Princeton University has also announced today that they are starting to use single choice early action beginning with the next admission class.
Harvard made the same decision today to add single choice early action for next year.
Princeton Starts Single Choice Early Action
Harvard Returns to Early Action
Harvard University announced today that they are returning to the use of early action admissions. This will be a single choice early action with applications due November 1 and results out by December 15.
At the same time, Harvard announced that they are increasing their commitment to financial aid and access to admissions from diverse communities. This includes a new program promoting greater outreach to students that have traditionally not applied to college including first generation, low income and historically disadvantaged students.
Another Reason to Write Your Own College Essay
OK, I don’t think you should need any reason to write your own college essay other than it is the right thing to do.
Yet I get searches on my website that ask whether plagiarizing an essay is wrong. OF COURSE IT IS WRONG. Don’t do it.
Need more justification? There is plagiarism detection software available that some colleges have used in the past. Now one of the biggest companies helping colleges with their admission technology is offering this software to colleges. If used, the students essays are automatically run through the software to see if there are indications of plagiarism.
Several graduate schools have been using this software and have found large numbers of essays that are not original. These have resulted in students applications being discarded by the universities and acceptances revoked when the discovery is made later.
Don’t let someone else write your essay or buy an essay from an online site. Don’t know what to write about? Need some help?
Your first step should be to look at a book that talks about how to write the college essay without actually giving you the essays. I recommend Harry Bauld’s book “On Writing the College Application Essay” or the ebook by Jan Rideout, “The Basics for Writing College Application Essays“.
Does it Matter in What Order You Submit Parts of Your Application?
The application. The supplement. Letters of recommendation. Test scores. Official transcript.
All of these things need to be sent in for the typical college application to be complete. The other day I had a student ask in what order they needed to submit each of these items. The answer is “it doesn’t matter.”
Colleges start a file on a student when they first receive any part of the application. It doesn’t matter which part they receive first. However, most colleges won’t consider an application until all parts are in the file. So, make sure that all parts of the application are submitted to the college before the application deadline.
Some colleges do want you to submit the application before the supplement but those that care will let you know in the application instructions. The rest of the parts to the application can be submitted at any time before the deadline.
University of Virginia Returns to Early Applications
The University of Virginia dropped early decision in 2006 stating that it presented an advantage to its privileged applicants rather than all applicants as they had intended. Virginia has now announced that they are going to start an early action program.
As most of my readers know, early action is not binding and students have a choice of which college to attend once all of their admission decisions are in. However, many early action programs, even non-binding ones like early action, still are most attractive to affluent students who have the resources to understand the various application options.
I personally have no problem with early action programs so students can find out early in the year whether they have an acceptance. However, these programs are not well understood by less affluent students so the advantage that exists if for a limited group of students.
It will be interesting to see if any other colleges that previously dropped an early program decide to re-institute some type of early application.
Financial Aid and Early Decision
Although some colleges have recently done away with early decision, many colleges still use it. I have previously discussed the advantages and disadvantages of early decision. But, if you need financial aid, is early decision a good choice?
Early decision is binding so if you are accepted you are required to attend the college you applied to. As a result, you can’t compare financial aid offers. Would another college give you more money? You will never know if you apply early decision. It is true that you can get out of an early decision acceptance if the financial aid offered is not sufficient but who is to say what is sufficient aid?
Because early decision applicants are committed to the college, some colleges will give better financial aid to students who apply regular decision rather than early decision. But, so that things don’t get too easy, there are also some colleges that give better financial aid for students that do apply early decision. These colleges want to increase the number of students who commit early which is why they provide better financial aid.
So, if you need financial aid, how do you know which approach the colleges you are interested in take. You must do two things. First, you must understand college financial aid in general. I have talked about this many times before. Second, you need to contact the colleges in which you have an interest and ask them if they guarantee that the financial aid for early decision applicants is as good as that given to regular decision applicants. If not, do not apply early decision. If it is as good, or better, then you need to weigh whether early decision is right for you.
The 15 Minute College Application Review
Most seniors are now working on their applications and spending a great deal of time making sure everything is just perfect. You spent days coming up with the essay topic that makes you look like the best candidate and then days more writing and editing the essay.
Having spent all of that time, you look forward to having your entire application file being thoroughly reviewed by the application reader. How many hours do you think they take to review your entire file? The answer is more like 15 minutes.
Yes, 15 minutes to review your grades and the classes taken to get those grades, your test scores, your extracurricular activities, your essays and the recommendation letters of your teachers and guidance counselors.
Why do they spend so little time reviewing all of your hard work? The fact is that the typical application reader has to read hundreds, if not thousands, of applications each year. Although they would like to spend more time on the application reviews, they just don’t have the time to do so.
You need to make sure that your whole application supports the strongest you. But, you only have 15 minutes to make an impression.
