College Admissions Lottery
March 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Choosing College, Just for Fun
Here is an interesting article from insidehighered.com about the college admissions process.
By Chad Aldeman
Students will soon be receiving word from their chosen colleges and universities, but as more students apply to more colleges than ever before, the joy of acceptance or the agony of rejection are increasingly random. It’s time to stop treating the college admissions process as we have in the past, and start treating it as it’s become: a lottery.
A friend of mine worked for two different college admissions departments. The first was a traditional liberal arts college in the Northeast, an institution that prided itself on the character of its class. Admissions officers there more or less knew the high schools of applicants, had time to read the students’ personal statements and letters of recommendation, and truly thought about whether the applicants would be a good fit for this particular institution. It was a relatively sane process.
Mainly because of the sheer size of the applicant pool, my friend’s second institution operated differently. This competitive institution in the greater Washington area relied much more heavily on the all-important numbers — high school grade point average and SAT score — rather than some holistic determination of student quality.
Each year, thousands of qualified applicants bombarded the admissions office, and, even after setting a relatively high standard, the admissions office had far too many qualified applicants to choose from, and very little time to do so. During admissions season, each officer was expected to sort through 50 distinct applications per day, five days a week. At eight hours a day, not counting breaks, meetings, visitors, and phone calls, the admissions officer had roughly 10 minutes to devote to each applicant (eight hours a day times 60 minutes per hour divided by 50 applicants). Ten minutes, unless, as my friend points out, they were athletes or legacies.
At many institutions, in other words, it is a far more random process than colleges would like students to believe. The myth of a meritocracy, on which the selective admissions system is built, is substantially a lie.
Selective colleges did not mean for this to happen; rather, they are victims of their own success, along with the emergence of a truly national higher education market and the rise of a rankings-driven consumer culture. But, there is no going back now, so colleges should embrace the unavoidable randomness and go from a lottery-like system to a true lottery.
Institutions would set a threshold based on high school grades and SAT score and then open the lottery to anyone meeting those levels. A public university might have one lottery for state residents, after determining how many slots they should receive, and fill remaining spots with another lottery for out-of-state students. Everyone would have an equal chance of gaining admission, and the process wouldn’t be subject to influences from money, alumni, or human error. Students who submit scores would be eligible for admission to institutions without going through the tedious and expensive process of writing essays, asking for recommendations, and paying separate application fees to each institution. They’d pay one fee to be a part of the lottery. Institutions would save on the cost of operating admissions offices that would be better invested in scholarships or teaching.
There are several examples of lotteries operating successfully in other fields. The system of placing medical students in residency programs is a good example of a large, higher education-created lottery. An objective third party inputs preferences from residency programs and prospective students, and then conducts a fair, impartial matching process to fill seats. Successful lotteries vary in the level of control afforded participating parties, but they require some minimal standards, an ability to receive preferences from each party, and then an objective system to match the two sides.
A lottery would increase opportunity for students who lack social connections, and a lottery would make it impossible for colleges to favor candidates unlikely to need financial aid over those who do. It would also reduce the perceived stigma of non-acceptance, and thus the terrible pressure that many high school students face. It would create an objective baseline for each institution, end the pretension that college admissions are non-random, and focus institutional missions back where they belong: teaching and preparing students to be productive members of society.
College admissions are already random; let’s just admit it and begin developing a more effective system. A lottery might be the answer.
College Admissions Webinar
March 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Choosing College
There are a lot of ways to get information on the school that you want to apply to. You can visit the college campus in person, or visit their web sites. Another way that I learned yesterday was through a webinar (Web Seminar, I suppose).
After dinner, I and my son sat in front of the computer screen in our family room. My son had signed up for the webinar about a week ago and received a link to the webinar. After clicking the link, we were taken to the site where the webinar was taking place. If you are not familiar with this idea, just imagine that you are in a lecture hall with a presentation made on a screen in front of the audience. Webinar is the same; the screen is your computer screen. You can even ask questions. The webinar site provides a little gadget on your screen where you can type in your questions. Then the lecturer selects some questions that are representative of other questions and provides answers live, through the speakers connected to your computer. It was my first experience with a webinar last night. It was so cool. There is no need to drive or fly 5 or 10 hours to attend college admissions seminars held by the colleges that you are interested in. The college admissions presentation comes to your living room!
