http://collegeapps.about.com/
https://www.collegedata.com
We'll discuss why I hate these sites later.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Picking A College
I know a lot about college. I'm still here, teaching newbies and finishing my dissertation. I was an undergraduage at a small liberal arts school (Claremont McKenna College), I finished a Masters at a BIG STATE U (University of Kansas), and I'm currently in residence at the holy of holies, a BRAND NAME UNIVERSITY (Georgetown University). Each type of school has its benefits and drawbacks. Picking the right one, FOR YOU, means knowing what you want, and who you are.
And to be able to sustain a studied skepticism about what everyone else, most often your parents, are telling you you should be feeling, thinking, doing about picking a college.
That said, the problem is that knowing who you are and what you want when you're 16, 17, or 18 is not easy. That's why your parents are so keen on butting in with advice. It's because they think they know who you are and what you want better than you do. After all, they diapered your dirty butt, taught you to walk and chew gum at the same time, and if you were lucky, got you a Red Rider bb-gun for your barmitzvah or birthday or something. So you'd be wise to listen. Except that they're susceptible to much the same (and often more of) dribble excreted about college that you are.
So let me end this post with my first piece of advice, which comes after having proctored the SAT and having taught some 500 of the best and brightest a the aforementioned BRAND NAME UNIVERSITY:
1)Don't sacrifice a real education for the sake of a standardized test. The SAT I is used to predict your likely performance in the first year of college. It's not an intelligence quotient test (although it did evolve as a kind of IQ test for marking officers during WWI). It is not the end-all-be-all of your academic or personal life. It's success as a predicter of college performance is limited(see http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=17193, for just one example). It's used because its a fast way for admissions officers to cull through the enourmous amount of applications they recieve. Most kids who get rejected by a school have SAT I scores that are the stastically similar to those who got accepted to the same school.
2) Good grades in hard courses (IB or AP) are more important.
3) Great letters of recommendation (from the teachers of the hard courses) with specifics about your strenghts and weaknesses (and how you dealt with those weaknesses in the classroom, playing field, performance space, etc.) are maybe the most important factor in determining if the admissions officer is going to use your SAT I score as the excuse he/she needs to reject you or move you along in the process. Details count in letters. "Susie is just great." Won't move anyone. You want a teacher or coach who can give an example of why Susie is great and why part of her greatness is her grace under pressure or after failure. Yes, learning how to fail is a key to success. If you didn't learn how to fail in high school, you will in any decent college. One of the differences between high school and college is that you don't get As for effort in college. At least you shouldn't. But that's for a later post.
As always, comments are welcome.
And to be able to sustain a studied skepticism about what everyone else, most often your parents, are telling you you should be feeling, thinking, doing about picking a college.
That said, the problem is that knowing who you are and what you want when you're 16, 17, or 18 is not easy. That's why your parents are so keen on butting in with advice. It's because they think they know who you are and what you want better than you do. After all, they diapered your dirty butt, taught you to walk and chew gum at the same time, and if you were lucky, got you a Red Rider bb-gun for your barmitzvah or birthday or something. So you'd be wise to listen. Except that they're susceptible to much the same (and often more of) dribble excreted about college that you are.
So let me end this post with my first piece of advice, which comes after having proctored the SAT and having taught some 500 of the best and brightest a the aforementioned BRAND NAME UNIVERSITY:
1)Don't sacrifice a real education for the sake of a standardized test. The SAT I is used to predict your likely performance in the first year of college. It's not an intelligence quotient test (although it did evolve as a kind of IQ test for marking officers during WWI). It is not the end-all-be-all of your academic or personal life. It's success as a predicter of college performance is limited(see http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=17193, for just one example). It's used because its a fast way for admissions officers to cull through the enourmous amount of applications they recieve. Most kids who get rejected by a school have SAT I scores that are the stastically similar to those who got accepted to the same school.
2) Good grades in hard courses (IB or AP) are more important.
3) Great letters of recommendation (from the teachers of the hard courses) with specifics about your strenghts and weaknesses (and how you dealt with those weaknesses in the classroom, playing field, performance space, etc.) are maybe the most important factor in determining if the admissions officer is going to use your SAT I score as the excuse he/she needs to reject you or move you along in the process. Details count in letters. "Susie is just great." Won't move anyone. You want a teacher or coach who can give an example of why Susie is great and why part of her greatness is her grace under pressure or after failure. Yes, learning how to fail is a key to success. If you didn't learn how to fail in high school, you will in any decent college. One of the differences between high school and college is that you don't get As for effort in college. At least you shouldn't. But that's for a later post.
As always, comments are welcome.
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