Comfort with discomfort
This week Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times, pushing back against the conventional wisdom that high school students should look for a college where they feel "comfortable." The idea of "comfort," he argues, could be interpreted to mean finding a place where other people look, act, and think they way you do. Roth suggests thinking in another way: students should look for colleges where they will "encounter ideas and experience cultural forms that push them beyond their current opinions and tastes."
I agree with Roth's reasoning. If you attend a college that is very similar—geographically, demographically, ideologically—to the high school attended, or where most of the student thinks and behaves the way you do, you may miss out on an important growth opportunity.
That said, the optimal type of education you're looking for can be elusive and difficult to define. Diversity of opinion is a good thing generally, but diversity for diversity's sake isn't great if it isn't accompanied by critical thinking. A culture where campus activism and protests are welcomed can be a sign of robust care and concern for the state of the world, but under less optimal conditions it also can create a campus culture that is ideologically rigid. Professors who design courses to address thorny problems create a forum where students can sort through complicated issues, so long as the professor treats all thoughtfully considered perspectives fairly. Ideas should be under constant critical examination, while at the same time, individuals should always be made to feel safe.
The tricky part is knowing which campuses foster healthy intellectual debate, and which ones don't. I think Edward Fiske's annual guide to colleges does a good job of looking under the hood at campus culture. Reading the student newspaper can be illuminating if you want to get a sense of what perspectives are welcomed on campus. Colleges That Change Lives is a robust list of colleges that teach students vital critical thinking skills.
I'm here to help! Use the contact form on my website to reach out and schedule your free one-hour consultation.
College mental health crisis
According to a recent study, the majority of today's college students (more than 60 percent) meet the criteria for at least one mental health problem—a nearly 50 percent increase since 2013. The depth of these mental-health issues has become so severe that it’s affecting college students’ ability to persevere in their studies. Four in 10 college students have recently considered withdrawing from college. The number-one reason why? Emotional stress. When asked what emotional stress means to them, many students told researchers that coursework can be overwhelming, especially in combination with jobs or caregiving duties. Some mentioned depression and anxiety, or concerns about paying for college.
For these reasons, it's important for students—including those who may not perceive themselves as immediately suffering from, or at risk for, mental-health issues—to know how colleges they're considering applying to support students with mental health needs, and how to access those resources once they're enrolled.
Some colleges are offering innovative programs to support student mental health. For example, the Health and Wellness Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is actively challenging its students to stay well. The UCSB Wellness Challenge and the UCSB Happiness Challenge both offer students the chance to improve their personal well-being. The UCSB Challenge works via an app which tells students about current wellness opportunities. When students participate in these activities, they earn wellness points, which allows them to win prizes. Colorado State University's Bikram yoga program is the result of extensive research on how the practice improves minds and bodies. The University of Oregon's Duck Nest, located in the college’s health center, runs initiatives such as meditation, yoga, healthy eating on a budget, aromatherapy, therapy dogs, wellness presentations, and more.
For more information about college readiness, applying to college, paying for college, and much more, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation today!
#collegeadmissions #collegecounselor #collegecounseling #iec #ieca #pnacac
The adjunct problem
In American popular culture, there exists a pervasive and malignant myth that college professors make tons of money, live extravagant lifestyles, and impose their ideological dogmas on unwitting students. I hear all the time that colleges and universities are "brainwashing centers" for "socialist elites," or various permutations thereof.
I taught college students for thirteen years at several different types of institutions. I can assure you that this is not the case. Few college professors make a lot of money (the exception would be some faculty in engineering and business). Few lead fancy lifestyles. The people I worked with are passionate about their subject area of expertise, but not about ideological indoctrination. In fact, many of the people teaching college students today are adjuncts—meaning they don't have a full-time position, don't receive health insurance or other benefits, and in some cases, live on the edge of poverty. Many are just barely getting by financially.
That is why, when selecting colleges, it's important to consider what percentage of a college or university's faculty are full-time, and how many are tenured or tenure track. These things don't guarantee a higher quality of education, but I'd rather attend a college that treats its faculty humanely than one that has part-time faculty coming to class after spending the night in their cars. Faculty who live on a decent salary and receive good health care are likely to be far better equipped to assist students than those who are being exploited by a corrupt and inequitable system.
