The Shifting Definitions of Merit in Admissions

This dialogue recently appeared in The New York Times

Question: I realize there is no set formula for admissions at the Ivies. However, what consolation can you offer a student and his parents with the following profile and results?

Our son was a graduate of a highly regarded parochial school in Texas with 260 seniors. Graduated in the top 3 percent of class. Took twice the number of AP/honors classes required for an honors degree. Voted top male senior by faculty based on personal and academic traits. Scored 1995 on SAT and 30 on ACT.

Active member of numerous school honors and service organizations. Two-year varsity athlete who received district honors both years. Named male scholar athlete for having highest G.P.A. of any varsity athlete. Active in church and community groups. Eagle Scout. Stellar recommendations.

Applied to and denied admission at Columbia, Princeton, Boston College and Rice. Oh, and lest I forget, he’s a white middle-class male from a two-parent household. A female Hispanic classmate who did not take honors classes, who was not in the top 10 percent, who was not nationally merit recognized, and who was not in any extracurricular school activities WAS accepted to Columbia.

What’s a family to do? Tell junior that life’s not fair and that decisions affecting him are often not merit-based? Can these colleges be so intent on creating their own Utopia that they can afford to overlook highly qualified candidates who would be an obvious asset to the school simply because their acceptance would throw off the ethnic and economic percentages they so like to report?

Will the “great unwashed” ever understand the mystery that is Ivy League admissions?

Answer: I am obviously not privy to the particulars of your son’s application and that of the young woman you describe. And as Ralph Figueroa, a former admissions officer at Wesleyan and Occidental, said in response to an earlier question this week on “Talk to The Times,” it’s unlikely that the colleges you mention would — or even could — explain their decisions even if we asked.

I am confident that nothing I write here can give you the sort of consolation you’re seeking, because highly selective colleges’ definitions of “merit” — the word you invoke above — are far too complicated (and hedged) for us as outsiders to ever apply them on a case-by-case basis.

On the one hand, for all of the obviously stellar accomplishments of your son, I can tell you that each of the colleges you mention had many other candidates who presented similarly strong or even better credentials. And considering that Harvard (a school that you don’t mention) turns away many applicants who have perfect SAT scores or who are valedictorians of their classes, I am confident that your son is hardly the only excellent candidate to be rejected by the schools to which he applied.

But you also suggest that an applicant from the same high school got into Columbia, when your son did not, with grades and standardized test scores that you say were inferior to your son’s, and with no extracurricular activities. I’ll assume for the sake of this answer that the information you are providing is accurate. You also believe you have found a reason: that she is Hispanic. You might well be right.

The colleges you mention all practice affirmative action. That means they subscribe to the notion that building a freshman class that is broadly diverse — including racially and ethnically diverse — serves to give some minority applicants an opportunity to receive a world-class education that might not have been available to their parents or grandparents, and, in the bargain, to enhance the overall educational experience of their classmates.

Considering that some of these schools have 10 or more applicants for each seat in the freshman class, something has to give. And yes, an honest admissions officer would tell you that, as you suspect, they often have to “overlook highly qualified candidates that would be an obvious asset to the school” to satisfy the various other goals of the admissions process. And that sometimes means casting aside an applicant or applicants who might appear “better” by every other statistical measure than some of the applicants admitted.

As I have said in response to an earlier question on “Talk to The Times,” this process is not fair. You ask if you should “tell junior that?” I suspect he knows already, but this is probably a good time to reinforce that message.

You also ask if you should tell him that “decisions affecting him are often not merit-based?” I would respectfully argue that you’re asking the wrong question. Why not use this as an opportunity to tell him that in life, not everyone will subscribe to the same definitions of merit that might guide him (or his father), but that it’s at least worth examining their reasons. I appreciate the opportunity you have given us to do so here.

contact The College Trail for advice on your student's path on the trail to college admissions

New 'science of learning' could reinvent teaching techniques

An article in USA today pointed to Scientists who are quietly tackling education issues, offering up new tools, new approaches and even a new discipline.

The College Trail Editor's Note: select a teaching professional who is familiar with the latest research on principles of learning and teaching techniques. Contact us at www.thecollegetrail.com for more information.

Three principles are espoused in the proposal for a field of learning research:

•Learning is computational. Even infants and toddlers possess innate capabilities to see and hear patterns, something psychologists doubted decades ago. Reinforcing those capabilities by teaching patterns early might sharpen kids' brains.

