Do I really mean it when I say to never turn down a full ride?

One of my earliest blog posts—and still one on the most popular—was “Don’t pass up a full ride.” You can probably tell the main idea from the title: you should not pass up a full ride. If you apply to a school and they offer you a full scholarship, go to that school.

Last week I got an email from a parent asking me if I still stand by that advice. His daughter won an honors scholarship—a full ride—at her state’s public flagship university, where she “didn’t know full rides existed until she was invited to interview.” She was also accepted to Washington University in St. Louis, a smaller private college with acceptance rates under 15%. And this is the problem, a problem I’ve heard before:

“Our heads say one thing and our hearts another, in part because the small school with huge endowment and beautiful campus is definitely appealing, but probably mostly seduced by this notion that an elite university is a sign of winning and will validate her hard work and make her feel as rewarded as her classmates who managed to get into some Ivies.”

My response was more sympathetic than you might expect.

“The short answer to your question is yes, I do think there are sometimes exceptions to my "never pass up a full ride" rule, and those exceptions are usually situations similar to yours. Though vague and unquantifiable, there is a value--in terms of professional networks, recruiting, social connections, and prestige--to the most elite colleges that can make them more valuable than the full ride at a safety. I would absolutely encourage a student to pass up a full ride elsewhere for Harvard, MIT, or Stanford if they could afford it. WashU probably fits into that category as well. No one can reasonably assume they'll be accepted at WashU, and she applied to her safety not knowing that a full ride was a possibility, so it can be reasonable to pass up the scholarship (which you weren't expecting) for the elite private college (which you weren't expecting to accept you). I would not think your daughter made a "bad" choice if she decides on WashU. 

It sounds like what it comes down to is an emotional decision--prestige, allure, falling in love--versus a rational one--major, money. Personally, I'm more of an emotional, intuitive person. Professionally, I work to be neutral. Either are valid, as long as she understands the choices.

If she were my client, I would make sure she's thinking through both options and communicating with her family. I'd tell her it's her own decision to make and that I would understand and support either decision. I would also really hope she takes the scholarship.”

So for me, the “prestige value” exception only applies to a tiny number of colleges: MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. While I’m very conservative in that list, I can see someone using the same logic for a longer number of schools, including WashU. The trick is that the list can’t be too long. You can’t stretch the vague, unquantifiable value so thin that you get yourself into a “the more prestigious school is aways worth more than a full ride the less prestigious school.” It’s just not true.

There are a few other exceptions to the “never turn down a full ride” advice.

Unsolicited scholarships. How do you respond if a school just, out of the blue, offers you a full scholarship even if you didn't apply or have never heard of it? Yes, this actually happens sometimes. Evaluate that school just as you would any other school, without taking into mind the price. If it meets your criteria and is a place you'd apply, then you're done. Congratulations! If the school doesn't make it into your top twenty and isn't a place you would want to apply, then you can comfortably say No Thanks. 

Financially troubled colleges. A full scholarship to a college may not be worth much if the college closes before you’re about to graduate. And colleges are closing at a rate of about one a week right now. It’s not always easy to know if a school is in financial distress—they probably won’t tell you as part of their marketing materials. But there are some signs to look for. If you’re accepting a good deal from a financially troubled college, even if it’s not a full ride, you’re taking a big risk. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you must always avoid the risk: a year or two of free college might be worth it even if you end up having to transfer elsewhere to finish college. But there’s no shame in turning down a full scholarship from a college that isn’t really able to afford it.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   Not all merit aid is the same

   Colleges don’t give you money

   Five key ideas about paying for college

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elsiabeth

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Three quick questions with New Mexico State University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from David Cota, Senior Admissions Advisor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to New Mexico State University?

We are New Mexico’s land-grant institution and a comprehensive research university dedicated to teaching, research public service and outreach at all levels. NMSU is a welcoming community of talented faculty, staff and students who are working together to make a difference. We are a NASA Space Grant College, a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI), a minority-serving institution (MSI) and home to the first Honors College in New Mexico. We offer an accessible education that shapes bright futures.

One of my favorite unique traditions at New Mexico State University is the "Noche de Luminarias". During the holiday season, the university's International Mall is adorned with luminarias, traditional New Mexican paper lanterns filled with candles. The soft glow of these luminarias creates a beautiful and serene atmosphere, bringing together students, faculty, and the local community to celebrate the festive season in a memorable way.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at NM State?

NMSU values hard work and determination, qualities that are often more important than perfect grades or test scores. Students who are willing to put in the effort to succeed, both inside and outside the classroom, are likely to flourish here. NMSU welcomes a diverse student population, including non-traditional students such as adult learners, veterans, and students with work or family commitments. Many students at NMSU are also the first in their families to attend college. These students often exhibit a strong drive to succeed and overcome obstacles, fueled by their desire to create a better future for themselves and their families. NMSU is committed to serving its local community and providing educational opportunities to students from underserved backgrounds. Students who come from economically disadvantaged or underrepresented minority backgrounds often find a supportive environment at NMSU, where they can thrive academically and personally. The university provides support services tailored to the needs of these students, allowing them to excel despite their non-traditional paths.

When people come to visit Las Cruces, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

One off-campus destination I would recommend for visitors to check out while in Las Cruces is the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Located just a short drive from the NMSU campus, this stunning natural area offers breathtaking views, hiking trails for all skill levels, rock climbing opportunities, and opportunities for wildlife viewing and photography. Visitors can explore iconic features such as the Organ Mountains, which rise sharply from the desert floor, and enjoy outdoor activities such as picnicking, birdwatching, and stargazing. The monument is also home to archaeological sites and petroglyphs, providing insight into the region's rich cultural history. Whether visitors are nature enthusiasts, outdoor adventurers, or simply looking to enjoy the beauty of the Southwest landscape, a trip to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is a must-see while in Las Cruces.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of NMSU. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Eastern Michigan University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from David Reyes, Admissions Advisor at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Eastern Michigan University?

In 1849, Eastern Michigan University opened its doors with one goal, enriching the life of future educators. Flash forward 175 years, and the College of Education is doing just that. As the foundation for our academic history, the College of Education is an extremely unique program on campus. As a trailblazer in the realm of special education and disabilities, EMU became the first institution in the world to create a department dedicated to teachers who work with disabled students. Today, we continue to strive for a dynamic and enriching curriculum that grants our students the ability to utilize their strengths and passions in and out of the classroom.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at EMU?

At our core, Eastern Michigan University is a place of equity and access. Access to the tools and education with which our students forge their futures. Students looking for community and a path toward success are welcomed on these grounds. Here there are no imperfect students, only individuals seeking to better themselves.