Some colleges with the highest percentage of full-time faculty include the following:
College of the Atlantic
University of Wyoming
University of Pennsylvania
Beacon College
University of Delaware
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Centre College
Utah State University
Johns Hopkins University
Kenyon College
There are so many factors to consider when selecting a college—or even deciding whether or not college is the right path for you. Let me help. If you'd like to receive timely expert advice on your college process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free consultation.
#collegecounseling
How, not where
I work closely with all my clients to make sure that the colleges that land on their final college list are good fits, and that they and their families feel good about their plans to pay for college. I spend a lot of my time and energy figuring out which colleges are the right ones for each student.
That said, there's a significant body of research suggesting that how you go to college matters a lot more than where you go to college. The Gallup-Purdue Index (2014), which studied 30,000 college graduates in the United States to measure the most important outcomes of higher education, found that college selection had no impact on future workplace engagement or long-term well-being. What did affect these outcomes was how students engaged on campus, not where they went to school.
I have three pieces of advice for students about to enroll in college for the first time:
1. De-emphasize the importance of where you are accepted and emphasize what the college experience might be like. Talk about how you want to engage on campus when you get there. What activities or clubs appeal to you? What will dorm life be like? What classes pique your interest?
2. Visit campus before you commit to a particular school. Students who had a good experience visiting campus were more satisfied and were more likely to graduate from that school, and were more likely to graduate in four years.
3. Limit how often you visit home during your first year of college. Understandably, you may feel homesick and want to return to comfort and familiarity on the weekends. Your parents likely will welcome you home. However, research shows that frequent returns home negatively affect student satisfaction. Too much time away from college, especially in the first few months, limits your ability to fully engage in student life, create strong bonds, and get involved in campus offerings. Validate your desire to return home and the feelings driving that urge, while staying on campus on the weekend and getting actively involved in campus life. This will pay off in the long run.
For more information on success in college, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation! #iec
Storycraft and discovery
Confluence College Admissions Consulting is accepting new clients for 2024-25 senior packages, including our Essays and Applications package. Now that the 2023-24 admissions cycle is drawing to a close, I'm now scheduling new clients to start work on their personal statements and supplemental essays. In my observation, summer is an ideal time for students to work on their essays because they have more brain space and more time in their schedules to think deeply about their writing.
Rather than asking my clients to brag about their accomplishments—something they will do anyway on their Common App—I teach them how to reveal something important about themselves through the subtle art of vivid, perceptive storytelling. The result of this spacious process is a personal statement that brings each student's unique experiences alive for the reader in the student's own authentic voice. Whereas some of their peers will undoubtedly resort to AI or their parents to write their college essays for them, my clients will have a leg up on college admissions because their essays will be written in a way that only they can write. They'll also have the pride and satisfaction in knowing that their work is theirs alone.
I help my clients build powerful, emotionally resonant essays through simple sentence-level prompts, followed by conversation, questioning, and reflection over multiple drafts. Nearly all of my feedback for my clients comes in the form of questions. Some writing coaches treat this process as a kind of "boot camp" (some use that phrase!), whereas I prefer to think of it as storycraft and discovery.
The essays my students write are not conventional five-paragraph essays that many students learn to write in middle school and high school. The Common App personal statement is brief—650 words maximum—so students must learn to pack a lot of meaning into a concise story. Students who invest their time and energy in the process I teach them nearly always come away feeling proud of what they accomplished. Admission to a great college is only one aspect of this valuable learning exercise.
Want to learn more about my approach to writing college essays? Sign up today!
Getting caught up in numbers
This time every year, news outlets begin to focus on high school students who have been accepted at some incredible number of colleges, and who have received millions of dollars in scholarships. Last year it was a student from New Orleans who was accepted to 175 colleges and received over $9 million in scholarships.
Now, I'm not making a judgment about whether or not these results are worth celebrating. But I do think they need context. Obviously, only top students will be offered admission at Ivy League and other highly selective colleges and universities. But the sheer number of colleges offering admission doesn't really tell us very much. Many colleges have no application fee and do not require supplemental essays, so students can submit an application with no additional effort beyond the work they've already done for their Common App. Colleges do this when they are trying to boost their total number of applications received and reduce their acceptance rates, which are then factored into college rankings.
The scholarship money also doesn't tell us much. Many colleges offer merit-based financial aid. Let's suppose you've applied to a college with a $70,000 tuition sticker price, and that college offers a $40,000-per-year merit scholarship worth $160,000 total. Let's say you get seven colleges to make similar offers. That's over a million dollars in scholarships! But that's not all money you can use, since you're not going to attend all those colleges. And it's also not free money you can spend. It's a discount that brings down college costs into a range that, one hopes, your family can afford to pay.
