Kevin McMullin

College admissions advice for students, parents, and counselors

Summer reading for leaders

by

Back in January, I shared some of the leadership teachings from L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders.  Apparently, Basecamp CEO Jason Fried has a similar take on Marquet’s book. If you haven’t read the book yet and you’re in a leadership role at school, at work, in a community organization, etc., check out Fried’s post for a great overview. And if his write-up grabs you, consider adding Turn the Ship Around! to your summer reading list.

Financial aid roadblocks

by

There are two potential roadblocks to helping families get the financial assistance they need for college—terminology and priorities.

Here are four terms to familiarize yourself with, and below them, your three priorities when applying for financial aid.

1. Grants/Scholarships
Grants and scholarships mean the same thing—free money that does not have to be paid back. The bigger this number, the bigger your resulting celebration. These can come from the government, the state, or from the colleges themselves. “Outside scholarships” come from sources outside of schools, like companies, foundations, churches, etc. They usually require separate applications.

2. Loans
These loans are usually taken out by the student rather than the parents, and are often subsidized and guaranteed by the government. In most cases, no interest is charged while the student is in school, and the repayment does not begin on Perkins or Stafford loans until the student graduates.

3. Work study
Work study is a job the student is given, usually on campus, for which the earnings may then be used to pay for college expenses.

4. Financial aid
Financial aid is a blanket term for financial assistance to pay for college, and it can include any combination of the three types described above. So, getting $15,000 in financial aid doesn’t necessarily mean you just got a $15,000 discount on the college’s sticker price. It could be a combination of free money, loans, and/or work study.

Thankfully, you don’t necessarily need a master’s degree in accounting to avail yourself of this aid. In fact, just plan on doing these three things and you’ll have your priorities straight.

1. Apply to a balanced college list that includes schools where you have a very strong chance of admission. Schools have the power to give more aid to the desirable students, so applying to those colleges that may pay is a good strategy.

2. Submit the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) according to your colleges’ deadlines. If you’ve been through this before, your deadlines will be earlier this year, and the FAFSA may now be submitted before January 1.

3. File any additional paperwork, such as the CSS Profile, that any of your colleges require.

Yes, there are things you can do to increase your eligibility. You can also apply for outside scholarships in the hopes of getting more money. And if you have younger students, you should make saving for college a top financial priority. But for students in the class of 2017 who will be applying to college this fall, make the above three steps your college financial priorities. They are the most crucial—and most effective—ways to get the financial aid you need.

Do your testing homework

by

Counselors always recommend that students preparing to apply to college check each school’s website to verify what’s required for admission. What’s the deadline? Do you need letters of recommendation? Are interviews offered? There’s no better, more trustworthy place to find those answers than from the colleges themselves.

But this year, that’s likely to be even more important because of standardized tests.

In March of 2016, the College Board gave the first administration of a completely redesigned SAT. When the results arrived in May, the scores were about 20-80 points higher than they were on the old SAT. So whether a student got a 1000, or 1100, or 1500, it actually wasn’t as good as it would have been on the old version. Here’s the Washington Post’s piece on the score inflation and resulting confusion.

The College Board also released a new table showing how new SAT scores could be compared to ACT scores. But the folks at ACT didn’t agree with those comparisons, and that led to bickering between the Coke and Pepsi of the testing world.

What does all of this mean to you if you’re applying to college this year?

It means that colleges’ testing policies will be in transition this year. How will they compare scores for students who took both the old and new SAT? How will they compare ACT scores to new SAT scores? Will they still require the same exams? Will they still use them the same way? Some or all of those things could be changing with many colleges this fall.

So this year more than ever, it will be very important for students to check the websites of the colleges that interest them, and to pay particular attention to their testing information. If that information is not listed, or if it hasn’t been updated on their website, call the admissions offices of the colleges you intend to apply to (remember, calling the admissions office is a job for students, not parents).

A little bit of drudgery? Maybe. But it won’t take long. And just a little testing homework will leave you certain that you aren’t missing anything.

Leadership lessons summarized

by

I’ve referenced Simon Sinek’s wonderful book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action and his corresponding TED Talk several times here (here’s a listing of those posts). But I found his follow-up work, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, harder to get through. His message was relevant and insightful, but I often felt as if he were spending the entire book simply drumming home the same 4-5 concepts.

Thankfully, I came across this article summarizing the main points of the book as Sinek relayed them in a presentation to a team at Microsoft. His suggestions are deceptively simple—put your people first, tell them the truth, trust them to make good decisions, etc. But if it were actually that easy and obvious, why don’t more leaders do it?

If you work in any kind of leadership capacity—whether you’re a student, a parent, or a counselor—I recommend you consider his suggestions. And if they resonate with you, then give his book a try. You might find the same frustrations with it that I did, but the message is still important. And if you went into the book knowing what the takeaways are intended to be, you could spend more time thinking about how to apply the lessons, and less time wondering if you’re missing something.

What you don’t see

by

In most professions, much of the work takes place behind the scenes. You don’t see how many hours your favorite athlete spends practicing or working out. You don’t see all the rehearsals your favorite actor or actress completes. You don’t see how many medical journals your doctor reads, how many hours a chef spends perfecting her dishes, or the training a pilot must complete before he can take passengers airborne.