When people come to visit Ypsilanti, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Whether you’re here for a tour or just passing by, we highly recommend a pit stop at the Depot Town and Downtown area. Serving as the epicenter of Ypsi, you can find everything from local shops and artists to food offerings from around the world. Not only that, but the Huron River cuts right through Ypsilanti, offering a stunning view for any nature lover. Frog Island and Riverside Park sit adjacent to the river bank and are great options for sporting events, afternoon walks, or a picnic with friends.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of EMU. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

New recommendations for standardized tests

Since Covid, I haven’t really had any “testing strategy” conversations with clients. So many colleges have been test-optional that test scores just haven’t been a big deal. The pattern for almost all of the students has been the same: they take the SAT when it’s administered at their school, get their scores, and then decide if they’ll submit test scores to the colleges they’re applying to. A few took the SAT a second time, but even those avoided the sorts of long and anxious conversations that I used to have with students: trying to figure out whether to take the SAT, ACT, or both; trying to figure out how many times to take the test and what kind of test prep course to take; trying to figure out what a good score is. For the past few years, the students I work with simply haven’t spent much time trying to figure those things out.

But I think that’s going to change.

While most colleges are still not requiring tests, and some refuse to even look at test scores, a few have decided that they will again require some form of standardized tests. First MIT made a big splash with their announcement, and recently Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown have followed. I could kind of pretend those don’t matter, because very few of my clients apply to any of those specific schools. But this month UT Austin announced that they will also require testing again, and virtually all my clients apply there (I’m in Houston).

So it’s time to re-think testing strategy, and this is what I am now recommending.

The first step is to take a test. Take the SAT, ACT, or both. If they give one or the other at your school during the school day, excellent. If not, then find out where you can take one near you. (Here are the ACT testing dates, and here are the SAT testing dates.) If possible, don’t make decisions based on the PSAT or a practice test—use a real and usable score as your baseline for making all other decisions. Some students like to take both the SAT and ACT, in case they score significantly better on one. That’s understandable, but there’s no real need to do both. Colleges accept both SAT and ACT, and they don’t have a preference. Few students have a drastically different score. Which you take mostly comes to down to geography—some states and regions have normalized the SAT, while others prefer the ACT.

I think taking at least one real test is a good idea for everyone, with one exception: you have no interest in applying to schools that will even look at a score. If you’re only applying to UC schools, which are test blind, then obviously don’t bother. Otherwise, even if you only plan to apply to test-optional schools, take at least one test.

Once you have a score, understand it in context. There’s no such thing as a “good” or “bad” score. To get a feeling for your score, consider it in three contexts.

 The simplest is to understand your score in a national context. Your score report will include a percentile. That shows how high you scored compared to everyone else who took that test. If you scored in the 70th percentile, then you scored higher than 70% of the people who took the same test as you. That’s a really large group, from all over the country, so it gives you a pretty good point of comparison.

You can also compare your scores with other students at your high school. Many states—but not all—make this information public. If you live in one of those states (here’s where you can look up Texas high schools), look up the average scores for your high school to see how you fit with your classmates. If you’re not in a state where you can look up the information, ask your school counselor. Colleges using holistic admission will view your scores in the context of your high school, so it makes sense that you would look at it this way too.

You’ll also want to see how your scores compare with the typical scores at colleges you’re considering. You can easily look up any college’s test midrange for the SAT or ACT. The midrange is exactly that: it’s the range of scores within the middle 50% of students. 25% made a higher score than the midrange, 25% made lower. Having a score higher than the midrange doesn’t guarantee acceptance, and a score lower than the midrange doesn’t guarantee denial.

 Another important thing to understand about the colleges you’re considering is whether or not they “superscore” test scores. Superscoring means that they will count your highest score for each individual test section and ignore the lower scores. For example, imagine if you took an SAT and got a 600 on the reading & writing section and a 600 on the math section, for a 1200 total. And then you took it again, and again got a 1200 total, but with 550 on math and 650 on reading & writing. A college that superscores will give you credit for 600 on math and 650 for reading & writing—the same as 1250. A college that doesn’t superscore will make you choose which test scores to submit to them: submit 1200 evenly split, or submit 1200 with a higher section and a lower section.

You should also find out just how important testing is to a college you’re interested in. There are schools like MIT and UT Austin that require SAT or ACT scores. There are schools like Yale and NYU that require testing, but are flexible about which tests and will accept AP or IB exam scores instead of SAT or ACT. There are schools that are test-optional, and you can find out (from their Common Data Set) how many applicants submit scores.

Once you’ve considered all of the factors that make up the context of your scores, then you’ll have a better idea of how to feel about them and what to do next. Remember: it’s a feeling. Test scores are not objectively good or bad, and you can’t figure out what to do as your next step using any simple objective formula.

With your score and context in mind, decide if you want to re-test and if you want to do any formal test prep. I don’t advise retesting without prep, but some students do. There are a number of ways to practice for a test, from free online programs to intense (and expensive) in-person programs or a one-on-one tutor. I don’t’ have any kind of preference except this: if you do test prep, make it count. Learn something other than how to take the test. Make sure you’re learning math and reading skills, not just learning test-taking tricks. Otherwise it’s a complete waste. I don’t think there’s a very good reason for taking the test more than twice. It’s just not worth the time and effort.

For test-optional schools, decide if you will or will not submit scores. Keep your complete context in mind, and not just the college’s range. The main factor in deciding to send scores should be you. Are the scores aligned with your other information? Are you proud of them? Are you being realistic about them? If so, send them. Don’t let the time and preparation you put into the test go to waste—because those test scores are definitely useless once you’re out of high school.

Also ask what the school’s attitude is about being test-optional. Were they test-optional even before Covid? Or have they announced that they plan to stay test-optional for a long time? Then they obviously don’t think scores are super-important, and you should feel more comfortable not submitting scores for whatever reason. If you get the sense that they are begrudgingly test-optional, then you may consider sending scores if you have them. They’re signaling that they really prefer test scores and may be less hesitant accepting someone with scores than without. I’ve seen college admissions web pages that make it very clear they’re happy to be test-optional…and I’ve seen some where you really have to search for the phrase “not required.”

You should also feel more comfortable not sending SAT/ACT scores if you have other scores to report, like AP exams or an IB exam. Especially if those other measures accurately reflect your best efforts and the SAT or ACT doesn’t, feel more confident keeping your ACT/SAT to yourself and relying on those other tests to let colleges know who you are.

 Let me end with three things to remember.

 1. Your test score is just one piece of information. Some colleges think it’s really important, some think it’s interesting, and some think it’s worthless. But it’s never all of your application.

 2. Never skip applying to a school just because of your scores. Don’t decide for yourself that “you’ll never get in.” I can’t guarantee that you will—nobody can. But if you think a college may be a good fit for you and you’d like to apply, go for it. Let them tell you they’re not going to accept you, don’t decide for yourself. On the other hand, make sure you apply to at least a few schools where your scores are definitely in or above their midrange.

3. Of all the things you can do to have a stronger application, your test score has the least longevity. It’s worthless after you graduate, especially if your test prep was nothing but test-taking tricks.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   The glossary: test optional

   Should you submit your test scores to a test-optional college?