•Learning is social. People, even infants, learn better through social cues. We "most readily learn and re-enact an event when it is produced by a person," scientists and colleagues write. "Social factors also play a role in life-long learning — new social technologies (for example, text messaging, Facebook, and Twitter) tap humans' drive for social communication," they add.

•Learning is driven by brain circuitry. Brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people, which allows students to identify with their teachers and speeds learning.

"The young learn best from people in human social interaction. But one of the fundamental characteristics of the human mind is our flexibility and our inventiveness — our capacity to invent tools to amplify our own sensory and motor abilities," scientists said by e-mail.

Dear Admissions Officer

Reprinted from Wicked Local

The College Trail Editor's Comment: this parent typifies many who want only the best for their child, and who are always reaching for the right strategy, solution and people to talk to. The College Trail can help. Finding the right fit for your student when planning for college is important. There are many choices, but finding the right one takes time. Let us help guide you through the process.

North Andover -

Dear Admissions Officer…

Do you have room for a regular kid at your university?

With so much pressure to be the strongest, the fastest, and the smartest — or to make yourself appear so — is it okay to just be yourself, no phony vocabulary words or marketing strategies — is it enough?

I’ll bet the applicant pool is overflowing. With some kids making a big splash while others are just trying to keep their heads above water. I’d say it’s thickest in the middle — where my son likes to swim — but what if his goggles get kicked off and he stops swimming because he can’t see where he’s going?

I’m struggling with how to advise him through this college admissions process. “Be you, only better,” I tell him, but that doesn’t sound right.

Kids are on a relentless treadmill since their entrance into preschool at age 2 — parents setting expectations so high that they need tutors in everything from soccer to language — with even summer camps concentrating on college prep instead of sailing.

From noodle necklaces to college applications that look more like the resumes for mid-level executives — where’s it all going?

Competition has been brought to new heights (depths?). I cringe hearing parents reminding 10-year-olds how good this or that will look on their college applications.

Television has turned everything into a contest, from dating to adoption — in this voyeuristic world, have fame and/or notoriety become the ubiquitous career goals?

What about the kid who hides behind his hair a little but stays the course nonetheless?

How does one stand out in a world where standing out has become the rule rather than the exception?

It’s a shame you no longer offer personal interviews to prospective students –— I was hoping you’d get to look into my son’s eyes and hear the words come from his smile instead of trying to decipher his voice in all the electronically received data that is meant to tell you his story.

I know you’re looking for students with a hunger for learning — who have a drive to make a change in their community, the world. But I’m pretty sure my son hasn’t discovered these things about himself yet.

I was hoping you could help him with that.

I want so badly for him to have this opportunity. He doesn’t know yet what he wants, just that he’s supposed to want what I want for him.

Through the years of his education I’ve had to keep saying, “Your only job right now is to get on the honor roll. It doesn’t matter if you think you’ll never use French or quadratic equations — just get the grades that will open the doors. Be interested and interesting — the rest will fall into place someday.”

I’ve wondered if it counts for more if you say a thing over and over.

My son played trumpet for more years than he’d have chosen, participated on more sports teams than I can believe I got him to, volunteered at Special Olympics horse shows when it was the last thing he wanted to do all those Saturdays, runs in one road race every year with his sisters, Husky and me to raise money for Lazarus House, and climbs mountains all over this country every summer despite his own alternate big ideas.

He’s getting there, I believe. And though attending college is the culmination of his life’s work and play up until now, it is but a beginning. The very start of him getting to know who he is, what drives him — what will set him on fire so he might also want to set the world on fire. Or at least understand that it’s a possibility.

Will you be able to tell from his record that he works at a thing until it’s finished — or that if he doesn’t know an answer he will search until he finds it?

How will you know that he’s the kind of guy who shaves without being asked when he’s going to see his grandmother, mows her lawn like his Uncle Nick taught him, and that when I was out running one Sunday and got caught in a rogue lightening storm, he set out in my Tahoe to come find me?

Where in his transcript will you see his quiet affinity for all living things — that he could never hurt an animal, and that he still waters a spider plant he got at a summer class the year he was 8?

