A Recommended Reading (and Listening) List

We here at College Goals wanted to share with you some of our favorite “go to” resources that are guaranteed to support your family through their college admissions journey. These endorsements are our own, not paid placements by any author or company.

 

If you want to listen to a podcast about college admission:

  • "Inside the Yale Admissions Office" -- This one got started during the pandemic shutdown, and they recorded a lot of great episodes about different aspects that go into selective college admissions. Episodes are topical (there's one on letters of rec, one on activities, etc.), they are not too long, and there are no commercials. They have really slowed down in the posting since the pandemic ended, but they do release new episodes when there's information to change (they did 3 excellent shows about Yale's return to "test required" admissions). This show is also great for students who are not planning to apply to Yale! It is just straight answers about admissions, but with a focus on hyper-selective universities and their specific considerations.
  • "The Truth About College Admission" -- This brings together two of our very favorite communicators about college admissions (Rick Clark of Georgia Tech and Brennan Barnard who writes about admissions for Forbes among other places). In each episode, they interview someone in the field and reveal the "truth" behind the mythologizing that swirls around the admissions process. This is a great place to learn about topics like "institutional priorities" or athletic recruiting. 

 

If you want to read a book about college admission:

  • Who Gets In And Why by Jeffrey Selingo – Selingo, a long-time journalist writing about higher education, spent one year embedded in three different admissions offices (Emory University, Davidson College, and the University of Washington –Seattle). In his year, he observed the admissions “gatekeepers” as they made decisions. He also followed students (and parents), met with school counselors and others, and worked to understand and then dispel some of the misconceptions and mistruths that guide families as they consider admissions.
  • The Truth About College Admission by Rick Clark and Brennan Barnard – This is the podcast in workbook form! This excellent guidebook sets up tasks and charts to support families through every aspect of the college process from building a list to constructing an application.
  • The Price You Pay For College by Ron Lieber – Lieber, the NYTimes financial columnist, has long been an advocate for great clarity and transparency in the college financial aid process. This book is a must for any family looking to better understand how colleges set their costs and more importantly how families can navigate the complex financial aid landscape.
  • I’m Going to College – Not You! edited by Jennifer Delahunty – For some lighter (and occasionally hilarious) reading, Delahunty, the former Dean of Admissions at Kenyon College, has assembled short essays by parents, students, college admissions officers, and college advisors that reflect on the student’s central role and growth in the admissions process. Two favorites are the piece co-written by Delahunty and her daughter about her own admissions journey, and Anna Quindlen’s reflections on swimming in the “deep pool” of her own growth as an undergraduate at Barnard College.

 

If you want to read a blog about college admission:

 

And, finally, one amazing “go to” resource that includes a little bit of everything:

The College Essay Guy – Ethan Sawyer, aka “The College Essay Guy,” has made it a goal to share high-quality and thoughtful materials (free!) to support students through every aspect of the college application process. Not only does he have great resources to support your essay writing (including some amazing brainstorming YouTube videos), he has lists of great verbs to use in your Common App activities list, tricks and tips to tackle the supplemental essays at almost every school on your list, and so so much more!

by Elise London

AI and Your College Process

Can you just “ChatGPT it”?

There is a lot of misinformation out there about correct and ethical usage of generative AI to support the college process. It is worth considering the ways that you could potentially use generative AI for good – and also to note the ways that it might be easy to abuse the principle and start to cross solid ethical boundaries with your AI use. It is important to say right at the outset that all work you submit to a college must be your own – and for great reasons! They are admitting YOU to be a student on their campus and in their classrooms. The work you submit in your application is how they can best evaluate your fit for their program and the value that you’ll add to their community.

That said, there are a lot of really positive ways that ethical use of generative AI can support your college process, both in the discovery and research phases as well as in the application stages.

Discovery and Research:

ChatGPT is a wonderful thought partner to help you brainstorm colleges to fit your criteria!

If your high school uses Naviance, Scoir, or Maia Learning, you can use one of those programs to run an “Advanced College Search” that asks you to put in your “limiting criteria” (student population, geography, majors, admit rates, etc…) and will generate a list of schools to fit this criteria.

ChatGPT will do the same – and more!

Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own criteria):

“You are my college counselor. I am looking for a list of 15 colleges that meet the following specifications: fewer than 8,000 undergraduate students; a pretty campus; a location near a city; a state on either the east or west coast of the US; a strong economics department; great placement opportunities for student internships; some fun campus traditions that bring the community together; and, a basketball team that people like to support”

In response, ChatGPT reminded me about some schools like Davidson College and Santa Clara University, which both fit these specific criteria well, but it also added schools like Gonzaga University and the College of William and Mary, which both also fit this criteria but would not have been right at the front of my mind!

 

Once you find a college you like, ChatGPT can also help you to identify other schools that are similar to that school but might have different admissibilities – therefore be more of a target or a likely on your balanced list.

Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own criteria):
“You are my college counselor. I really loved my recent visit to Georgetown University, but I’m worried because it’s really selective. Can you tell me about 10 schools that have the same vibe and academic focus as Georgetown but that admit more than 20% of the students who apply?”

In response, ChatGPT reminded me about Seattle University, American University, and Villanova University (among others), focusing on the strong spirit and traditions along with parallel academic disciplines.

 

ChatGPT is a wonderful travel agent and can help you to plan your college tours! It can help you think about how long you might want to spend on each campus, how long the travel would be between schools (or from college campus to airport), and also provide you with some other ideas for activities and attractions to explore while you are in town! 

Enter a prompt like this one (but use your own plans):

“I am planning a trip to Chicago to visit colleges (Northwestern, University of Chicago, and Loyola University Chicago). Help me to plan a 4 day trip – I will be flying in on the first morning and leaving on the 4th evening – to see these schools and also gives me a chance to explore the area.”

Not only will ChatGPT help you think about what to do when, it will also give you fun restaurant recommendations and other area attractions to explore!

 

Application Process

As students look at the volume of supplemental essays required by some colleges, it is tempting to consider just outsourcing the writing process to their favorite generative AI “friend” and breezing through the work. However, the essays that ChatGPT creates, while technically executed and on point, lack soul, spirit, originality, and humanity. When you read a lot of college essays every day, it is easy to tell which college essays have been written by generative AI. Students might not craft sentences with the same degree of grammatical correctness, but student writing always feels like it was written by a person.

That said, there are still a number of ways you can utilize the tools of ChatGPT to support your application process. Here are two!

  • Getting your activities list down into the 150 character “Description” box on the Common App: You can ask ChatGPT to help you pare down your activities to fit into the description box on Common App by giving it a prompt like this:

“I need your help writing about my activities. I’d like to have them described in a format that uses only phrases, each starting with a unique verb. The phrases should be separated by a ; punctuation mark. The whole description can be no longer than 150 characters. Now use these rules to describe my work on [insert activity here]”

  • Learning about campus specifics to support your “Why do you want to attend [College Name]?” essays: You can ask ChatGPT to help you with some details that will enhance your writing on your “Why X College?” essays. Say your weekend job at home is in a specialty grocery store. Ask ChatGPT to tell you about the best specialty grocery stores near the college campus. What if you participate in a mentoring program for young musicians in your hometown. Ask ChatGPT to tell you about some of the music-related community service work that students do on that campus. Additionally, have ChatGPT tell you about favorite campus athletic traditions; cozy campus locations to read a good book; the best coffee shop within walking distance of campus; or, remind you of the name of the student internship placement program. A good “Why X College?” essay will include some great proper nouns associated with the school, and ChatGPT is an excellent thought partner to find yours!

Again, it is unethical and wrong to have ChatGPT do more for your process than to participate in some of these exercises. It cannot write your essays, or edit them for you! That said, leveraging the power of generative AI can be supportive of both your list building and writing efforts!

Don’t just take our word for it! Want to learn more? Read these two excellent blog posts from the Georgia Tech Admissions Office:

Juniors, Can we ChatGPT?

Seniors, Can we ChatGPT?

by Elise London

Carleton College

"Do you have any questions for me?"

A guide to one aspect of your college interview:

Often, at the end of a college admissions interview, the alumni (or student) interviewer will turn to the candidate and say: “Do you have any questions for me?” This is a wonderful moment for you to seize an opportunity, so do not let it pass you by!

 

First, what NOT to do:

  • Say “no, I don’t have any questions” about this college
  • Ask a “yes or no” question whose answer could be easily Googled (“Does College X have a French major?”)
  • Ask any question whose answer could be learned from your explorations of the college’s website (“Where do you have study abroad programs?”)
  • Ask a question whose answer is generally mundane (“How good is the math department?”)
  • Ask a “stock” questions that sound like ChatGPT wrote it for you (“What do you think makes College X unique compared to other schools, especially in terms of its student culture or academic opportunities?”) *ChatGPT did write this one!

