While most high school students maintain an active online presence, they often have no idea that colleges are monitoring their actions and “scoring” them accordingly.
The Washington Post recently reported that admissions officers at the University of Wisconsin installed tracking software on their school website that indicated when a student visited their site, which pages were viewed, and how long the student spent on each page. Additional information profiling the student was provided, and the student was assigned an “affinity index” estimating his/her likelihood of attending the school, if accepted.
What greater holiday gift is there for a college bound student than to receive a fat acceptance letter, or a congratulatory email, from a college of choice? But in order to have a chance of getting such good news by the holidays, students typically need to submit their college applications by the “early” deadline of November 1st or, in some cases, November 15th.
Students can apply to as many colleges “early action” as they like and, if accepted, they are not required to attend. This differs from an “early decision” application which can only be submitted to one college and binds the student to attend, if accepted.
The 2020 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” – often viewed as the bible to the college industry – is about to hit the newsstands. New Jersey’s Princeton University is still in first place (for the 9th consecutive year) as the “Best National University.” It’s followed by Harvard, in second place, and a three-way tie for third place among Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and Yale. Other universities in the top 10 include University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Duke and Johns Hopkins, which tied for 10th place.
This issue marks the 35th annual edition of the guidebook which rates colleges on a wide range of criteria. For example, each school is rated on its average freshmen retention rate. This is the percent of freshmen that return to the college for their sophomore year, indicating a level of happiness or satisfaction with their college. The top 25 national universities typically enjoy first-year student retention rates of 97% to 99%.
Students planning their college years are in a unique position to make their dreams come true. By identifying what is most important to them, they can easily narrow down their college search and then live the dream – at least for their college years!
If the passion is for golf, colleges and universities with highly rated courses include Yale, Ohio State, University of Georgia and Notre Dame. If the dream is all about skiing, opportunities are plentiful for students at Dartmouth, University of Vermont, and University of Colorado at Boulder.
Myth #1: If you took the PSAT as a sophomore, there’s no need to take it as a junior.
Students who take the PSAT as sophomores, or even freshmen, are doing so strictly for practice. These scores cannot be used for any purpose, other than to indicate in which areas you need more practice. The junior year PSAT is also called the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Exam (NMSQE) and all National Merit scholarships and recognitions are based on this test. Junior year PSAT scores are also shared with colleges who use the information for recruiting purposes.
Myth #2: Colleges know how many times you’ve taken the SAT.
No, they don’t. College Board records all of your SAT scores, and when you are ready to apply to colleges you log into your College Board account and literally check off which scores to send. You can choose to send your scores from only one test date or from several. But until you pay College Board to send your scores ($12 per college), colleges have no idea of any of your scores or test dates.
As millions of students head off to college each fall, well-meaning parents often encourage them to choose the major of their dreams. Sometimes, students have known for years the particular career that would be perfect for them. Other times, students enter college “undecided” and end up making a decision as they move through their coursework. But few students realize the economic impact of their choices.
On average, an individual with a bachelor’s degree earns nearly twice the lifetime income of someone with a high school diploma. But just as significant – from a monetary point of view – is the choice of major that can either launch a student into a high paying career or leave the graduate struggling to pay off skyrocketing student debt. In fact, college graduates with the highest-paying majors earn $3.4 million more than those with the lowest-paying majors, over the course of their careers, according to a study by the Georgetown University Center of Education and the Workforce.
High school students in the midst of the college application process are most likely working on The Common Application that is accepted by more than 800 colleges, including the majority of institutions most popular with New Jersey students. It requires one essay, and students can choose from a variety of topics or one of their own creation. Due to the importance of writing an interesting, grammatically correct, essay most students get help from a variety of sources. In many schools, the writing of this essay is incorporated into the English IV curriculum with teachers editing their students’ rough drafts. Often parents, relatives or friends offer their input as well. At times, a private counselor is hired to insure that an impressive essay is submitted that is likely to garner the approval of college admissions officers. The end result, according to colleges, is that most of the essays they receive are good enough to be published. The problem: they seldom reflect the students’ independent work.
