Admission of colleges in the United States refers to the admission process for admission to higher education institutions for undergraduate study in one of the 2,675 public schools. Generally, college search starts in the 11th grade of high school students with most activities going on during the twelfth grade, even though students in high school often begin the process during the tenth or earlier grade. In addition, there are a large number of students who move from one college to another, as well as adults older than middle school age enrolled in college.
Video College admissions in the United States
Overview
Millions of high school students enroll in college every year. While the number of graduates from high school peaked temporarily at 3.3 million in 2008, then to 3.4 million by 2014, the number has been expected to decline until 2015 and then rebound afterwards. However, the number of students enrolled in college is expected to increase through 2020 when there will be about 23 million students in college. About a quarter of twelve-year students apply to seven or more schools, paying an average of $ 40 per app. Less than half of all students enter college graduates in four years and a little over half of college graduates during their lifetime.
The application process takes a lot of time and planning because it involves many steps, with choices to be made and deadlines to be met. Students apply separate apps to each school, although the General Applications speed up the process in many ways. Most undergraduate institutions accept students to all colleges and not to certain departments or departments, unlike many European universities and American graduate schools, although some degree programs such as architecture or engineering may require separate applications at some universities. As a general rule, applying to a two-year county and community college is much easier than a four-year school, often requiring only a secondary school transcript or a minimum test score.
New developments in college admissions include increased number of applications, increased interest of students abroad to enroll in universities in America, more students enrolling with the initial method, applications submitted by Internet-based methods including General Applications, increased use of consultants, guidebooks , and rankings, and increased usage by college waiting lists. One estimate is that 80 percent of applications are submitted online in 2009. In the spring of 2018, there was an investigation by the Justice Department into whether colleges practice Early Acceptance in violation of anti-trust laws by sharing information about applicants.
Maps College admissions in the United States
Participants
Student
Applying to college can be stressful. The outcome of the admissions process can affect the future career path of distant students. Admission to leading universities is increasingly competitive, and many students feel pressure during their high school years.
Public private and affluent public education, exam preparation courses, 'enrichment' programs, volunteer service projects, international travel, music lessons, sports activities - all high-cost building blocks of the perfect college application - put devastating pressure on upper and lower classes they.
Parent
The college enrollment process can be stressful for teenage parents, according to journalist Andrew Ferguson, for describing "our arrogance, our social ambitions and class insecurity, and the most profound love and hope we have for our children."
High school counselors
Some high schools have one or more teachers who are experienced in offering counseling to eleventh and twelfth grade students. They usually work together with the guidance department that helps students in planning their high school academic path. Counselors handle many students and schools and generally do not have the role of supervising or managing student lecture applications. Counselors recommend that students familiarize themselves with their school counselors. Counselors do not complete interviews, write essays, or arrange college visits. Parents often meet with school counselors during the eleventh grade. Most counselors have a responsibility to help many students and, consequently, it is difficult for them to provide individual assistance to particular students; one estimate is that the average ratio for all high school students for counselors is 460 to 1. Only about a quarter of public high schools have counselors devoted to full-time college counseling problems, while nearly three-quarters of private schools have counselors College. A report shows that private school counselors are substantially more related to university admissions staff than public school counselors.
Consultant
Cost-based consultants, some of which are available entirely online, can be hired to help students get admission to a school called right , although there are some free programs to help disadvantaged youth learn how to fill in applications, , get ready for a test, and do an interview. Consultants can help students choose schools to apply, advise them on exam strategies, score scores, assist in preparing essays (but not writing), review applications, conduct artificial interviews, provide logistics planning, and collaborate with others such as athletic trainers. Consultants try to keep a low profile; However, one acceptance of the dean explained that he could "sniff out when there are adults involved in the process". Assistance by consultants or other adults can be extreme, especially with difficult variables such as a college essay; according to one view, plagiarism on the admissions essay has become a "serious problem", especially in applications for universities and private colleges. It is possible that hiring a professional admissions consultant can make the app appear artificial; for example, admissions staff may suspect adult coaching when one part of a application is polished, while another part does not, such as varying qualities regarding the writing sample. Another risk in hiring consultants, which can happen if parents become too involved in the process, is what Mamlet and VanDeVelde overpackaging means: the applicant looks so smooth and perfect that the admissions officer suspects that the person is not real. but a marketing creations. Generally, when hiring a college admissions counselor, parents and students try to understand the counselor's philosophy, learn what services are provided, and whether any help will be offered on advice about financial aid or scholarships. Mamlet and VanDeVelde suggest that it is inappropriate for an admissions counselor to tamper with the "true self" of a student. In their view, the ideal counselor has experience with college admissions, meets regularly with college admissions officers, visits colleges regularly, and becomes a member of professional affiliations.