He’s traded his trumpet for an electric guitar, misses his ride to school half the time because he won’t go to bed before midnight, and spends an inordinate amount of time online searching for a Camaro, Trans Am or a Mustang he can afford (or talk us into) while cranking Atreyu so loud the candle flame on my coffee table bends in time with the beat.

But he’s also the guy who removes inadvertent recyclables from the trash to put them where they belong, and wears a tie on Thanksgiving.

Do you have a spot at your school for someone like that?

The College Trail Editor's Comment: this parent typifies many who want only the best for their child, and who are always reaching for the right strategy, solution and people to talk to. The College Trail can help. Finding the right fit for your student when planning for college is important. There are many choices, but finding the right one takes time. Let us help guide you through the process.

Back to School Benefit for College Admissions and Tutoring - Introductory Offer From The College Trail

The College Trail, a leading provider of College Admissions Coaching, Preparation and Admission Strategies, Tutoring and Standardized Test Preparation announced an introductory offer for its services through midnight pacific time September 30, 2009. 

The College Trail (www.thecollegetrail.com) is offering free introductory sessions for new clients who sign up by September 30, 2009. The introductory offer includes either:

- A free introductory Tutoring session, or
- A free College Admissions counseling session 

The company provides a full range of services including college admissions strategies, tutor services, specialized math tutoring, specialized tutors for science, languages, and other subjects, college planning, college admissions essay suggestions, test preparation and other related services.

"As students return to school parents are often looking for ideas to help give them an edge in their academic ability or to help determine the right path to college," said Rod Turner, founder and president of The College Trail. "Our track record of over 10 years enables us to help students on the trail to college whether they need math tutoring, a plan designed to help fit their unique skills and goals to the right college, or prepare for testing.

About The College Trail

The College Trail, founded in 1996 by Stanford Engineer and Cornell MBA, Rod Turner, provides students and their families all three components of academic and college admission support:

1. College Planning, Preparation, and Admission Strategies
2. Academic Coaching (tutoring)
3. Standardized Test Preparation

More about the company may be found at www.thecollegetrail.com. Success stories about The College Trail may be found at www.thecollegetrail.com/success_stories.html.

The company also manages social media sites for parents and students to collaborate, share concerns and find solutions to college admissions strategies on Facebook (http://bit.ly/2y5a4V), Twitter (http://twitter.com/thecollegetrail), and LinkedIn (http://bit.ly/pdoVN).

The College Trail Welcomes New Southern California Coordinator for its Tutoring Program

The College Trail has brought on Brad Sterling, an experienced educator, to support and manage its tutors as the tutoring program continues to grow in Southern California.

The College Trail has provided tutoring to junior high and high school students in Orange County for 12 years. This tutoring program has expanded to San Diego County to meet growing demand for The College Trail’s highly specialized and results-driven tutors.

Sterling brings a new level of professionalism and organization to this learning environment. He has a degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Mathematics from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and has spent years teaching mathematics and science.

With Sterling's background in education and shared passion for helping our students, we look forward to Brad’s ideas and focusing his energy towards broadening our market and developing best-in-class services.

Sterling will oversee an exciting and busy fall semester for The College Trail’s tutors and students.

For more information about The College Trail’s tutors and tutoring program, please contact us today or call us at (877) 270-4501.

The College Trail and Ivy West: New Partners in Standardized Test Preparation

The College Trail has partnered with Ivy West, an organization with 20 years of experience preparing students for standardized tests, to offer students throughout California in-home standardized test preparation that matches The College Trail’s teaching philosophy and dedication to its students.

For the past two decades, Ivy West has been the premier provider of one-on-one test preparation for the SAT, PSAT, SAT Subject Tests, ACT, and high school admissions tests. Their professional and certified tutors provide students with proven test-taking strategies that build confidence and maximize scores. Ivy West offers a range of programs that are designed to target the test preparation needs of individual students with instruction pacing and strategies that are tailored to students’ strengths, weaknesses, and testing habits. Tutors are matched to the personality and learning style of each student to help enhance the student’s learning experience.

The College Trail adheres to this same kind of teaching philosophy and takes into account each of its students’ needs and builds a customized plan to attain results-driven goals in the fields of standardized test preparation, in-home tutoring, and college admission counseling.

For more information about The College Trail’s services, please contact The College Trail today or call us (877) 270-4501.