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

What should 9th and 10th graders do this spring?

Updated spring versions of What Should I Be Doing Now? are available for 9th and 10th graders. Find 9th here and 10th here.

New versions for 11th and 12th grade will be out later this week.

Three quick questions with the University of Southern Mississippi

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Campbell Cave, Admissions Recruiter at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to the University of Southern Mississippi?

A unique traditions that we have at Southern Miss is “Painting of the Eagle Walk.” Eagle Walk is an area under our football stadium where the football team walks under 2 hours before every home football game. At the beginning of the year, freshman students get to paint the Eagle Walk gold and leave a hand print on wall of the walk. It is a very fun tradition. Here is a picture of what painting of the Eagle Walk looks like.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Southern Miss?

At Southern Miss, I would say that any student can flourish. Whether they have a 36 on the ACT or struggles taking tests, they have the opportunity to succeed. At Southern Miss we have numerous different student support offices ranging from offices for first generation students to offices to help students land internships. Our main goal at Southern Miss is for all of our students to flourish no matter their background.

When people come to visit Hattiesburg, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

When people come to Hattiesburg, I recommend that they visit 2 places. One is a restaurant called Keg and Barrell. It is a locally owned restaurant with an incredible atmosphere and a range of food (burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, thai chicken wraps, etc). The other place I recommend people visit is The Lucky Rabbit, which is a very unique vintage market that is open on Saturdays and Sundays in downtown Hattiesburg. It is honestly hard to describe the place due to how unique it is, but here is a picture to help grasp what it is. Also, their Instagram is @theluckyrabbit if you wanted to check them out.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Southern Miss. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

How 9th-11th graders can spend their winter break in the best way

What does a non-senior high school student need to do over this winter break to help prepare for college? In most senses, nothing. This is a break, after all. And, unlike 12th graders, you’re not finishing up applications for an early January deadline.

But in another sense, this is a great time to work on college applications, in the most broad way. The best way to approach college admission is as the beginning of a relationship. You’re trying to find the best match for you as a whole person. It’s not about proving that you’re worthy, or trying to rack up a lot of “impressive” things for your resume. You are, however, trying to be the best whole person that you can, and a break from school is a good time to plan and practice.

First, look over what I wrote for seniors. On top of finishing up college applications, I suggest that they should rest, read, re-asses, and spend quality time with people. Those are all true for you as well. Below is a list, which I first put together for my own 16 year-old, of things to try over the break that are neither difficult work nor passive consuming. I hope you’ll try some.

Go for a walk long walk, at least 30 minutes. Don’t play music or have any distractions. If you’re already a walker, take a different route than you’re used to. Pay attention to all your senses as you walk.

Clean and organize your room, bit by bit. Choose a small, discrete section--like a single shelf on a bookcase or one part of your desk--and clean it thoroughly. Then, when you’re ready, move on to the next. If you have the time, energy, and ambition, do a full “Konmari” of your room.

Read a novel. A good one. Preferably by an author you’ve never heard of. Read with your full attention.

Begin a meditation practice if you haven’t already got one. I like Andrew Weiss’s Beginning Mindfulness.

Improve your organization. I like Dan Charnas’s Everything in its Place: The Power of Mis-en-place to Organize Your Life, Work, and Mind.

Listen to some music. Preferably something you’ve never listened to before. Listen with your full attention.

Choose a work of art and learn as much about it as you can. Find information about it from as many good sources as possible. If it’s a work you can see in person over the break, even better.

Do a creative writing exercise.

Read a college profile. Or more than one.

Watch some School of Life videos.

Choose a place you’ve never been and plan an imaginary vacation there. Research online. Be as detailed as possible in your itinerary, learning as much as you can about the place.

Stretch. Then exercise.

How seniors can spend their winter break in the best way

Don't do any more college stuff than you absolutely have to. As contrary as it may sound, you really should use your time as a true break and not college-planning time. If you put things off with the idea that you'd do them over break, that's perfectly normal. But get them done first and with focus. You're not going to send out good applications if you're finishing them a little bit at a time while you also finish gift shopping and meet with friends. Make a plan to finish your college to-do list as quickly as possible into the break. If you have January 1st or 5th deadlines, get those sent out first and with focus. There's no good reason to wait until the 31st or 4th to send those out. Also keep in mind that the longer into the break you wait, the less likely you are to get good help (or any help) from anyone else.

These other suggestions are made with seniors in mind, but they’re good advice for anyone with a few weeks off this winter.

Rest. This sounds obvious--of course you're going to rest. You have several weeks with no school! But for lots of students--and adults--it never quite seems to work this way. You stay up too late, thinking you'll sleep in, and then you have to get up earlier than you expected. Or you spend too much time in bed or on the couch, and you feel sluggish and dumpy. You can only get good rest from your break if you decide that you're actually going to and schedule for it. Decide that you're going to get 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, and then plan accordingly. The time you spend awake will go much better if you do.

Spend quality time with people. Now is a great time to catch up with friends and family, but, like good sleep, quality time with people is also elusive. You go to parties and gatherings, you have text or Snapchat conversations, you spend a little time with people...and then you realize that you didn't really have any good conversations. Quality Time is usually thought of as time you spend with another person giving them your undivided attention. Schedule some time for this with a few good friends and/or family members.

Re-assess. Now is a great time for reflection and regrouping. Here are several exercises to try to keep that conversation with yourself productive and useful.

Highs and lows. Like a lot of families, at our dinner table we often go around and share our high and low moment of the day with each other. (Lately we’ve modified it to be one victory, one point of stress or tension, and one thing you’re grateful for. “The 1-1-1.”) It's a better conversation starter with school-aged kids than "how was your day?" and it reinforces that every day has both the good and the bad. Take some time thinking about--and sharing with someone else--your high and low points over the fall semester and your college quest. What worked? What didn't? What felt good? What felt bad? Consider it all.

Two-month time machine. When evaluating your semester and planning ahead, think about a two-month time machine. If you could go back two months to re-try the fall, what's one thing you really wish you could change? You obviously can't really do it, but it's a good way to think about "lessons learned" and how you can help the next two months better.

Restate your dreams and aspirations. Take some time and write a personal mission statement for the year, especially if you're a senior and moving on to college next fall. Or if you don't want to be so college-centric but want to spend time thinking about what's really important to you, try the "last-year test" method of thinking about New Year's Resolutions. 

Read. It's really tempting to read nothing--or nothing of merit--over the break. You've read so much over the past few months, so why do it on vacation? The answer is simple: now you get to choose what to read, and you can make engaging your intellect fun for yourself. Besides, if you're ready to concede that the only reason you read or learn is because you're assigned to by authorities, then you may want to re-think the whole college thing. Take back control of your mind by reading something. It doesn't have to be Important Literature if that's not what you like, just choose not to be a mental slacker.