College admissions staff
Typical admissions staff at a college include the dean or vice president for admissions or registration management, middle level manager or assistant director, admissions officer, and administrative support staff. The chief registration officer is sometimes the highest paid position in the department, earning $ 121,000 on average in 2010, while the average admissions officer is only $ 35,000, according to one estimate. Reception officers tend to be in demographics ages 30 to 40. They are selected for their experience in admissions, talent for statistics and data analysis, experience in administration and marketing and public relations. They serve double roles as counselors and recruiters, and do not perceive themselves as marketers or salespeople, according to one view. They are evaluated about how well they "represent their colleges, manage their offices, recruit staff members, and work with other administrators". Michele Hernandez suggests that there are basically two types of officers: the first group of friendly, sharp, people-oriented people who often become new college graduates; the second group is the ignorant "riders" who often do not graduate from highly selective colleges. Officers generally pay an annual salary, although there are reports of some recruiters being paid on the basis of how many students they bring to college, such as recruiters working overseas to recruit foreign students to US universities.
Many colleges and universities are working hard to market themselves, trying to attract the best students and maintain a reputation for academic quality. The college spent an average of $ 585 to recruit every applicant during the year 2010. There are efforts to increase the use of social media sites like Facebook to promote their colleges. Marketing brochures and other promotional letters often come daily in hopes of persuading high school students to enroll in a college. According to Joanne Levy-Prewitt, colleges send "look at the book" not because they want to admit it, but "because they want so many students to apply" to increase the college selectivity rating and to ensure that they have as many qualified applicants as possible from whom to choose the strongest class. Colleges get access to names and addresses after students give their permission after taking a PSAT or SAT exam.
Resources information
US News compiled college and university directories and has ranked them, despite its controversial rankings, some colleges refuse to cooperate, and high school counseling counselors sometimes have big problems with rankings. Other sources rank colleges in various sizes, sell guidebooks, and use their ratings as entry to college admissions consulting services. The College Board launches a website called BigFuture in 2012 with tools to assist the admissions process. There are services to help speed up the admission process of colleges, including web-based services that sell copies of applications that gain entry of applicants to Ivy League colleges.
Test preparation company
Companies like College Boards have offered services to help students prepare for their tests and provide other, usually web-based, services to help students compare schools. Some companies work with schools to provide exam preparation advisors that teach students how to take the SAT and ACT entrance exams.
Planning
Time
The admissions process usually begins during the eleventh graders when a student meets an advisor, chooses several colleges, and may visit several campuses. Summer before twelfth grade is a time when many students complete an app plan and may start writing essays. Furthermore, they decide whether to apply early or regular decisions. International students may need to take tests that demonstrate English proficiency such as TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE Academy. The twelfth value is when the application is submitted. CSS can be submitted in the first October of the twelve grades of students, while FAFSA becomes available on the web after the first of January.
Selection of college
Ratings
There are several college and university ranking guides published, and they include US. News and World Reports, Business Insider, Money Magazine, The Washington Monthly's "Higher Education Rankings," and "Forbes " Top American Colleges "rankings, groups and other organizations that publish ratings based on various factors and use different methodologies. For a more comprehensive and detailed look at US university rankings, with the top rated schools identified, see University rankings in the United States.
Ranking has been the subject of much criticism. Because much of the data is provided by colleges themselves, there are opportunities for schools to manipulate rankings to improve prestige. There are instances where school officials deliberately mis-report statistics, such as the Claremont McKenna admissions dean who fabricated average SAT statistics, and reports that Emory University falsely reported student data for "more than a decade," as well as false data reports from the Academy of Force The US Sea and Baylor University. Author Andrew Ferguson notes quite a lot of hypocrisy around the rankings: some colleges pretend not to love the guidebooks that rank them, but if they get a good article, they "hoist it like a bridal garter belt." Lynn O'Shaughnessy criticized "better mindless pursuit" by colleges to boost their college rankings as destructive and wrote that families put too much emphasis on ranking as a way to choose college. Further, he criticized the US News rankings for failing to take college affordability into account or factors in student debt on average after college and failing to gauge how well colleges actually educate their students. He notes how the US News algorithm supports a school that rejects more students. " The college admissions officer criticized the ratings as misleading, and criticized the peer ratings appraisal ratings, the selectivity of students and alumni giving as poor predictors of the overall quality of the college. The title of "Best American College" ranking, encouraging counselors to ask "best for whom"?
