Summer Suggestions for Rising Seniors

In the end of school year frenzy, it’s sometimes difficult to think ahead.  But for this year’s rising seniors, planning summer activities is important.  It’s a last chance to pursue an activity or work experience before filling out college applications, and it’s also an opportunity to get organized before the hectic process of applying begins.

Before your student turns in textbooks and cleans out his or her locker, check out these reminders for the end of junior year:

Here are five recommendations for your student’s summer to-do list:

1) Get a job!  College admissions officers comment that they see fewer and fewer (middle class) students applying with job experience. Demonstrating  paid work experience is an asset to any application, plus it can be a head start on saving spending money for college.

2) Get organized for senior fall.   Sort through your pile of homework papers, tests and essays—toss most of it but keep: a file of graded essays as some colleges require you to upload a graded research paper as a supplement, any notes or tests you might need to review for AP or other exams.   Make a file or label a box in which to keep all the college literature you’re receiving in the mail and during campus visits.  Design two spreadsheets: one to compare notes on different schools and another to track your college application timeline/calendar from this summer through senior spring.  Here are sample templates:  college comparison  and application timeline.

3) Take a practice ACT exam to see if this format might be preferable to the SAT exam.  (Many students take the “practice” SAT, the PSAT during junior year.  Some take the PLAN, the ACT “practice” test.)  Check out test prep books from the library or purchase some to review for any fall exams you’ve scheduled.  There are many test prep courses and coaches available—I recommend these mostly for students who need to bolster their comprehension of an academic subject or need external motivation to study.

4) Tour local college or university campuses.  Try to visit different kinds of schools from large, urban research universities to smaller liberal arts colleges.  Take virtual tours of campuses further away or visit while on family vacations.

5) Complete a first draft of your personal statements.  You will need at least two if you plan on applying to the University of California system.  Sign up for a personal statement boot camp or consultation through Peninsula Young Writers.

COA - EFC = ??? The Financial Aid Award Letter

This is the season for college acceptances--which means it’s also time when financial aid awards are made.  If you’re like me, the whole financial aid process remains pretty obtuse. 

First of all, there are so many terms and forms to consider from COA (Cost of Attendance) to EFC (Expected Family Contribution) from FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to the CSS Profile (a not-free application for aid requested by many private schools). 

Then there is the application process itself, followed months later by sending in (before April 15) tax forms. Finally, a financial aid letter appears alongside the acceptance letter.   Now it’s time to sort out what is actually aid or grant money and what parts of the award are loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized.

I’m not a numbers whiz or a financial expert, so I’m not giving advice here.  I’m just empathizing with students and families who not only have to determine the best-fit college in these coming weeks, but

they also need to analyze their financial aid offers carefully.

Just a few observations about interpreting financial aid awards gleaned from my financial aid expert friends and workshops I’ve attended:

--Merit Aid is not Financial Aid.  Some schools, often in an attempt to raise their academic profile, offer aid or “discounts” to students with strong academic records.  This type of aid is not dependent of financial circumstances.  It can be a boon to middle class families whose children would like to attend liberal arts colleges but find them too expensive compared with state universities.

--Different schools offer widely different packages and combinations of grants and loans, as they base their decision on a variety of criteria.  And some schools have larger endowments to give from!

--The award contains aid from various “sources,” that is part of it may be federal and state grants, which aren’t repaid, part of it may be subsidized loans, which are repaid with interest after graduation, and part of it may be unsubsidized or private loans, which accumulate interest while the student is attending school.  Work-study, or the student’s on campus job, will also be included.

One example of an financial aid letter: I volunteer with a low income student through College Track, a college preparatory program that helps students from under-resourced schools perform well and apply for college.  My advisee has applied to California State University Schools as well as some local private universities.  Last week she was overjoyed to receive an acceptance from Notre Dame de Namur University until I pointed out that over $17K of her financial aid award consisted of unsubsidized loans.  For a student with an EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) of 0, that amount is untenable.

--If your student is awarded a scholarship, the amount of aid will be adjusted.  Some schools reduce the self-help (work-study) level before replacing institutional aid or grants; others don’t.

--If the financial aid letter truly doesn’t meet your student’s financial need, you can appeal.  It

helps to have offers of aid from other schools for a comparison basis.

