Rancorous Rankings and Immolated Ivies

Recent articles that question, and support, the benefits of an Ivy League education have made waves in the media. "Don't Send Your Kids To the Ivy League," William Deresiewicz proclaimed in The New Republic. Steven Pinker countered with "The Trouble With Harvard: The Ivy League is broken and only standardized tests can fix it." The debates about the value of a highly selective college education, and the perceived lack of equity in the admissions process at these and other schools may never end. That's not a bad thing, as far as we're concerned. Frank and open debate and differing opinions are the lifeblood of higher education, after all. Another hot topic - for families, educational consultants and educational institutions themselves - is rankings. US News and World Report just released its much-followed Best Colleges rankings. We're not big fans of rankings: the data is subjective, incomplete, and easily manipulated (read Boston Magazine's article on Northeastern's "gaming" of the rankings for more insight on one institution's approach to improving its position on the list). We understand that they serve as a starting point for many people; our suggestion, if you're going to consider rankings, is that you consider many different rankings, from multiple sources, with diverse data points.

At AHP, we don't make sweeping pronouncements that either condemn or celebrate the Ivies (or any other consortium for that matter) across the board, because what matters most to us as educational consultants is to help our clients find the right fit. For them.That means working one-on-one with high school juniors and seniors to help clarify their strengths and challenges, goals and aspirations, preferences and dislikes, when it comes to the ideal learning and living environment for this next stage of their lives. Our role is to help students create their very own rankings list: one that is just right for them, that takes into account the variables that matter to them and their families. So read the reviews and the rankings and follow the debates if you will, but please rest easy knowing that ultimately there is only #1 college: the one that's the best fit for your child.

A Resume Can Strengthen Your College Application

Resumes are not usually a required piece of the college application. So why do we insist you write one? There are several reasons, including:

A resume is a way to tell colleges, in more detail than the Activities section of the Common Application will allow, about the jobs you have held, the sports you have played, and the volunteer work you have done. In this way, you can create a more complete picture of who you are and what you do.

A resume is a snapshot of how you have chosen to spend your free time, which in turn says a lot about you, what you like to do, and what you do well. If you look closely, common threads often emerge that might inspire a personal essay topic or suggest a potential scholarship niche.

• If you chose to share your resume with your college interviewer, you can help them to get a quick snapshot of who you are. This will help them to ask questions about things that you have done that are particularly interesting to them.

Many students apply for jobs and internships during their freshman year. Having a resume already prepared when you enter the career services office gives you a jump start. It’s a lot easier to refine an existing document than it is to create that first resume.

Writing Tips: Be Your Best Self

  “Be your best self, clearly, concisely and entertainingly.”

In this one sentence, Harry Bauld (in On Writing The College Application Essay) succinctly captures the goal of a college application’s personal statement.

Who is your best self? That’s your authentic voice, the person who shines through when you’ve cut away all the unessential facts and details (think: Hemingway). You know your best self is evident in your writing when a close friend or family member reads the piece and responds with delight, “Yes! That sounds just like you!”

What is clear? Clarity in a college essay means simply that the reader doesn’t have to struggle to understand the point you're making. Your thoughts and ideas unfold easily, effortlessly, neatly. They flow.

Being concise is critical to the success of the essay not simply because there’s a word limit but because – as you probably already know- it’s much harder to write something short and good, than it is to go on at length. The personal essay is a place to showcase your best writing. So give us “Less, but better.”

Why “entertainingly”? Because the personal statement is NOT an expository essay. You’ve listed your accomplishments elsewhere on the application, and your recommenders have already sung your praises. If you can entertain the reader – that is, draw her in, capture her imagination, and leave her with a sense of who you are- then you have released her temporarily from the effort of slogging through a mountain of less interesting essays, and you WILL be remembered. And that, ultimately, is the goal of the college essay.

Summer is prime college essay writing time for rising seniors. We’ll have more tips and reflections on making your personal statement shine in the coming weeks.

Read!

