College Admissions Counseling Blog

There is an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times recently about colleges, particularly those in California, revoking admissions to students who let their senior year grades slide too much.

This isn't necessarily big news but every year some students just don't get it that they need to keep their grades up particularly if accepted at a selective college. Colleges don't like to "unaccept" students, but they will if the student indicates that they don't have the maturity to continue to get strong grades. If there is something else that has caused a drop in grades, most colleges will look at the explanation before automatically rejecting the student. But don't take that risk. Continue to work during the senior year so that you don't have to explain to the college that accepted you why they should continue your acceptance.

A new study out by the University of California suggests that grades are the most important indicator of performance through all four years of college. At the same time SAT scores have very little predictive value for college performance.

An excellent summary of the study was published in Inside Higher Education by reporter Scott Jaschlik. We would encourage anyone interested in the topic of the importance of grades vs. test scores to read this article. While test scores will probably always have some importance, their influence seems to be under almost constant attack the past few years as more and more colleges go test optional and the College Board continues with problems with the SAT.

Because of the large scope of this study, many colleges will look seriously at the results. Hopefully the result is a moderating of the influence of standardized test scores on the entire college admissions process.

A poster at CollegeConfidential recently posted a resource that could be very helpful for students interested in participating in college sports. The NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association, requires Division I schools to perform a self study every 10 years. These self studies often contain information regarding test score data and breakdowns on freshman classes by gender and racial catagories.

The poster then provides links to a wide variety of Division I schools where this self study information can be found. If you are a potential student athlete you should investigate this information to see if the colleges you are interested in have recently performed a self study.

Thanks to Papa Chicken for this information.

Carleton College's alumni magazine recently featured an article taking an inside look at the admissions office at Carleton. Carleton is a highly selective liberal arts college in Minnesota for those who might not be familiar with it. I also happen to be the father of a rising senior at Carleton.

It is generally helpful to see these articles that talk about the admissions process at different colleges particularly the selective colleges. Back in March I wrote about several other articles looking at selective college admissions offices. I would suggest anyone that is considering a selective college view some of these articles before applying to get a better feel for the type of student these colleges are looking to admit. However, also keep in mind, that there are no guarantees with applying to highly selective colleges and you should always have a safety college that you like in mind.

The Harvard alumni magazine recently published an article on students that Harvard rejected in the past but probably wished they hadn't.

Getting rejected from Harvard or any other "big name" college hurts when it happens. But this article makes it clear that one need not attend a prestigious college to be successful. Keep that in mind when making the decision on where to apply. Look for the right fit for you and your wants, and don't worry about the name of the college. You too can be successful even if you don't go to Harvard.

You may be wondering why you should care if Dartmouth College wants to reconsider the way its trustees are elected. Dartmouth elects its trustees, the governing board of the college, in one of two ways. Members are elected by each other and by elections by alumni. The problem, at least for Dartmouth, is that the recent alumni elected trustees have not been the officially nominated candidates. Rather, they were elected by alumni who are critical of the administration of the college and the way it is being run. In an effort to control such criticism by trustees the administration is seeking a review of the way trustees are elected.

This is yet another example of one of the issues that a student may want to consider in deciding where to apply to college. If the administration of the college is not open to critical comments from its trustees, are they going to be willing to listen to criticism from its students? And remember that the trustees in question are alumni of Dartmouth, not some strangers unfamiliar with the culture of the college.

Issues like the one facing Dartmouth are faced by colleges all the time. You as a prospective student need to be aware of such issues to make an informed decision in the selection of where to apply. Like most other issues, there are no right or wrong answers to the search for the right college. But each student needs to consider issues like the one facing Dartmouth in their search for the right college for that student.

Vassar College has announced that they will be need blind for all freshman admissions. Vassar was need blind until 10 years ago when they went to a need aware policy for some freshman admissions.

For those people confused by the difference, a need blind college makes all of their admissions decisions regardless of the financial circumstances of the applicant. In other words, it doesn't matter whether you apply for financial aid, you will be considered equally with all other applicants. A need aware college admits most students without regard to their financial aid status. However, a certain percentage of students will have their financial aid status considered when the college decides which students to admit. Typically this meant that if you were one of the last students to be considered by the college, you might not be admitted simply because you had a need for financial aid. At Vassar, this usually meant about 2% of students were admitted giving consideration to their financial aid status. Colleges use a need aware aid policy to save money in their limited financial aid budget. While it is understandable why a college would use their limited resources in this manner, it is unfortunate that the ability to pay for a college is considered in the admissions process.

We applaud Vassar for returning to a need blind admission policy. This is a great way to ensure that the best students are being admitted to a college.