<p>College Night at our high school yesterday, I attended two sessions with representatives from Barnard, Rochester U., Vanderbilt, Vassar, Yale, Duke, U. Penn and Cooper Union.</p>
<p>Here’s a summary of what we heard:</p>
<p>How do they judge curriculum?
Barnard: read by geography – first reader probably knows your school
Yale: first read by someone assigned to your geographic area
Duke: read by area, one person for our county
Duke: if AP’s are available take “a fair number”
Yale: They do look at self reported AP scores</p>
<p>Showing the Love
All schools said they didn’t care about contacts. Yale specifically said if you called too many time you might get dinged for being annoying.</p>
<p>Do they google you?
Duke: rarely, but have been known to check up a weird sounding award “Yes there was a Mr. Star Power Award in city ___ and it was a big deal.”
Yale: if someone mentions an URL (to their website or blog) they may check it out. Make sure it’s worth visiting. One student blog (in early blogging days was full of complaints about school and Mom – not helpful!) They now have a section of application that suggests giving them links to your work.</p>
<p>How do they judge grades?
Barnard: grade trends important
Barnard: Always explain dips or schedule conflicts (use the additional info section for this)
U Penn: weighted GPA more important than unweighted
Yale: look at all course grades, not just GPA
Duke: will look at trends</p>
<p>SAT Score Choice
Every school hates it and think it’s bad for both students and colleges (they superscore, they want to boast about your highest score in each section) – to emphasize this point Vassar said they accepted someone who got a 200 in CR on one of their reports. The student was only trying to improve a math score and apparently took a nap during CR. SEND IN ALL YOUR SCORES!</p>
<p>SAT subject tests:
U Penn: take 2, math only required for Wharton and Engineering
Duke: take 2, math for Engineering
Yale: take 2, whatever you’ll score best in
Cooper Union – for engineering have to take science (chem or physics) and Math</p>
<p>ED/EA
All schools that had ED said it was an advantage except Cooper Union where it makes no difference. Yale has SCEA, didn’t say if it was an advantage.</p>
<p>Ecs/Essays/Personal Qualities
These make application come alive
2 activities done in depth better than many
don’t let grown ups edit your voice – Vanderbilt: “you don’t want to sound like a 47 year old lawyer”
Vanderbilt: best essays usually come from the choose your own essay topic rather than one of the assigned topics, because then you write about what you are passionate about. If you dropped your essay in your high school cafeteria without your name on it, it should be recognizable as you
Vanderbilt: Bragging is okay</p>
<p>Interviews
Barnard: sometimes shed light on person, almost always better to bring more information to the board
They do student interviews on campus, alumni interviews off campus
Rochester: Highly, highly, highly recommended
They do interviews on campus and also travel around country and do them at centralized locations, some in local high schools.
Vanderbilt: optional, but recommended, interviews may occasionally make a differnce
Vassar: interviews are not required, are not evaluative, can talk to alumni about school
U Penn: truly optional, but interesting to read, probably more useful to students
Cooper Union: portfolio evaluation is a sort of interview and very useful to student – do it!
Yale: interview optional, but helps, last thing she reads, typically confirms rest of application, but sometimes gives you pause if there’s a discord. May follow up then. Strategy don’t just rehash what was in the application. Think of it as a “3rd essay”</p>
<p>How much Foreign Language?
Rochester: doesn’t care, fulfill your high school requirements
Vanderbilt: require 3, most students have 4 years, many 5. They won’t ding you for stopping early
Vassar: 4 recommended, as long as you replace language with equally rigorous academic courses it’s OK not to take it senior year (if that would be 5th year level)</p>
<p>Reactions to economy
Vanderbilt: increasing ED, more on the waitlist, more transfer students
Vassar: still need blind, hope to stay loan free
Penn: need blind, plan to stay loan free</p>