Parent attacks high school

This was a new one for me. I received an email yesterday from a parent blasting away at her daughter’s high school. I assumed this was part of a strategy for admission – that the parent wanted me to put aside poor grades based on claims of how horribly the school mistreats her child. That [...]

Does dropping an activity hurt your admission chances?

I received a message from a mom in a debate with a dad over their son’s activities. He’s currently lettering in two varsity sports, active in many other activities, and wants to know if dropping one will hurt his chances for admission to college. As with everything involved in admissions, few colleges will tell you [...]

Can success prove that admissions officers get it wrong?

I received a great e-mail this week from a parent of a Mason student. A while back the student was denied admission and then filed an appeal. The appeal was granted, and now the student is on Mason’s dean’s list. The parent takes this as evidence that admissions processes in general (or at least ours [...]

Pros and Cons of Dual Enrollment

A recent US News article notes the rapid expansion of students taking college courses while still enrolled in high school. I’m a big fan of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses, although not to crazy extremes (did you really need 36 courses this year? Does EVERY student in your school really need to be in [...]

College planners study how to recruit you

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted an article this morning about a presentation at the Society for College and University Planning. The report claims to have studied hundreds of thousands of Canadian students to determine how they make up their minds about college. I’m a bit skeptical of the report because it’s based on surveys, [...]

Deciding what to do with your life

I was at a concert last night (In case your wondering, Pat McGee Band and Sister Hazel – and a Shameless Plug, it took me just about fifteen minutes to get from campus to the incredible Wolftrap National Center for the Performing Arts). My wife ended up in a conversation with a young lady next [...]

Can you wait until Orientation to make up your mind?

A recent article in the Boston Globe reported on the trend for students to wait longer than ever to decide which college they will attend. Many years ago colleges and universities were using all kinds of scary tactics to get students to commit early – threatening lousy housing assignments, bad course schedules, or even claiming [...]

SAT makes a big announcement about nothing

I had the oppourtunity to comment today on a story being written for U.S. News and World Report about the new SAT policy that will allow students to pick which sets of scores colleges will receive. There are times when I feel like I’ve landed in a Seinfeld rerun with a long discussion going on [...]

International Students: What Does “Liberal Arts” Really Mean?

The term “liberal arts” is often used to describe a type of institution or academic curriculum in the U.S., but many students, both international and American, go through their entire university education without having any idea what it really means. Students are either too shy to ask for clarification or become extremely confused because they [...]

More fear than reality when student loans are in the media

I tend to listen to the radio while I get ready in the morning, usually spending most of the time on National Public Radio or some other new station to get caught up before my day starts. Not surprisingly, I tend to give a little more attention to stories about education, especially those about admissions, [...]