Students who are interested in applying to SMU in Dallas, Texas and have been  affected by the snow storm in the northeast are being given  extra time to apply to  the University.   The school is extending their early action deadline for everyone to Tuesday, November 8. It's like the whole world  gets a snow-day!  

If you are applying to SMU,  you now have a few more days.   Apply by November 8 to receive your admission decision in December.   If you have been severely impacted by the storm and need additional time beyond November 8, please contact your admission counselor.

Navigating the college application process on your own can feel like making a solo cross-country trip with no road map.

While parents, school counselors and teachers are all great resources, some students want more intensive, personalized college admissions assistance.
If that’s you, what should you do? One resource that many students use is a personal college consultant.
Who are these people? What do they do? How much do they cost? Read on…

What Do College Consultants Do?

The goal of a college consultant is first and foremost to get you into the college of your choice. Many consulting firms claim a staggeringly high success rate. Even though a private consultant should be able to help you create strong college applications, there are no guarantees of acceptance.
A consultant will help you craft your application, ensuring that you play to your strengths as well as provide all the information and paperwork needed.

In addition to helping you improve your admission essays and other application materials, college consultants may offer SAT and ACT prep and tutoring and general college planning help and guidance. Some consultants can even offer you an analysis of your chances of acceptance to your top schools.

Some consultants  may even offer services like interview coaching, teaching you how to put your best foot forward in admissions interviews. Private education consultants are often retired or former admissions officers at colleges. One of the greatest advantages some consultants offer is their insider knowledge of the application process.

When Should You Start With a College Consultant?

For most students, starting with a consultant during junior or senior year of high school will be sufficient, as that is the key window for exam prep, choosing colleges and filling out applications.

For students with a lot of work to do, or those aiming for particularly competitive colleges, consulting is available for all four years of high school. Some programs are even available for middle school students.

 

What Will It Cost?

There are a large number and variety of consulting firms out there, and naturally, they vary greatly in price. Depending on which company you choose, how much guidance you need and for how long you need it, you can expect to pay anywhere between a few hundred dollars to upwards of $40,000 (for intensive, four-year assistance packages).

Most college consultants will advise that you buy a package deal, which will often include essay help, SAT and ACT tutoring, and admissions guidance. Some of these deals take the form of a series of workshops, while others offer a set number of hours of service.

Some companies also offer “a la carte” options. This is ideal for students who are confident in some areas but not in others, for example those who have good test scores but need help crafting an essay.

Some consultants will work on a per-application basis, giving you feedback on an application for roughly $150 to $500.

 

Is College Consulting Right For Me?

Only you can decide whether or not you need college admissions help, but here are a few questions you could consider:

• Is the cost feasible for me?
• Am I aiming for a highly competitive college, such as an Ivy League school?
• Do I usually struggle with writing effective essays or with high-pressure exams?
• Am I far enough along in the college planning process that I need consulting?

If you feel the cost of private consulting is too high, remember that there are numerous college resources available to you. In fact, sometimes the personal knowledge that your teachers, counselors and parents have might be the most valuable asset to your application process.

College Admissions: What Do Schools Really Care About?

Today, MONEY WATCH talked about the college admissions process.  You can watch it heere

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/video/college-admission-trends/6320041/


Here are 15 things you should know and keep in the back of your mind as you apply---


1. The number of high school graduates peaked in 2008 at 3.3 million and will continue to decline through 2014-15, but the number of students enrolled in college is expected to continue to increase until at least 2020.

2. Approximately 20.4 million students are enrolled in college and that number is expected to swell to 23 million by 2020.

3. In every year since 1976, women have completed high school at a greater rate than men. Currently the gap is 1.2 percentage points.

4. Fifty-six percent of enrolled college freshmen are female.

5. During the last admission season, colleges and universities were accepting slightly fewer applicants. The typical school accepted 65.5% of its applicants. Back in 2001, the average acceptance rate was 71%.

6. Seventy-three percent of colleges and universities in 2010 experienced an increase in applications from the previous year.