 

What SHOULD you do:

  • Ask a question that makes a clear connection to YOU 
  • Invite your interviewer to tell you a story from their experiences as a student

 

How do you do this?

Prepare in advance!

Think of a few things that are central to your interests, your character, and your application and craft thoughtful questions connected to these interests BEFORE you go into your interview. Be sure to keep the question short, but also make sure it includes enough depth and detail to highlight your interest in the area at hand.

 

Here are a few examples:

  • Sustainability is really important to me and my work with our school’s Green Team has been among my favorite extracurricular activities. I was really proud of our recent “Weigh the Waste” contests to reduce dining hall waste at lunches. I’m curious if you can tell me more about how students at College X are involved in environmental sustainability initiatives? What types of projects have students spearheaded at College X to make the campus greener and improve the school’s environmental footprint?
  • My high school’s small size has been really important to my growth as a student. I love building relationships with my teachers both in and out of the classroom. College X is a lot bigger than my high school, and I want to make sure that I can still get to know my teachers. Can you tell me about some of your favorite professors at College X? How did you get to know them outside of lectures? 
  • The best projects I have done in my classes have been collaborative ones, where each member of our team contributes their own expertise to our success on the project (and maybe give a little example). Given how selective College X is, I’m worried that the school might foster a more competitive than collaborative environment. Can you tell me about how you found the school to be on the spectrum from competitive to collaborative? Was the same also true for your friends?

 

You can write your questions down on a notecard and bring it with you to your interview! When the interviewer asks if you have any questions, it is ok to pull out your card and read one! Having your questions in advance shows that you are thoughtful and prepared.

Want to know more about college interviews from the “inside”?

Check out this great episode of the Inside The Yale Admissions Office podcast (“Interviews” – 28 minutes)

by Elise London

Letters of Continued Interest: Myths and Reality

Google “I just got deferred from my Early Decision school! What can I do now?” and you’ll be directed toward any number of threads and conversations filled with myths and partial truths about the purpose, structure, and value of the “Letter of Continued Interest” (LOCI) to be sent to support a student’s chances in the Regular Decision round.

MYTH: The letter needs to be submitted immediately following the defer decision to assure that the school knows the student isn’t too disappointed about being deferred and/or is still very interested in attending.

MYTH: There is a perfect LOCI that the student could craft that would all but guarantee admission in the regular round.

MYTH: Students who have been deferred ED have a better (or worse, depending on what you read) chance of being admitted in the regular decision round than students who simply applied RD.

MYTH: Students should do more than just write a letter, they should call and/or visit the college, send additional letters of recommendation, request a meeting with an admissions officer to explain their interest, send cookies/flowers/cardboard cutouts of their face, in order to ensure that the school knows how very interested they are.

In truth, each of these is just that – a myth about admission.

Truth: LOCIs should be sent in mid-January, not only after a student has taken the time to craft great supplemental essays for the other schools on their list, but after they have an update to share with the school (which is likely after first semester grades have been reported).

Truth: All LOCIs are different and should be unique and individual to the student, and their interests and aspirations. There are no guarantees in the world of admissions, and LOCIs are a part of that reality.

Truth: Each student in the RD round has the same “chance” of being admitted as each other student in the round. There are no special points (or demerits) for the ED deferred applicant. About the same percentage of applicants are admitted after a deferral as are admitted from the entire pool. (ie: If the school has an RD admit rate of 5%, about 5% of the deferred ED applicants are admitted as are about 5% of the RD applicants)

Truth: Students should simply write one letter (one LOCI). They should absolutely not visit, call, interrupt, send anything else, or otherwise inundate the admissions office. Students (and parents) need to simply trust that the process does work out and that one LOCI is sufficient.

So what is the formula for a great LOCI? It is simple. One letter, 4 parts, 250 words or about ½ a page:

  • Gratitude: For the time during busy RD season; for the defer in a competitive pool, etc
  • Updates: Here are some things that have happened to/for/because-of me since I sent you my application in mid-October that I haven't shared yet that I think you'd like to know about in my application
  • Connections: Here are some great things that I am/continue to be excited about at your school which makes it such a great fit for ME and are all the things I love about it/your school/my future there (even better if they might connect to your updates!)
  • Gratitude Redux: For the “continued consideration” -- and (if applicable) an assurance to yield if admitted (can't do this unless it is true… consider your options!)

