The tyranny of college rankings

In an opinion piece for The LA Times, former Reed College President Colin Diver writes, “For all those disappointed college applicants whose hopes were pinned on getting into a school highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report or some similar publication, take heart. This is your chance to be liberated from the tyranny of college rankings.”

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Things that make you go hmmm…

“Schools have institutional priorities that dictate admission decisions. These priorities are not always apparent to those of us outside the rooms where decisions are made. [As one college counselor] points out, ‘We know our little portion, how strong we think one individual student happens to be. But that’s it. The end result can seem illogical when evaluated through a narrow aperture, but if you could see every applicant, it may make more sense.'” Read more here from the co-author of “The Truth about College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together.”

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Drumroll…class of 2022!

The results are in for the Class of 2022! In yet another year marked by challenges and uncertainty, students worked with flexibility, focus, and resilience. From colleges on the West Coast to universities across the country, students in the class of 2022 have decided to attend Bowdoin College, Claremont McKenna College, Colorado State University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Lewis & Clark College, Loyola Marymount University (2), Pitzer College, Scripps College, University of California Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles, University of San Francisco, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).  Students received merit scholarships, exclusive of need-based aid, ranging from $10K-$33K per year!

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Drumroll… class of 2021!

From colleges on the West Coast to universities across the country and overseas, students have decided to attend Amsterdam University College (Netherlands), Brandeis University, Cal Poly SLO College of Science & Math, Clarkson University, Colorado State University College of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Lewis & Clark College, Oregon State University, Stanford University, University of California Davis College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, University of California Davis College of Biological Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Colorado Boulder, University of St. Andrews (Scotland), University of Michigan, and the University of Washington Seattle.

Students received merit scholarships, exclusive of need-based aid, ranging from $5K-$35K per year!

College Advisory’s seniors who graduated from high school in 2012 through 2021 have been admitted to following colleges and universities. This admissions cycle was, without a doubt, the most competitive to date. There were various reasons: namely, test-optional admissions opened the gates for an increase in access and applications, virtual college engagement, an even greater focus on binding early admissions to assist colleges in securing yield, and previous deferrals due to the pandemic.

I continue to be impressed with how students worked through this challenging year with flexibility, tenacity, and maturity. Their resilience will support them through these unprecedented times as they make their way into the next chapter of their lives. Congratulations to all!

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What can you do with a liberal arts degree?

Students and families often express concerns that a liberal arts degree will not be a launching pad to a successful career. Check out this cool interactive data visualization tool from the University of Michigan of the range of career fields their liberal arts graduates have pursued.

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Surprise! Where Harvard Law students attended college

As an example of “It’s not where you go to college, it’s what you do while you’re there,” here’s a list of the undergraduate institutions — 164 of ’em — represented by the 2020-21 1L class at Harvard Law School. Sure, there are well-known universities, but there are also many lesser-known public institutions along with liberal arts colleges from every corner of the U.S.

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Can Zoom replace the college experience?

Interesting insights from the Atlantic’s Ian Bogost: “The pandemic has made college frail, but it has strengthened Americans’ awareness of their attachment to the college experience. It has shown the whole nation, all at once, how invested they are in going away to school or dreaming about doing so. Facing that revelation might be the most important outcome of the pandemic for higher ed: An education may take place at college, but that’s not what colleges principally provide.”

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COVID & teen’s mental health

“With so many struggling (during the pandemic), it’s a vital time to offer support to teenagers in your life. Here’s how to start, how to teach resilience and warning signs that might signal your teen needs extra help.”

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COVID & college admissions

For this NYT op-ed piece, Frank Bruni interviewed Jeff Selingo, one of the best journalists covering higher ed. Selingo observes that the playing field for admissions will be the same this year, but that some of the rules will go out the window. And maybe some of those rules — for example, the need to showcase a flamboyant multiplicity of extracurricular activities — were dumb anyway and deserve to go.

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Class of 2021 & college admissions

From Rick Gates, Georgia Tech’s Admissions Director, an excellent piece on the future of college admissions and enrollment, with projections on what’s going to happen with admit rates, yield, and waitlists for the Class of 2021. A reassuring prediction about a concern that’s front and center for seniors: “I’ve been on a lot of panels with friends and colleagues from around the country lately. All of them (literally all of them) from schools with 7% to 77% admit rates, are saying the same thing: 2020 gap years are not “taking seats” from 2021 graduates.”

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