Colleges don't give you money

Tomorrow, December 1, the newly revised FAFSA will open up online, several months later than it usually does.

I haven’t seen the updated website yet, so I don’t have any specific advice about the FAFSA. But I do have some big-picture advice about affordability and paying for college. And that advice comes down that one reminder: colleges don’t give you money.

Pretty much everyone, myself included, goes along with the idea that financial aid is money that the colleges are giving away. We use the verbs “give” and “offer” all the time. If the sticker price is $50,000 and the price that you’ll be charged is $25,000, then they “gave” you $25,000 in aid. You might contact them to see if they can “offer” you more. And that $25,000 is real. It’s money that you’re not paying, and it makes a huge difference in your life. But it’s not money that they’re giving you, it’s just a discount on what they charge you.

Compare it to buying clothes. Imagine you go to Macy’s to buy some jeans. The price tag says $100, but they’re on sale for 20% off. So you pay $80. That $20 difference is real—it’s money that you can spend on something else. But it would sound kind of silly if Macy’s told you they were “giving” you $20 to buy the jeans. It would sound ridiculous if Macy’s added up all the discounts they gave over a year and claimed they “provided” Americans with millions of dollars in aid. That sale price isn’t money they’re giving away, it’s a discount on what they’re bringing in. It’s a slight distinction, but it can have a huge effect.

Unlike Macy’s, colleges do this all the time. They have a sticker price, and they offer you a discount, and then they frame it as money they’re offering you. They can have you focus on how generous their offer is instead of how much money you and your family are paying. You don’t have to play along if you don’t want. You can stay laser-focused on your cost, not their generosity.

And then there’s debt. When colleges offer you loans to help you pay for college, this counts as aid. That actually makes sense, because if you’re able to afford the college by taking the loan and paying over years when you wouldn’t be able to afford it in cash, then they are indeed aiding you in your ability to go to college. But don’t let that aid get too caught up in the language of “offer” and “giving.” It’s money you’re spending. You’re spending it over time, not all at once, and that’s really helpful. But you’re spending it, and taking a risk doing so. Give your future self credit for that money, not the college, because it’s your future self that is actually paying.

This advice is about mindset and perspective. By reminding you that colleges don’t actually give you money, I’m hoping to help you make more rational decisions and have healthier emotions. So when you get your financial aid offers in the coming months, keep a few things in mind:

Stay completely focused on the cost to you, not what the college is offering. If you read a financial aid offer and still aren’t sure what your cost is (it happens often), get in touch and ask them to explain the offer so that you can understand what your cost it. While you’re at it, ask them what the average price increase is every year.

The sticker price is completely made up and arbitrary. On average, only about 15% of students pay the full price. There are lots of factors that go into the sticker price, but one strategy that some schools use is setting a higher sticker price so that they can advertise how generous they are with aid. It’s like Macy’s changing the price of those jeans from $100 to $110 so they can still get $80 but also advertise a $30 discount instead of $20.

The price that you pay is your price, and almost every student has a different price. How much of a discount schools offer is determined based on your family finances and how much you can afford, your perceived long-term value to the school, and how many discounts they’re offering other people. Your perceived long-term value to the school is complex. How much a school perceives your value to them may take into account how likely they think you are to graduate; how much time and talent you may contribute to the campus while you’re there; athletic, artistic, or other talents you have that can be useful to a school team or program; how likely you and your family are to donate to the school in the long term; and what academic and/or social gaps the school is experiencing that you can help fill. When you hear “merit,” you probably think of how well you performed in high school. When the colleges say “merit,” they’re probably thinking about your long-term value to them. They aren’t the same. There’s no way for you to know your perceived long-term value to a school ahead of applying for admission and financial aid.

If you’re trying to estimate your cost at a particular school, skip over their stats about average aid offered or percentage of students who receive aid. Don’t get caught up in the “offers.” Look at two numbers: the average net price and the average indebtedness at graduation. Use those as your reference points. If your family has normal finances, that is likely to be around the price they ask of you. If your family has less money than average, expect a lower price. If your family has more money than normal, expect a higher price.

Pay attention to debt. If you graduate college within five years and don’t take on too much debt, then the debt is probably worth it. The average lifetime earnings of college graduates is much higher than that of people who don’t have a college degree. If you already feel like there are obstacles that may keep you from graduating, then you should be very hesitant to take on student debt. You should also be hesitant of taking on more than $30,000 debt total over the four-five years you’re a student. I’d like to say that you can adjust a reasonable debt load based on your career path. Maybe higher debt is fine if you’re going into computer engineering, and you should be more frugal if you’re going into early childhood education. But the truth is that you don’t know what job you’ll have in your first few years after graduation, or how much it will pay.

Talk to your family about money, as soon as possible. You should know your line between “affordable” and “not affordable” before you apply to schools, and definitely before you start getting financial aid offers.

Never skip applying to a college that you think is a good fit because you think you can’t afford it. Wait until you know your cost, and then decide if you can afford it. People are surprised by their financial aid offers, in both directions, all the time. Maybe you’re right and you can’t afford it, but make them tell you so.

Assume that you’re going to attend the least expensive school that accepts you. If you decide to go to a school that is more expensive than other schools that accept you, you should be able to explain—to yourself and others—why. “Because it’s a better school” or “because it’s a better fit” aren’t good enough. Be able to explain why you think it’s a better school for you and why you think the extra cost is worth it.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   Things for parents to know about paying for college

   Not all merit aid is the same

   Three things parent should stop saying to their children

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth

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Three quick questions with University of West Georgia

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Michaela Wright, Admissions Representative at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to the University of West Georgia?

I would say our Welcome Back Blasts. It's one of our first events of the school year and it's open to the entire student body. It goes through the first week into the second week of classes in the fall. It's a great way for students to have fun with outdoor activities like Screen on the Green, which is an outdoor movie night, carnival rides, concerts, and free food and swag. As a student, I loved going to the Welcome Back Blast as it was a great way to relax after classes and catch up with friends and even help create friend groups for our freshman students. 

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at UWG?

Students who tend to be more introverted and even have more niche interests flourish on our campus. Not every student, me included, did much with extracurricular activities at high school, mostly because it was hard to find something of interest as clubs and organizations tend to favor a more broad student interest. I personally joined an organization called Anime Otaku Incorporated or AOI. At AOI, I was able to again build a great friend group, but also gain leadership and organizational experience as I became a secretary and president later in my college career. I've seen many very introverted and socially anxious people get out of their shells and become very confident people because they are able to find a place to be themselves and feel comfortable with who they are. This has not only translated socially, but academically and helped with a few members in their careers as well.