My unabashedly honest reply to an innocuous college interview question pretty much put the kibosh on my application to a certain not-to-be-named college. When the interviewer asked me what book I was currently reading, I sweetly replied, Love Story. As you can imagine, the interviewer was painfully unimpressed and things went downhill from there. I never bothered to submit an application. Here’s where the fateful twist comes in: If he had asked me what book I had just finished reading, I would have answered "Atlas Shrugged" and our conversation might have gone differently. The thing was, my mother was a voracious reader who chose books across a broad spectrum. When I was in high school, I often picked up whatever book she had just put down. I wasn’t that discriminating – I just loved to read and my mother generally had excellent taste. But there were exceptions, like this tear-jerker romance.

So, here’s my advice to rising seniors: Read. Read a lot. And not just beach fiction. Read books that challenge you, inspire you, pique your imagination, make you think. While Love Story may be a dated reference, you stand as good a chance of being asked this question as I did, so prepare. Think about what the books you are reading mean to you, how they’ve helped you to see people, situations, the world, and even yourself in a different light. And if you’re enjoying some delightfully trashy novel, make sure the next book you read is one you can speak thoughtfully about.

Start Now for a Less Stressful Senior Year

There’s no denying that spring of junior year is a busy and challenging time and the work load will continue to be intense through fall of your senior year – and beyond. You’ll be writing essays, preparing applications and visiting colleges in addition to carrying a full course load and participating in activities that are meaningful to you. One way to prepare for the increasing demands on your time, energy, and attention is to designate some quiet time this summer to begin your college applications. You might schedule a two-hour block of time once or twice a week, every week, from June through August to refine your college list, brainstorm essay ideas (see the Common Application prompts for 2014-2015 to get started), and begin working on your Common Application. Distributing some of the work over the summer will help you hit the ground running in the fall.

Now is not the time to let up, juniors.  Dig in and finish the semester strong. “High school really is an exercise of the mind,” writes Beth Anne Spacht in the University of Richmond admissions blog.  For more good tips, take a look at her post about planning your senior year schedule.

Finish Strong, Juniors!

I think that it could be fairly argued that never is more expected of students than in the spring of the junior year. Never again will they be taking 5 core academic subjects and expected to be highly and evenly proficient across all areas of study.  Never again will they have so many standardized tests (SATs, ACTs, and APs) and final exams administered in the same narrow 4-block window. And never again will they have to do this while navigating the social complexities of a junior prom. On top of all of this, the college process pulls on their time, attention, and energy. It’s no wonder that juniors start to show signs of fatigue this time of year. And now, what are we going to say to you? Finish strong. This is, after all, the “semester that really counts” as colleges look to see how students are maturing as scholars (and athletes, artists, leaders, and so on) and what you can do when the demands on your intellect and abilities is increased. You’ve worked hard all year, so keep up your pace as you near the finish line.

But we also want to make sure that you are keeping yourself healthy.  As important as studying is, getting plenty of sleep, exercising , and eating well are as important to your success. Work hard, but make your health a priority.

When you’ve crossed the finish line on the last day of school, celebrate! You’ve probably gone through the most demanding period of your education. Unless you’re planning on going off to medical school, that is, but that’s another story for another time.

What Can We Do Now?

Here are some suggestions about what families can do this summer to get off to the best possible start next year, and -as a result- feel a bit less stressed about transitioning to, or applying to college and independent school. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; rather, we hope to plant some seeds that you and your family can grow together. Will your child be a college freshman in the fall?

• Parents can prepare the legal documents they need to be able to support an adult child with medical or financial decisions. Read this useful article, Getting Your Legal House in Order Before Your Adult Child Leaves for College, and know that you’re helping your graduate transition toward real independence.
• Adjusting to the challenges and freedoms of college is no small feat. Suggest that your child read 7 Things Graduating Seniors Should Know About College.

If you have a rising senior:

• Review our College Application Timeline so you have a sense of what to expect next year.
• Encourage your child to put together a basic resume. It will be useful for internships and co-op programs in college, and the act of compiling his work history will be a useful exercise in self-reflection.

Will your child be a junior this fall?

