Weekly Wisdom

Synopsis:
College Reps, Newsweek’s Hot Colleges, Senior year grades on applications, securing teacher recommendations, and testing timetables for 10th and 11th graders.

Introduction:
This week, in our Weekly Wisdom, we will talk about the college rep visit to your school. Articles in the news covers hot colleges, and Ask The Experts answers a question about senior year grades. Our Application Tips talks about securing teacher recommendations. For 10th and 11th grade parents, we review testing timetables.

Weekly Wisdom for Sophomore, Junior & Senior Parents

The college rep visit. Dartmouth, Stanford, and Oberlin are visiting your school, or have sent you a postcard with three or four local events they will be attending. These will likely be attended by a regional or deputy director of admissions who will have a chance both to introduce their school and, time permitting, meet potential applicants. What can you do at these events to help your chances? Well, the short answer is show up and introduce yourself. Nothing quite beats having a little “face time” with the person who will either directly or indirectly be responsible for admitting or rejecting you. The longer answer, especially for schools that are difficult to get into or that you really want to go to, is to follow the rep around, ask informed questions about the university, and really try to introduce yourself and your interests. We have heard stories and had students who have managed to have the rep read an early draft of an essay and comment on it (we don’t necessarily recommend that), come over to meet the parents, and even given an applicant a private e-mail if the applicant had any more questions. Applying to college is a tough process, but sorting through thousands of potential, well-qualified applicants is even tougher. Having an advocate, someone who will fight for you, is a real benefit. And people are more likely to fight for that nice young lady they met on their L.A. trip than for some faceless number in a large stack of papers.

Upcoming Deadlines

• Sept. 3rd – late registration deadline for the Sept. 25th ACT
• Sept. 7th – last day to register for the October 9th SAT & SAT II
• Sept. 15th – late registration for the October 9th SAT & SAT II
• Sept 25th – ACT Assessment Test
• October 1st – last day to register for Nov 6th SAT & SAT II
• October 9th – SAT & SAT II !

Articles in the News

Our articles this week come from Newsweek, detailing the “hot” colleges of the year. Some are interesting to see, others more obvious.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5626574/site/newsweek/

Ask The Experts

asktheexperts@thepreptalk.com

This week’s winning question:

Q: Do my senior year grades count, or do they just care about how hard the courses are?
A: The senior year -- the entire senior year -- is of interest to colleges. When you apply, many colleges will want you to list your senior courses, including information about course levels and credit hours. It will be very whether you have the desired “rigor” in your schedule. As far as the grades themselves go, most colleges (especially privates) will include a form for mid-year grades which you give to your counselor. Your counselor completes this form with first-half grades and sends it to the colleges. It then becomes part of your application.
Once you get in, your acceptance is often contingent upon continued academic success, and, yes, we have actually heard of people’s acceptance being rescinded due to failing grades in 2nd semester.

Application & Essay Tips

Secure teacher recommendations now! Put some thought into which teachers know you best, and make sure to ask them as soon as possible to write your recommendation for you. If they agree to do it, make sure to provide them with not just the postmarked envelope and forms, but with a list of activities that you have participated in, your test score and GPA information, and anything else they should know before writing the recommendation. Also, give some thought to which teacher(s) you think might write a good recommendation, versus which teacher you simply liked most or is the most popular. A smart teacher will only write a few recommendations per year, as he or she will want to do them well, not just punch them out, so get there early! Finally, once it’s all over, give the teacher a relatively inexpensive gift or at least a very nice thank you note. They have likely put in several hours of work for you, and you should acknowledge them.

Featured College

Union College, located in Schenectady, NY, is a fun school. That’s not to say that it is not rigorous. Tough schedules, small classes and a tough general education requirement are parts of Union, too. But, with just over 2,000 students, and a social life dominated by alcohol-heavy fraternities and sororities, Union is definitely one of the party schools of the East Coast. The picturesque campus is nicer than the surrounding town, which is dedicated, in large part, to the college. Not many people on the West Coast know about Union, which speaks to its reputation. The admissions standards are high, but not as high as other small East Coast schools. Still, Union is academically challenging, and provides student with a fun and enjoyable environment. Plus, they don’t require SATs to apply, as you can choose to submit three SAT II tests instead. A real advantage for some. If you want to go East Coast, small, and have plenty of parties to choose from while studying, Union may be a place to start looking.

10th&11th Grade Tips

We’ve been getting lots of questions about test prep for juniors and sophomores. The only thing you should be worried about right now (both parents and students) is making sure your grades are as high as they can be. You will likely take the new PSAT in October, and what we recommend is ordering the detailed “Score Report Plus”, so that you’ll know how you did on each part and, when your Prep School tutor starts with you a few months down the road, he/she will be able to tailor the tutorial from the beginning to your strengths and weaknesses.