Early Decision?

Greg & I discussed whether he should apply for 'early decision' yesterday so I spent some time looking into it. Here's what I'm thinking/have concluded at this point:

• If there's one school you really have your heart set on, there's no downside to applying early decision (assuming they offer it). The obvious benefit is that if you get in there, no more admissions effort!


• If there's more than one school you're interested in, then the downside of going 'early decision' on one is that you can't choose early decision on the other(s), and if you get in to the school where you applied 'early', you're obligated to go there. When you apply 'early' you are asked to affirm that you're only applying early to one place, and most early decisions are binding.


• If the financial aid package is critical for your decision, and you need to compare it across schools, then 'early decision' is probably not for you. There are a couple of variants of early decision (early action and restrictive early action) that provide some leeway for folks in this situation.

Some other factoids: Early Decision application deadlines seem to be around Nov 1, with decisions published mid-December. There are three possible outcomes: accepted, denied, deferred into the regular decisions process. In some cases there seems to be a slightly increased chance of acceptance if you apply early (see Duke below).

Here's what Stanford and Duke say on their admissions sites about early decision/action:

Facts About Stanford’s Restrictive Early Action Program
Stanford’s Restrictive Early Action program is a program for students who know, at the time of application, that Stanford is their first choice – and not a program that should be used as a strategy for admission. This is the design of a Restrictive Early Action program versus a more open Early Action admission program offered at other institutions. Because a student's financial aid offer is often a critical factor in making a final college choice, Stanford's Restrictive Early Action program provides time for families to consider financial aid awards from multiple schools before making a final commitment to enroll. Applicants must agree to only submit one Restrictive Early Action application. Applicants are allowed to apply for Regular Decision admission at any number of other colleges and universities.

Duke EARLY DECISION
This option is suited for students who are sure that Duke is their first choice among college options; who have established strong and consistent academic records throughout secondary school; and who will have completed all the required standardized testing by the end of October. About 10 percent of our applicants apply under our Early Decision plan. There is a slight advantage in the admissions process to applying Early Decision. Early Decision candidates must be willing to attend Duke if they are accepted in December. Students admitted under this plan may be released only for compelling financial reasons and may not reapply to Duke under the Regular Decision Plan.

This Week's New AdmissionsDirectory Resources (8/31)

Here are the resource entries that have been added to AdmissionsDirectory.com over the past week:



Ivy League College Admissions Early Decision Class of 2009
AP Credit Policy Info - Advanced Placement Program - AP Policy Search
Top Liberal Arts Colleges By Salary Potential
Value of college tuition is called into question - USATODAY.com
Student Action Plans
High School Senior Action Plan
College Guide: Financial Aid for the Middle Class
Are Big Name Universities Worth the Money?
SAT scores stay at lowest level in nearly a decade
The 12 Top College Rivalries in the Country
Five Lies About the SAT Test Newsweek Education Newsweek.com
New SAT: Just So-So at Predicting College Success Newsweek Education Newsweek.com
Eight tips to getting financial aid for your child
Essay Advice from an Expert
Acing Your College Interview
The Alumni Interview
Resume Writing 101

This Week's AdmissionsDirectory Entries

Last week I announced AdmissionsDirectory.com and summarized the new resources that had been added to it during the previous week. Here's an update of everything new that has been added since that post:

The College Essay Season Begins!
The Real ACT Prep Guide
A Simple Comparison for SAT and ACT Scores
That Student Loan, So Hard to Shake
Essay Insights from a Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
Teacher Recommendation Insights from a Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
ACT vs. SAT Overview
ACT vs. SAT: Test Structure & Content
SAT Versus ACT FAQ
C2 Educate - Be Smarter
College Admissions Guides Student Action Plans at How to Get into College
Early Decision/Early Action: Benefits and Drawbacks
Early Decision and Early Action
Advanced Placement: A detour for college fast track?
Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report
SAT Word Bank
Alex's Illicit Guide to Medical School Admissions: a Trusted Source for Premed Students
Brickfish Competitions
FIRST Robotics
Acing the College Application: How to Maximize Your Chances for Admission to the College of Your Choice
MIT-ese Primer & Dictionary
Georgia Institute of Technology :: President's Scholarship Program :: How to Apply
Which Degrees Are Employers Looking for in 2008? eLearnPortal.com
Would I Succeed in an Online Classroom? eLearnPortal.com

ACT vs.SAT: Which should I take?