• Encourage her to clean up her social media presence this summer. Read How to Clean Up Your Social Media for College Applications.
• Review our College Application Timeline so you understand what’s ahead, in broad terms.
• Suggest your student begin work on the Common Application (it goes live on August 1; essay questions are already available).
• Together you can visit some nearby colleges. Keep in mind that campuses feel different in the summer than they do during the school year; these visits can be leisurely and may give your child a chance to gather initial impressions.
• Consider signing her up for a pre-college program if your child would benefit from academic enrichment.
• Encourage him to find a summer job!

If you have younger students:

• Ask them to think about one new thing they want to try next year. It could be anything: take a class outside of school, learn to sing, play an instrument, do calligraphy, try a new sport, or perhaps take on a leadership role in an area that is familiar to them.
• Begin to prepare for the ISEE and/or SSAT. Your student could prepare on his own with a test-prep guide, or get help from a tutor (there are many good tutors available; we’re happy to provide recommendations). Parents can follow a recorded webinar, “All about the SSAT,” or read What to Expect on the ISEE, to get background on the tests.

Fall comes quickly, and you’ll be back to your regular school and workday routines before you know it. Consider these possibilities, or come up with your own list, and know that any small steps you take now will pay off later when your family is reimmersed in the excitement (and sometimes chaos) of the academic year.

Globalization and College Admissions

Parents helping their children through the college admissions process in 2014 might feel like it’s a lot harder to get into elite colleges now than it was when they applied. And they’re right! This New York Times article offers one explanation: globalization. Simple demographics play a major role as well. We encourage our clients to aim high. Some will apply to, and be accepted at Ivy League colleges. Ultimately, what matters most is finding the right fit for your student: discovering the program with the best opportunities, and one that is a great match for your child.

Why high school students should have jobs

Employment is one of the most under-rated  pieces of a college application, but admissions officers like to see that students have successfully held jobs - either paid or volunteer positions. In addition to being an opportunity to acquire important life skills and demonstrate broad competence here are more reasons why employment matters: * The student has been accountable to someone other than their parents and teachers for their work

* They've had to manage their time, sometimes sacrificing "fun" for work.

* They've had a chance to work with people from different backgrounds, with difference experiences and education, and of different ages than the people they come in contact with during a typical day.

* They've learned how to do work that can be tedious without quitting.

* They've learned the value of a dollar.

Opportunities for summer employment are still available - if you can't find anything locally, here are some other internships to investigate.

How do I choose?

Determining which college’s offer of admission to accept is a highly personal decision, but there are some factors that don’t merit much weight: DON’T select a college for its perceived prestige.  Focus instead on the quality of the particular program/course of study that you are interested in and the opportunities offered.

DON’T select a college because you believe it will guarantee you job placement. What you know and how you can apply that knowledge (not where you learned it) will help you most in landing a job. That said, do your homework: visit the career services department, learn more about the number and variety of internships offered in your area of study and learn more about the scope of services they provide.

DON’T select a college for the social opportunities. Find a college with students with different backgrounds and experiences but who share your interests and values. If you go to school with people you like and admire, your social life will take care of itself.

DON’T select a college because your friends are going there or it’s the hot school right now. Find the school that is right for you in all the ways that are important to YOU.

Most importantly, DO attend the revisit days! The most important piece of data that you can only get on a revisit day is a sense of who your classmates will be. Go and meet them. If they seem like people you’d enjoy spending four years with, you may have found your college.

Her Campus National Pre-Collegiette Conference

Allison will be a panelist at the Her Campus Pre-Collegiette Conference speaking about how to choose the college that is right for you. This conference is open to all high-school aged girls and their parents and workshops, talks, and panel discussions will cover a broad range of topics from how to complete your college applications, applying for internships, how to stay healthy in college, and the experience of life on dorm. This conference will be held on Saturday, April 26 from 9:30am-4:30pm. Speakers are coming from Harvard University, Tufts University, and more, plus a college nutritionist, leading college coaches, internship advisors, and college girls who will talk about everything from study tips to studying abroad.