In 2007, members of the Annapolis Group discussed a letter to college chiefs asking them not to participate in the reputation survey of "The United States News" . The majority of about 80 presidents at the meeting agreed not to participate, even though the statement was not binding. Members promise to develop an alternative web-based information format along with several college associations. US News responded that their peer assessment survey helped them measure "intangible" colleges such as college reputation ability to help graduates win first jobs or go to graduate school. An article by Nicholas Thompson at Washington Monthly criticized the US News ranking as "confirming the meritocracy prejudice" by setting up their statistical algorithm to maintain the reputation of a handful of schools, while failing to gauge how many students learn. Thompson describes his algorithm as "pretty blurry so no one outside the magazine can figure out how it works, but it's clear enough to imply legitimacy."
Select schools by selectivity
Counselors usually ask students to start seeing potential colleges in four types: The
- Reaches school provides a small revenue opportunity, such as 5% or less.
- Possibles (or high match) has a greater possibility of rejection than acceptance.
- Possible (or low match) has a greater chance of acceptance than rejection. School
- Solid or safety seldom rejects candidates with similar academic credentials. High school counselors recommend that safety schools be schools that students want to attend if they are rejected elsewhere. Mark Kantrowitz suggests having at least one affordable school of financial aid safety even without financial assistance. Other classifications are "unlikelies" (5% chance of acceptance), "reaching school" (25% chance), "possibles" (50% chance), and "likelies" (80% chance).
Typically counselors will advise applicants to apply to different types of schools, usually have at least one school safety , but the other amount depends on students and family. Andover counseling director recommends that a student enroll in at least two "solid" schools and two "probable" schools. Many high schools subscribe to an online service called Naviance, which, among other things, can help students gauge the probability of admission to a particular college. It is based on student grades and exam scores compared to student admissions outcomes from previous years applying to a particular college (see diagram). Naviance uses a scattergram to graphically depict opportunities for students from certain high schools accepted at a particular college or university. In addition, counselors can help students consider different types of colleges, such as liberal arts colleges, research universities, and special schools. A report in Time magazine in 2013 indicates that it is almost impossible for poor students to enter the elite university, and that the percentage of students in 28 elite colleges coming from less affluent households is relatively constant around 10% from 2001 to 2009, based on a study that included all eight Ivy League schools. The difficulty of admission to elite universities sometimes encourages allegations:
The school admissions system called best is rigged for you. If you are a middle-class or minority youth from a bad situation, you have little chance to get into one of those schools. Indeed, the system exists to not provide social mobility but to prevent it and to perpetuate the prevailing social order.
Return on investment
Former US Education Minister William Bennett suggested lectures should be seen as long-term purchases with return on investment (ROI) into future earning potential of graduates. Schools have been compared financially by examining average costs, student debt, and lifetime earnings, to produce an effective average ROI. Bennett stated that only 150 of the 3500 public universities gave positive results.
Better match or prestige
The college achievement correlates with age, in such a way that the oldest eastern coastal schools tend to collect most of the prestige based on their longevity. There is broad consensus that the suitability between students and schools is an important factor. Some reports indicate that "conformity should be a prestige at all times," and that it is better for schools to match a student in terms of social, cultural, and academic qualities and not chosen simply because of school prestige. Others see college acceptance as essentially a choice between "price and prestige". The elite college has been compared to designer labels, valuable credentials in the job market, and entrance to top graduate school. Some advisers specialize in helping students find a good match - an appropriate college list - that helps students in the long run. They help students to explore their values ​​and needs, and provide counseling to help students and parents find college or university programs that help students meet long-term goals. Questions include thinking about life goals, which activities are most liked by people, and what learning styles are best for students. Evaluating personal preferences is important and time consuming. An adviser suggests that it is important for a student to think what is best, and choose based on this, and "do not listen to your friends" because they have different needs and wants. "One of the worst ways to make a decision about where to go to college is to follow friends because he is having fun at that school," wrote an adviser. Since "nearly half" of students enter college as first-year students who have graduated from college in the future in their life, getting the right fit is important for parents and students to avoid wasting money. What fits:
The best college that suits you is to: (1) Offer a course to match your interests and needs (2) Provide a teaching style to fit the way you like (3) Provide an academic level of care to customize your skills and preparation 4) Offer a community that feels like home to you and (5) Your value for what you do well.
A personal acceptance counselor explains:
Schools should be appropriate - academically, socially, and economically... Ask if the college feels true ... than is it the best ...
One dean recipient equates "match" with friendship:
I draw a friend's analogy to explain why matches are important in considering a college. You like your best friend for some reason. This may not be an objective reason. This is often subjective. There is some sense of compatibility, some kind of intuition, compatibility, a sense of common value, what you love to do, how you think - it is the things that really bind people together. This is similar to college. You do not want to spend four years with a college that is not really your friend.