Colleges Concerned About Freshman Enrollment

Summer melt is a normal part of the college admission process but, in uncertain economic times, this attrition of freshman students has become a cause for concern on some college campuses.

In an effort to meet enrollment numbers for this upcoming school year, colleges across the country have started increasing the number of admitted freshman and shoring up their waiting lists, according to an article in the Washington Post.

The Chronicle of Higher Education conducted a survey of 142 colleges and universities and found that private colleges have hedged their bets against the recession by admitting 8.7 percent more students for this school year. Public colleges have admitted 3.1 percent more students while the average freshman class has grown by about 2 percent.

College admission offices have also started more outreach programs for this year’s incoming freshman class so that they can encourage admitted students with weekly newsletters and personal phone calls.

"It's critical we hit the target of how many kids are coming to (Virginia) Tech in fall," said Mark Owczarski, a spokesman for Virginia Tech. With cutbacks in funding, "we'll need that tuition money," he said.

As the college admission process starts for another hopeful high school senior class this year, remember to take advantage of these new outreach programs many colleges have started. Since many colleges are investing more time than ever on admissions, they may have some additional programs or events available for a high school senior to attend that can help build his/her potential college list.

For more information on guiding your student through the college admissions process, contact The College Trail.

Summer Reading: Admission

Novelist Elizabeth Mosier served as acting director of admissions for Bryn Mawr's Class of 2006. Her recent book, Admission was reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to the review, the author "...makes the personal universal by connecting her character's dilemma to larger issues that concern us all: how we will educate our children and how we want to live..."

The review continues, "... The college selection system matters - to legacy and first-generation applicants alike - because it shapes preparation into the form that garners reward. The revelation of Admission, which Portia is compelled by her position to explain to her partner, Princeton faculty members, and exasperated parents, is that "the much-maligned system . . . was not about the applicant at all. It was about the institution. It was about delivering to the trustees, and to a lesser extent the faculty, a United Nations of scholars, an Olympiad of athletes, a conservatory of artists and musicians, a Great Society of strivers, and a treasury of riches so idiosyncratic and ill defined that the Office of Admission would not know how to go about looking for them and could not hope to find them if they suddenly stopped turning up of their own accord."

Contact The College Trail for more information on guiding your student through the college admissions process.

How many AP classes is the right number for college?

How many AP classes should your student take throughout his high school career to be admitted to the college of his choice? The answer is that it varies, according to a recent article in the Examiner. Since most schools offer a different AP course load, college admissions officers do not look for a specific amount of AP classes. Rather, they look at what AP classes your student’s school offers and compares that to your student’s schedule. They want to know if your student has challenged himself at that particular school and taken advantage of all academic opportunities. So be sure to take another look at your student’s schedule over the summer to determine if they are taking classes that will show any college admissions officer that he has taken on a challenging schedule with a variety of AP courses, from AP Calculus to AP Language.

College Admissions tips for the summer: Resumes and Essays

The college admissions process is getting more and more competitive every year. For incoming high school seniors, these ten weeks of summer are the perfect time to start preparing an important component of the application process: college essays. The essay is one of the few parts where they can express a part of themselves that doesn’t necessarily shine through on other parts of their applications. Mary Merrill, an admissions officer from Connecticut College, told the New York Times that this is an opportunity for students to show admissions officers what they capable of when they have time to think, prepare, rewrite and polish.

While the college essay has always been a traditional part of the application process, incoming high school seniors may also want to consider writing a student resume for all of their college applications. The benefits of a student resume are similar to those of a college essay: a resume give students the freedom to present accomplishments as best suits each student and, as a result, to shine more in the eyes of college admission officers, according to college admissions counselor Steve Sterling. Having a resume is also a great way to prepare for potential internships and jobs once your student is in college.

Even though a great college essay and student resume will not gain acceptance for an unqualified student, they will help a qualified student stand out from the competition and can change a maybe to a yes.

For more information about The College Trail’s college counseling and college admissions services, please contact us today.

The College Trail participates in WACAC college admissions roundtable

College admission standards were the topics of discussion during a roundtable The College Trail attended at the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC) at Chapman University. Shawn Abbott, the director of undergraduate admissions at Stanford University, and Greg MacCandless, associate director of college counseling at Sage Hill School, led a panel of experts through a case study to determine what college admissions officers look for in a candidate. They said that admissions officers look for reasons to admit a candidate, but it is up to the candidate to supply the necessary evidence - like test scores, grades, and extracurricular activities - in his or her application. One of the ways for a candidate to enforce this evidence is to tell a consistent story and allow his/her personality to shine throughout the entire college application. An intriguing outcome of the case study was that the strongest applicant, based on test scores with a 2250 combined SAT, lost out to other candidates with lower scores based on his overall application. For more information on The College Trail’s college admissions and counseling program, contact us today.