7. One out of four teenagers submitted seven or more college applications.

8. The average application fee was $40. Larger institutions and more selective colleges tended to impose higher fees.

9. The typical school’s admission yield was down. Yield refers to the percentage of applicants that a college accepts who ultimately end up attending the school. The latest yield is 41% versus 49% in 2001. The shrinking yield is not surprising since students are applying to more schools.

10. Colleges typically spent $585 to recruit each applicant during the 2010 admission season.

11. Forty eight percent of schools used a wait list. Wait lists were far more popular with selective schools that accept fewer than 50% of its applicants. More than 63% of those schools used a wait list compared with less than 12% of schools that accept 50 % to 70% of its applicants.

12. The acceptance rate gap between those who apply early decision versus regular decision has shrunk. The acceptance rate for students who applied early decision was 57% versus 50% for regular-decision applicants.

13. While the college admission landscape has become tougher to navigate, getting help from high school counselors remain challenging. NACAC notes in its survey that federal statistics indicates that the average counselor/student ratio is 460:1.

14. The average public high school counselors spend just 23% of their time on college counseling, while the average private school counselors devote about 55% of their time to college issues.

15. Only 26% of public schools have at least one counselor who works exclusively on college counseling issues. In comparison, 73% of private schools have a dedicated college counselor.

A good and qualified College Admissions Consultant can assist your child and family in ways you can not imagine.  They can reduce your stress levels over the process, and offer ideas you may have never considered, including financial aid.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA APPLICATIONS OPEN TOMORROW, NOVEMBER 1ST

If you are the average student, you probably are a little overwhelmed by the application process as it is getting under way.  You are looking over the applications,  preparing your essay(s), sending out request for letters of recommendations and ordering transcripts.  You feel a little stressed out, it is harder that you may have thought, and then you hear...

TOMORROW, NOV 1st,  opens the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA application and admissions process.  You have ONLY 30 days in which to get everything listed and submitted.  If your application is not in by November 30th at 11:59pm,  you will have no choice but to wait till the following year.  This should put you into a sweat like never before, but wait,  there is good news this year for Califonia Students admist rising tuition costs!

According to the UC s,  About 90 percent of UC undergraduates are California residents. They are a vibrant and diverse group, encompassing the cultural, racial, socioeconomic and geographic richness from across the state.  This year,  California Students can breathe a sigh of relief as the UC s have changed their admissions policy for California Students.  If you are in the TOP 9% of the 2012 Class
and are not admitted to any of the UC campuses for which a student applies to, they will automatically be offered a spot at another campus where space is available.   This formula is called an "admissions index".

Listed below are the freshman admission profiles summarize the academic qualifications of applicants and admitted freshmen to each UC campus for fall 2011. 

Please be cautious in drawing conclusions from this information.

The numbers are useful only as a general guide to selectivity and not as a predictor of your chances for admission to a particular campus. Keep the following in mind:

• Data for several colleges on a campus are grouped together, which masks the differences in the degree of competition for admission among them. Some campuses and colleges admit students directly into individual majors, and the degree of competition among majors may vary widely.

• The data reflect the selection process for fall 2011 applicants, not the 2012 applicants. The selection process may vary from year to year; therefore the results may differ significantly.

• GPA is defined as a student's grade point average in the "a-g" requirements. The average high school GPA listed for each campus is computed from 10th and 11th grade coursework, including up to eight honors courses. These GPAs are drawn from application data at the system-wide admissions office. Average exam scores are derived from the highest official reported scores from a single test administration.