When people come to visit Carrollton, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Adamson Square in historically downtown Carrollton is one of my favorite places. There are all local shops and restaurants and a great place to hang out and study outside of classes. I highly recommend Chip's Burgers and the Irish Bread Pub for eateries. The Butter'd Udder for some ice cream and Gallery Row for a coffee. The Underground Bookstore is a very nice and aesthetically pleasing bookshop with tons of great finds. Lastly, my favorite shop is The Vinyl Frontier which is a vinyl shop that caters to all genres and budgets, as a vinyl collector this was a huge plus for me for staying in Carrollton. 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of West Georgia. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Marquette University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Nicole Gasiorowski, Admissions Counselor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Marquette University?

Each year, the campus community – students, faculty, staff, alumni, family, and friends – comes together to celebrate National Marquette Day! This annual tradition, now in its third decade, unites the Marquette nation together in pride and spirit to commemorate the values of the University: Catholic and Jesuit, dedicated to service, and being individuals for and with others. The Marquette community gathers in Milwaukee and around the world to cheer on our Men’s Basketball team at Fiserv Forum and invites everyone to join in a weekend of festivities to celebrate Marquette! 

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Marquette?

Here at Marquette, undecided is our most popular major. In fact, we have found that few students are truly undecided. They have many interests about what they wish to pursue in college, which is why we prefer to say “multi-interested.” Marquette has more than 80 majors and 79 minors, and we will help you choose a major or minor combination that matches your interests and skills. While you are exploring different areas of studies, you will be taking the Marquette Core Curriculum, which is designed to teach you how to think, say what you mean, and say it well. Taking the Core early in your career at Marquette allows extra flexibility to discover a major you didn’t know existed and might be interested in studying! 

When people come to visit Milwaukee, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Milwaukee is known as the City of Festivals, so I recommend checking out Henry Meir Festival Park right on the lakefront. There are hundreds of festivals year-round, from Summerfest, the world’s largest music festival, to ethnic fests and food fests. There is truly a fest for everyone!  

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring. [The banner photo is not of Marquette. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Some basic rules for email

I was slow to embrace email. A few of my high school classmates used email (this was late 80s/early90s), but I really had no idea what it was or what it might be good for. When I got to college, I knew a lot more people who used it, but they mostlywent to the school computer lab to use it. I don’t remember anyone having their own modem in a dorm room. By the time I finished college four years later, email was much more mainstream. One of my last acts as a college student was emailing a paper to a professor instead of taking a hard copy to their office. It felt very cutting edge. But I sent it using my mother’s email, because it would still be years before I would bother to get my own email address. I was…not cutting edge.

Of course now email feels very out-of-date. I’ve had many students and clients tell me they almost never use email. There are so many messaging apps to choose from, and email only gets used for “official” things. College admission, it should go without saying, is a very official thing. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get through applications effectively without using email.

So for those who may not be adept or enthusiastic about email, let me give a few brief rules that will make it more efficient and effective. But probably not more fun.

Have an email address you can use for colleges. Some people will advise you to get a new email address for college admission. They usually say it should have your name and graduation year, or something similar that isn’t already taken. Like “Benjamin.Holloway.Class.of.1992@gmail.com.” Then you use this email address—and only this address—for all your college admission activity—and only college admission activity. I don’t think this is a bad idea, but I also don’t think it’s necessary. You’ve probably already got a few email addresses to juggle. I’ve seen students set up a special email for college admission, use it with a few colleges…and then forget what the special address was. I’ve seen students set up a special email address, use it with a few colleges…and then forget that they even set it up.

I’d recommend something simpler.

1. Don’t have an address that’s embarrassing or offensive. Don’t send a college email and expect them to reply to “drunkandsexy420@email.com.”

2. Use an email address that won’t be taken away from you or that is owned by someone else, like one provided by your school.

3. If you already have an email address you’ve used for a College Board or ACT account and it doesn’t violate rule 1 or 2, keep using that one.

Join mailing lists of colleges you’re interested in. If you go to the admission page of any college, there will probably be a place to “join our mailing list,” “learn more,” or “get more information.” This is where you give them your email address and they send you information. If you’re interested, let them know. If you want to know more about a college, let them send you information. Even if you’re already get marketing emails from the college, actively sign up so they can see that you’re interacting with them.

Organize your email. If you do have a college admission-specific email address, then maybe you don’t need to do any more organizing. But if your college admission emails are coming into the same inbox as other emails, then do something to separate them. It doesn’t need to be complex or time-consuming. Just a folder you can put your “college” emails into is fine. Once you’re really into the process of applications, you may set up separate sub-folders for individual colleges. If you get emails from a school counselor (or an independent consultant) about college applications, you might want a separate folder for that. The key is to make it easy to find college-related mail amidst all the other stuff. A simple folder or label goes a long way.

Unsubscribe. When you’re getting email from a college you’re definitely not interested in, take a moment to unsubscribe. Lots of times people find it easier to just hit “delete” or “archive” rather than go through the sometimes multiple steps required to unsubscribe. At some point, though, unsubscribing takes up less time than repeatedly getting emails and deleting them, or trying to search for a specific email in a sea of junk. If you’re getting a lot of emails from someone you don’t want to hear from, unsubscribing saves time in the long run. Plus, you want your college inbox to be a trove of exciting possibilities for a future you, not a pile of junk mail with maybe some good stuff hidden in there. As corny as it sounds, do what you can to make your inbox reflect your goals and aspirations, not a depository for other people’s cold marketing.

Check your email regularly daily. Maybe you don’t like email. Maybe it’s not your preferred app for communicating. Maybe because colleges like to have a presence and advertise on other apps, you think you don’t need to really bother with email. That’s putting yourself at a major disadvantage. Email is the primary and preferred way colleges interact with prospective students. If it’s from a college and important, it’s probably going to be in email. So you have to use email. The more up-to-date you are with your email, the more up-to-date you will be with your applications. There’s no way around using email, so make it a daily habit. Ignoring email from a college you’re interested in is the same as ignoring the college itself. Don’t send mixed signals. If you’re going to apply to a college, make sure you get email from them, open the email, click on links within the email, and reply when appropriate to email. This boosts your “odds” of getting into a selective university as much or more than a “strong hook” at the beginning of your essay.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   Postcards and envelopes

   Please, please, please answer your email!

   What to do with all that mail you’re getting

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Emory University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Katie Phenix, Admission Advisor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Emory University?

Emory is a high-level research institution, but also follows liberal arts curriculum. This encourages students to explore academic areas outside of their major, along with giving students access to discussion based classes where they can truly become immersed in the content they are learning. Emory Univeristy is also one of the most diverse universities in the US, with over 80 languages spoken and all major religions represented on campus. 

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Emory?

During the application evaluation process, Emory University looks at students holistically, meaning we take into account not just grades, test scores, extracurriculars, and community involvement. We also evaluate the community the student comes from and the resources that may or may not have been available to them throughout their life. We look for uniqueness and authenticity.

When people come to visit Atlanta, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Ponce City Market and the Atlanta Beltline are places I always recommend! If you are a Braves fan, the Battery is always cool!   

