cptofthehouse: good point about the demonstrated interest factor and college visits.
Irishmom, I agree with you completely about the stereotyping. Just the same, the tri-state metro area (Westchester Cty., Long Island, as well as Fairfield Cty) and the Boston area have always been super competitive regions - even 20 years ago - when it comes to higher education whether it be for undergraduate admission or competition for graduate fellowships. These days, the number of kids who not only want to go to college but want to aim for the elites are up and, as a result, parents and families from these areas are caught smack in the center of the college admission maelstrom these days.
Anyway, here have the first installment of another series of articles, this time in Newsday, that will follow seven seniors as they go through the admissions process:
"A generation ago, Daniel Bianculli could have counted on an admissions letter from an Ivy League university. His SAT scores are in the top 99th percentile, he plays the trumpet in the band and starts on three varsity teams at Oyster Bay High. He wants to study physics and engineering at a place like Cornell so that one day he can join the CIA and thwart terrorists.
But this year, the most competitive for college admissions in decades, he faces staggering odds. Cornell accepted just one of Oyster Bay's 11 applicants from the class of 2006. Bianculli can't even count on a spot at his other favorites, including Carnegie Mellon and Vanderbilt.
Bianculli lacks what colleges call a "hook." He's not a recruited athlete, a legacy or a member of an underrepresented minority group. He doesn't come from a family that can donate a campus building, either.
"This kind of kid would have been a slam dunk for all the great colleges fifteen years ago, but now it's going to be hard," said Gwyeth Smith Jr., Oyster Bay's guidance director. "We have to be nervous, especially because he's coming off Long Island, where there are a lot of Dan Biancullis in the applicant pool."
As they cram for next Saturday's SATs and sweat over essays to meet Wednesday's deadline to apply early to elite colleges, Long Island students confront a demographic mountain. Nationwide, the high school class of 2012 -- this year's seventh-graders -- will be 11 percent larger than the class of 2000. The growth is even more dramatic on Long Island, where the class of 2012 will swell by 35 percent.
And the best scholars are better prepared than ever. The number of American high school students taking college-level Advanced Placement exams has increased by 143 percent in the past 10 years. On Long Island, nearly 30 percent of last year's seniors scored at least a 3 out of a possible 4 on one or more AP exams during their high school careers. That's almost double the rate of seniors nationwide.
"We're turning away students who are number one and two in their class not because we're arrogant but because we don't have room," said Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, which rejected 62 percent of the 1,035 high school valedictorians who applied this year. Penn isn't alone. Duke rebuffed 58 percent of valedictorians, and Harvard said no to one out of every four applicants with perfect SAT scores.
An Ivy League hot spot
Admissions officers point out that Long Island still manages to send an enviable number of students to top colleges. They credit rigorous high schools located in small districts that offer individualized attention. Jericho, for example, sent a remarkable 9 percent of its Class of 2006 to the Ivies (25 of 264).
Yet the competition intensifies -- here, in Boston's suburbs, in Marin County, Calif. -- anywhere with pockets of wealth and distinguished private and public schools. Said Rachel Korn, who worked in admissions at Brandeis, Wellesley and Penn before editing a book of tips for applicants: "Long Island has so many highly talented students from ultra-competitive schools that it's tough to make the cut."...
"Driven by the growing demand as well as students who want to hedge their bets, applications have soared at places such as Reed College in Oregon (up 15 percent from last year) and College of the Holy Cross, outside Boston (up 41 percent). And, suddenly the "safety schools" aren't so safe: The University of Miami, once derisively known as a "Suntan U," received 19,100 applications this year for 2,000 openings.
Local guidance counselors assure parents there are scores of hidden gems among the nation's 2,533 colleges. Outstanding schools such as Grinnell, Davidson, Carleton, the Claremont colleges, Emory, Oberlin don't yet have window-decal cachet. It's the three dozen bigger-name campuses that continue to mesmerize brand-conscious parents who were satisfied with SUNY schools for themselves." "
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/lo...ny-main-bigpix