If you need help figuring out how to finance your child’s college education, there are experts out there who can guide you.  I highly recommend my colleague Beatrice Schultz at Westface College Planning, who will not only explain award letters much better than I, but she can lead you through a step-by-step process of preparing a budget for college costs, applying for aid, and maximizing your tax savings.

When it’s time to fill out the FAFSA and CSS Profile in January, (which you/your student will need to do every year while attending college), there are also online resources to help including:

--Studentaid.ed.gov (U.S. Department of Education)

--Finaid.org (a private, non-profit website offering information on loans and scholarships)

--Bigfuture.collegeboard.org (the College Board website, the organization that administers the CSS Profile)

Thoughts on the “new” SAT 2016

The New York Times has featured several articles recently about the College Board’s decision to change the format and contents of the SAT in response to relentless criticism from students, educators, and college admissions staff among others.  In my view, the changes, mostly to the reading and writing sections of the exam, are for the better, but the reasons for the reform and the results of them might be somewhat different from what is discussed.

First, a summary of the changes:

--The essay section will become optional and will be an analysis of a passage rather than an amorphous reflection on the relevance of a quotation.

--No more abstruse vocabulary sections—instead the exam will ask students to define words used in daily and school.

--Reading passages will include texts from “founding” historical documents such as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address. Students will select answers based on evidence from the passages themselves.

--Calculators will be permitted only on part of the math sections. 

--Math sections will focus on problem solving, data analysis, algebra and complex equations.

--Tests will be structured more like “achievement” or AP tests.

--No more deductions for incorrect scores.

These are significant but not radical changes.  They will shape the test to be more like the SAT’s competitor the ACT, which has content drawn more from actual high school coursework.   In the past few years the number of students taking the ACT vs. the SAT has risen considerably, so one might argue that the College Board, the non-profit organization that administers the SAT, is responding to its competition.

Whatever its reasons for reform, the new College Board president, David Coleman, appears to be genuinely concerned with reaching more high achieving low income students, who have not had the advantage of taking prep courses for exams.  He is working with Khan Academy to develop online tailored tutorials for any student who wants to take the test, hopefully leveling the playing field at least to some degree.

A few cents of advice gleaned from reading and experience:

--Be wary of test preparation courses.  They may be helpful in instilling discipline for studying, but they cannot guarantee score enhancement.

--Consider opportunity cost.  After our daughter Lily performed much better on the ACT than the SAT, despite taking a Revolution Prep course for the SAT, she decided not to re-take the SAT, but to submit her ACT scores instead.  If your high school junior or even sophomore is currently considering either taking a prep course or re-taking the exam several times, it’s worth evaluating what is often called the “opportunity cost.”  What else might your son or daughter be doing to prepare for college instead of studying for or taking standardized tests?  Seeking new experiences whether academic or extra-curricular might be a better option. 

--Take or re-take either the SAT or ACT, not both. Lily’s high school college counselor also advises students to take the SAT and ACT each once—I think a practice test in each would suffice—and see which format works better.  Some students perform significantly better in one format vs. the other.  Re-take the test in which you performed best. 

--Consider applying to test optional schools.  Last month a new report was issued supporting the view of several test optional colleges that standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are not an accurate predictor of student performance at all.  A student’s GPA is much better.  In 2008, a number of colleges and universities began eliminating the SAT and ACT from admissions requirements.  Schools like Wake-Forest have admitted much stronger students academically since that time.  It’s worth considering applying to at least some of these schools.  

I doubt standardized college admissions testing will ever be eliminated from college admissions. But we can at least begin to diminish their outsized influence on the whole evaluation process.

Getting past disappointing Early Decision news. . .

The past six weeks have been stressful in our household--my daughter's already strenuous daily load of homework became nearly unmanageable with the addition of college applications to complete.  She's not finished yet, but several applications have been submitted and she sees light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Last week notifications of early decision and restricted early action admissions caused a lot of upheaval at my daughter's high school.  It seemed the large majority of those who applied early were deferred to the regular applicant pool--or denied.  It was both heartbreaking and heart-warming to watch the process of my daughter's friends sharing their news--both happy and disappointing. Her
friends were uniformly supportive of one another. . . but I'm sure the disappointment lingers for many.

How can we help seniors put the application process back into perspective and restore their sense of equilibrium and self-confidence?