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Emory. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Southern Methodist University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Brenda Del Rio, Admissions Counselor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. (And today’s response is very special to me, because I spent two years at SMU getting my Master’s Degree. Pony Up!)

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Southern Methodist University?

While SMU is a very tradition heavy campus, one of our most unique ones is Boulevarding! Instead of tailgating, we Boulevard. It’s even greater considering that it’s never students alone celebrating their team, it truly is a Dallas wide community effort.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at SMU?

What makes SMU really unique is that aside from drawing in students who know what they want to do with their life from a very young age, we also draw in students who are completely clueless about what they want to do, and we love that! Because our curriculum is flexible and 3 in 5 of our students double or triple major, it allows for some unique opportunities for students to marry different areas of study to create the education experience they are truly for. Often times, students who are unsure about their future don’t want to commit to just one area of study, so those that are interested in multiple ones really tend to flourish here.

When people come to visit Dallas, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

There’s so many places, this question is hard! But the M-Line trolley is a lot of fun! It’s free to use and takes guests around the Klyde Warren Park area (also a lot of fun) and Uptown Dallas, which is right down the street from us.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of SMU. I use the same photo for all Three Quick Questions posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

What should you be doing this fall?

Whether you’re in the 9th grade or 12th, at a large high school or home schooled, taking advanced classes or remedial ones, my advice for high school students thinking about college is the same:

* The best way to prepare for college is to be a good high school student

* Anything you do just because “it looks good to colleges” is a waste of time

* You need a time management system and a meditation routine

If you’d like more detailed, grade-specific advice, here are this year’s updates to “What Should I Be Doing Now?” for fall.

* 12th grade

* 11th grade

* 10th grade

* 9th grade

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are two easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

A fall timeline for seniors

Around this time every year, I publish an updated “What Should I Be Doing Now?” page for every grade level. Because there are so many circumstances, so many different paths, I try to keep it fairly broad and generalized. However, I’ve recently got several requests for a more detailed and specific timeline for seniors. So here is a month-by-month breakdown of the process. Remember, this doesn’t fit every single case. I don’t include anything, for example, related to art portfolios or athletic recruitment. And I assume you’re applying to more than one or two colleges. But this covers most of the situations my own clients face, and (I think) most of the situations my readers face. As I say all the time when I’m giving feedback or advice: feel free to use it, modify it, or ignore it as appropriate.

August

Research colleges. By now you may have a pretty good idea of schools where you will apply. Spend time getting to know the colleges, and be open to learning about other colleges and possibly making changes to your list. Where should you research colleges? Their websites are a great place. Look at their admission page, and also the pages for any majors you’re considering. I also love the Fiske Guide. It’s not available online, only as a book, but it’s worth the trouble. For online resources I usually stick to BigFuture, which is run by the College Board, and Niche. You can also look into the schools’ Common Data Sets.

Interact with colleges. As soon as you think you’re going to apply to a school, begin interacting with the school as much as possible. Make sure you sign up for their mailing list or click on the “send me information” button on their admission web page. If you can go on a physical campus tour, that’s great, but it’s not necessary. Many colleges also have good virtual tours. Either way, get a feel for the campus. Follow the school’s social media accounts on your preferred apps. Find out if and when they’ll be at a college fair near you or visiting your school and do your best to go meet them. Do this even if the school doesn’t consider demonstrated interest. This is the stage where you’re beginning to build a relationship with schools.

Narrow your college list down to 20 maximum. While it’s great to keep exploring and adding schools to your list, it’s also necessary to start cutting schools from your list. Make sure you have at least two you are very confident will accept you. It sometimes helps to eliminate schools by thinking about their groups. You’ve got six medium-sized colleges in the northeast who offer a major you’re interested in? Reduce that to the top two. Drop the ones with the highest average net cost, or the ones farthest from a city, or any other criteria that makes sense for you. Have you got 30 schools on your list, and 25 of them have acceptance rates under 25%? Focus on the five that are most important to you. Don’t spend too much time and energy on schools that are not likely to accept you because they have too many strong applicants. Also, don’t spend too much time trying to figure out what schools are “safety, target, and reach” for you. Don’t get into the “what are my chances?” mentality. Many students do fine thinking about the same three categories: schools with acceptance rates over 50%, schools with acceptance rates under 20%, and those in between. Find a balance with these three categories on your list, and get it down to 20 maximum.

(Many of you won’t have this problem at all. Some never begin with a list over 20. That’s great, as long as you make sure you’re including at least two you’re very confident will accept you.)

Find deadlines for schools on list. For each school on your list, look up the different application plans they have and the deadline for each. Make a chart or timeline to keep up with these. When is their regular decision deadline? Do they have Early Action, Early Decision, or Priority deadlines? Is there an earlier deadline if you would like to be considered for scholarships? Is there a different deadline based on your major than for the school at large? Also, what are their deadlines for submitting test scores if you choose to submit? Do they have deadlines for submitting financial aid paperwork? Does your major require a portfolio or extra writing supplement with a different deadline than the regular application? Once you start tracking multiple deadlines for each school, you understand why narrowing your list down to 20 maximum is so important.

Finish at least one main essay. If you’re applying to a college that requires an essay—and you probably are—then get it finished. Or at least started. The best time to finish a solid draft of your essay is before school starts. If you do nothing else this month, do this.

September

Continue to research and interact with colleges. Make adjustments to your college list, taking care not to go over 20.

If you haven’t already, line up your recommendation letters. If you’ve narrowed down your college list and checked on the requirements for each, then you’ll know who you need letters from. Each school is different. They’ll require none, one, or two letters. They will—or will not, depending on the school—specify who they would like letters from. Some will let you submit extras if you want, some won’t.

Begin writing your supplemental prompt responses. If you’ve already got your main essay ready, you have time to begin working on the shorter supplemental questions that many colleges ask. These can be tough, because you typically have a much smaller space—50 to 350 words—to explain yourself.

Don’t get overwhelmed looking at all the supplemental questions for all your potential applications. Focus on your 4 or 5 top schools. Your top schools are the ones where you’re likely to apply early. This includes schools for which you may apply Early Decision or Early Action, and it includes the schools you’re really confident will accept you. If you’re applying to a school as a “safety,” apply as early as you can. Get the confidence boost and stability of knowing you’ve got a place to go as quickly as possible.

While it’s normal to think of the application process as one that runs from August to January, with a swift build-up in December as regular decision applications become due, I prefer to think of it as a two-wave process. Most of the work happens before early November, and then there’s a follow-up wave for any remaining applications in January. Plan on October being your busiest month.

October

Continue to research and interact with colleges. Make adjustments to your college list, taking care not to go over 20.

If you need to, complete the CSS Profile. You’ll know if you need to by checking the financial aid page of each of the schools on your list. You can also search here.

Decide if you’ll apply to any college Early Decision. Decide if you’ll apply to any colleges Early Action. Finalize your list of top schools—I recommend four or five—for that first wave of applications.