High school counselors are no different.

Students, you likely see your counselor only a few times a year, maybe for an occasional college planning meeting, an application workshop, or some other school event in which she participates.

But you don’t see how much time counselors spend trying to keep up with all the changes in college admissions. You don’t see them participating in counselor message boards, attending conferences, or reaching out to colleagues to compare best practices.

You don’t see them poring over admissions data from last year’s class, preparing letters of recommendation, organizing presentations, writing newsletters, updating the information on the school website, or placing calls to—and fielding calls from—colleges.

You don’t see them organizing visits from college reps, maintaining a library of college-related information, or managing the application-related support systems they use in their office.

And most importantly, you don’t see the multitude of non-college-related responsibilities that most high school counselors are expected to be responsible for.

Before you close out the school year, take the time to say thank you to your counselor. If you’ve already adjourned for the summer, drop your counselor an email. Acknowledge that you know how busy they are and how much they’re doing for students, even if you and your classmates don’t always see it firsthand.

The work you don’t see is part of the job, and most counselors I know do it willingly. They work on your behalf, and they deserve your thanks for that work, whether or not you can see it.

Acting locally

by

Many high school students with the means to do so travel to far-flung international locations to serve people in need. I’m sure some of those kids are driven by a genuine desire to help. But there are also plenty who are being driven by what they hope will be an impressive listing on their college application, or even a compelling essay.

If you have a desire to serve, do it, no matter where you decide to go. But please don’t get the impression that you have to travel halfway around the word to 1) make a difference, or 2) make colleges take notice.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in his neighborhood, South Central Los Angeles—a community he calls a “food desert” for its readily available fast food but scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables. His 11-minute TED Talk is well worth watching, and it’s a great reminder of just how much of a difference you can make by acting locally.

Finley isn’t a high school student. But if an enterprising high school student had done what Finley has done, which includes delivering a TED Talk that’s been viewed millions of times, there would be plenty of colleges tripping over themselves to admit that kid.

Think globally, sure. But don’t forget that there’s plenty of difference to be made by acting locally.

 

Politics in college essays?

by

Our Collegewise counselors often get questions, especially during an election year, from students about whether or not to share political views in a college essay. You can even broaden that question to religion, current events, or any other topic on which intelligent, reasonable people can have very different, equally valid beliefs. Is it OK to write about it, or is it too risky?

There is no fail-safe, yes-or-no answer to that question. But here are a few guidelines if you’re considering writing about a potentially divisive topic.

1. Apply to the right colleges.
It should go without saying that you should be mindful of the type of colleges you’re applying to. Some schools have established religious affiliations or prevailing ideologies. If your essay clearly flies in the face of those things, a reader can’t help but wonder if that’s the right place for you. Maybe you want to attend college with people who believe the same things you believe? Or maybe you want to be exposed to different ways of thinking? Whatever your preference, make sure the colleges you select align with the learning and community that you’re seeking.

2. Show that you’ve made an effort to learn.
You don’t get a lot of extra credit just for having a strong opinion (that’s available to anyone, informed or not). But it takes effort and curiosity to learn about the issue you feel passionately about. Have you studied this in class, talked with your teacher, read books, or otherwise made an effort to learn about this? If so, make those efforts clear in the essay. Colleges respect students who’ve worked to understand the complexities of an issue or belief. And a demonstrated track record of learning shows that you’ll likely keep making those efforts in college.

3. Have you walked your talk?
It’s one thing just to say that you believe strongly in gun control, the pro-life movement, health care reform, etc. It’s another thing to actually commit time to supporting that belief. Maybe you’ve volunteered for a campaign, or presided over a related club, or worked in a free clinic. Most colleges will acknowledge and appreciate the student who goes beyond just believing something and actually walks their talk to forward their cause.

4. Are you open to other viewpoints?
It’s possible to believe strongly in something while simultaneously remaining interested in different points of view. Whenever possible and appropriate, show colleges that you’ve considered how and why other people feel differently about this subject. If you’ve heard arguments on the other side that you think are valid, acknowledge them. Most colleges appreciate the vision of very different students actively sharing with—and learning from—each other. An interest in opposing viewpoints doesn’t show weakness in your resolve. It just shows that you’re mature enough to understand not only that the world is a complex place, but also that there’s always more you can learn about it.

For more on this subject, here’s some advice about topics that might be considered off-limits.

Join us—from anywhere—for a college admissions seminar!

by

Our Collegewise counselors are offering a series of our popular college admissions seminars, all of which are free for students and parents. And for the first time, we’ll also be delivering some of them as webinars for families who don’t live near a Collegewise office.

Here’s a sampling of our topics:

  • Secrets of College Admissions
  • There’s an App for That: Understanding the Common Application
  • Secrets of Admission to the Most Selective Colleges
  • Paying for College: Financial Aid and Scholarships
  • 2016’s Big Changes in Admissions: What Do They Mean for You?

Reserve your spaces
There is no charge, and you can attend as many as you’d like. We’ve got limited seating though, and reservations are required. To view our schedules and RSVP, just go here (you’ll be given the option to register for the in-person or webinar versions).

We work really hard to organize and deliver these, and families always tell us that they leave feeling much better about their college admissions process than they did when they arrived. I think you’ll enjoy them and hope you can join us.