In reality, most (93%) of the big chunks of scholarship money will come in the form of either need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarships from the colleges where you're applying. Only 7% of scholarship dollars come from private scholarships. Should you still apply for private scholarships? If you're qualified and competitive, absolutely! But unless you are a top student, you're unlikely to receive massive private scholarships. You might be better off angling for merit scholarships at schools where you'd be an above-average student. #ieca #iec
Rolling out the new FAFSA
While the Department of Education's new FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) ultimately will be beneficial to families because the form has been vastly simplified from the version used in past years, the rollout of the new FAFSA has been anything but smooth. There have been significant delays this year in the new form being made available to students and parents, and only now are colleges and universities beginning to receive the data they need to make financial aid awards to incoming students. A number of schools have pushed back the deadlines by which students need to commit to a particular school, and this has created an unsettled situation for both families and admissions departments.
Here's my advice to families who are waiting on financial aid offers before making a final decision: don't feel pressured to make a decision before you receive your financial aid awards from all the schools where you've been admitted. If necessary, contact the admissions offices at the schools that you think are still in play, and let them know that you're waiting on the financial aid offer.
In the meantime, you should have some idea at this point whether or not you'll qualify for need-based financial aid. On your completed FAFSA, there is a number called the Student Aid Index. This number is a rough estimate of what the Department of Education believes your family is able to pay this year toward your college education. If the college or university where you've been accepted meets 100% of your financial aid, you can the amount they ask you to pay to be close to this amount.
Colleges that don't promise to meet all of your financial need may instead come through with a generous merit-based aid package. If your grades and SAT scores are above the 75th percentile at a particular college, there's a decent chance, depending on the school, you'll be offered a merit-based package. So even without the specific offers from each college, you can estimate them. But I don't recommend committing to any school until all your offer letters arrive.
For more information about financial aid, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
#iec
Why hire an IEC?
Most of the time when I tell people what I do for a living—that I work with high school students as an IEC, or independent educational consultant—people immediately respond enthusiastically, "Oh! That is something that's sorely needed!" To which I agree. Occasionally, people ask me to explain why someone would hire an IEC—in other words, what it is I can provide that students aren't already getting through their schools and their parents. Here are some top reasons why families hire me:
1. Families lack familiarity with the college admissions process in 2024. The landscape of college admissions has changed a lot since parents of today's college applicants applied to college. It's extremely helpful for families to have someone familiar with the latest trends to help guide them.
2. Families want to enjoy their student’s last year at home without feeling they must nag them about college applications, scholarships, and essays. Bringing me in to shepherd their student through college admissions reduces stress for everyone.
3. The high cost of college has raised the stakes for families as students decide which colleges to apply to, and how they plan to pay for college. I help students find an affordable option, get the best possible deal from the college, and ensure they have a sensible plan to pay for it. The fee for one of my packages is often a drop in the bucket compared to the money I save families by providing informed, timely advice.
4. Students who are considered “gifted” or have learning disabilities have unique needs in their educational search. This is also true for exceptionally talented artists and athletes. Because I work one-on-one with each of my clients over a period of time, I provide the specialized support they need to maximize their opportunities and their potential.
5. I begin working with clients as early as ninth grade, ensuring consistency in the support they receive.
If you'd like to learn more about the services I provide to help students with both college readiness and college admissions, please use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
Return on investment
I've pointed out in previous posts that colleges are often run like businesses. Because this is true, I often encourage my clients and their families to approach their enrollment decisions not only with "fit" in mind, but also finances. An important factor we consider when choosing a college is return on investment.
When it comes to college, there's more that goes into calculating return on investment than just stacking up tuition against average starting salaries out of college. We need to consider financial aid packages (both need-based and merit-based), scholarships, and total cost of attendance including room, board, books, transportation costs, and fees. We also need to consider the specific field the student is thinking of studying, and how graduates from that program tend to do on the job market after graduation. And of course, there are other factors, such as the school's reputation, culture, and quality of education, that may be less quantifiable. But the quantifiable numbers do allow us to ask more tangible questions: is it worth an additional $10,000 per year to attend your number one choice? Or would it be better to attend a school that's cheaper or closer to home?