Finish writing your supplemental prompt responses for November applications. Again, don’t get overwhelmed thinking about all the supplemental, just focus on the ones you’re writing for a November deadline.

Submit applications with November 1 deadline on October 26. It doesn’t have to be exactly on the 26th, obviously, but I think submitting around five days before the deadline is ideal. Submit too soon, and you miss the opportunity to make your application even better. But waiting until the last minute is too risky. Websites crash, internet gets spotty, distractions appear. So three to five days before the deadline makes sense, for November 1 deadlines and all deadlines.

November

Continue to research and interact with colleges. If you send out any early applications in November, make best- and worst-case scenario plans. If you get accepted early, will you apply to more colleges? Which ones, and why? If you don’t get accepted early, does that change which and how many schools to apply to for January deadlines? Don’t spend too much time thinking about something so out of your control, but do a little planning.

Write supplemental prompt responses for the rest of your applications. Once your November applications are out, begin the ones that are left for your second wave of applications, which will mostly be due in early January.

DecembeR

Fill out the FAFSA. It doesn’t open up until December 1 this year, and there are changes from the past. I’d advise waiting at least a few days before getting started, in case there are any glitches or crashes when it first opens up.

Submit applications with January 1 deadline by December 28.

January

Send financial aid paperwork for anywhere that hasn’t got it yet

Start writing thank-you notes

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

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2. Read these related posts:

   Should you submit test scores to a test-optional college?

   How many colleges should you apply to?

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Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth

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Three quick questions with Quinnipiac University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Michael James, Associate Director of Admissions and Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Quinnipiac University?

Unique Courses/Majors – Game Design and Development; Film, Television, and Media Arts; Health, Medicine, and Society; Justice and Community Engagement.

Unique Tradition – Battle of Whitney Avenue. Our Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams compete in the same conference as Yale, and our universities are 15-20 minutes apart from each other down one road. The games are always well-attended with students lining up for tickets hours in advance!

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Quinnipiac?

I would say that while of course we’d love to yield the straight A students, our sweetspot is A-/B+/B students who really will blossom in college with the individualized attention and opportunities they get once they matriculate at Quinnipiac. We’re in a small town and our campus is a bubble, so our successful students are the ones looking to get involved in a number of different clubs and organizations on campus, rather than the ones who hope to enjoy the big city life every night and weekend. Leadership is important, yes, but willingness to be involved matters just as much.

When people come to visit Hamden, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Sleeping Giant State Park – it’s literally right across the street from our campus and has a number of great hiking trails. Great view of campus from the top of the mountain!

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of Quinnipiac. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Four quick tips for your application essays

July has been full of student essays for me, and I expect the same of August. I strongly believe that college-bound seniors should have a solid draft of at least one application essay before the first day of school. It’s one of the larger—if not largest—tasks on your application, so giving it lots of time is wise. If you haven’t quite begun yet, are in the middle of drafting and revising, or feel you’re just about finished—here are four tips for improving your essay.

Add first, cut later. The main Common Application essay has a maximum of 650 words, and most students aim to use all 650. Ideally, your first draft should be more than 650 words. When you’re doing your first round of writing, don’t worry about word count at all. Most important, don’t worry about your essay being too long. I get nervous when a student sends me a first draft and it’s 652 words. Sometimes that means I’m not actually looking at a first draft, but something they’ve already edited down. But usually it means that the student worked on their first draft with a word count in mind, forcing themselves to stop at 650. They were too focused on length and not enough on the content of what they’re trying to explain. I love to see first drafts at 1000, 1200, 1500 words. That gives us a lot to work with.

Once a first draft comes to me that’s over 650 words, most students expect the next step is that I’ll give suggestions to get it down below the maximum word count. But I don’t. The first thing I ask for is more. More details, more examples, more explanation. I always want students to add before they cut. Cleaning up paragraphs and sentences to get the word count down is usually the last step of the process. It happens on draft six or seven, not draft two. Your strongest writing is going to happen when you add first, cut later.

Do you really need that hook? It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that a college application needs to begin with a “hook.” A hook is often an intensely narrated scene or vignette that sets up the essay to follow. Its main goal is to “draw the reader in” or “grab the reader’s attention.” I am, as a rule, anti-hook. Your first paragraph does indeed need to be very well written and engaging. But so does your second paragraph. And every paragraph after that. With only 650 words to use, you don’t have time to devote a full paragraph only to fancy writing. The first paragraph needs to do a lot more than that.

So try this: remove the first paragraph of your essay and see what information is missing. What gets lost when you remove the first paragraph, other than a hook? If the rest of the essay simply makes no sense without that first paragraph, then congratulations! You avoided the hook trap. If the essay mostly works without the paragraph, but a few key things are missing, then work to get those key things into other paragraphs, or at least shorten the first paragraph. This will leave you room in your essay for more concrete details, which are far more important than a hook anyway. If your essay can begin at the second paragraph without losing anything, get rid of the the first paragraph. Now you’ve freed up a lot of room for better writing. Again, I want to stress: all the things you do for a hook you should do for all your paragraphs. Use precise and descriptive language, avoid cliches, do everything you can to hold onto that reader’s attention. But please don’t waste 20% of your essay with a hook for hook’s sake.

Spend more time working on verbs. How do you make your entire essay more hook-ish? How do you make your writing stronger, more attention-grabbing, yet also shorter and to the point? Focus on verbs. All the effort you might spend on a hook, you should be spending on verbs. That’s the secret weapon.

And it’s simple to do. Go through your draft and circle (on a hard copy) or highlight (on a screen) all the To Be verbs. You probably have a lot—most of us do. They’re the most common verbs in English, and they’re also the most vague. Spend as much time as it takes to eliminate at least a third of those To Be verbs and replace them with something more active. If you can replace half of them, that’s even better.

For example: “I am on the tennis team and I’m also a tennis coach” can become “I play tennis for the school and I also coach tennis.” Or “I am president of our NHS chapter” becomes “I lead our NHS chapter.” You’ll make stronger verbs, and you’ll probably also help lower your word count.

Include the past, present, and future. Most of your application will be focused on the past. You’re explaining things you’ve done, challenges you’ve overcome, and interests you’ve explored. That’s normal. But keep an eye on time as you’re writing. Don’t spend too much time in the distant past. If you need to refer to something that happened before high school that’s fine, but don’t spend any more words than necessary on a distant past. Also, be sure to include the present as much as possible. If you overcame an obstacle in the 10th grade and improved your life, fantastic. Explain what happened and what you gained from it. But also include the present. How are you currently applying what you learned from the episode? How are you currently improving the skills you gained? How is the quality you’re trying to explain currently showing up in your life? Don’t let your essay begin before 9th grade if you can help it, and don’t let it end before 12th grade.

