certainly will and others follow strict protocols and only look at a candidate’s application in their system. You’ll never know for sure because every organization has different policies and processes related to their recruiting.

I would encourage today’s high school and college students to look at ALL their social media accounts as fair game for ANY recruiter or hiring manager (or admissions counselor!) to potentially come across.

In my campus recruiting days, I could tell you about several college students who were in the running for prestigious leadership programs and were denied due to questionable content on their social media. It came up in many discussions with career services at universities.

It came down to this: recruiters were simply not confident that the individual could have a professional presence at work with an unprofessional, public, social profile. That immediately made the candidate lose credibility. Right or wrong about your character, it clouded a hiring manager’s view of you immediately and made them question their decision.

Remember, they are generally only going by one page about you and an hour spent with you. Employers are looking for a variety of competencies when interviewing you and assessing your candidacy. These could range from leadership skills, teamwork, your ability to collaborate, handling change, technical expertise, and so on.

You want an employer to stay focused on your application and interview - not to get distracted with a poor decision online that may jeopardize the stellar resume you’ve worked so hard to develop!

So how do you know what is OK and what’s not?

A good rule of thumb is to not post updates or share content on social media that you would not feel comfortable having a future boss see.

Use that as your litmus test. It’s an easy way to think before you share, comment, upload a photo, or like content. 

There will likely also come a time where colleagues at work may become friends with you on social channels and have a deeper view into your personal life.

Of course, you don’t have to accept everyone, but I’ve been on teams where it’s common and others where you would never be connected on personal social accounts with a boss.

Every single company culture and team culture is different. It’s best to begin preparing now. And if you’re reading right now and thinking about certain posts, TikTok videos, or Insta photos in your head that you might not be so proud of, it’s never too late to clean up your online presence and prepare for your future job search (Note from DCCC: This is also true about preparing for your college applications!).

Sure, you may be thinking some of this sounds overkill, and I get that! Our work and personal lives are becoming very blurred nowadays and are continuing in this direction. If you think about years ago when people went to work and didn’t have a laptop to bring home - work stayed at work. We now have remote work, colleagues as friends, and social media mixed in. This creates an entirely different environment - something your parents didn’t experience when they were applying to their first jobs out of school. 

Of course you can never control the social media trolls on your pages or crazy Aunt Sally’s comments on your photos, but how you interact with them and respond is key.

You may want to lock down certain profiles to keep them more controlled while being more discerning about who you accept as a friend. You may even want to take it a step further and approve tagged photos/timeline posts for example (if you’re on Facebook). Again, some organizations will look at things and some will not. You’d rather err on the side of caution. 

I’d also recommend being mindful of what you post on your personal social pages vs. what you post on LinkedIn. As you begin creating your professional presence on LinkedIn, you’ll want to keep it just that - professional. It’s not the page for a long vacation reel, tons of political posts, or controversial topics. People go to LinkedIn for work related topics, idea sharing, job searches, and business connections.

The few people who are sharing content not aligned with the general purpose and intention of LinkedIn always stand out on the newsfeed - and not in a good way. 😀 Yes, it’s OK to share some personal stories and information on LinkedIn too, but there should be a thoughtful connection to your professional life (generally). 

So we talked a lot about mitigating your social media working against you. It is absolutely a powerful tool to work for you in maintaining personal and professional connections and showcasing your “brand” as a prospective employee. If a recruiter or hiring manager goes to channels you choose to keep public and sees insightful content, industry articles, and friendly conversations with followers, they may feel even better about your candidacy by seeing you interact with others with varying viewpoints in a professional manner.

Now let’s contrast that with someone having a Twitter war with poor tone and dropping f-bombs with their followers. That may be an indication of how you would interact with your team members who might challenge your ideas or not share the same perspectives. Your creativity, professionalism, and intelligent conversations can boost your candidacy. 

In the end, you want social media to accelerate your applications, your job search, your candidacy, and your eventual career - not put opportunities to a halt! Think about what you have today and whether you need to tune things up now to help make that happen. You got this! 

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Weekly Update: March 5

Happy March - and happy (part-time) BACK TO SCHOOL to our FCPS students! Wow - talk about the longest spring break ever :)

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

TOP 20 MOST EXPENSIVE COLLEGES

The cost of college attendance gets a lot of attention, but the fact is that many schools offer both merit- and need-based aid, so the advertised cost of attendance may only be paid by a fraction of students. A more relevant measure for most students is the average price that students pay for their education, calculated by CTAS Higher Ed Business. The University of Chicago, for example, has the highest cost of attendance at more than $80,000, but most students do not pay this full cost. The “real” most expensive school in the US? Wake Forest, with an average cost of nearly $63,000 per student. 