Greg is interested in taking the ACT test. So far I've taken the uninformed position of "why in the heck would you want to go through the pain and agony of preparing for and sitting through yet another standardized test?" Plus, don't most colleges prefer the SAT anyway?

This logic hasn't disuaded him so I figured I should become a bit more informed before the last ACT deadlines come and go.

What have I learned? First, selective' colleges (at least the 10 we've visited) don't seem to have a preference between the two tests. Most tell you to take whichever you prefer and submit the best score -- regardless of the test. In fact Georgia Tech will even take your best sub score from each to come up with a 'super score' combined from both tests. Historically the SAT has been more popular with East and West coast and more selective (read: the ivies) schools. The ACT has been more popular in the middle of the country. I still think there may be an SAT-bias among the elite schools on the coasts but I haven't found any data to support that. In fact the ACT has been growing rapidly in recent years, so it probably does come down to which test you do better on.

On that dimension the common wisdom is that 'test takers' will do better on the reasoning-oriented SAT, while kids that do well in the classroom will do better on the curriculum-oriented ACT. Accoding to this Inside Higher Ed article (8/13/08), "Many college counselors say that students who do well in high school courses but who don’t “test well” tend to do better on the ACT than on the SAT." This NY Times article takes on this question from a few other dimensions, like boy vs. girl, format, and length of the test. This Kaplan article takes a question and answer approach to helping students and parents decide between the two different tests. Finally, here's another Kaplan article that presents a factual comparison between the two tests, including links to both test services where you can register for them.

So, now that I'm more informed, what do I think? Greg does well in school and is strong in science (included in the ACT but not the SAT). So there's a chance he could do better on the ACT, even without additional preparation. So if he's willing to give up a Saturday morning, it may be a good idea to try out the ACT.

1,204 Start Vandy Applications in First Week

According the the Vandy Admissions Blog 1,204 prospective member of the class of 2013 started the Vanderbilt version of the Common Application in the first week that it was available (July 1 - July 8). This is another reminder that it's never too early for Seniors to get started working on their applications. The Common App is a good place to start since it is now accepted at 346+ schools.

On your marks, get set...

SAT Question of the Day

A good way to practice for the SAT test is to sign up for the College Board's SAT Question of the Day. For an investment of a few minutes every day you can become familiar with the different types of SAT questions, and of course practice getting them right.

As you can see from the image on the left I've been answering SAT questions daily for more than a year now (it really is me even though is says 'Greg', I swear!). After all this practice I bet I'd do pretty well on the SAT, even without additional test prep. I signed up to have the questions emailed to me every day, and it has become a part of my morning routine to answer them. Another way to subscribe is with an RSS feed.

If you sign up for an account with the College Board (which every student & parent should do anyway to keep up with SAT & AP test adminsitrivia, along with other helpful college admissions services available on the College Board site) it will keep a running tally of how you do answering these questions. I found this scorecard a useful motivator. I worked for many weeks to get my score up to 90% at one point. It also helps you see where extra preparation would be helpful. If I were going to take the SAT it's clear that I should spend some extra time working math problems, but could probably coast on Critical Reading. If you do sign up for an account it must be in the student's name, and the student can have only one 'official' account. As part of this official account a parent can be added on and can separately subscribe to the Question of the Day. Unfortunately (as far as I've been able to figure out) only one person can track their Question of the Day results per account. Greg didn't embrace this like I did which is why I hijacked his account to track my results.

Announcing Admissions Directory.com & Recent Entries

In addition to this blog I've also been working for awhile creating a new web resource to help students and parents who are interested in applying to selective colleges (colleges where not everyone gets in). The site is called AdmissionsDirectory.com.

I'm not quite ready to 'officially' launch the site yet. It's still in 'beta' shape and a little rough around the edges. But it is already a useful resource and so I'd like to share it with you. In future posts I'll talk more about the origin and concepts behind AdmissionsDirectory.com. But for now I just want to share all the content that has been added to the site in the past few days, in case some of it may be helpful to you. Every week or so I'll post a summary listing of recent additions just like this one.

