Tips on College Selection 08-09

km7hill
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:34:35 +0000

[this may be more fit for College Selection board, but I thought it would be most helpful here. feel free to move this, mods]

Who am I?

I attended a public high school where I was solidly unimpressive and went on to an Ivy. I used to work in the “admissions consultant” business for two years and change, with two highly regarded companies. I’m out of the business now, attending a top 10 graduate program.
I’m not revealing any trade secrets or inside info, just gathering statistics and trends so that you may be better informed. Most of the data you can find on various college websites and through google. Some claims I am making based on anecdotal evidence as well as my personal experiences with various types of students. And I’m totally trying to procrastinate on my readings.

Disclaimer:

This post in no way purports to provide you with the best educational experience or opportunities. In fact, depending on composition of character, you might be doing yourself a disservice by following this advice.

However, this post will (hopefully, and hopefully accurately) inform you on the little noticed trends/situations at certain schools that, for whatever circumstance, might be a very good bet.

Also keep in mind that this is DEFINITELY “rankings only”. Take note of this if you are deadbent on going to the “highest ranked school possible” with little regard to fit or strength of major or anything. (and I do generally believe that with certain exceptions, you should go to the highest ranked school. exceptions: you were, are, and will be engineering/science and wish not to get a job, but to become a professor/full time researcher; you’re a “typical asian” (not in a demeaning way) and wish to be near a city/at a place with a high asian population (don’t go to “white” schools like Dartmouth and Notre Dame); etc etc)

1) Aim for the “lesser” colleges within a strong school

This is a tip that is already tricked out as hell. Nonetheless, it remains effective in many instances.

Cornell’s farming school (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) is no longer a secret. It boasts numbers very close to the College of Arts and Science (the real “Cornell”). But acceptance rate at College of Human Ecology remains ~35%. Likewise, Fu Foundation at Columbia has higher GPA/SAT numbers than the College (scary, isn’t it?) but nonetheless is a lowly regarded school with an acceptance rate more than twice that of the main school. Penn has nursing, Georgetown has business, JHU’s business school just opened up and is a piece of crap. Northwestern has the School of Education and Social Policy. Many state schools have colleges of Agriculture, Kinesiology, Aviation (UIUC’s aviation has ridiculously low numbers). All these schools have lower stats and higher %s than most other schools in the University. You will be able to identify them usually. Go to the individual schools’ websites and click around a bit. Caveat: Check out the internal transfer policy. At most schools, this is lenient and easy. At some, like Columbia, it’s nearly impossible. You’ll be stuck with the FU shame for the rest of your life (although if you do Industrial/Organizational(?) Engineering, you should be set for a finance/corporate type job pulling in high salary+bonus)

1.5) Aim for the backdoor programs.

Schools like BU have an option for “general studies program”. NYU used to have this, but now the discretion is up to the school, not the applicant. Some schools have programs where the applicant can choose to start school in, like, Milan or something. Aim for these. It’s usually for rich speds.

2) If you have good numbers but ****ty extracurriculars/leadership, pretend to be an engineer.

With the obvious exception of Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, et al., schools tend to focus more on the numbers and less on the “soft factors” if the student looks to be an engineer (Even Princeton! Although standards are very high to begin with). This difference is even more pronounced at places where there is a separate school/program of engineering (Northwestern, Brown, Columbia, etc). But the numbers become VERY high. You should be in the 75th percentile range of SAT to be competitive. But if you’re competitive, the admission rate is anywehre from 1.5 to 3 times that of the “regular” school. Aim for schools with good rep but a ****ty engineering program. Like Hopkins.

3) If you have ****ty numbers (but decent quantitative skills) but good extracurricular/leadership, pretend to be an entrepreneur.