Do you want to read more about deferral and steps you can take? Try this excellent blog post from the Georgia Tech Admissions Blog.

by Elise London

Reflection on Legacy Admission

As our juniors begin to build their application plan and timeline for next fall, we want to update you about the rapidly changing role of legacy admissions.

As you may know, many colleges and universities have historically given some preference in the admission process to the children of alumni. Studies have found that at some schools, legacy candidates were more than four times as likely to be admitted as non-legacy candidates with similar academic credentials. As recently as 2021, the Harvard Crimson reported that more than 30% of their current students were related to Harvard alumni, and, at Stanford and Cornell, the number is closer to 15%. Indeed, the practice has been most common amongst highly selective institutions, those defined as admitting fewer than 25% of applicants. These colleges have been motivated to admit legacy students at higher rates because they tend to come from wealthier families who may be able to give generously to their alma mater.

 

But that tide seems to be changing.

As early as 2014, Johns Hopkins University did away with its legacy preference, and, not long after, Pomona, Amherst, and Wesleyan Colleges announced similar shifts in admission policy. These early adopters explained that legacy preferences were antithetical to their larger institutional commitments to equity and diversity (as legacy admissions overwhelmingly benefit white students), and Johns Hopkins’ president went so far as to call legacy preference in admissions “nakedly aristocratic.” Fast forward to the present moment, in the wake of last summer’s Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, these policies are under ever-increased scrutiny. In July 2023, the Education Department opened an investigation into the practice, and schools as diverse as the University of Minnesota, Carleton College, and Bryn Mawr College have recently ended their legacy preferences.

 

What does that mean for you? 

If you are a student planning to apply to your parents’ or grandparents’ alma mater, you do not need to change course. If that school is one of the many great fits you and your College Goals counselor have identified, then stay the course! While you may not receive the extra consideration you once might have, you can still demonstrate your fit for the institution through “Demonstrated Interest” – your supplemental essays, interview (if available), and contact with your admission officer. But like everything in college admission, whether or not your legacy status will help “depends.” There is simply no one rule that applies to all institutions.

The best thing you can do is educate yourself about the practice so you can apply with eyes wide open. To read more, here is a brief Forbes article on The Waning Influence of Legacy College Admissions and for the truly curious, an in-depth report from the Brookings Institution. Finally, this site from Best Colleges includes an updated list by state of colleges who have ended legacy admissions practices as well as a list of those that never used them. We hope you find this helpful!

by Brooke Libby

The Trouble with FAFSA – Possible Waitlists Ahead

Many of you have no doubt heard about the recent troubles with the Department of Education’s rollout of the new FAFSA this year. If not, here’s the brief brief:

 

    • The launch of the new FAFSA was delayed from its typical October timeline to (essentially) January…
    • When it did launch, the site crashed often, leaving families waiting – sometimes for hours, sometimes weeks – before they were able to log back on to complete their applications for aid
    • Once this tech issue was resolved, the Department of Ed announced that a miscalculation had been built into the program, which would further delay the processing of financial aid for millions of students
    • Most colleges and universities will not begin receiving the information they need to calculate student financial aid packages until this week
    • And this processing delay – in and of itself – created further problems because it meant that many students couldn’t “correct” their FAFSA to apply for aid at schools beyond the original 20-institution limit.

And on it goes. A New York Times article last weekend reported that there were approximately 70,000 unread emails in the FAFSA inbox with “crucial identifying information required for financial aid.”

If your family is applying for financial aid this year, then you have likely already felt some of these impacts.

But even if your family is in the fortunate position of not needing to apply for aid, this situation may affect you. Please read on to glean some of the possible downstream effects for everyone:

First, the FAFSA delays are going to make it difficult for colleges and universities to create individual financial aid packages in a timely manner and to incorporate the financial modeling they need to admit fiscally sustainable classes.

This financial uncertainty – this “not knowing” – has already created backlogs in many college admissions departments and, fortunately, is leading many forward-thinking colleges to extend their enrollment response deadlines from the traditional May 1st to May 15th and, in some cases, June 1st. These schools understand that students and families with financial need will need more time to weigh their financial aid packages and make responsible enrollment decisions.

