Colleges Know More About You Than You Can Imagine!

In the highly competitive race to get accepted to top colleges, local students know what they need to do: attain top grades, take a competitive course load (preferable full of AP courses) and earn impressive SAT scores.  But students often overlook a subtle, but significant factor that can make or break their likelihood of meeting with success.

High school students – masters of social media – probably have no idea that colleges and universities have turned the tables and are themselves utilizing social media to mine data on their applicants.  

“Enrollment officers at institutions including Seton Hall University, Quinnipiac University and Dickinson College know down to the second when prospective students opened an email from the school, how long they spent reading it and whether they clicked through to any links,” according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.

Be Sure To Ask The Questions You’re Wondering About

With more than 3,000 colleges across the country, the options are seemingly endless for students searching for their ideal school.  But by seeking the answers to key questions, it’s easy to start narrowing down the choices.

First of all, students who know what major they want to pursue should limit their college list to schools with a strong program in their desired field. College Board’s “Book of Majors” is a great resource for securing this information. For example, students seeking a major in Bioengineering/biomedical engineering would find a bachelors degree program available at four New Jersey schools: College of New Jersey, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers, and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Strategies to Score High on Upcoming March SAT Exam

Students planning to take the March 9th SAT – the first one of the 2019 calendar year – have just three weeks to register to take the exam (without incurring a late fee) and two months to prepare to earn an impressive score.  Many top public high schools in Central New Jersey report average SAT scores above 600 in both Evidence-based Reading & Writing and Math. These high schools include: Hillsborough, Montgomery, Princeton, Hopewell Valley Central, West Windsor/Plainsboro North and South, South Brunswick, East Brunswick, Watchung Hills, John P. Stevens, and North Hunterdon. A couple of high schools even reached or topped 1500 for combined scores. So the bar is set high for local students.

The latest SAT exam, introduced in March of 2016, focuses on three areas: critical reading, grammar and math. A key strategy, that is relevant on all areas of the test, is for students to answer each and every question (whether or not they know the correct answer) as there is no longer a penalty for wrong answers.

Plan Ahead to Guarantee a Productive Spring Break

This is the time of year – with the winter holidays a fond memory and mid-term exams looming in the near future – that students start dreaming about spring break.  While spring break is a much-needed respite to escape the academic pressures of the school year, it’s also the ideal time to visit colleges and start to identify which schools may, or may not, be potential “good fit” colleges.

Typically, colleges schedule their spring breaks in early March, while high schools hold them a little later.  This year, most local high schools have scheduled their spring break for mid to late April to coincide with the Easter and Passover holidays.  High school students therefore have the perfect opportunity to tour college campuses while classes, activities, and college life are in full swing.  By doing so, college bound students can get a good feel for a college and assess whether it meets their academic, social, and lifestyle preferences.

Freshmen Experience World Before Moving On Campus

What do Prince William, Prince Harry and Malia Obama have in common?  They all did a “gap year” before heading to college.  Their activities during this year included travel to Australia, Africa, Lesotho, Belize, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.  Taking a year to travel, pursue academic (or non-academic) interests, and delve into volunteer work before settling into college is not a new concept.  But, often, this is a luxury for children of wealthy families as it costs considerable money to support oneself, even while pursuing noble causes. 

Colleges are now looking to expand the gap year opportunity to students of lesser means.  Duke University, this year, sponsored a few dozen students who presented compelling gap year plans.  The money came from a half-million-dollar donation by a couple of philanthropists (who happen to have a daughter attending Duke) who plan to ultimately contribute $10 million to permanently endow the Duke gap year program. The couple also has a son who attends the University of Pennsylvania where they have made a comparable offer.

High School Seniors Still Have College Options

If you’re a high school senior, with hopes of attending a great college in the fall, all is not lost if you have not yet applied to, or gotten accepted to, your dream college.

While the application deadline has passed for all of the Ivy League colleges, and many other elite institutions, there are more than 500 colleges whose application deadlines for the 2019-2020 academic year fall on or after January 15th.  There are also about 200 colleges that have a “rolling admissions” policy, which means they review applications until they have accepted enough students to fill their class. 

While this is not the ideal time for college-bound students to begin the application process, those who find themselves in this boat – due to procrastination or any other reason – should follow a few guidelines.

The Impact of an Ivy League or other Elite Degree

Economists, as well as the public in general, have long debated the issue of whether or not it really matters where a student attends college. Statistics clearly cite the financial impact of attending, and graduating from, college as increasing one’s lifetime earnings by approximately $1 million.  But there is often controversy as to the importance of an “elite” degree.

An article published this month in “The Atlantic” reports that parents in the U.S. currently spend about half a billion dollars each year on independent education consultants whom they hope will help their children gain admission to the country’s most elite institutions of higher learning. (This figure does not include money spent on SAT prep, private tutoring, or travel to visit colleges.) These parents are targeting the eight renowned Ivy League colleges/universities, as well as a handful of other extremely competitive schools, for their offspring.