Grace is preparing for two November 1st Early Action deadlines, and she’s already got her FAFSA submitted. As much as she’s keeping ahead with college applications, you might think she has plenty of spare time to work on things. Not quite.
Thinking about scholarships, part one
The whole college admissions process—choosing which colleges to apply to, completing the applications, waiting for responses, and making your final choice—is often overwhelming. Figuring out how to pay for college is even more overwhelming. We’re aware that there are scholarships available, but we don’t always know how to find them, how to evaluate them, how to apply for them, and even if they’re actually worth it. There’s a lot of complexity, and each individual’s situation is different, so it’s difficult to make a few simple rules for everyone to follow.
Revisiting Affirmative Action
Increase productivity by going low-tech
There are several theories about what’s going on, but the one that seems to feel right to a lot of people is that the computers that are so good at helping us save time are just as good—or better—at helping us waste time. This seems especially true since the advent of the smart phone. The tools we have to help us be productive are filled with distractions that kill productivity.
Results from my student survey
Last week I spent two days talking to seniors at Carnegie Vanguard High School during their English class. We talked about what colleges are looking for in applicants, how the different parts of an application work together, and how colleges actually process all those applications. The students also had tons of really great questions.
But first, I had some questions for them. Before our talk, I asked them to fill out a quick questionnaire. Here are the questions I asked and some comments on their responses. If you’re working with college-bound students—either in a school setting, as a parent, or because you are a college-bound student yourself—this may be useful for you.
Should you apply Early Decision?
As I’ve been talking to clients and other 12th-grade students lately, Early Decision keeps coming up. Whether or not to apply E.D. is a difficult choice for a lot of people. While I’m generally more “pro-E.D.” than a lot of other advisors, that enthusiasm is tempered with a number of reservations. So let’s go over some of the reasons to apply Early Decision, and also some of the reasons not to. (Remember, E.D. is the “binding” early application process. You can read more about it, including why schools even offer E.D., here.)
Meet the Class of 2019, Kati
Meet the Class of 2019, Grace and Faulkner
The Glossary: expected family contribution
Your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, is the amount of money you and/or your family are expected to pay for your college education per year. The U.S. Department of Education, using the financial information submitted on your FAFSA, runs the numbers though a complicated formula and determines the "official" amount of money you can afford to pay for college. The formula they use is publicly available, and it is not negotiable.
What movies should you watch before going to college?
Talking to some people over dinner this weekend, I got into a conversation about what movies a student should see before going to college. A couple were debating whether Animal House does or doesn't count as a "must-see" movie.
It's hard to even know what we mean when we talk about "movies a high school student should see." Do we mean movies you should see so you'll get the references that have become part of normal educated conversation? Movies that are somehow instructive about the transition to college? Movies that are "iconic" and so good they should be seen by as many people as possible?
The server came around with our beef tenderloin, and the conversation moved on before we reached any conclusions.
I got curious, so I did a basic search for "movies to watch before going to college." There were a lot of lists, and they had different approaches. But a few movies showed up again and again:
What should sophomores and 9th graders be doing right now?
What should seniors and juniors be doing right now?
This is a tough line to walk, senior year. On one hand, you really ought to be shifting your focus to next year. You have a lot of big decisions to make, and you need to allocate time and resources to working on strong applications and making informed decisions. Your daily high school homework isn’t quite as compelling as it was a year ago. On the other hand, you also need to be preparing yourself to be a good college student, and the best way to prepare for college is to be a good high school student.
The end is near!
My children go back to school on August 27th. Depending on how your school calendar works, you probably have somewhere between one and three weeks of summer left. Or perhaps you've already begun. If your house is anything like mine, you're beginning to run out of planned activities and good ideas. So I thought I'd give some suggestions to smart and ambitious high school students for wrapping up the summer.
Set goals for the new school year
As the new school year looms closer--or has already begun--it's time to think about your goals for the upcoming year. One mistake many students make is waiting until later in the year, often when something is going wrong, to think about their goals and aspirations. Of course you think about your goals and aspirations, but I mean thinking in a deliberate and analytical way. To do this, you're going to need to write your goals down. Let's take three typical goals for smart, ambitious high school students: make good grades, get a leadership position, and have less stress.
Don't forget your summer reading!
I was an AP Lit teacher for nine years, so I have fond memories of summer reading. I always read everything I assigned to my students, every year. So I did the summer reading along with them (or at least a few of them. I'm not naive, most of them didn't do the summer reading).
You've got, more or less, a month left of summer. If you haven't completed your assigned summer reading yet, now is the time. You must read your summer reading assignments.
Posters are now available
High school counselors and teachers, would you like an Apply with Sanity poster for your school? It's 24" by 48" inches. Send me a note with "poster" as the subject line, and I'll send you a free poster to help your students find all my free content! (I've also got postcards--let me know if you want me to throw some in!)
The Glossary: undermatched
Undermatched is the term for students who go to a college that is less selective and elite than what they could get accepted to. If you could get into one of the 20 most selective colleges but don't apply to any of them, then you are undermatched. If you probably would not get accepted to any of those (and most of us can't), but could still be accepted to one of the 200 most selective colleges but don't apply, then you're still undermatched. It has to do with the difference between where you could be accepted to versus where you actually apply.
Some fun financial exercises
Everyone knows that college is expensive. There are plenty of universities whose full published price is higher than the median family income in America. The numbers can be so big that they're hard to imagine and even harder to make realistic decisions about. So here's an exercise I do with most of my consulting clients. You can do this at home with your family.
SAT scores should look a lot more like AP scores
SAT scores are weird. You get a number, ending in a zero, on a scale of 200 to 800, twice: one for reading & writing, one for math. You get a total score between 400 and 1600...except, of course, for those years when the writing was separate and you got somewhere between 600 and 2400. You're allowed to take the test multiple times and combine your highest reading & writing score with your highest math score, giving you a "superscore" that's higher than the total scores you got any of the individual times you took the test.
And then what? What does that number even mean?
Thinking about morning routines
SAT scores are weird. You get a number, ending in a zero, on a scale of 200 to 800, twice: one for reading & writing, one for math. You get a total score between 400 and 1600...except, of course, for those years when the writing was separate and you got somewhere between 600 and 2400. You're allowed to take the test multiple times and combine your highest reading & writing score with your highest math score, giving you a "superscore" that's higher than the total scores you got any of the individual times you took the test.
And then what? What does that number even mean?