Each year, U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges by return on investment. Here are some of their top choices for 2024-25:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Georgetown University
Lehigh University
Duke University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Georgia Tech
Columbia University
Santa Clara University
Boston College
Colorado School of Mines
Yale University
Dartmouth College
If you'd like to learn more about return on investment, researching colleges and universities, scheduling college tours, developing your college list, paying for college, and much more, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation today!
#collegeadmissions #collegecounseling #collegeadmissionsconsulting #collegeadmissionsconsultant #ieca #pnacac #collegecounselor #collegeadmissionscounseling
It’s not you, it’s them
When I work with clients who are interested in applying to selective colleges, I encourage them to increase their chances of admission by studying hard in rigorous courses, participating in activities they feel passionate about, working to be helpful to others they care about, studying for and excelling at their standardized tests, and spending time preparing good applications.
We're now at the point in college admission season when students in the regular admission pool are hearing back from Ivy League and other selective colleges and universities. If you're one of these students, now is a good time to cut yourself a break. You've worked hard. You've done everything you could to tip the odds in your favor.
That said, it's not all about you. In fact, and this may seem counterintuitive, but it's mostly not about you. It's about the colleges where you are applying and their institutional priorities. Colleges operate like businesses. They are concerned about putting together a whole freshmen class. Highly selective colleges have many qualified applicants and can fill their classes ten times over with incredibly accomplished, intelligent, kind, deserving students. At universities like Harvard, the majority of applicants have perfect or near-perfect test scores and grades. This is the part of college admissions that many students understandably find baffling, even unfair. The social media culture in which students share their college admissions misadventures further contributes to their sense that college admissions is impenetrably labyrinthine.
For these reasons, I encourage my clients to "fall in like" with multiple schools, set themselves up for success with admissions, and then treat the actual admissions results, including financial aid offers, as information they can use to make a final decision about which school they attend. This way, they can be much more adaptable and resilient when rejection letters (usually emails) arrive. Students who embrace this approach almost always end up very happy at the college where they eventually land.
For more information about college admissions, use the contact form here on my website to schedule your free consultation.
Financial aid appeals
After weeks of delays related to the rollout of the new FAFSA, colleges will soon be coming through with need-based financial aid offers to admitted students. The next step for families will be comparing and evaluating these offers, and potentially negotiating or appealing.
First, you’ll want to be clear on whether the financial aid offer you’ve received from a college or university is need-based financial aid, a merit-based scholarship, a hybrid of the two, or a combination of both.
If the financial aid offer you’ve received is need-based, and you think an error was made or if you have special circumstances that warrant reconsideration of your family’s finances, your appeal should be sent to the college’s financial aid office. In your letter, focus on any new information you can provide that may update or illuminate what the college already knows from reviewing your FAFSA. If you’re comfortable doing so, you might also let the college know how much your family is reasonably able to pay.
If the offer is merit-based, you’ll be submitting your appeal letter to the admissions office. If you have superior merit-based offers from schools the college considers peer institutions, attach those to your email. If the school you’re appealing to is your first choice, tell them that, and explain why. If this is true—and only if this is true—you might also consider saying that if the school can match a competing offer you’ve received from a different school, you’ll attend. Colleges love to admit students whom they think will love it there, and be successful.
I’m currently reviewing financial aid appeal letters for several of my clients. I don’t write these letters, since they need to come from you and be written in your voice, but I do proofread them with the same attention and care that I put into reading personal statements and supplemental essays. My process doesn’t end when students gain acceptance to their top school—it ends only once they are committed to their dream school with their family’s financial house in order.
If you’d like to learn more about college readiness, college admissions, and paying for college, schedule your free consultation with me today!
Best college towns
What's the best college town in the United States? According to the popular apartment rental website RentCafe, it's right here—Bozeman, Montana.
The college towns that made it into RentCafe's top 20 this year are places that offer a balance between a great education, high quality of life, and affordability. The rankings are based on 12 metrics, including cost of living, tuition fees, scholarship availability, graduation rates, natural amenities, air quality, entertainment options, admission yield, and more.
The fact that affordability is incorporated into the rankings raised an eyebrow for me, as housing in Bozeman is expensive if you're not planning to live on campus. But it's tough to argue with everything else. Bozeman has many miles of spectacular trails for hiking and mountain biking, world-class skiing nearby, and excellent whitewater. Although Bozeman isn't a large city, there are great restaurant options for tacos, brunch, sushi, Italian, Korean, Thai, and pizza, not to mention a variety of high-quality, comfortable coffee shops for socializing and doing schoolwork. There are several small to mid-sized music venues that are among the best anywhere. There's even a highly successful comedy club. On-campus dining is rated among the best in the country.
