Colleges are looking for the well-rounded applicant.

What colleges are actually looking for are well-rounded classes. They expect all applicants to be relatively well rounded -- i.e., participating in a variety of activities both in and out of school. What they most desire is a student who is not only well-rounded but who also has one particular outstanding talent, whether it be writing, athletics, the arts or some more esoteric area like chess or horse breeding. They are frequently unable to verify information on resumes, so they will seek talents that can be corroborated and verified. At more selective colleges, this can mean some form of recognition on the state or national level.

SAT’s are not a major factor in admissions decisions at highly selective colleges.

It is true that SAT’s are rarely a determining factor between students whose scores fall around the mean of accepted students previously accepted to that institution. A student who scores lower than 1800, has an A average and is president of his class will be more likely to be admitted to a selective college than a student who scores 1900, has a B average, and lacks other qualities which would favor admission. But as a student’s scores fall further from the mean for that college, they are more likely to affect his or her chances for admission. A student who scores less than 1800 who is not a ‘special case’ is not likely to be admitted to a highly selective college, and a student with a 2400 who applies to a less selective college will likely be forgiven for a few C’s.

Students can be packaged in such a way that weak grades and/or test scores will be subordinated to more personal factors.

In the final analysis, subjective criteria (the counselor and teacher recommendation, essay and sometimes the interview) will be the determining factors in deciding whom to admit from a pool of acceptable applicants. Each element can be presented so as to highlight an individual’s strengths and accomplishments. But a student with weak grades or test scores and a non-demanding program will have difficulty gaining admission into a highly selective college even with exceptional charisma, superior writing skills, or demonstrated leadership ability.

If I work hard enough, I will get admitted to a highly or most selective college.

Admission to highly selective colleges is based on superior effort, achievement, and attitude. Hard work won't guarantee admission to the most selective schools, but it will make it more likely that you will be admitted to and succeed at a college commensurate with your ability. In a study described in Beyond College for All (Rosenbaum, 2001), 44% of high school seniors do less than three hours of homework per week; only 14 percent do more than 10 hours. Over half the students who do more than 10 hours of homework a week eventually go on to earn a four-year college degree; only 16 percent of those doing less than three hours of homework a week will earn a bachelor’s degree. Of high school students planning to attend college, 52% of college students who left high school with a “C” average or lower did not earn one college credit.

Since my interview went well, I am almost assured of admission.

Interviews are snapshots that provide information on one hour of your life. Colleges a) are more likely to place more value on objective criteria; b) do not want to place students who cannot interview at a disadvantage; and c) do not have any reliable measure for rating an interview, especially an alumni interview. Many colleges look for ‘perceived interest’ in students who apply and having an interview is sometimes one way to demonstrate this. But in the end, this is usually one of the last items taken into consideration when assessing candidates.

The college coach told me…

The only reliable source of information about admission is the admissions office. It is wise to be wary of information from any outside source in regards to admission, but especially so when a coach gives you an assessment of your chances of admission.  Having a coach go to bat for you with admissions will give your prospects a boost, however!

Higher SAT’s mean a person is more intelligent.

SAT’s measure the capacity to do tasks requiring verbal and mathematical ability. They do not measure many other commonly accepted components of intelligence, such a mechanical or spatial reasoning. Nor do they measure other qualities necessary for academic success, including motivation and creativity. They are a fairly valid and reliable measure of a person’s ability to perform school-related tasks, but they are not a particularly good measure of eventual success in college or later life.

The cost of a college is a good or even the best indicator of the quality of an institution.

Many of the best colleges in the country are in the public sector. The University of California system has more Nobel Prize winners per student than any of its competitors. Faculty salaries are frequently higher at public colleges and, particularly due to their lower cost and high quality, many of the nation’s best students opt to attend public colleges. Many Midwestern colleges are less expensive than colleges on the coasts due to lower costs yet have no lower educational quality.

A smaller college will provide more personal attention.

This is generally but not always so. Don’t make assumptions. Research each college individually. If personal attention is a priority, find out the ratio of students to teaching faculty and the different class sizes, particularly in introductory courses. Your child should discuss with present students or recent graduates some of the non-quantifiable aspects of personal attention such as student-faculty interaction outside the classroom.

The best vacation spots make the most desirable college locations.