In addition, counselors can help less-educated academically savvy students find good colleges to help them pursue careers, and can show colleges that are "gems" but relatively unknown. In some cases, choosing colleges in other parts of the country may increase the chances of being accepted, especially if the college looks for "geographic diversity." One study shows that the overall prestige of one's college is less important, overall, in predicting how they will work in the future, and that personal characteristics, such as talent, are more important.
Cost
Stickers versus net price
The general pattern is that most colleges and universities, especially private, have very high sticker prices and can not be relied upon when burdening most students, giving grants and scholarships, "discount rates" vary widely. Writer Lynn O'Shaughnessy at US News compares the price of a lecture with an "airline ticket" because "everyone pays a different fee". Other reports agree:
The sticker price is a full-price college listing in the brochure and on their website. The net price is the price that students actually pay. The net price contributes to the fact that many students receive grants or scholarships. So it can be much lower than the sticker price.
Discounts began in the 1970s and were dramatically expanded in the 1990s, according to one report. The difference between stickers and average net price can vary greatly. Estimates vary, but show a consistent sticker price pattern much larger than the real cost, sometimes more than double, sometimes only one and a half times higher. Estimates are that 88% or 67% get some form of discount. One estimate by 2015 is that in four-year private non-profit colleges, the first year student's average pays 48% less than the sticker price. Generally, the sticker-to-net price difference is greater in private colleges than in public universities. For example, in 2011-2012, the average sticker price for tuition, fees and living costs in private colleges, is $ 38,590 while the actual average cost is $ 23,060; in public college, the average sticker price is $ 17,130 and the actual average cost is $ 11,380. Another estimate is that the average full-time bachelor gets $ 6,500 in grant aid along with $ 1,000 in tax-based assistance to offset college tuition. There is broad consensus that the most effective college option is college, which costs an average of only $ 3,000 for full-time tuition.
Colleges use high sticker prices because they allow them to expand widely in how to use the funds to attract the best students, as well as persuade students with special skills or improve overall racial or ethnic diversity. The most sought-after students can be attracted to high discounts while marginal students may be charged a full fee. Further, high sticker prices are a marketing tool to suggest the overall value of college education, along the lines of encouraging people to think that "schools that cost more should provide better education." A report by the Pew Research Center found that while there are concerns about rising college prices, most Americans believe that their personal investment in higher education is healthy. But the discount adds to the complexity of decision making, preventing some students from applying in some instances based on the wrong sense of inability. In recent years, there has been attention to the problem of smart students from low-income backgrounds who did not enroll in top colleges, and attended less-challenging colleges instead of or skipped college entirely; This phenomenon is called undermatching in the sense that these students are not properly paired or "fit" with academies that challenge academics; there have been attempts at several colleges such as Williams to actively seek out smart low-income students. According to Nga reporter Miss Willis-Aronowitz, the financial arrangements of the student body in elite colleges tend to be the most prosperous students, with some low-income students if colleges are actively looking for smart low-income applicants, but some students from middle-class background. As a result, middle-class applicants are increasingly confronted with difficult choices: to attend elite schools, pay close to sticker prices, and graduate with large debts, or to attend publicly-supported public schools with less debt; Aronowitz describes this as "middle-class squeeze". But by 2015, there are some examples of private colleges that reduce their tuition fees by more than 40%.
Net price calculator
In the fall of 2011, colleges are required by federal law to post clean price calculators on their websites to provide an estimate of the cost of academic and family tuition to prospective students and their families, and to "weaken prices." A student or family can go online, find a calculator on a college website, and incorporate the necessary financial and academic information, and the calculator should tell them possible cost estimates to attend the lecture. The first online calculator was started by Williams College. The online calculator looks at the financial and academic performance needs to try to estimate the discounted price offered to certain students from a particular college, using information including details of tax returns, household income, average scores and exam scores. Schools vary in their pricing formula; some consider home equity as a factor while others ignore it. Lynn O'Shaughnessy recommends that families who shop for college go to college websites and use a clean-price calculator to get a personalized cost estimate.
There are many potential problems with the calculator. Some are hard to find on college websites; others require certain financial figures, possibly causing errors by parents or students; some are difficult to understand and use; some may be manipulated by schools to improve the app or make it look as though college is "more affordable" than it is. The approximate accuracy of the calculator may vary from college to college. Ultimately, an aid decision will not be made by the calculator, but by a human being at the receiving office.
Type of financial assistance
- Assistance based on needs is offered according to a student's financial needs. Generally colleges on "top pecking order" provide assistance only in terms of the need to use "predictable formulas", according to one source. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the elite college has made little progress in helping poor students get need-based assistance, and that less than 15% of students in the 50 richest universities in the country receive Pell Grants at 2008 - 2009, offered on the basis of the need for promising but less affluent students. According to one source, some 30 elite universities have "sufficient coffers to meet all the students' needs" and consequently only offer needs-based assistance.