I'd like to suggest two articles for both parents and students, which I'll briefly summarize below.

The first, "What it Takes,"was published in the Stanford Alumni Magazine November/December 2013 issue:  Ivan Maisel, a Stanford alum himself, investigates the  complex process of college admissions at highly selective schools like Stanford.  He outlines several causes for the exponential uptick in the numbers of applications these schools receive: 1) Thanks to publications like US News and World Report, "brand consciousness" has increased the perceived value of elite schools, 2) Electronic submission of college applications has also made it easy for students to apply to multiple schools, and 3) Highly selective schools with large endowments are able to offer very attractive financial aid to students who in the past would not apply because of cost.

Talking to Stanford Admissions Dean Rick Shaw, Maisel discovers that while 80% of applicants to Stanford are capable academically, even if only the very best students from half of U.S. high schools applied to Stanford (about 5,000 schools), Stanford could still only accept about half of those--or 2,500 students.  Shaw explains that there is no "formula" for admitting students, yet circumstances are important.  One year a tuba player might be high sought after for the school band, another year five tuba players might apply at the same time.  Stanford uses a committee system to ensure quality control and counteract individual bias; still, the volume of applications now means only one "read" of any given application is guaranteed--about 15 minutes of a committee member's time.  Wow. 

Aside from these statistics I suggest you read the article for its inclusion of the story of an alumnus whose daughter was rejected from Stanford--consequently devastating both her and him.  The alum's ability to recover from his disappointment provides an instructive example for all of us who secretly harbor the wish for our child to attend our alma mater.

The second article, "Surviving Early Decision Blues" by Rebecca Joseph appeared in the Huffington Post on December 13, 2013.  Joseph recommends several coping strategies among them:

--Parents need to work through their own grief and then help motivate their student to finish finals and continue the application process.
--Students should re-evaluate their college list and consider adding more schools.
--Parents should help their student recover his/ her sense of pride.
--Most important, parents need to help their student understand that he/she will find a good college fit--"it may not be their first choice, but it will be their best choice," Joseph assures us.

Hope you can take a short breather from the college application stress to enjoy the holidays.  But don't close down the Common Application account yet. . . .

"Seasoning" the Personal Statement

Over the past few months I’ve been working with numerous seniors as they draft their college essays.  Students begin and end the process at different rates and respond to deadline pressure in varying ways.  If your student is just starting to draft his or her essays now it’s certainly not too late—but I still recommend writing multiple drafts over a period of days or weeks if possible.  Here’s some advice about letting essays “season” or marinate between drafts and suggestions for “seasoning” the essay with one’s own unique voice:

1) Once you complete your first rough draft, put your essay aside, at least for a few days.  As you revise your draft, make sure you have included specific examples to illustrate any general observations you make.  In addition to showing what you did, however, be sure to explain WHY.  This explanation may be interwoven in the body paragraphs or be included as part of your reflection at the end of the essay.

2) Make sure to “go deep” in your conclusion by taking time to reflect on how a particular event, experience or relationship has affected you.  If you describe your personality traits or “qualities,” consider how these traits help define you and your values.  Avoid empty generalizations like “I learned that change is difficult” or “I know now never to give up.” 

3) Remember that your essay should reveal something about yourself that isn’t apparent in the rest of your application.  It’s not just a catalogue of your achievements or a suspenseful tale of struggle; instead, the topic you choose may highlight how you gained a skill or attitude.  Approach the essay as a chance to show an important side of your personality and or values.  Follow the advice from Tufts Admission Officer Dan Grayson who commented: “What I want to know can be boiled down to three broad categories--How do you think about yourself? How do you think about the world? How do you think about ideas?”  In other words, write not so much what you did, but HOW you have been affected by your engagement in the world so far.

4) Be careful not to let anyone who reads your essay write any part of it for you, even suggesting different vocabulary or phrasing.  Helping you cut out unnecessary, unclear or repetitive sections and correcting grammar mistakes is fine —re-writing whole sentences isn’t.  Your “voice,” your particular style of writing, is a critical part of the essay itself.  Stanford Admissions Director Rick Shaw explains, “We want to hear a 'voice'—that's a critical component.” 

5) But don’t worry about being “unique” with your topic or your approach.  Be yourself and write honestly—your uniqueness will come through both in how you reflect on your experience and in your voice.