Other college towns on the list are as follows:
Pullman, Washington
Clemson, South Carolina
Gainesville, Florida
Boone, North Carolina
Moscow, Idaho
Laramie, Wyoming
Amherst, Massachusetts
College Station, Texas
Storrs, Connecticut
Athens, Ohio
Provo, Utah
East Lansing, Michigan
Bloomington, Indiana
Ellensburg, Washington
Stanford, California
Oxford, Ohio
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oneonta, New York
Davis, California
I've visited many of these, and I can confirm that many of these are great choices (I'm thinking especially of Moscow, Pullman, and Bloomington), and there were also some that surprised me (Oneonta, Oxford).
Which college town is your favorite, and why? Tell me why in the comments, and maybe I'll schedule a visit there this spring!
#iec #collegecounseling #bestcollegetown #ieca #pnacac #collegecounselor #collegeadmissions #collegeadmissionsconsulting #collegeadmissionsconsultant
March Madness
The phrase "March Madness" takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to college admission season. With many college admissions decisions coming in this month, the season is already proving to be one of the wildest yet as it draws to a close. The number of applications to the more than 1,000 universities included in the Common Application has increased by 6% over the previous year's already record-breaking level. It's a continuation of a pattern that started in the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic compelled hundreds of highly regarded universities to waive their standardized test score criteria, sparking an increase in applications.
As students pour more applications into the system, colleges are spending more and more time thinking about how to forecast who will actually show up if accepted, and shaping their policies to lock in those students and maintain or increase their yield rates. They have rolled out a complicated menu of admissions options, each with its own requirements, deadlines, restrictions, and risks for students, but all designed to bring as much certainty to the college as possible.
Admissions policies instituted by schools at or near the top of the rankings have ripple effects at less selective schools, which, in turn, also make changes to protect their yield rates. For example, less selective schools have embraced a strategy of increasingly deferring applicants in early rounds to see if they’re serious—or even denying them outright when the school thinks it’s being used as a backup.
Figuring out how to navigate this all can leave applicants and their families feeling like they need a Ph.D. in game theory just to get into college. This is an area where having an experienced IEC (independent educational consultant) such as myself in your corner can be extremely valuable. I can help students figure out what to do when they're deferred or waitlisted, which may include scheduling a campus visit or writing a letter of continued interest (LOCI) to the admissions committee.
For more information about the college readiness and admissions process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#iec
Is the SAT returning?
Over the past month or so, several highly selective colleges have announced that they will be requiring applicants for Fall 2025 to send standardized test scores (SAT or ACT). Among these are Dartmouth College and Brown University. Applicants to Yale University will have to include test scores with their applications, or else report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in place of SAT or ACT scores as part of their new "test flexible" policy.
Colleges' reasons for this return to the SAT/ACT requirement may vary, but several of these schools cite research over the past decade which suggests that standardized tests, considered alongside an applicant's overall academic record, is both a helpful predictor of academic success in college and a tool that admissions offices can use to help promote equity and diversity.
I predict that some other elite colleges will follow suit, since trends such as these in college admissions tend to swing like a pendulum. I also believe that many colleges are happy with their current "test optional" policies and have no plans to change them.
This development does not significantly affect my advice for high school students considering college. My recommendation for most students, particularly those applying to elite colleges and those wishing to keep their options open, is to take the SAT or ACT sometime during their junior year. A high test score can only help you with both admissions and scholarships. A low test score may mean adjusting your strategy to include more "test optional" colleges on your list.
For those students wanting a full course with an instructor to help them prepare for the SAT, I make referrals to local tutors. Most of my clients, however, find that taking Khan Academy's free online course, and working together with me to analyze their results and adjust their study strategy, is all the extra support they need. I discuss options with my clients to devise a strategy for them that is both affordable and effective.
To learn more about the college admissions process, including standardized testing, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
Buyers and sellers
Jeff Selingo, author of Who Gets In and Why, provides a useful perspective on which colleges and universities are “buyers,” which are more likely to provide merit-based financial aid, versus “sellers,” which tend to be more generous with need-based aid.