How Many Recommendation Letters Should You Send?
Every year I have one or two students that want to send lots of recommendation letters with their college applications. The reasoning is that when applying to selective colleges you need to distinguish yourself and what better way than to send recommendation letters from lots of people.
It is true that it is helpful to distinguish yourself. The way to do that, however, is not with the use of a ton of recommendations. In fact, this is the type of move that will get you noticed but in a negative way.
Colleges know what they want from students to make the admissions decisions. Give them what they ask for and do so in a manner that highlights the strongest you.
If a college asks for two teacher recommendations, then most students should give them exactly that: two teacher recommendations.
There are of course exceptions to every rule. If you are involved in a particular activity that would be enhanced by a recommendation from someone who knows your extensive involvement that may be acceptable. But, before sending an additional recommendation like this, ask yourself, what does this letter add to my application that the reader doesn’t already know. If someone is going to say you are a good kid or a hard worker, do you really need that additional recommendation? Probably not.
If you do think another recommendation will help, do not send a recommendation from someone who does not know you well. For instance, a recommendation from your dad’s buddy who went to the college 30 years ago and who will talk about what a great guy your dad is, will not help. It is the rare case where any alumni recommendation will help you in the admissions process.
When deciding whether to send in a recommendation that isn’t requested from the college, keep in mind the old saying in the admissions world: The thicker the file, the thicker the kid. In plain language, a bigger admissions file is not necessarily a good thing.
Essays on Adversities You Have Suffered
“Tell us about a significant challenge you have faced.”
That’s the essay prompt your college wants answered on their application. What do you do with that?
Life is pretty good. You really haven’t had to face many challenges. You aren’t an oppressed minority. You aren’t living on the street. You haven’t had to deal with a life threatening illness. Great. But, what do you write about.
Remember what I have talked about before when answering essays. Colleges don’t expect you to have solved the ills of the world at age 17. They want to know something about you. What challenges have you faced? They might seem small to others but if it is something that you dealt with that affected you, talk about it.
Here’s a simple example. Say everyone in your family is a great musician. The instruments vary, but everyone is great at their instrument. Except you have a tin ear. You tried taking piano. You tried the trumpet. You even joined the school choir to see if you could sing. Unfortunately, you are terrible. For many people, that would be no big deal. But in a musical family, that can be difficult.
Want another example. This is one of the things I could personally write about. I was a very strong student in high school. Everything came easy for me. With one exception: foreign languages. I try and I try but I just can’t get the hang of anything more than very basic foreign language skills. And when I went to college, I had to have a foreign language to graduate. I did graduate, but let’s just say I love the option of pass/fail classes. Even then, I almost didn’t pass.
What ever you struggle with is a legitimate topic for this type of essay. What are your challenges?
College Application Resume
With students starting to work on their college applications in the next few months, I thought this would be a good time to look at the college application resume. What is it, what needs to be included and how long should it be? Most importantly, do you even need a supplemental resume?
Before discussing the resume, I want to discuss the question of whether you even need to have a resume included with your application. The answer, for most students, is NO.
Yes, I recognize that this is heresy. Everyone you know is putting together a resume. It would be application suicide for you not to do so. But, let’s forget for a minute what everyone else is doing and look at this logically.
The vast majority of the most selective colleges use the common application as the application to their college. Colleges don’t have to use the common application; they choose to do so. The common application has a place to list up to 12 of your extracurricular activities. This list allows students to provide information as to which years they participated in each activity as well as the number of weeks per year and hours per week for each activity. Finally, students can list the positions held and honors won for each activity.
By submitting a supplemental resume, you are saying to the college that your activities are so extraordinary that they can not be listed in the form that the college themselves have approved. Do you really think that everyone you know who is submitting that supplemental resume has qualifications that are so far beyond the normal applicant to the most selective colleges that they can’t use the form provided by the college?
Remember that the average application reader will spend 15 to 20 minutes reading your application. That includes reviewing your grades, classes taken and test scores as well as your application and all of the essays. Do you really think they have time to review a 5 or 10 page detailed resume?
Does that mean that no one should submit a supplemental resume? No, there are a few students whose accomplishments really can not be adequately listed on the outline resume of the common application. It is not that there are too many activities, but rather that the involvement in each of a limited number of activities is so extensive that it can only be listed on a supplemental resume.
I know, you are still worried that not completing a supplemental resume will make you look less accomplished than your peers. I can tell you that the vast majority of the students with whom I work are applying to, and getting admitted to, some of the most selective colleges in the country. Rarely, do my students submit a supplemental resume.
Still think you are one of the extraordinary students who require a supplemental resume? In my next post, I will give more detail about what to do with a supplemental resume to make it enhance your application rather than distract from it.
BS/MD Programs: The complete guide.
Filed under College Admissions Counseling,College Application by Todd Johnson on February 24, 2011