To those of you who have enjoyed this blog over the years, I just want to let you know that my college blog has moved from this site to my website https://slosbergcollegesolutions.com/.
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Friday, April 23, 2021
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Buyers and Sellers
In Jeff Selingo’s book, Who Gets In and Why A Year Inside College Admissions, he introduces the concept of “college buyers” and “college sellers.” In this blog post, I will focus on whether a private college is a college buyer or a seller.
College sellers are the colleges that receive tons of applications and have a high yield (i.e., a large percent of accepted students choose to attend). Because of the high demand for these colleges they don’t need to “buy” students by offering merit aid or tuition discounts. College sellers typically offer financial aid to students who have financial need and a very small percent (if any) of really exceptional students.
College buyers on the other hand, are not in such high demand.
They often provide as good or better an education than the sellers, but they
discount tuition and/or provide significant merit aid to many students in order
to make sure that they have a full freshman class.
Whether a college is a “buyer” or a “seller” does NOT reflect
whether students get a great education there.
If you don’t have financial need, but you want your student to get
a good price for college, be sure your student includes buyers on their college list.
Jeff Selingo provides these rules of thumb to differentiate buyers and sellers:
- Sellers typically admit less than 20% of applicants on average. Colleges as a whole accept 67%.
- The yield at most seller colleges is nearly 45%, as compared to about 25% at most buyer colleges.
- On average, 7% of financial aid that sellers give is a merit-based discount vs. nearly 33% of financial aid that buyers give is a merit-based discount.
Friday, February 26, 2021
Selecting High School Classes
This time of year, many students are selecting their high school classes for the Fall. Here are three things to consider when picking classes.
1. Be aware that the preferred high school
curriculum for applicants of selective colleges include:
·
4 years English
·
3 or 4 years Math
·
3 or 4 years of a lab science including
chemistry or physics
·
3 or 4 years Social Studies
· 3 or 4 years Foreign Language.
2. Take the most challenging classes (e.g., honors, AP, IB) your high school offers that you can handle without harming your grades, extracurricular involvement or your health. I believe a “B” in an AP class is better than an “A” in a standard class. If you don’t think you can get more than a “C” in the more challenging class, I would advise against it. Look at the difficulty of your entire schedule and be sure to consider how many challenging classes you can handle at one time.
3. Different classes expose you to possible college majors and careers. Think about whether you enjoy the class material, whether you excel in the subject and whether you want to learn more about the subject in high school and beyond. For those students who have an idea of their future college major or career, let that impact the classes you choose. For example, if you are planning to study math, science or engineering, I would recommend that you take at least four years of Math and Science, including Calculus if your school offers it.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
7 Surprising College Application Essay Prompts
With the 2019-2020 application season winding down, here are seven surprising and thought-provoking college application essay or short answer prompts (in random order):
- “What is the most compelling thing you have ever read, and how has it changed you or inspired you to take action now, in the past, or in the future? This could be an entire book, a passage or chapter, a poem, an article, graffiti- anything written.” George Mason University Honors prompt
- “Seattle has a rich musical history and SU students love discovering new Seattle music. Tell us: what five songs would be the soundtrack to your perfect college experience? (two to three sentences for each song is appropriate)” Seattle University prompt
- “At USC Viterbi, we endeavor to engineer a better world for all humanity. This vision goes hand-in-hand with the objectives of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and their 14 Grand Challenges. Engineers and Computer Scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges at http://engineeringchallenges.org and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why.” University of Southern California prompt
- “There are approximately 171,476 words in the English dictionary. Pick your favorite word and tell us why you picked it.” Brandeis University prompt
- “What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed?” Stanford University prompt
- “Who does Sally sell her seashells to? How much wood can a woodchuck really chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Pick a favorite tongue twister (either originally in English or translated from another language) and consider a resolution to its conundrum using the method of your choice. Math, philosophy, linguistics... it's all up to you (or your woodchuck).—Inspired by Blessing Nnate, Class of 2024” University of Chicago prompt
- “Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What question would you ask?” Yale University prompt
Which of these prompts do you think is the
most challenging? The most creative?
What prompt did you encounter that you
consider thought-provoking?
Friday, November 13, 2020
Gratitude for U.S. College Education
With Thanksgiving approaching, here are three things I am grateful for regarding college education in the United States:
- There are colleges available in the United States for any high school graduate who would like to attend.
- There are so many different colleges that allow all kinds of students to find a college that meets their academic, social and financial needs.
- Students can be undecided about their major or change their mind about their major while in college.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Helping Your Children Practice Social Skills During the Pandemic
Thanks to Betty Bodenweiser of Foundation For Learning in Morristown, NJ for letting me share this article which appeared in her September 2020 newsletter.
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