UC  Berkeley(CAL)
Admit Rate — Overall: 25.8%
Admits*: 13,793
Applicants: 52,973
ELC Student Admit Rate: 57.3%
California Residents (% of admits): 68.2%
Averages
High School GPA: 4.14
ACT Composite Score: 30
SAT Critical Reading: 674
SAT Mathematics: 707
SAT Writing: 692


UC Davis
 
Admit Rate — Overall: 48.4%
Admits: 22,385
Applicants: 46,225
ELC Student Admit Rate: 99.0%
California Residents (% of admits): 85.5%
Averages
High School GPA: 4.00
ACT Composite Score: 28
SAT Critical Reading: 613
SAT Mathematics: 658
SAT Writing: 631

UC Irvine


Admit Rate — Overall: 47.6%
Admits: 23,476
Applicants: 49,287
ELC Student Admit Rate: 97.5%
California Residents (% of admits): 81.3%

Averages
High School GPA: 3.97
ACT Composite Score: 27
SAT Critical Reading: 593
SAT Mathematics: 644
SAT Writing: 612


UCLA


Admit Rate — Overall: 22.8%
Admits: 15,696
Applicants: 61,535
ELC Student Admit Rate: 61.9%
California Residents (% of admits): 70.3%
Averages
High School GPA: 4.11
ACT Composite Score: 30
SAT Critical Reading: 657
SAT Mathematics: 701
SAT Writing: 680

UC  Merced 

Admit Rate — Overall: 81.5%
Admits: 12,395
Applicants: 15,212
ELC Student Admit Rate: 98.9%
California Residents (% of admits): 87.7%
Averages
High School GPA: 3.56
ACT Composite Score: 24
SAT Critical Reading: 551
SAT Mathematics: 564
SAT Writing: 537

UC Riverside


Admit Rate — Overall: 68.9%
Admits: 19,363
Applicants: 28,094
ELC Student Admit Rate: 99.5%
California Residents (% of admits): 84.4%
Averages
High School GPA: 3.67
ACT Composite Score: 25
SAT Critical Reading: 551
SAT Mathematics: 595
SAT Writing: 564


UC San Diego 

Admit Rate — Overall: 35.1%
Admits: 18,744
Applicants: 53,467
ELC Student Admit Rate: 86.1%
California Residents (% of admits): 76.6%
Averages
High School GPA: 4.08
ACT Composite Score: 29
SAT Critical Reading: 632
SAT Mathematics: 681
SAT Writing: 653

UC Santa Barbara
 
Admit Rate — Overall: 46.4%
Admits: 23,041
Applicants: 49,655
ELC Student Admit Rate: 98.5%
California Residents (% of admits): 82.7%
Averages
High School GPA: 3.97
ACT Composite Score: 28
SAT Critical Reading: 613
SAT Mathematics: 647
SAT Writing: 629

 UC Santa Cruz


Admit Rate — Overall: 68.0%
Admits: 19,201
Applicants: 28,235
ELC Student Admit Rate: 98.4%
California Residents (% of admits): 93.3%

Averages
High School GPA: 3.75
ACT Composite Score: 26
SAT Critical Reading: 580
SAT Mathematics: 605
SAT Writing: 591


93.6% of admitted transfer students were from California community colleges.  For those transferring from another school or community college, the admit rates were very similar to those entering the individual schools.

If you feel overwhelmed by the process, we understand.  You are not alone. We specialize ot only in the Common Application with schools across the country but also California schools.  If you are a resident, college transfer or an international student,  The College Admissions Consultant has the ability and expertise to assist you with your application(s), essays, and school choice.  We also work with Learning Differences, Gap Year,  College Transfers, Athletes, International, and Grad School Applicants.  Check out our website at www.TheCollegeAdmissionsConsultant.com

SCORE OPTIONAL SCHOOLS

Standardized testing is not every student’s strong suit and some students are not strategic enough in their planning of the SAT or ACT test dates.  Some students try to put it out of site due to "fear".   For students who fall in this category. not testing early and allowing enough time to apply early or retest for strong scores can be a drawback. 

The good news is that there are some great schools that are “score optional” schools,  which means that they do not require applicants to submit standardized testing scores to be considered for admission.  For exampke, many of the technical and arts schools do not see the ACT and SAT as good indicators of future performance, and it is now spreading over into  many larger universities and liberal arts schools who are recognizing the limitations of testing.   

Some schools believe that using the SAT and ACT in their admissions decisions give unfair advantage to students from schools or families that can afford courses in or tutors for test preparation.  Other schools believe doing away with standardized testing will help “enhance intellectual and demographic diversity". 