Independent School Admission 2015-2016: What you can do now

Are you starting to consider enrolling your child in an independent school in the fall of 2015? It’s not too early to begin the process. There are two important steps you can take now:

First, start to get a “feel” for schools by attending open houses this spring. Visit http://www.aisne.org/open-houses.html for a listing of upcoming open houses in your area.

Second, give your child an opportunity to “practice” taking the SSAT. The SSAT is an admissions test required by many independent schools but, unlike the SAT, there are no “unofficial” SSAT tests for students to take as practice. As such, we encourage students to take the SSAT this spring to get a sense of the content and timing of the test.  From your child’s scores we will be better able to gauge how much, if any, test preparation is needed and on which sections that energy should be focused. So, if your child will be submitting an application for Fall, 2015 entrance, now is a great time to try out the SSAT. AHP is offering a small-group SSAT Flex Test on April 5, 2014.  Learn more here: http://matlackeducationalconsulting.com/ssat-flex-test/ or call Hannah Pierpont at 978-261-1402.

Parenting Through the College Process

Time and time again parents sit in our office and reflect, “I don’t remember it being like this when I applied to college” and, indeed, the process has changed in some important ways.  More colleges are making standardized testing optional, admissions is increasingly competitive, students are completing more applications, and parents are more involved in the process than ever before.  For parents of college bound students, we offer these words of advice to help make the college process more successful and rewarding:

• Focus on Fit: Help your student remember that college is first and foremost about the academic experience.  Colleges offer some very enticing options including gourmet food options, dorm suites outfitted with full kitchens, athletic centers featuring state-of-the-art equipment, and cyber-cafes at every turn.  All this is can distract from what should be at the center of their college experience – the academic program.  Help your student assess the quality, breadth, and depth of the curriculum and the level of academic rigor and type of academic support.
• Accommodate your student’s style: If your student has been a procrastinator for 17 years, the college process isn’t going to draw out Type A qualities.  Know your student’s strengths and weaknesses and proceed accordingly.  If he is disorganized, set up organizational systems.  If time management is a struggle, set up timetables.  If visiting a lot of colleges will be overwhelming, limit the search.  Learning and behavioral styles are hard to change, so play to your student’s strengths and support their areas of weakness throughout the process.
• Keep your student’s needs primary: Remember, you are not the college applicant.  While your college years may have been the best of your life, that doesn’t mean that your alma mater is perfect for your student.  Support your student’s decision about which college is the best place for them to spend their undergraduate years and avoid the temptation to compare it to “your college.”
• Listen more, listen better: Starting sentences with “Tell me what you think about …” rather than “I think that…” will encourage your student to open up and will also send the message that you trust and value their opinions. While there are certainly times when a parent should share their perspectives, doing so too often is more likely to shut down conversation than to encourage honest dialog.
• Allow plenty of time: Applying to college is probably the longest, most involved, and most difficult decision your student has ever had to make. There is also a very complex emotional component to this process – your student is leaving the comfort of school, friends, and family to venture into a world filled with unknowns.  Give them plenty of time and space to research and evaluate the tangible and intangible components of their decision.
• Focus on the process:  The process of applying to college as just that – a process.  It has a beginning, middle, and an end and each student will go through the process in their own way, in their own time, hopefully taking on increasing responsibility and ownership. Ultimately, this is not just about “getting in”, but about developing self-awareness, clarifying values, and becoming self-sufficient.  When parents become too involved, the student loses the opportunity to go through this very maturing, self-actualizing process.
• Don’t be afraid to be a spectator: First row seats don’t always provide the greatest view. Sometimes the best place to be is cheering from the bleachers.

The college process provides a unique opportunity in your student’s life to look back and be proud of what they’ve accomplished, think about who they are, articulate what they value, and consider where they want to go from here. Don’t rush the process to get to the finish line – this is an opportunity you may not have again to teach your student many important life lessons. And, just as you will come to know your child better, so too will they come to better know you.

How will YOUR kid get a job?

  Great op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times, Tom Friedman, but there’s a more important question that needs to be asked first.

BEFORE we ask our children/students/clients “which colleges are you applying to?”, BEFORE we ask “how’s my kid gonna get a job?”, we need to ask them this: “What makes your heart sing?”