- Assistance based on achievement are scholarships and grants awarded to top academic players or others with special talents. One report suggests that academic scholarship tends to be minimal, and is usually provided by the admissions office and "very competitive". Other reports indicate that most colleges use achievement scholarships, based on high scores or grades or other achievements, to lure students from competing colleges.
One view is that most college award awards use a mixture of both. Furthermore, student loans can reduce the immediate difficulties of large tuition fees but can burden students with debt upon graduation; on the other hand, grants and scholarships do not have to be repaid.
According to Lynn O'Shaughnessy, the school that tries to climb the prestige ladder uses award-winning scholarships to attract top students to improve their ranking in the US News guidebook. He describes that as the school's "stock" rises, high-achieving students begin attending in larger numbers, and as a result colleges can "restore support services to wealthy students" and shift funds to "need-based financial assistance". Elite schools like Ivies do not provide scholarships, according to two reports. Another tool is to use the expected College Board family contribution calculators that can give families an idea of ​​how much the tuition fee is, but not for certain colleges. According to the US News , 62 of the 1,137 colleges, who responded to the survey, claimed to meet 100% of the demonstrated financial needs of the students. "The financial need shown" is the gap between "expected family contribution" (based on tax information, size and family assets) and attendance costs (tuition, dorm fees, food costs, etc.)
Applying for financial assistance
There are many reports that many applicants have failed to apply for financial aid when they qualify for it; one estimate is that 1.8 million students in 2006 who will qualify for help do not apply to it. Applying for financial assistance is recommended by almost all college admissions advisers, even for middle and upper class families applying to private universities. Each college has its own criteria for determining financial and loan needs. An adviser who advises not to reveal sticker rates from a college prevents a student from enrolling, as many of the leading universities have strong support that allows them to subsidize spending, so colleges are cheaper than the so-called "second tier" or college country.
College advisers suggest that parents keep financial records, including tax forms, business records, to use when applying for financial assistance, and complete the FAFSA online, using income and tax estimates (usually based on previous years), in early January of college they were the twelve-tied students. Reception officers can see the names of up to nine other universities that have been applied by students. According to some reports, some universities may refuse acceptance or reduce aid based on their interpretation of the college order at FAFSA; Therefore, some sources recommend that the universities be listed alphabetically by the FAFSA to obscure any preference. The earliest that the FAFSA form can be filled is the first January of the twelfth grade; In contrast, the CSS Profile may be pre-populated during the previous fall. There are reports that many parents make mistakes when filling out FAFSA information, and errors include failing to hit the "send" button, visiting the wrong FAFSA website, like fafsa.com who fools it, leaving some empty fields instead of correctly entering zero, spelling names or entering a social security number or estimating false tax data. Because the FAFSA formula assumes 20% of student assets can be used for tuition fees compared to 6% of parental assets, advisers recommend transferring funds from student accounts to parents prior to filing FAFSA, including transferring funds to a 529 plan-controlled parent account benefited tax. Early tax filing is recommended, but using estimates for FAFSA from previous years is possible by providing an updated number after the tax is filed. There is no fee to register on the FAFSA website. According to one source, the best time to start looking for a scholarship is before the twelfth grade, to guarantee a meeting deadline. Some reports confirm that it is important to apply for a help form like the CSS Profile at the beginning of the school year.
In addition to cost factors, more and more colleges are being compared on the basis of the average debt of their graduate students, and US News have developed a rating based on the student's average debt. A report in Utne Reader noted large student debts, and suggested that 37 million Americans in 2009 hold student debt, and nine out of ten students use an average of 4.6 credit cards to pay a fee education. The report noted an increase in average debt from an average of $ 2,000 in 1980-81 to more than $ 25,000 in 2009, as well as a substantial reduction in Federal aid and Pell grants over that time period.
US News and others suggest other negligible factors in terms of financial tuition, which is the length of time it takes to get a degree. Completing one year early (within three years) reduces most of the total bill, while taking five years adds to the burden and delays getting into the workforce. Jacques Steinberg suggests that many college-bound students calculate how much debt they may spend each year, and he suggests that the debt for all four years of college should total less than the expected first-year graduate salary after college, and preferably under $ 40,000. A number of schools have a "free school" policy for low-income students, so they graduate from free loans.
Choose a college by type
Most educational institutions in the US are nonprofits; nonprofit colleges and universities are usually more expensive and lower academically, with many cases of fraud. Universities and universities in the US vary in terms of objectives: some may emphasize vocational, business, technical or technical curriculum while others may emphasize the liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above. Another consideration is male-female ratio; Overall, 56% of enrolled students are female, but the male ratio varies by lecture and year and program. Guidance counselors can offer views on whether public or private schools are the best, and provide a sense of sacrifice.