From a less public-spirited standpoint, becoming score-optional may also help schools raise their rankings with such institutions as The US News and World Report.   If students choose not to submit scores, their scores are likely on the lower end; if those students’ scores were not counted, the school’s overall standardized test scores would be raised, which, in turn, helps to increase their rank. 

32 of the top 100 colleges on the U.S. News & World Report liberal arts college list, including Bates, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Hamilton and Smith, no longer require every applicant to submit an SAT or ACT score.   However, many of these score optional schools gather scores from all students after enrollment, including those who did not submit scores for admission, and submit inflated scores to US News and other organizations that don’t include scores from students who did not submit them during the admissions process.  A slightly sneaky way to up their rankings?

 If you are thinking a school like this MIGHT be for you,  we urge students to send scores that are strong even to those score optional schools to which they apply.  For those students who do not have scores sent,  there are a good number of excellent schools across the country that do not penalize you for submitting an application without standardized test results. Some of these schools interact with TOP TIER schools, such as Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, and Pitzer.

We want to give you a new of direction to entertain if the score optional scenario option is appealing and  the top tier schools are not for you.   Jay Matthews, a reporter for the Washington Post wrote an interesting piece about the topic: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/07/what_the_sat-optional_colleges.html.     While this is an interesting article it is important to keep in the back of your mind that the Washington Post owns Kaplan – one of the largest test tutoring companies, and his ideas may be tainted.

The following list of schools is an abridged version of the list of SAT score optional schools.  This list includes accredited, bachelor-degree granting colleges and universities that DO NOT emphasize the use of standardized tests by making admissions decisions about substantial numbers of applicants who recently graduated from US high schools without using the SAT or ACT.

                Bard College                                               Ohio State Universities

                Bates College                                             Oregon State University – Corvallis

                Bowdoin College                                        Pitzer College

                College of the Atlantic                              Rollins College

                Concordia University                                Smith College

                California State Universities                     South Dakota State University

                Denison University                                    Susquehanna University

                Dickinson College                                       Texas A&M

                Drew University                                         University of Alaska

                Franklin and Marshall College                     University of Arkansas

                George Mason University                          University of Idaho at Moscow

                Gettysburg College                                      University of Kansas at Lawrence

                Goddard College                                          University of Maine

                Goucher College                                           University of Minnesota

                Hampshire College                                       University of Mississippi

                Hobart and William Smith Colleges            University of Montana

                Kansas State University                             University of Nebraska

                Knox College                                                 University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Reno

                Lake Forest College                                     University of Texas

                Lewis and Clark College                              Ursinus College

                Middlebury College                                    Wake Forest University

                Mount Holyoke                                           Washington College

                Muhlenberg College                                   Western Kentucky University

                Nazareth College                                         Wheaton College

                New School                                                 Wittenberg University

                Northern Arizona University                     Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

SELECTING A COLLEGE

 College Fairs come and go.  Some people feel that the way to select a school is to go "innie, minnie, minnie, moe" through a selection of catalogues; some want to go to where mom or dad went, or even follow a boyfriend or girlfriend.  This might be a good way to select a school, but once you are in college, you might feel that you made a mistake, and that you had all the WRONG reasons to go to a school you finally decide to attend.


When looking at colleges, it is important to remeber that 85% of a student's experiences are  OUTSIDE of the classroom, so while you may think that you need to look at colleges is not to  look at just the books or the virtual tours, but to go to the schools and attend a football game or other event where you can see the "energy' of student body.    It is at that point when you determine what you like and what you don't you can assess if the school you are looking at feels like it its you.

It real easy for me to tell a student what or how to approach the different schools, but if you click on the link below,  you probably can get a better way to assess if assess if a school is right for you.  You are looking for schools that match you, your goals, and your ENERGY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCGBCDac6tY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZC-OjDHYGc

THE COMMON APPLICATION EFFECT

The University of Michigan is expecting to bump the number of  college applications to over 40,000.  Read the story below! 



http://annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigans-switch-to-the-common-app-expected-to-bump-freshman-applications-over-40000/