California’s budget cuts hit state's college admissions

California is looking to cut state college admissions at all its junior colleges and universities. The UC system just announced today that it cut its freshman admissions by almost 7 percent. These cuts are part of a larger effort to try to balance California’s $24-billion budget shortfall. The University of California and California State University systems are faced with $2 billion in cuts for this school year alone, and the state’s community college system is facing an $800 million shortfall in state funding. All three have been asked to trim even more out of next year’s budget, and so freshman class sizes have been one of the first items on the chopping block.

UC President Mark Yudof, according to the UC Newsroom, outlined the consequences of these cuts to the state’s budget committee. The UC system will not be able to hire the faculty and offer all the classes needed for their existing student body. He said they will also look increasing student fees in addition to the cuts to freshman admissions.

“The long-term solution for our economy is to heighten investment in UC, the CSU and the Community Colleges,” Yudof said. “In the near term, unfortunately, the utter severity of the cuts proposed leaves us only difficult options to consider.”

These budget cuts also come at a time when enrollment is increasing at these campuses. Community College’s Chancellor Jack Scott said that enrollment hit a record-breaking 2.8 million at the state’s 110 junior college campuses this year, according to the Sacramento Bee.

"This is the time when California community colleges are most needed, and it's demonstrated by our enrollment," Scott said.

If these budget cuts continue, admissions to all of California’s universities will become much more competitive than they already are. The original plan for California’s K-12 students was that there would be a spot for each at one of the junior colleges or universities. That guarantee may no longer be the case.

For more information on The College Trail's college counseling program and college admission strategies, contact us today.

Best Graduate Schools for 2009

U.S. News and World Report has released a new video about the best graduate schools this year.

College Rankings Come Under Scrutiny

According to a recent article in Business Week, A dozen college presidents are setting the stage for what they hope will become a wide-scale rebellion against the annual college rankings compiled by U.S. News & World Report.

For expert advise on selecting the right college that fits the individual needs of your student, contact The College Trail for more information from our admissions counselors.

The College Board vote on revamping the SAT exam

Do you remember taking the SAT test? If you are a parent and have not taken it in a few years, the last updates were implemented in March, 2005. Before that, changes were last made in 1994.

Students' performance on the SAT can determine their destiny in college admissions. Its original intent was to create a meritocracy, but it has often been criticized for cultural bias, lack of testing for effort, will power, study habits, and other behavioral "soft" skills that often determine ultimate success not only in college but in life.

The role of the SAT was reviewed in a National Public Radio report from Boston which detailed the impact of The College Board vote on revamping the SAT exam in 2002. The latest version included additions of a writing section and other changes. Writing, according to the Board now improves the ability of the test to predict college success. Math has also been tweaked to include Algebra II. Verbal has been re-named "Reading," and has been updated to remove analogies as part of the test.

Proponents say this new test better reflects high school curriculum and the writing sample will be a useful tool for college admissions offices.

Critics counter the changes will penalize students who don’t speak English as a first language and this test is no better at predicting college success than previous versionis.

Is the new test fair? Is the SAT outdated? Contact The College Trail experts to find out how to optimize your student's candidacy by selecting the right trail that fits your student's unique needs.

Unigo - A New Way to Research Colleges

Walt Mossberg recently reviewed a new and different way to research colleges, whether you are a parent, or high school student.

There is new sight that has harnessed the qualities of social networks such as Facebook and Internet Video such as YouTube. Unigo provides edited content by students at the colleges in the form of words and videos.

Like Facebook, you can create networks of contacts. Like YouTube you can hear video from anywone who wants to express an opinion about a school, the social scene, academics or simply how one "feels" about being a student there. You may select perspectives from specific ethnic groups, colleges, male or female perspectives. It seems to strike a good balance between immediacy and professionalism of edited content.

Contact The College Trail experts to find out how to optimize your student's candidacy by selecting the right trail and the right college that fit your student's unique needs.