Two-year college is often a county or community-oriented school funded by a state or local government, and usually offers an Associate (A.A.) degree. They are generally inexpensive, especially for residents in the state, and focus on teaching, and accept most applicants who meet the minimum grade and SAT grade level. Students go to school and rarely stay in dorms on campus. These schools often have articulation arrangements with public four-year public schools to allow students to change schools. Consultants suggest that community colleges are cheap enough, and after two years of solid grades and academic performance, many colleges are willing to accept transfers.
Four-year college offers a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.). This is primarily an undergraduate institution, although some may have limited courses at the postgraduate level. A free tuition college service college graduate received a Bachelor of Science and a commission.
University has undergraduate and graduate students. The graduate program provides a variety of Master's degrees including M.B.A.s or M.F.A.s. The highest academic degree is Doctor of Philosophy or Ph.D. Medical school rewards M.D. or D.O. degree while law school awarded the title of J.D. Public and private universities are generally research-oriented institutions that teach both undergraduate and graduate students.
The liberal arts college is a four-year institution that emphasizes interactive instruction, although research is still a component of these institutions. They are usually residential colleges with most of the students living on campus in the dorms. They tend to have smaller enrollments, lower class sizes, and student-teacher ratios lower than universities, and encourage teacher-student interaction with classes taught by full-time faculty members rather than graduate students known as teaching assistants. There are further differences in the liberal arts college category: some are coeducational, female colleges, or men's colleges. There is a black history college; In addition, while most schools are secular, some emphasize certain religious orientations. Most of the colleges are private but there are some that are public.
State and university colleges . Since they are usually subsidized with state funds, contributions tend to be lower than private schools. They tend to be large, sometimes with a student body totaling tens of thousands, and offer various programs. They are generally less selective in acceptance than competitive elite private schools, and are usually cheaper, sometimes half or one-third as much as private institutions for citizens; affordability can lead to more students in recent years to choose state or subsidized state universities. There are reports that in the budget shortage in recent years, many state schools selectively seek to attract higher paying non-state residents. In recent years, competition for places in public institutions has become more intense, with some public schools like the State University of New York reporting the number of student records saying "yes" to their acceptance offer, unlike the previous year. There are reports that fees at state universities are rising faster than private universities. State university colleges are usually the most prominent public schools in the state, and often the oldest, have the most funding, and are often the cheapest colleges of the country.
Technical or technical school specializes in technical and scientific fields. Some courses can be more competitive and applicants are often evaluated on a value basis in subjects such as mathematics (especially calculus), physics, chemistry, mathematics, and science courses.
Visiting college
The consensus view among counselors is that it is a good idea to visit college, preferably when college is ongoing and not during summer breaks, with an opportunity to meet actual students in the form of a tour guide, and record for later reference when registering. Sometimes a college will waive registration fees based on college visits. The benefit is to see the school as it is - not just a glossy image of a brochure or promotional video from the website. Others suggest that students should ask themselves, when visiting a particular college: "can I see myself here"? The Jenna Johnson reporter at the Washington Post suggested that students contact a college professor of interest before visiting, and try to meet them briefly or sit in one of their classes. Brennan Barnard's reporter at the New York Times recommended that student visitors should ask a good question (by avoiding factual questions better answered by the college website), and requesting a free admission to eat or free food. Barnard recommends going out on a regular tour to ask strangers about life on campus and reading student newspapers. He recommends arranging to speak with a professor in the interest department as well as an athletic trainer and music director, perhaps by emailing them before the visit, to try to meet them even briefly. A "thank you" follow-up note to the host is a good idea (avoid SMS abbreviations.)
Counselor Michael Szarek commented on the importance of campus visits in eliminating false impressions:
Half of all college classes are not outdoors. Half of all the college classes do not gather around the electron microscope. Sometimes the leaves are brown, or even fall to the ground. So, use a view book to get a sense of institution and what college thought was its strength. But always rely on campus visits.
However, one account suggests colleges organize campus visits in the same boring format, which rarely includes faculty members:
First there is an "information session," which is done by the admissions officer. This was followed by an hour-long campus tour, led by a student with a flair for walking backwards.... On a campus tour, we were always shown dorm rooms and dining rooms. We were always taken to the library and told how much volume it contained. We are told how many students are studying abroad (many), how many student clubs there (idem), and how small the class (very small.)