While it’s present you who is applying to college, it’s future you who will actually be in college. Admissions readers aren’t just looking at the present you, they’re trying to figure out how future you may fit into their school. Keep this in mind, and make it easier for them. Whatever quality or characteristic you’re presenting in your essay, how do you see it being manifested over the next five years? How would you like those qualities and characteristics to develop and grow, and what kinds of challenges will help you achieve that? Your last paragraph is a good place to bring this up. Remember, it’s not that you have grown, are done growing, and will only be your full grown self at college. You’re expected to keep growing, through both successes and failures. Let them know how much you understand that and are looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   Practicing gratitude

   Supplemental writing: looking forward and looking back

   Writing essays like a grown up

   Yes, you can write about that

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Three quick questions with Alabama State University

For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admission representatives at colleges all over the country, and then I hope to hear back from them. The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Reletta McGhee, Admission Coordinator at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Alabama State University?

Turkey Day Classic is a 99 year old tradition and the longest classic football game in history. ASU goes head to head with rival Tuskegee University. The game is played on Thanksgiving Day.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at ASU?

The students that attend our Summer Bridge program. These students don't quite meet the regular admission requirements and are enrolled in enrichment programs to help them prepare for college level courses. 

When people come to visit Montgomery, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there? The EJI Legacy Museum.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. See which other colleges and universities answered the questions.

3. Is there a school you’d like to hear from? Let me know, and I’ll make sure they get the questions.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth. [The banner photo is not of ASU. I use the same photo for all Meet the Class posts so you can spot them easily.]

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Rising sophomores and juniors: here's what to do this summer

You should not do anything that is boring or onerous just because you think it might “look good to colleges.” Colleges prefer that you are in interesting person, and there’s nothing interesting about wasting your time and energy just because you’re insecure about someone else’s approval. Don’t jump through any metaphorical hoops (or literal ones, either, I guess) based on vague ideas of what colleges want.

What should sophomores do this summer to be better prepared for college?

Train. You're like a professional athlete during the off-season. You get a lot more flexibility with your schedule and a lot fewer people watching you as you work, but you've got to spend this time productively. Does this mean to fill up your day with summer school classes and be a constant student? No. Like pro athletes, find another way to enhance the skills you have.

Think about your notable skills and talents, the things that you may want to emphasize on college applications. Now find interesting ways to hone those skills and talents. How can you best prove and improve your resilience, passion, intellectual curiosity, initiative, talent, creativity, empathy, or leadership? The more unlike another high school class or program the activity is, the better.

So, for example, going to a weeklong camp for debaters is good, but volunteering to do door-to-door canvasing for a local political campaign is better. Reading books ahead of time for your 11th grade English class is good, but starting a book club that focuses on foreign or lesser-known books is better. Taking a class for adults at the local community college is good, but teaching younger kids in a summer program is better. The most important thing is that you focus on yourself and the qualities you want to improve, not focus on a vague sense of "looks good to colleges." In any setting—be it a summer job, summer camp, traveling, or staying close to home—do everything you can with your summer time to be a better person, not have a better résumé. 

Push yourself. If you need to work or want a job, that's great. As far as college is concerned, it really doesn't matter what that job is so long as you work hard at it and are reflective about what you learn from the job. As you go to work, remind yourself to work as hard as you can. And when you're done, ask yourself what you learned from that day's work. Those two things matter so much more to everyone than the job title or name of the company. 

If you don't need to work and don’t want to work, then make other plans. And here's the trick: treat it like a job, in the sense that you decide to do your best and be reflective. Even if you have the cushiest summer imaginable--maybe you're going to spend two months as a VIP on a cruise ship sailing around the Caribbean--you can still get a lot out of this. Just begin each day reminding yourself to make the most of the day, and end each day reflecting about what you learned. Whatever is you do, it can be useful for your college applications and useful for your productive and interesting life.

Go someplace new. Choose someplace you've never been that you can visit this summer. Geographically, it doesn't matter how close or far the place is, so long as it's new to you. It can be another country, another state, or another neighborhood. Try to get a sense of how people unlike yourself spend their days, and do it with an open and empathetic mind.

Goal of 20. Another way you can make the most of your summer is to give yourself a goal of 20. Make 20 visits to local museums or parks. Have 20 intentional interactions with older members of your family asking them about their experiences. Read 20 books. Watch 20 of the best movies of all time. Find 20 items to donate to charity. Run 20 miles, spread out over as many days as you need. The number 20 is arbitrary, but an arbitrary number helps make a vague idea an achievable goal. Every time you knock out one of your 20, remind yourself to be deliberate and reflective.

What should 9th graders do this summer to be better prepared for college?

Anything! You can do just about anything, I mean it. In terms of preparing for the next three years of high school, preparing for college, and preparing for productive adulthood, there's no magical activity that you really must do to get ready. Do your thing, no matter what it is (within reason--if your current thing is chaotic or self-destructive then take care of that first).

At this point, what you do isn't nearly as important as how you do it. Whether you're doing amazing, once-in-a-lifetime things like volunteering with veterinarians at a wildlife refuge in Botswana or mundane things like babysitting your little brother, you can make the most of it. Be reflective. Ask yourself "how did today go, and what can I do tomorrow that will be interesting?" Every day. Read something that relates to what you're doing. Even if all you're doing is walking aimlessly around the neighborhood trying to find someone to hang out with, stop at the local library and learn about the history of your neighborhood and go inside shops you've never been in before. Take photos of weird things you notice around the neighborhood. Be engaged with your world and your mind, whatever you're doing in the world. 

Write about your experiences. Writing about what you do on a regular basis serves several goals. For one, any college-bound person has got to be very comfortable with a lot of writing, so practicing on your own with your own assignments helps build up your discipline in a way that's more palatable to you. It will also help you maintain and deepen your self-reflection that's so vital for your off-time. You’re not trying to draft college application essays or make it into a novel. You’re just practicing writing in your own voice about what’s interesting to you.

Make a product. Toward the end of the summer, make some sort of product. Select some journal entries to make into full-on essays. Select and edit some photos to make a narrative photo essay. Make an interactive map of the places you visited. Make a book of advice for someone starting the job that you worked. Again, you can do almost anything. The idea is to curate and edit your experience into something that you can share. That's kind of a definition of education, isn't it?

Meet someone new. Right, of course you're going to meet new people over the summer. But what I'm talking about is to proactively and intentionally introduce yourself to new people that you've chosen to meet. Circumstance, coincidence, serendipity, and providence bring all sorts of people into our lives. That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't work to bring others into our lives through our own intentions and effort.

Practice some form of meditation and contemplation. There's probably no better gift you can give yourself than to start the habit of meditation and contemplation. There are dozens of different traditions and techniques to fit any religious, cultural, and personal background. Here is a pretty solid introduction to 23 of them. Choose one and try it. It doesn't have to be a religious or spiritual exercise. It can just be good relaxation. 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts:

   The Glossary: summer melt

   Visiting colleges over the summer

   Don’t forget your summer reading!

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.