Same as #2. If you look at MBA admission #s, you’ll see. Kids get into top schools with like 3.5 and 700 GMAT, where as top Medical and Law schools require near perfect academic credentials. Same with undergrad. WIth the obvious exceptions (Wharton, etc), business, especially IN THIS ECONOMY, tends to draw kids that are a little less numerically qualified, but have that personal characteristics that will drive them to success (leadership, ambition, etc). However, keep in mind that all asians want business. Some schools will not let you apply as a freshman, or competition is very keen as a freshman (Emory for the former, Michigan for the latter). Also, because EC/Leadership is intangible, it is difficult to accurately measure your competitiveness, so it’s less of a sure thing than #2, but it’s worth an app/EA (Georgetown, Notre Dame, etc). This advice also applies less to state schools (Illinois, for one) which breeds more accountants and less CEOs.

4) Play the Early ACTION game

You’ve heard it before. Early numbers are much higher. But we do not pay enough attention to Early Action schools. APPLY TO ALL OF THEM. First, it’s always a good feeling to have a safety. Second, although some schools are tougher to get into early (MIT’s EA accept % is lower than RD %), some schools, like Case Western, accept a crazy % of students early. Same with Notre Dame. You can see these numbers for yourself on USNEWS.com. (**** dude, pay the $15. You’re paying $200,000 for college anyways, what’s another $15). For the kids at the top, now that HYP are shying away from Early, Stanford is your best bet. I think the breakdown is like, 8% RD and 13% EA. Something along those lines.

5) (If you’re Asian) Play the Race Card… it’s possible!

At most schools, Asians are overrepresented, and we are disadvantaged in the process. HOWEVER this is not true at all top schools. Diversity is a factor in the USNews rankings. They will want to up their rankings, obviously. One way of doing this is by accepting more minorities, even Asians. Now that most top universities have around 15-25% of its undergraduates being Asian, target the ones that have <10%. This is most liberal arts schools outside the top four, and some lesser known top 30 National Universities. Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, etc. If you see it on USNews, but have never heard of it, it’s a good bet that you’ve got a better chance than your numbers suggest. This is why Emory became so popular among Asians. Like 8(?) years back, when they were making a push to rise to the top 20, they began accepting mad Asian people. It’s the easiest way to (1) raise “diversity” and (2) raise numbers, both of which play a role in the rankings. Asians as % of school went from 8% to 15% in like, 2 years. And of course, they accepted a ton of Asian kids who had great numbers and deep pockets (and didn’t need financial aid) and otherwise had ****ty extracurricular activity that they couldn’t get into a more respectable school. Notre Dame started doing this a couple years ago, and saw a sudden increase of Asians, which I believe is still going on.

6) Play the quirks in individual admission system

Many LACs do not require SATs. Wake Forest is the only school in the Top 30 National University that does not. Why? LACs have a conscience–that’s a moot factor. Wake wants to up its rankings BADLY (why strategy #5 looks more appealing). It makes SAT optional so that kids with low SAT and high GPA can be accepted without hurting their SAT score range. These options are especially helpful for kids going to ****ty high schools, having great GPA but can’t score more than 1900. There are other quirks in other systems. Do your research. Most schools will advertise this on their front page/admissions page. For SATs, go to [The National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](http://www.fairtest.org)

7) Know thy self (at least, your school).

Compare yourself to people from years previous who has similar stats. At my public high school of about 300 people, about 30 people went to an Ivy/top LAC. That’s a lot for a public school. If we include the Ivy-equals (Stanford, MIT, etc) and Almost-Ivies (Wash U, Northwestern, etc) it’s nearly 70. An “average” kid at my school went to a top 20 private school nearby. A bit below average for a top 30. Some private schools will struggle to send its valedictorian even to the flagship state school. Go to your guidance department. Some schools have this thing called Naviance(?) that gives you graphs on a computer. Even without that, the guidance department should have binders full of results in past years. Demand to see it. That’s your right.

8) DO YOUR RESEARCH

Everything I’ve posted here comes from open sources on the internet/pay sources that are readily available (USNews). Learn how to google. Instead of downloading porn, spend some time researching. 15 minutes just might change the course of your life.

Ok, I’ve spent 30 minutes on this so I’ll stop. I’ve also run out of ideas, even though I’m sure I had more.

I’ll add to it if I think of it. And if this post gets enough responses to make it worthwhile.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to PM although I make no guaranties that I will respond and no warranties that my claims are accurate