Application Considerations
Extracurricular activities
There are conflicting views about student participation in extracurricular activities. The dominant position is that college is after a "complete individual specialist body", indicating that it is better for a student to engage in depth in one or two activities, not nine or ten superficially, such as "play-violin midfielder" or " poet of mathematical medals, "and that students should not be" overweight "and that parents should not be too concerned about their child's extracurricular activities.Applicates who achieve leadership positions in extracurricular activities are considered to be higher than applicants who only participate in many activities. that students should choose extracurricular activities that they really care about, pursue them with "passion" and "pleasant commitment" that demonstrate integrity and commitment.And, consistent with this view, is that too much extracurricular activity may look suspicious to the admissions officer , especially a if it seems absurd that everyone can be active and succeed scholastically at the same time. Jobs are generally well-regarded by the admissions committee, including even part-time service jobs such as turning hamburgers, because it shows that a student has learned to handle time management, to accept responsibility, and develop people's skills. The less dominant position is that it helps to engage in "various activities", including jobs, internships, and community services. Some universities, such as the University of California, have formal programs to check for accuracy applications, such as sending follow-up letters to students requesting evidence of extracurricular activities or summer jobs. Counselors recommend that extracurricular activities should not interfere with the overall academic performance of students. A student with many extracurricular activities in the twelfth grade, but little in previous years, especially when the essay focuses on extracurricular activities, is a suspect; this indicates that an applicant is being trained, and may reflect negatively on an application (see section on consultants). Advisors warn against students "overcheduling" with too many activities or courses.
Number of apps
There are different views on how many schools students should apply. Some reports indicate that applying too many schools causes stress and unnecessary expenses, and discourages students from targeting apps to selected schools. But other advisers suggest that applying to more schools increases the overall opportunity to be accepted. Mamlet and VanDeVelde suggest implementing eight to ten schools is best, and that applies to too many counterproductive schools. There have been reports that the average number of schools that students have applied has increased, possibly due to greater use of the General Applications. In 2008, apps to Harvard University have risen to record numbers at 27,278, a 19% increase over the previous year. One effect of many of these applications is to lower average college results, which drop from 46% to 38% in 2001 by one account.
Online identity
There are reports that some college admissions departments scrutinize applicants' personalities online, such as Facebook or MySpace profiles, and as a result, they encourage students to remove "sarcastic jokes, bad pictures, or political cartoons," and be careful about what friends- Their friends post on their pages as well. A concurrent report suggested that some offices have people assigned to "check the applicants' Facebook page", although there are different reports from a college recruiter who says that their policy is not to check Facebook profiles and that "Facebook is reserved for students on a base recreation. "The same warning applies to email addresses; one of the advisers warns that his shocked email address is like "Spicychick@gmail.com", but the user should keep his name, if possible, because it can help colleges find student records.
Choose how to register
Applying in the fall
Many schools have implemented systems in which students may enroll at other times from the most common general time limit in the first January of the twelfth grade, to ease the burden on students and admissions officers. Some reports indicate an increase in initial acceptance.
Many open slots for students in many private universities are beginning to fill in at the beginning of the final year of school. In 2001 it was estimated that a third of the slots for first year class next year were filled by December, which was an increase from a fifth a decade earlier. Estimates made around 2011 show that 45% of positions were taken in December. There are reports for special schools filled through December 2011 for first year 2012-2013 classes. For example, the American University meets 31% of its class; Columbia 45%, Davidson 40%, Emory 32%, Hamilton 38%, Kenyon 29%, Middlebury 45%, Sarah Lawrence 21%, Smith 20%, and others.
Generally early action is similar to the initial decision unless the decision is not binding, so a student can apply to several colleges. A similar time frame: applicable in early November, get a decision by mid-December, although certain deadlines vary by school. This allows students to compare competing offers. The exception is that there are four colleges - Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale - which have a single-choice initial action program, which means that applicants can only apply initial actions to one school. Initial actions can be the best choice for students who know they prefer a particular school and have done everything possible to ensure acceptance because students will know the results of the application faster, and at different levels allow students to compare offers of assistance from different schools. One report suggested that non-binding early action programs continued to be very popular, and noticed that three schools - Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia - who had abandoned the initial admissions program in 2006, rebuilt them in 2011 after other universities failed follow in their footsteps. Generally fewer schools offer early action programs but that include Georgetown University, MIT, and Boston College. One account suggests that the initial action does not provide as many "acceptance limits" as the initial decision because it is not binding.