A frequent reason that students change colleges is that they don't consider seasonal climate change when making their choices. As obvious as this seems, many do not think that that colorful fall foliage and clear 70 degree weather that they experience during that visit to a rural Maine college will soon give way to a long cold winter and muddy spring, or that New Orleans can get very hot and humid in the late spring and early fall.

A woman is more likely to get a better education in traditionally male fields (such as engineering, physics or economics) at a co-ed school.

At a co-ed school, a woman is more likely to be overshadowed by the predominance of males in certain fields. Despite the obvious strengths at women’s colleges in areas such as English and the fine arts, a woman is likely to find a more welcoming experience at a women’s college if she chooses such fields at the natural sciences. One-third of Bryn Mawr’s students are science majors, for example; and Mount Holyoke was cited by the Council on Undergraduate Research for having the largest and best equipped chemistry building among four-year undergraduate institutions. The Women’s College Coalition (womenscolleges.org) notes that studies show that women in all-women’s colleges:

• Participate more fully in and out of class.
• Are more successful in a career; that is they tend to hold higher positions, are happier, and earn more money.
• Constitute more than 20% of women in Congress, and 30% of a Business Week list of rising women stars in Corporate America, yet only represent 2% of all female college graduates.
• Have a higher percentage of majors in economics, math and life science today than men do at coeducational colleges.
• Have more opportunities to hold leadership positions and are able to observe women functioning in top jobs (90% of the presidents and 55% of the faculty are women).
• Report greater satisfaction than their coed counterparts with their college experience in almost all measures - academically, developmentally, and
personally.
• Continue to receive doctorates in math, science and engineering in disproportionately large numbers.
• Are three times more likely to earn a baccalaureate degree in economics and one and one-half times more likely to earn baccalaureates degrees in life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics than at a coeducational institution.
• Develop measurably higher levels of self-esteem than other achieving women in coeducational institutions. After two years in coeducational institutions, women have been shown to have lower levels of self-esteem than when they entered college.
• Score higher on standardized achievement tests.
• Tend to choose traditionally male disciplines, like the sciences, as their academic majors, in greater numbers.
• Are more likely to graduate.
• Tend to be more involved in philanthropic activities after college.

In spite of being only 2% of all colleges, Women’s colleges make up:

• 40% of the top 10 nicest dorms in the country, including the #1 ranking.
• 30% of the top10 most beautiful campuses.
• 15% of the top 20 colleges with the greatest food.

Being a valedictorian or salutatorian will guarantee admission at a most selective college.

There are 28,000 high schools in America yet fewer than 30,000 openings in Barron’s listing of the Most Selective colleges. Thus many students with superior credentials, even ranking first or second in their class, will not gain admission to the most selective colleges.

The more selective the college, the better.

The selectivity of a college is not necessarily related to faculty quality. Hunter College in New York only requires a B average or 1350 on the SAT to gain admission, yet has one the of the highest paid and highest quality faculty in the country. Also, in many cases selectivity merely indicates popularity rather than quality. Many extremely selective institutions offer inferior undergraduate educations. Other colleges’ popularity may be associated with factors unrelated to education, such as athletic success. Lastly, many measures of selectivity used by college rankings and college guides may be among the weakest measures of the quality of an institution. High average SAT scores and a low acceptance percentage frequently indicate that a college puts more emphasis on SAT’s, a relatively poor measure of college success, than on such factors as creativity, motivation, intellect, writing skills or other talents. These colleges often encourage weak applicants to apply so they can be denied and thus boost the colleges' apparent selectivity. Neither of these methods speaks highly of an institution. Better measures of quality are the attrition rate, the percentage of students who graduate, the percentage of students who go onto post-graduate study, the accomplishments of the graduates, and the resources devoted to undergraduate education.

If I haven’t heard of it, it can’t be good.

College reputations may be based on what was true years ago. Dickinson, Muhlenberg
and Skidmore Colleges were once not very selective, regional schools. Now they are highly selective colleges and draw students from across the country and world. A particularly pernicious trend in college admissions is the huge number of rankings, US News and World Reports’ being the best known. There is a belief that admission to the most prestigious college will be the ticket to future success. Most adults change jobs over their lifetimes eight or more times and many change careers two or three times. In most fields, a more prestigious college will have a positive impact on obtaining one’s first job, which on average lasts for only two years. And in professions that require an advanced degree, it is the graduate institution that will have greater impact on gaining future employment.

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