Three schools near the top of the list - NYU, BU, and USC - have students paying a premium for their locations in major coastal cities. NYU, benefitting from an influx of applications like so many top schools this year, may even shoot to the top of the list as we get more data. 

IECA RELEASES NEW STANDARDS

As we’ve written on the blog before, DC College Counseling may not be the right fit for every student looking to work with an independent counselor. However, if you are a student looking to work with someone outside of your school counselor, make sure you do your due diligence! Shannon and I are both members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), which means that we are required to uphold certain ethical and professional standards. Anyone can call themselves a counselor - look for outside accreditation and experience so you can be confident in the person that you are trusting to help you with such an important life decision!

The IECA recently released new “We Believe” standards in the wake of the Varsity Blues scandal. We stand behind all of these standards, but our favorite has to be #2: “We believe independent educational consultants should act respectfully, honestly, compassionately, ethically, and professionally with every student.” 

OPERATION VARSITY BLUES ON NETFLIX

Speaking of Varsity Blues, we’re excited to check out the new Operation Varsity Blues movie when it premieres on Netflix on March 17. The movie recreates conversations recorded through FBI wiretaps during the investigation, and it is definitely disturbing to hear some of what went on during this scandal.

RICE INTRODUCES BUSINESS MAJOR

Rice University will be introducing an undergraduate business major this fall! This is really exciting for students who have been interested in the incredible STEM programs at Rice and want to be able to further develop their business skills. And since we have a ton of students every year looking for business programs in the South, we’re glad to have another alternative to recommend! Since the school is trying to fill the major with incoming students and current freshmen, fewer students will be eligible - meaning that a student who is interested in the new major might have a slight admissions advantage at this extremely selective institution.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We try to help our students develop the skills they need for college as they work with us throughout the process, but we know that students need a variety of different levels of support to be successful as they move on to this next step. For parents that have been really involved in supporting their students, it can be challenging to get them ready to work on their own as college students. We found this Atlantic article to give some really helpful strategies for parents to help their students improve executive functioning skills in advance of heading to college. As an executive functioning coach, Shannon definitely agreed with all of the tips in the article! And if you want to learn more about how our process can help your student develop self-advocacy, make sure to book a Meet & Greet with us!

One of the most common questions we’ve received during the pandemic is how students can complete community service or volunteer projects while staying safely distanced. Our Summer Opportunities Database is a great resource for these types of opportunities, but for more ideas, check out this New York Times article about how teenagers managed to volunteer this year despite the new challenges. These students phone banked, organized, tutored, and completed other amazing volunteer projects this year.

Interested in a particular organization or nonprofit but not sure how to start volunteering? Our favorite tip is to reach out to the organization and ask them what their needs are right now. Then, you can create a proposal for volunteer or internship experience that meets those needs. This method demonstrates initiative and also makes the choice to take on a volunteer or intern a no-brainer for these organizations!

We know that it has been difficult for students to feel that they really got to know a college during a virtual tour. All the Zoom videos tend to blur together, and students are savvy enough to know that admissions officers are intentionally presenting an overly positive version of the student experience. This Washington Post article illuminates just one of the student-led virtual tour companies that ask real students, unaffiliated with the admissions office, to reveal their perspectives on their school. Check it out! Some of our other favorite resources for student voices are Niche and Unigo, and we always encourage you to connect with current students or alumni at schools that interest you - if you don’t know someone personally, your high school counselor may be able to connect you to a former student. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

One of the best parts about having Shannon on board in our office is that we can be so much more available to our current clients! Starting next week, we are introducing a month-long pilot of drop-in hours, where current clients can hop into a Zoom meeting to ask Shannon a quick question or provide an update without booking an appointment. Drop-in hours will be from 11:30-1:30 on Thursdays, so parents and students can feel free to pop in during their lunch break for a quick chat with Shannon. This video will show you how to access drop-in hours:

I appeared on Newsy last Friday to discuss the Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard case and the potential implications that the reversal of affirmative action policies could have on the college admissions process. Watch the entire interview on our Facebook page.

And lastly, a really exciting opportunity for FCPS students to pursue a leadership role - serving as Student Representative to the School Board. Current 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students can apply now to represent student interests to the School Board. 

Have a great weekend!