Freshman Files: First Year at a Large Public University
January 8th, 2016Each winter, right on the heels of holiday break, we touch base with our students who are now college freshmen to learn about their experiences. It’s exciting for us to hear back about their academic experiences, activities and overall adjustment, and sometimes we receive a response that we feel can be helpful to others.
Grace Huber provided a wonderful analysis of how she found success on a large public university campus, and kindly agreed to allow us to share excerpts from her response with our readers. Of course, our students enroll at colleges of all sizes – small, medium and large – depending on what they find to be the best fit. Grace’s commentary provides valuable insights for all of our younger students as they consider factors such as optimal student body size, access to faculty, social considerations and the degree of initiative they’re willing to take in their college experience.
“I am very glad that I chose to attend a large public school for multiple reasons. … I’m happy that I academically and socially challenged myself the way I did. … I needed to dare myself to leave the small classroom community. As you may recall, I graduated from a high school with very few students. Though I’m so thankful for that unique community, I was ready to be a small fish in a big pond. Adapting to this environment was difficult at first, but I adjusted very quickly. One of the major acclimatizations that I had to accommodate myself to was the class size. As a pre-med student I took many general courses. In my Psychology 100 course there were over 300 students. No longer did I know my teacher on a personal first-name basis. Though this was intimidating at first, soon I learned the key to being in these courses– office hours. By the end of the semester, my biology professor knew my name because I had met with her on so many occasions to go over the material. These meetings allowed me to get the A in the course that I did not think was possible in the beginning of the semester.
Second, I learned that I could find an identity in an environment outside of a sorority. The Greek life … is huge. When visiting the school for the first time, my tour guide informed us that only 20% of the student demographic was in some sort of Greek organization, but I do not think this statistic is correct. It is very difficult to find girls who do not fill their time with their sorority. Though I don’t think that being a part of a sorority or fraternity is a bad thing at all, I’m simply grateful that I do not belong to one. I was able to find friends in other clubs and organizations that also share similar interests to me. Coming from such a small school I was not used to the idea of having different groups of friends who didn’t know each other. I love how … I have friends who are different from one another, some who share similar interests and others who are completely opposite of me.
I can’t see myself enjoying another school as much as I do this one.”
We’re proud of Grace for navigating her new campus admirably – it’s such a tremendous departure from her small high school. She had great admission options and ultimately chose a large university over a small college, knowing that it would challenge her in many ways. Thanks to her initiative, positive outlook and wise choices, she’s finding great success academically and socially. And that, in a nutshell, is what the right college match is all about! Thanks, Grace, for allowing us to share part of your story with others.
Tagged: College, Freshman files
What to Do if You Are Deferred to the Regular Decision Pool
December 18th, 2015During this busy holiday season, not only are you waiting on packages and holiday cards to come in the mail but many of you will be waiting for something more important….your early action or early decision notification letter. There are three results that will be displayed: acceptance, denial or deferral. The big question we want to answer today is: What to do if you have been deferred?
There are several things to consider if you received a deferral letter. Many applicant pools for early decision and early action have increased in size which makes admission much more competitive. If students have a second choice that they now favor over the college that deferred or denied them, they can consider filing an ED Round II application (if the college has a second round) as they’re no longer bound by the first college’s ED or EA requirements. In the article posted below, Author Brennan Barnard shares some excellent advice for students who have been deferred. Although this publication was written three years ago we believe his recommendations are just as valuable today.
Article published December 18, 2012
Written by: Brennan Barnard
Brennan Barnard is the director of college counseling at the Derryfield School in Manchester, N.H.
From small liberal arts colleges to Ivy League schools to large universities, I have yet to speak to a college that has seen a decrease or remained stagnant in early applications. I am no statistician, but this seems like fuzzy math.
Read more at New York Times >>Tagged: Admission decision, Applications, College
How Many College Applications Are Too Many?
December 10th, 2015High school juniors might be wondering if there’s a magic number of college applications to submit senior year. Rumors fly about seniors who submit a dozen or more, but in reality this doesn’t happen often, nor should it. In this Forbes article, author Dan Edmonds lays out three specific factors to consider when trying to answer this question: time, money and selectivity.
While we at ShropEd believe this article offers great guidelines to follow, there are points we would like to emphasize before reading:
– Editing/whittling the list ahead of applying is indeed important for all of the reasons the author describes, rather than taking a scattershot approach and sending out a huge number of applications to colleges that haven’t been considered carefully.
– We advise students to balance admission selectivity categories as they arrive at the final list of applications, as the author does, including at least two green light (highly likely) colleges and not overweighting red light (small chance of admission) and lottery-like colleges.
And one point of difference with the author:
– We advise students to apply to a maximum of 9 colleges, never as many as 10-15 and certainly not more! In fact, some students will research and make choices so effectively that they’ll only apply to 5 or 6. This is a very healthy approach. We like to say, “Explore broadly, apply narrowly.”
Article published November 20, 2015
Written by: Dan Edmunds
The trends seem clear: The most competitive schools are admitting a lower percentage of students every year, and students are applying to increasing numbers of colleges. Indeed, some students are applying to 30 or 40 or even more schools, a feat made easier by the Common Application. A question on the mind of nearly every college-bound high school junior is: How many colleges should I apply to?
Read more at Forbes >>Tagged: Applications, College
Alumni Interviews
December 1st, 2015College interviews sometimes cause students to quake with nervousness, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Interviews rarely tip the scales for an admission decision; they more often confirm other information in an applicant’s file. Only now and then is an interview so strong or weak that it truly makes a difference. As with so many other things in life, preparation and understanding purpose and intent can be key to feeling prepared and confident.
Colleges with the most stringent competition for admission typically deploy alumni as interviewers, keeping them involved with the institution productively. Yale has very helpfully posted guidelines for alumni interview report-writing, giving us insight into what’s valued. We note two factors as especially important: intellectual depth and a clear understanding of the resources that the University presents. Please click through to the Yale link below and let us know what additional factors you note.
Let us know, too, if you find this link helpful. Good luck with interviews ahead!
Published by: Yale University
Sample Interview Reports
We offer these samples of actual interview reports or excerpts to highlight the kinds of commentaries that help the admissions committee make careful, informed decisions. For contrast, we’ve included examples of write-ups that could have been more influential with the addition of supporting detail. This selection is not fully representative of the many effective reporting styles used by ASC volunteers, but we hope it serves illustrative purposes. We’ve changed names and other identifying characteristics.
Read more at Yale Univeristy >>Tagged: Applications, College, Demonstrated interest, Interviews