Selingo describes the sellers as the "haves" of admissions. They receive an overwhelming number of applications, many of which are from top students. They do not have to lure students with tuition discounts to fill their classrooms. Most sellers only provide financial support to those who actually need it or are truly exceptional.
In terms of admissions, the buyers are the "have-nots"—despite the fact that they may provide a better undergraduate education. Rather than "select" a class, admissions administrators must work hard to recruit students and offer tuition discounts through merit aid to fill classroom seats and beds.
The search for the right fit in a college should result in one that measures up in three ways: academic, social, and financial. But too often, when students and their families start looking for schools their quest is guided by academic and social needs as well as geography.
While cost is a concern, families have only a hazy idea of what their tuition bill might look like. So they don’t think about the price of college until it’s too late.
Check out Selingo’s helpful video on “buyers” and “sellers.”
Beyond “we’re small”
Some years ago, I was a faculty member at a small liberal arts college. It was my feeling that a lot of exciting things were happening at the college: faculty doing cutting-edge research, departments offering creative programs and majors, sports teams winning championships, and fancy new facilities being built. Something that always struck me as odd was the way our college president spoke about students and graduates of our college. "Whenever you meet a graduate of our college," she'd say, "you just know you're talking to somebody from our college. There's just something about them. You can't explain it. You can't define it. You just know it. There's just something about that *x* college spirit."
I always thought this was a peculiar way of talking about our college. Really, you can't define what makes our graduates special? You can't think of any qualities or descriptors? Couldn't you ask someone in your English department for some words?
What's funny is that I hear this kind of thing all the time during college tours. Putting myself in the shoes of a prospective student or parent, I experience this type of language as a kind of red flag. The same goes for comments such as "our small size means we have a tight-knit community." You don't say?
When I visit colleges and universities, I want to know what makes that institution—and its graduates—stand out. At College of the Atlantic, for example, every student designs their own course of study in human ecology. Goucher College has a major emphasis on international studies and requires every student to study abroad. Mesalands Community College has the only college degree program (that I know of) in farrier science. A team from Auburn University won the 2023 college championship in bass fishing. I encourage prospective students and their families to look for these unique aspects of a college's identity that make it special, and that would make it an exciting and welcoming place to live and learn.
If you'd like to learn more about planning college tours and the college admissions process, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour initial consultation.
#collegeadmissions #collegetours
Good food, good results
My work with high school students goes well beyond helping students with their college applications. Last week I was working with a small group of ninth- and tenth-graders, and we were discussing the importance of good nutrition in setting themselves up for success academically. There is a considerable body of research showing a clear relationship between students' diet and academic performance, and I have witnessed in my own experience as an educator that students perform best, and are best able to pay attention and retain knowledge, when they start with a strong foundation of a diet comprised of quality protein and plenty of vegetables and leafy greens. Conversely, students who consume a lot of sugar and processed foods throughout the day struggle with attention, learning, and sometimes behavior.
For this reason, choosing a college that provides students with great-tasting, healthy food can make a huge difference for students. One college's dining service that really stands out is Bowdoin College. (Full disclosure: Bowdoin is my undergraduate alma mater.) Bowdoin consistently ranks among the top colleges and universities for the best campus food. Bowdoin purchases local produce from local farmers to offer the freshest ingredients to their students. Bowdoin’s chefs develop menus with gourmet meals such as squash fettuccine, Mongolian beef hot pot, and jalapeno haddock. Bowdoin’s website boasts, “Even though we feed hundreds of people in our dining halls, most of our cooking is done in small batches so that we can offer a product that is as fresh and delicious for our first customer as for our last. We try hard to strike a healthy balance, including whole foods, and local and organic ingredients, while ensuring that those favorite comfort foods are still available.”
Other colleges renowned for excellent campus food include UMass Amherst, Washington University, Virginia Tech, Pitzer College, St. Olaf College, Kennesaw State University, Tufts University, and University of Dayton.
If you'd like to learn more about healthy practices, college rankings, college admissions, and more, use the contact form on my website to schedule your free one-hour consultation.
A “price-fixing cartel”?
When I advise top students who have significant financial need, two factors I encourage students to consider are (1) whether or not the college they're applying to are "need blind," and (2) the extent to which they can expect the college to meet their financial need. Some colleges promise both—that their admissions process is need blind and that they'll meet 100% of demonstrated need. If a student identifies such a college as their first choice, under the right circumstances I'll advise the student to apply early decision, under the rationale that ED may boost their chances of admission, and give them a leg up financially.