Regular registration
Regular acceptance is a good choice for students who are not sure where they want to go. One of the advantages is being able to help students who have substantially increased their grades in the fall of the twelfth grade, because decisions were not made until March of that year. In addition, it offers students more time to make their decisions about college under somewhat less pressure than the initial method. A fairly dominant view is that regular receipts are more likely to result in higher financial aid offerings, especially if students are admitted to several agencies that present different aid deals. Thus, an offer can be used as a leverage to try to get better deals at other institutions, especially if there are several competing acceptances. Some reports indicate that "more and more colleges" including Harvard, Cornell, and Carnegie-Mellon have publicly stated that they will consider suitable offers from competing colleges. Kim Clark explains:
If you want to go to Cornell... and you do not think your family can afford the full price of stickers... you'll probably get a bigger scholarship if you also apply - and enter - to become rich and more competitive schools.... Cornell will now adopt the definition of Harvard's "needs", which, in many cases, will mean a larger scholarship.
However, different views in the New York Times suggest that only one to two per cent of colleges adapt aid packages based on offers from competing colleges, and most colleges are not involved in a bidding war for certain students.
Rotate reception
Some colleges offer this type of acceptance, typically used by schools with many applicants, which means that college continues to receive applications and make decisions, usually within four to six weeks after the application. This allows prospective students to register anytime between autumn and spring and to receive the results a few weeks later. One benefit is that if a student is accepted early in the school year, there is little anxiety about acceptance for the rest of the year. School admissions are also beneficial for students who are rejected from all the schools they apply regularly, yet still want to register without taking a pause. Counselors suggest that rolling receipts should not be used at the end of the twelfth year as financial aid may have been distributed, and some slots may remain for September. An advisor advises that if a college offers admission and is on the student list, it should be applied as soon as rolling acceptance is available for the year. Other reports indicate that revolving receipts are more of an uncompetitive college characteristic.
Test options
Exam preparation course
There are conflicting reports about the usefulness of the exam preparation course. Mamlet and VanDeVelde suggest that "most students do not need a trainer or class" and that the biggest factor is "familiarity with the exam". Other reports agree that the SAT/ACT preparation course is a waste of money and that taking a few practice exams, and understanding how each test works, is all that is needed. According to NBC News, the multibillion-dollar private exam preparation industry, including training and mentorship and software and clinics, is the source of "inequality and injustice" in higher education because it allows the descendants of wealthy families to increase test scores them by learning "tips and tricks"; there was a report in March 2014 that the College Board is planning to redesign the SAT to make it less vulnerable to the game. The test preparation course can cost $ 1,000 per course; tutors can cost $ 15,000 per year, according to one estimate.
Standard acceptance test
In 2003, according to one estimate, 1.4 million students took SAT and 1.4 million also took the ACT test, paying around $ 50 per test. Generally counselors suggest that students should plan on taking SAT or ACT tests twice, so low scores may be improved. An advisor advises that students with weak SAT or ACT scores may consider applying to a college where these steps are optional. One recommend taking a retest if there is an "exam score below" in September and October (if register earlier) or November and December (if signing in regularly). Generally more than half of eleventh grade students are taking the SAT or ACT tests during the twelfth grade. see an increase in their value. Colleges vary in how much emphasis they give on these values.
The consensus view is that most colleges accept SAT or ACT, and have formulas to convert scores into acceptance criteria, and can convert SAT values ​​into ACT scores and vice versa with relative ease. ACT is reported to be more popular in the midwest and south while SAT is more popular on the east and west coasts. Apparently there are instances of people taking admissions tests in place of actual students as being paid illegal SAT test takers, , but the existence of such services has been called "open secret among the competitive"; for example, in 2011, a second-year Emory University student was arrested for taking exams for others for a fee. One report suggests the College Board is considering requiring test takers to submit photos of themselves on the day of the exam as a preventive measure against impersonation. The photos will be stored in a password-protected database, but will not be shared with the college admissions department.
Michele Hernandez recommends taking a SAT or ACT test only once or twice, otherwise the applicant may appear "obsessed score." One report stated that the benefit of an ACT test is that it allows test takers to have greater freedom to choose which score to send to which college. The counselor recommends that students practice taking the test under actual test conditions. Counselors suggest that students who take the test must know the previous direction so that there will be more time to focus on the problem during the actual test. And the use of tests by colleges has been criticized as being ineffective in predicting the success of late life; one study showed that the SAT result "does not mean much long term".
Regarding whether to choose SAT or ACT, the consensus view is that both tests are roughly equivalent and tend to bring the same results, and that each test is equally accepted by the college. Reporter Jacques Steinberg at the New York Times suggested that the dean's receipt repeatedly informed him that the college saw ACT and the SAT tests were identical and had no preference. At the same time, small differences between tests can be translated into few benefits for test participants. One report stated that SAT sided with "white male students" from the top income background. Other reports indicate that ACT has more questions directed to higher levels of high school mathematics, indicating that students who succeed in maths can work better, but SAT is a better choice for students with excellent vocabulary. According to one view, the SAT focuses more on testing th 'reasoning skills th
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