There are many more webinars on college admissions, I suppose. All you have to do is call or contact the admissions offices of colleges you are interested in and ask if they hold webinars on admissions. If they don’t, they will after enough people ask them about it.
Personal Essays for College Admission
November 24, 2008 by admin
Filed under application
Once the admissions director of Pomona College in California wrote how he would read applicants’ personal essays. These are some of the things that he pointed out.
1. College admissions officers want to know about the person, about the student’s family, high school life and so on. They want to know the person behind the numbers.
2. Great essays must be supported with great GPA’s, SAT or ACT scores. If only the essay is great, then one must be wondering if the student actually wrote the essay. It is important to show the true character of the student in the personal essays.
3. Instead of using mundane topics, write about unique personal experiences to leave strong impressions.
4. College admissions officers do not look for grammatically and factually perfect essays. Minor errors will not be looked on as cardinal sins, but flawless essays leave great impressions on the readers.
Most importantly, college admissions officers want to learn about 17 or 18 year old students’ personal sides.There are many only essay coaching services available. They can help organize ideas and make the essay flowing. Use the service from a reputable company, but the essay needs to be written by the student. Write a compelling personal essay and be honest about yourself.
Interview
Some students feel overwhelmed as the college admissions interview date approaches. Some students want to know if they can have thier interviews with someone else than the assigned interviewers because students who had had interviews with particular interviewers felt that their interviews did not go well. One logical answer to this issue can be quite simple. During the interviews, students get really nervous and feel that they are not doing so well. However, many admissions officers report that when they hear something like that and check their interview reports, the interviewers said only good things about the students.
It is important to remember that interviewers are not trying to scrutinize students and make the interview a difficult process for the student. It is usually the student who make it more difficult. Just being comfortable and being himself/herself will make the interview go much smoother and productive. The interviewer wants to know the personal aspects of the student that are not presented in the application forms.
If your child has an interview coming up and if the interview place is at a quiet public place, you should take your child to that place and order something and spend some time talking with your child. During the real interview, your child will feel more comfortable meeting someone in that place. I hear that some parents go as far as hiring someone to have mock interviews with their children. I suppose it is necessary for you or your child to come with some interview questions and have your child practice answering them. Remember that the interviewers are not there to confirm with your child what your child got on your SAT. But they might ask your child whether your child’s test scores or GPA’s do reflect your child’s academic potential (i.e. if illness or family circumstances prevented your child from getting good SAT scores or GPA). Also, have your child come up with some meaningful questions about the college to ask the interviewer.
Social Networking Sites
November 1, 2008 by admin
Filed under application
Social networking is a phenomenon that some parents may not be familiar with. There are numbers of these such as Facebook, MySpace, Stumbleupon, etc. Many young people use these sites to find new friends and keep connected to old ones. We all have heard about a teenager committing suicide after being told that she should not have existed in the world from someone who pretended to her friend. Not all teens will go that extreme with these social networking sites.
One important thing that teens should know is that their prospective college admission officers may be looking at their profiles and pictures on these social networking sites. College admissions officers may want to look into these social networking sites to get a glimpse into the personal and private side of their applicants. So, teens need to be careful not to post pictures of them being drunk or doing silly things, or comments with bad languages or ideas that are dangerous.
I do not know whether college admissions officers do search and look up their applicants on these social networking sites. But it is certainly a possibility. I heard that some employers look up their prospective employees on these sites. So, sit down with your teens and have a talk about this issue. You can not monitor everything they do on the internet, but they will listen to your concerns if you present the issue in a caring way. One more thing… Have your teen use e-mail address something else than ninjamonkey@—–.com or any of that sort. You know what I mean.