It was disappointing, then, to learn this week that a number of elite schools have settled a lawsuit accusing them of engaging in a "price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition"—meaning that schools advertising need-based admissions and/or generous need-based financial aid weren't following through on their promise to students. Colleges agreeing to pay millions of dollars in fines include Emory, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Duke, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Dartmouth, Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, UPenn, Rice, and Vanderbilt.
I'm not naming these colleges to try to tarnish their reputations. These are all highly regarded schools, they all deny any wrongdoing, and I have many close friends and former clients who are alums. That said, I track this information when advising future clients, and I believe people should be informed about which colleges really do offer need-blind admissions and which ones have practices that have been questioned.
If you're looking for schools that offer generous need-based aid packages, here's a list of prestigious schools that rate highly both from my personal experience and according to the available data: Stanford, Williams, Bowdoin, Colby, Bates, Middlebury, Amherst, Washington and Lee, Pitzer, Dickinson, Harvard, Pomona, Washington University, Wesleyan, Wellesley, and UNC Chapel Hill.
If you'd like to learn more about the complex world of college financial aid, use the contact form on my website to schedule a free consultation.
Appealing admissions decisions
Most students who apply to at least one “reach” school experience at least one rejection. Applicants who get rejected during college admissions may feel frustrated, angry, sad, or misunderstood. These feelings are to be expected, and are a natural part of the learning and maturation process.
Once an applicant sorts through these feelings and begins planning next steps, it may be natural to wonder: Is there anything I can do? Can I appeal an admissions decision?
The short answer to this question, in some cases, is yes. Most colleges do have a process by which your application can be reviewed a second time. You can contact the admissions office to find out why your application was rejected, and you can ask what their appeals process is. Normally the process involves writing a letter to the admissions committee, and including a letter of support from the college counselor at your high school that corroborates your reasons for appeal.
Before you get too excited, though, let me offer a few words of caution. First, most appeals do not result in a reversal of the college’s original decision. Second, if you were rejected in the first place, you may find that the school is not a great fit for you—which was likely the reason your application was denied in the first place. You may struggle academically and/or socially, and you may end up not graduating from that school. Third, do you really want to set yourself up for the pain of another round of rejection?
That said, there could be good cause for appeal. Let’s say you re-took the SAT in the fall and raised your score by 80 points. That could be enough to nudge your application from “borderline” to “admitted.” The same could be true if you significantly raised your GPA during fall semester of your senior year, or if you led your cross-country team to a state championship.
I don't push students to appeal admissions decisions. I encourage them to move their #2 choice into the #1 slot if they can see their way to doing it. Students are less likely to receive a competitive merit scholarship from a "reach" school, and they are more likely to feel a sense of belonging at a college that wanted them from the beginning.
Letter of continuing interest
All of my senior clients this year decided to apply to at least one college through early decision or early action, which means that now is the time of year when many of these students are hearing back from colleges about whether they've been accepted, rejected, deferred, or possibly waitlisted.
Acceptances and rejections are pretty straightforward. You're in or you're out. Being deferred or waitlisted is a bit more complex because it means that the college is either placing you back in their regular applicant pool or they're waiting to see how many students they've offered a place in next year's freshman class actually enroll.
Students who are deferred or waitlisted often ask whether or not there's anything they should do. The answer is "it depends." In some, but not all, cases I recommend sending the college a letter of continuing interest (LOCI).
A letter of continued interest is an email you send to an admission office after you’ve been deferred or placed on their waitlist. It informs the college that you’re still interested in attending and why. When you’re deferred or placed on a waiting list, follow the directions the college provides for what they want you to do next. If they specifically ask you not to send a letter, don’t! But many colleges will invite you to update your application with a letter describing your new achievements and why you are still interested in attending—and these colleges will weigh your expressed continued interest considerably when reviewing the next round. If you’re unsure, I recommend emailing your regional admissions counselor: “Is it okay if I send a letter of continued interest?”
If you've made it through early decision or early action without being rejected outright, that means the college thinks you are qualified, and you are still in the running for one of their remaining spots for this fall's freshman class. Colleges like to boost their "yield," meaning they like to make offers to students likely to accept their offer. A well-written and well-reasoned letter of continuing interest can be what the admissions committee needs to believe you'll enroll at their college, and that you have good reasons for doing so.