“Great, more time!” you say. Except if even one of your many schools is requiring a response by May 1st, it’s hardly a benefit. You and your family will still need to make some decisions by May 1st. Students must remain meticulously attentive to their different enrollment deadlines!

Equally concerning is that many colleges will likely place large groups of students on waitlists to hedge against their enrollment concerns. Waitlist activity has been on the rise over the past few years, but we expect ever-increasing reliance on waitlists this spring.

A quick primer on waitlists: a) They draw the college process out even longer for students and families, sometimes as late as July. b) If a student is waitlisted at one of their top colleges and would still like the opportunity to attend, there is no guarantee of admission, so they should enroll at their current best option. c) If later, the student is fortunate enough to be offered enrollment from the waitlist, they are free to make the change, but they’ll lose their enrollment deposit from the previous school – sometimes a thousand dollars or more.

And while all of this “not knowing” is destabilizing for everybody, it could be even more damaging to first-generation and low-income students. Not having a financial aid package in hand when enrollment deadlines come around may keep many undocumented, Pell-eligible, and low-income students from enrolling altogether, simply opting out of the entire higher ed proposition. Or in the event of a waitlist, some of these students may not be able to forgo their tuition deposit in order to switch to their preferred school.

It is too soon to say, but further downstream, the bungled rollout of the new FAFSA and enrollment mess it has caused may cripple smaller, more tuition-dependent institutions. We hope it’s not the case, but some small but wonderful educational options may simply cease to exist in the coming years.

by Brooke Libby

Passionate curiosity may be the key

Recently I traveled back home to South Africa with a small group of graduate students on a study trip. It was wonderful because they were wonderful – smart, funny, and interesting. But in addition to amusing conversations about the etymology of words and debates about the addictive qualities of desserts, we also participated in hard, serious conversations about challenging subjects, from government corruption to the state of conservation.

What struck me most in these conversations, though, was the passionate curiosity, as Einstein described it, that these young people—by any measure some of the highest achievers in their respective fields in the world—could bring to almost any subject. Whether the conversation was about democracy or economic policy or historical injustice, and regardless of their field, they could ask thoughtful questions. I realized that what set them apart, and probably did even when they first applied to college, was a driving desire to know—what Stanford, in an earlier iteration of its application, called “intellectual vitality.”

I have often thought about this quality in my previous life as an admission officer for Brown. In that capacity, I read close to two thousand applications each season. I think it hard for someone who has not participated in the process of evaluating applications at a super-selective college to understand just how exceptionally deep its applicant pool is in talent. It is a pool in which a college can admit a completely different group of students without shifting the markers of excellence of its admitted class.

That excellence is oddly comforting—it’s nice to know there are so many smart, accomplished, and interesting young people in the world! It is also the most challenging aspect of selective admission: when you have such a huge number of outstanding applicants and you only have space for a small, fixed number of them, how do you make meaningful decisions? Sometimes the choice is led by an institutional agenda. A selective school can meet its specific needs—in a given year it might be for students in particular fields of study; students underrepresented by race or ethnicity; or those with particular skills, such as oboists or sculptors—without ever dipping far into an accomplished pool of applicants. If, at a very selective school, great academic results unlock the door, it is this dollop of something extra that propels an applicant through it and into the class.

For some students, the bit of extra that they bring to the table might be intellectual curiosity. Thinking of this reminds me of a conversation with an admission officer at MIT about the kinds of students that they prefer to admit. He said that they liked to see “students who were building a rocket in their garage.” I don’t think he meant it literally – though perhaps doing so would actually win you points at MIT! Instead, I took it to mean that he was really describing students who were so excited about an idea, so driven by curiosity, that they were willing to invest and participate in any opportunity to learn more and to explore.

All of which brings me back to where I started. Many parents want to know how to put their child on the path to an Ivy or a school of similar brand (scarily enough, even parents of elementary school students!). Should they invest in yet another expensive summer program at a brand-name school? Should their child seek out a summer research internship with a local professor, or found a club at school to do what three other clubs already do? In truth, their children should do whatever will encourage them to develop a voracious curiosity, a drive to know and understand aspects of their world, a desire to have their lovely young minds blown by something interesting. Those students may or may not make it to their parents’ dream school in the end, but they will have the capacity to wring an extraordinary education from any school that is lucky enough to have them.

by College Goals