Here are the recent new entries from AdmissionsDirectory.com:

Seniors: August Advice from Johns Hopkins
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=Seniors_August_Advice_from_Johns_Hopkins

$50,000 Davidson Fellowship Sholarships
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=50000_Davidson_Fellowship_Sholarships

My MIT Story
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=My_MIT_Story

Historic Boston
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=Historic_Boston

20 Most Selective Colleges and Universities in the U.S. (2007)
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=20_Most_Selective_Colleges_and_Universities_in_the_U-S-_2007

ACT Test Increasing in Popularity
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=ACT_Test_Increasing_in%A0Popularity

Forbes absurd new college ranking system
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=Forbes_absurd_new_college_ranking_system

Lessons Learned in a Risk Management Degree Program
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=Lessons_Learned_in_a_Risk_Management_Degree_Program

Small Private Colleges
http://www.admissionsdirectory.com/story.php?title=Small_Private_Colleges

MIT Admission Blog & Student Comments

As I continue to catch up on my admissions blogs this post from MIT demonstrates another benefit of following them.

It announces that MIT's online application is now live for freshmen, describes the steps to register and outlines the upcoming deadlines. By itself this would be very helpful for someone interested in applying to MIT. This information can probably be found on the MIT admissions web site, but it's here too, and it's concisely organized.

More interesting are the 146 comments to this post, largely from 'pre-frosh' -- high school students that are interested in applying to MIT. The MIT admissions blog is the most successful I've seen at building up an engaged 'community'. Many of these comments are trivial and unhelpful, but a subset enhance the original post. The blog also draws comments and answers to questions from current students. This conversation between the admissions department, pre-frosh and existing students add another resource to help better understand MIT, the school and its admissions process.

So, as you're reading admissions blogs for schools you're interested in, don't forget to look at the comments too.

While on the topic of this year's on-line applications, the UVA admissions blog announced the availability of the 2008/2009 Common Application and the UVA supplement a couple of weeks ago. If your Senior wants to get ahead, now's a good time to start filling out and applications for schools you know you're interested in (and/or the Common Application).

Greek Life and Student Blogs

I follow the Georgia Tech admissions blog since it's a school of interest for Greg. Here's a very detailed post about the sorority recruitment process -- which isn't so relevant to Greg's admission, but is interesting for a different reason.

I highly recommend seeking out and following the admissions blogs for your schools of interest. Many times they're written by students (like this post) and they give you an insight into life at the college you won't find anywhere else. I'm currently following blogs from Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, MIT and UVA. I know there are others I should probably subscribe to as well. In a future post I'll try to create a more extensive list of links to all the admissions blogs I can find.

Oh, and if you happen to be interested in sorority life, check out the link above.

Seniors: August Advice from Johns Hopkins

Greg (& I) get a bunch of unsolicited email and snail mail from colleges. I think one of us must have checked a 'yes, please send us tons of spam' checkbox as part of PSAT registration, or something like that. One day I'll count how much we've received, but I'm sure its many hundreds of messages. Most of them are from colleges we don't care about and they just get filed away. Every once in awhile they come from a school of interest, or have some good advice. We received just such an email from Johns Hopkins yesterday that has valuable advice for Seniors. Here it is:

August: Calm Before the Storm

Your senior year is going to be a whirl of activities. Everything you do this year will be geared toward two things: getting accepted to college and graduation. This month might be your last chance to quietly explore your educational options without the pressure of monthly decision-making, application writing, and examination taking. Use your time well.

Get organized. If you haven't done it yet, cut your list of schools down to around eight or 10. Look carefully at each one, matching it against your goals and capabilities. Which schools have majors that reflect your interests? Which ones look like a good fit for financial and scholarship support? Where do you feel like you could be happy?

Get started completing applications so you don't have to do it this fall. Some deadlines for scholarships (school-based and independent) are coming up fast in September and October. Get your résumé in great shape. Every application, scholarship application, and special recognition program will want a copy.

Who has the best Food? (and other 'top' lists)

While touring Virginia Tech yesterday the tour guide and admissions directors pointed out repeatedly how great the campus food was. They bragged that VT had been ranked #1 for campus food for several years, but had slipped to #3 in the most recent Princeton Review survey.

Greg, a foodie like his dad, was curious about who were #1 & #2, and if there were any 'top rated' food schools he should consider adding to his long list -- or schools already on the list that were highly ranked. So we clicked through to the link above and found that Cornell at #11 was the only one that might be helped by this.

If you're interested in other college 'lifestyle' rankings Princeton Review has compiled a number of 'best' and 'worst' lists based on student surveys. They offer this in a book, or you can see many of the lists, for free, online.

Today we tour Virginia Tech. In the next few posts I'll share our thoughts and experiences from this mini-college tour we've been on for the past few days.