The World May Never Know

The coming week and a half will be when the majority of admission decisions are released nationwide - leaving seniors across the country celebrating, sobbing, or in purgatory between the two. In advance of most of these decisions being released, I encourage seniors to remember that 10 or 15 years from now this time will be one of many emotionally volatile times in your life. Yes, college admission is important. Yes, it can impact the direction of your life. But no, it won't define you.

I've posted before about how gifts can initially look like challenges and challenges can initially look like gifts. But in this post I'd like to comment on the temptation you may feel to question how or why things happened as they did. The answer is: you'll never know. Was it your SATs? Was it that math grade? Was it that someone else had cured cancer and you hadn't? The truth is, the answer could be yes. But worrying about that now won't help you in the slightest. Don't fixate on the reason. Don't hypothesize about why your friend got in and you didn't. (Or, even less advisable, why your enemy got in and you didn't). The fact is you have NO way to know. As a former admission officer I can tell you that while you try to be judicious with every decision, it is impossible over the course of 3 or 4 months to keep the exact same opinions. And professional judgement always tips the scales on one day in a way it might not the following week. Don't stress over it.  Embrace the schools where you were admitted--the schools which are, in fact, dying to have you enroll.

The rest that sent you a skinny envelope? You can re-apply for graduate school and do it all over again ;)

Let the Madness Begin!

(And I don't mean Junior meetings - I mean basketball!) You can take the girl out of Indiana (ranked as a #4 seed, aahhhh!), but you can't take the Indiana out of the girl. My favorite time of year is here again where my love of amateur sports is combined with my love of colleges - it is time for March Madness!

This year is a bit unique for me, in recent memory, because there are soooo many more 'little guy' teams that made the cut.  This is exciting to me from a college counseling prospective because regardless while you could argue if it is fair or not, the exposure that comes from being a part of the tournament really can help students and families discover schools that they may ordinarily have overlooked. See the full Men's bracket here and Women's bracket here.

Some of my perennial faves? Davidson - pleassseee consider schools in the south, they can be awesome! Creighton - yes, it is in Nebraska. But it is ranked the #1 Regional University in the Midwest (yes I hate rankings, but I do like them if it helps a student/family open their mind to new options). Plus, it is Jesuit so it is automatically close to my heart as someone who has previously worked for a Jesuit school. And while we're in the Midwest, don't overlook Kansas - it is far less rural than it sounds and offers some really top offerings in journalism and communications without being prohibitively difficult to get into (I'm looking at you Northwestern and Syracuse).

So the next time you tune in to a game, fire up the Naviance as well and learn more about the schools themselves. PS - just for fun - if you are into the competition of it all, consider joining a charity bracket like the one being run by the One Percent Foundation - their mission is to encourage all people to donate 1% of their income to charity. Check it out!

Class of 2012 by the Numbers

I've recently transitioned form working mainly with seniors to working mainly with juniors. This is a significant thing for a lot of reasons, but this year in particular it is unique because the junior class came to ElRo the same year that I did. I can't believe two and a half years has gone so quick! But, I thought this would be an appropriate time to share some preliminary numbers about the Class of 2012 and their college application process.

# of seniors currently on register at ElRo: 135
# of applications filed: 1154
Average # applications per student: 8.5
# of teacher recommendations written: 286
# of acceptances, so far: 442
Average SAT score, 2400 scale: 1812
Average SAT score, 1600 scale: 1201*
Average Composite ACT score: 26

*This is our first year where the average SAT score ended up above 1200 on the 1600 scale. 

I plan to post a full summary, along with the list of schools where students were admitted, in May.

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