Waiting lists are the great fear of applicants this year. With more students than ever applying to highly competitive colleges, many institutions are lengthening their already long lists, resulting in more students being wait listed. Art & Science Group, a consulting firm that advises colleges on their admissions strategies, conducted a survey of high school seniors now — when they know what the colleges they applied to have said, but before the students have told…
Not all of the most selective colleges have given out their acceptance letters yet. The Ivy League will announce Tuesday evening, but the trends are already clear. The pandemic has not hurt the college admissions; it’s helped them. It has sent them new applicants, new minority and first-generation applicants, and new attention. The results are starting to come in — and they suggest that the most selective private and public institutions are going to have…
Many are convinced that when Ivy League and other competitive colleges theoretically tell applicants if they were admitted, they actually won’t this year for thousands of students. Those students will be placed on wait lists, and while colleges are quick to say that any student placed on a waiting list could succeed at the college, many students find waiting lists particularly frustrating — arguably more frustrating than rejection. This year, wait lists are expected to…
Is early decision or early action is right for you? If you are going into your senior year, you’re probably feeling a lot of excitement and relief that you only have one more year until you’re off in the real world. Finally, no more high school. But there are some serious decisions you need to make very soon, and the best way to know where you’ll want to apply is to visit schools. First, try…
What will happen on college campuses in the fall? It’s a big question for families, students and the schools themselves. A lot of what happens depends on factors outside the control of individual schools: will there be more testing? Contact tracing? Enough physical space for distancing? Will the coronavirus have a second wave? Will any given state allow campuses to reopen? For all of these questions, it’s really too early to know the answers. But…
While there is no magic number as to how many colleges you should apply to, there are several factors you’ll want to consider when making this decision. Some schools are finding that limiting college applications to only a certain number per student can help ensure a better fit when students decide which college to ultimately attend. The College Board says that “five to eight applications are usually enough to ensure a student is accepted into…
In the fall of 2019, there were nearly 250,000 fewer students enrolled in college compared to the year before, and this is not a new trend. Over the past eight years, college enrollment nationwide has fallen about 11%. Every sector — public state schools, community colleges, for-profits and private liberal arts schools — has felt the decline, though it has been especially painful for small private colleges, where, in some cases, institutions have been forced…
When working on a grade point average (GPA), students should keep in mind that there is both weighted and unweighted scales, and understand what makes the difference. With the beginning of a new decade, high school students should feel inspired to raise their grade point average so they can get into their dream universities, whether they are freshmen, sophomores, or juniors. Starting fresh and creating new goals, or getting back on track with prior goals,…
Social media has grown into something that could make or break you in the professional world. When you first made your Facebook account and were a young teen, you may not have been thinking too hard about what you were putting online, because you weren’t aware that it could someday be seen by a potential employer. But once you begin looking at colleges and applying to jobs, it’s important to keep in mind that they…
Are you nervous about taking the SAT? When I began my junior year, my teachers and administrators flooded me with tons of information regarding the SAT. I remember walking into Barnes and Noble and seeing a huge 4-inch wide book with “S.A.T. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW” in big block letters printed on its bindings. Anxiety pulsed through my veins, and I thought to myself: do I really need that? In reality, when students begin…
