College Bound

Wow! Is it windy where you are? We were afraid we were going to wake up in OZ this morning! Toto! Toto!

Play the soundcloud track above to add some Wizard of Oz soundtrack to the wind outside!

Back on the college admissions front – if you’re following this subject, we’re sure you noticed the major topic this week has been the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a Texas case which will more than likely have some implications for affirmative action policy in the nation.  We rummaged through most/all the articles surrounding this topic to find an article that presented the facts without bias (not an easy thing to find!) on either side of the issue.

We decided to share an article from our own home state on NJ.com (Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton,  Jersey Journal, et al) which is the basic Associated Press version of the story – read “U.S. Supreme Court to hear challenge over college admission affirmative action policy” to get background and facts on this important issue facing the college admissions world.

The second article that caught our attention this week “Colleges deferring more students“, by Gary Stern for USA Today, gives some good advice (toward the end of the article) on a couple of steps a student can take if they’ve been deferred and, of course, would still like a chance to attend.  Although some schools drop you back into the regular admissions pool, in others you may be in a sort of purgatory.

Last, but not least, over at the MyCollegeGuide.org blog, in “Looking at Your College Picks from a Different Perspective“, two books are offered as suggested reading if you’re looking for a “different” college experience.  Well worth the read if you’re interested in reading more about cool colleges you might have never considered!

Hope you have a very nice week, and good things happen for you – Happy Trails!

President’s Day weekend.  Ahh…the three day weekend for some of us — but not all.

Our work and family lives are as diverse as the globe’s biological expanse.  So are our children — or you, if you’re a student!

This week, so is the Roundup!  We’ve selected 3 articles, seemingly diverse and yet tied to the college admissions process in some way.  Just like everything and everyone around us, it is diversity that wins over all.

Our first article, “Students grapple with frenetic pace of college selection process, compiling attractive academic portfolio“, by Mary Niederberger for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,  reminds us of the academic rigor necessary to gain entry to the country’s most selective colleges.  It is a great article for those that are on this path!   If you’re an eighth-grader, and have the ability to take Algebra 1, this can set you up for further academic rigor in high school.  The kind of rigor college admissions officers are looking for at many top colleges.  Many are on this path, and many are not.  Diversity wins again!

Our next article, “Beyond SATs, Finding Success in Numbers“, by Tina Rosenberg for the New York Times, is an opinion piece relaying a story about inner-city, urban student’s success in college – not necessarily through academic rigor (although their high school grades/scores are nothing to sneeze at!), but by being able to attend top colleges with their posse.  The Posse Foundation has found a 90% success rate for it’s students, and a learning experience and life-lesson for everyone.  Demonstrably, success can be measured in ways other than a standardized test score.  Diversity of demographics, of approach, and of success…diversity wins again!

Our last article was selected especially for our high school seniors – who find themselves stuck in a sort of time warp, waiting for those acceptance letters to appear in their mailbox.  In “College Admissions: How To Avoid Stress While Waiting To Hear Back From Schools“, by Tricia Taormina for the Huffington Post, high school seniors will find solid advice on how to bear the stress of waiting.  Let’s not forget the incredible burden this is on our children – and how much pressure they put on themselves during this period in time.  We can help them through it, or we can make it a living hell…let’s try to tame diversity here,  and select the former!

Hope you have a fantastic weekend and week.  As always, we wish you luck in your college admissions adventure.  Happy trails to you!

More snow in Northern NJ!  It’s almost strange to see it, we’ve had so little this winter.  It’s a great morning to sit down with a cup of java and write (or if I’m you – read!) the roundup!

The first article (and video!) we found this week appears on 11alive.com – a Columbus, Georgia TV affliate –  ”College admission letter goes where no letter has gone before“, by Michael King.   The story is about Erin King, and what she did with her acceptance letter from M.I.T. when she received it.  You’re going to like this story and video, it’s very cool – and a great example of what students are capable of!

It seems like Georgia is on our mind this week, as the second article is from the Acworth Patch , from – you guessed it – Acworth, Georgia. “Help Your Teens Prepare for College“, by Kelly Miears, is loaded with great advice for students and parents who are just getting on the college admissions path.  We especially love her advice to stay organized and keep records of ALL extracurricular, academic and volunteer achievements throughout high school.  Some of our readers will know why we love this advice – it’s why we developed the bragTAG app!

..and can you guess which song we’re going to sign off with this week ?-  Oh, and Happy Trails to you (it’s NOT Happy Trails!)…

It’s February already.  Superbowl weekend, Valentines Day on the way, Presidents Weekend upon us…do you know where your children’s college acceptance letters are?

Of course, if you or your student applied regular decision – which most do, including our daughter – you’ll be waiting a while longer.  Most schools say April 1st, but many get you an answer sometime in March.

In the meantime, the Roundup is marching along, finding articles of help to you, whether you’re a high school Senior waiting for those letters, or a Freshman just having the college admissions light bulb go “on” over your head!

This week seems to be another one of those weeks where controversy lurks around every college admissions corner.

Our first two articles set up a “battle” between the NYTs and Forbes, and in being fair –  the Forbes headline is the instigator…

“Expert Advice on the Best Ways to Secure Financial Aid“, by Jacquelyn Nealon for the New York Times – was answered by “NY Times Is Wrong About Maximizing College Aid Chances“, by Troy Onink for Forbes.

The NYTs article was published just hours before the Forbes piece – you can see how the headline war was started by Forbes!

There is good advice in BOTH pieces, don’t let the headline wars get in the way of expert advice – it’s certainly just a ploy to get eyeballs. as we say in the publishing business! :)

The OTHER controversy this week is about the falsifying of SAT scores for incoming Freshmen at one of the country’s best Liberal Arts college – in order to increase the ranking of the school (so now we don’t really know if the school is one of the best, do we?), in commercial ranking services (such as USNews) lists of top colleges.

To get some background on the controversy, check out “U.S. college ratings game set for shakeup“, by Stephanie Simon for Reuters.  The article doesn’t go into specifics about the incident, but rather gives a general overview of some of the actions that may take place to avoid this type of “cheating” by institutions.

As always, have an awesome week – and stay tuned for weekly articles that we select from all around the Internet, to help you in your college admissions quests!  Happy Trails…