The college and job searches are secondary.  Exploring, investigating and discovering what they love to do should come first, but too often high schoolers feel rushed to come up with a list of prestigious institutions to which they’ll apply.

If we buy into the idea that the ideal hire –as Laszlo Bock suggests- is someone who can apply his knowledge in innovative ways while utilizing well developed soft skills, then we first need to give our children the time and space to determine what they know (or want to know).

How do we do that? By asking questions of our children.

Try these, and don’t accept “I don’t know” as an answer.  Probe gently and keep attempting the question when an opportunity arises.

What do you love to do?

How would you spend your time if you could choose what to do all day long?

In what activity do you find you get so absorbed that you lose track of time?

What is it that sends you into the “zone”?

Then, when they’re operating from a place of genuine interest and engagement --one in which they don’t mind if they make mistakes because they’re so intent on knowing—we try to guide them in developing their emotional intelligence. (And that’s a topic for another post.)

Lessons From A Gap Year

How did you learn to iron a shirt?

I remember precisely where and when I learned. It was September 1989 in Gandia, Spain, in a lovely home two blocks from the beach. My Spanish host mother, Josefina, raised her eyebrows when she saw me in my unironed jeans. She let that one pass, but pulled me aside for a lesson when I appeared in a lightly wrinkled cotton blouse. I have used the technique she taught me that day each time I’ve sidled up to the ironing board for the past twenty-five years.

How to press my clothes was just one of innumerable lessons I learned when I left my rural Pennsylvania home to spend ten months in Spain as a Rotary International Youth Exchange student.

Living with a spirited host family readied me for the challenges of roommates and dormitory life: I was forced to learn how to share living space with strangers, to adjust to their routines and to conform to the constraints of their household (showering twice a week was plenty, according to my host parents).

Experiencing a complete language immersion honed my listening skills and forced me to pay attention to social cues. The mental strain of thinking and communicating in Spanish all day created an ideal environment for self-reflection: when I was tired of reaching out, I often turned inward to consider and question: “What am I doing here? What is happening in this situation? How is this different from what I know?”

I learned to make my modest stipend last.  Getting myself to and from school in the city using public transportation, managing my class schedule and keeping up with homework  (and asking for academic help when I needed it) forced me to think ahead, plan my time, budget my money and maintain a healthy level of awareness of my situation.

Drinking socially (and legally) with friends helped me see the line that exists between ‘pleasant’ and ‘excessive.’ It was considered unseemly by my Spanish peers to make a fool of oneself by drinking too much alcohol. I discovered that young adults could have really strong opinions about politics and the state. It was hard to go unnoticed as an exchange student:  people paid attention to what I did, and what I said, so I had to think carefully about both.

Operating in a climate of uncertainty and newness forced me to stretch myself in ways that I hadn’t in high school. Now I’m a parent of two girls and a multi-lingual professional with a master’s degree in international relations, a background in higher education administration, and an enduring belief in the promise of peace through international understanding. For me, the Gap Year was excellent preparation for life in college and beyond in ways I could never have anticipated.

Important Changes at AHP

The new year brings many changes to AHP Educational Consulting. As many of you know, in September Tim Lee began working part-time and Allison Matlack assumed the position of full time director of educational services. Enjoying time with his family and wanting time to explore other opportunities, Tim retired from AHP on December 20^th. While his collegiality and good humor are missed tremendously, after 22 years at AHP Tim leaves behind a strong legacy of dedicated service to his clients and a reputation for excellence in the industry. As our practice continues to evolve, we are very pleased to announce that Hannah Pierpont has joined us as the Assistant to Educational Consulting beginning January 6th. Having worked in the admissions offices at St. Lawrence University and Pine Manor College, Hannah has intimate knowledge of college admissions. She has also served as Director of Recruitment in the Office of Career Services at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and will be helping our college clients write their resumes and hone their interviewing skills. We are excited about the skills, experiences, and enthusiasm that Hannah brings to her work at AHP.

We're looking forward to an exciting year of change and growth at AHP and of continued work with wonderful clients, friends, and colleagues.