ExecuTutor's College Acceptance List in 2020 Surpassed All Expectations
While we can’t make miracles happen, we can get pretty close.
“ExecuTutor’s clients got into schools that were at the very top end of what was possible. ”
We start by creating a student list with schools that are truly a perfect match. We use the supplemental essays to show that our applicants have done serious research on the school and to make their case that—in full knowledge of the offerings of the university—they are a good match. Finally, we help students to write original essays with concrete details that use life stories to showcase the students’ character, accomplishments, and career vision. The results speak for themselves. Taking into account students’ grades, extracurriculars, and test scores, ExcecuTutor’s clients got into schools that were at the very top end of what was possible.
Here’s a list of some of the universities where our clients were accepted in the last year:
Yale University
University of Pennsylvania (Arts and Sciences)
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School of Business)
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Toronto
University of California-Irvine
University of California-Davis
University of California-Santa Cruz
University of Southern California
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CalPoly Pomona
CalPoly San Luis Obispo
New York University Stern School of Business
New York University Steinhardt School
University of Texas-Austin
Kelley School of Business (Indiana University)
Ross School of Business (University of Michigan)
Gies College of Business (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Oberlin College
Georgetown University
University of Washington-Seattle
Purdue University
University of Pittsburgh (Honors College)
University of Richmond
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Virginia-Charlottesville
Santa Clara University
California State University-San Jose
Baylor University
Rhodes College
Drexel University
Money Magazine's List Will Help You Decide Which College Gives you the Biggest Bang For Your Buck
Money Magazine’s list of 2020’s best colleges for your money will help you quantify what is sometimes a very difficult task: determining which school gives you more value for your money. It’s not just about adding tuition and room and board; there are other monetary costs involved. But there are also other quantifiable categories you don’t usually take into your assessment, which you should—like average salaries for your first jobs after you graduate.
California residents, there’s some good news! Even though the cost of a University of California education has risen from the days when it was almost free, half of the best value universities from the first twelve places on Money’s list are all UC’s!
Source: https://money.com/best-colleges/
Learning a Language the Fun and Active Way
There are many people who live abroad and never make big improvements on their ability to speak and write in a new language. When you learn a language, you immerse yourself more fully in a new world. That process will allow you to experience yourself in exciting ways. Below are some ways to make learning a foreign language an interesting activity even before you leave home.
1. Read about a topic of interest in your destination language. Whether you are interested in American basketball or British rugby, anime, politics, or art, read about it in the destination language media. Make sure that you write down the words that you do not understand and look them up right away.
2. Make flashcards. All those words that you looked up from your daily reading should go on flash cards. You can pull these out when you have a little time, such as waiting for a bus, standing on a line, or if you find yourself with nothing to do. Flip through them.
3. Use the new words in conversations. Make an effort to use new words in daily conversation or writing. Only by using the words will you truly learn them. In the process, you will be able to express yourself with more precision and depth.
4. Work on your grammar. Whenever you learn new grammar, apply it in writing and conversation. Let’s say you learned some of the modal verbs, like could, should, might, or may. Rather than use “maybe” all the time, use a modal. Instead of saying, “Maybe I will go to lunch,” say, “I might go to lunch.” Or, instead of “maybe people should jog every day,” say, “People ought to jog every day.”
5. Listen to yourself. If your teacher has corrected you, but you continue to make the same mistakes, it will help to listen to yourself. Are you having trouble telling the difference between the “t” and “th” sound? Then record yourself reading a paragraph, and catch your mistakes. Repeat this until you have read the paragraph with perfect pronunciation.
6. Read the comments to articles or YouTube videos. A powerful way to learn to converse in a foreign language is through the comments sections of any online article or video. Choose a YouTube video you enjoy and try to understand what the comments mean. Write down anything that does not make sense to you and ask a native or your teacher! This is a fun way to learn new everyday expressions and gain insights into a foreign culture.
Prepping for Prep School or College: Go to office hours
When you are a university student, going to your professor’s office hours is an important part of your intellectual journey. A good time to go is early in the term before other students from all of your professor’s classes start showing up for help with papers. By going early in the term, you will have the chance to casually discuss ideas from lectures that are still opaque to you. But more than that, you will likely have rich and casual conversation based on your intellectual interests or an interpretation of a text that you are reading in your class. Pragmatically, it will give you a head start on your papers. Also, when your professors know you personally, they will probably take an interest in helping you down the line in your academic career.
However, you should not wait until university to make use of your teachers’ office hours. Going to office hours can be a game changer for you in many ways:
1. Getting help from a teacher enables you to tackle what is challenging for you, step by step. A weekly visit will clear up any problems before they become so big that you do poorly in the course.
2. If you are struggling with a subject, you may develop a psychological block to doing the work. If you like your teacher and they are willing to help you, it can make a challenging subject less frightening. For example, I never really liked math, but I had a Geometry teacher I really connected with, and suddenly I found myself enjoying math for the first time.
3. Meeting with a teacher regularly can help you discover talents and opportunities. Let’s say you are just learning to write stories in English. There is only so much a teacher will tell you in the comments section. When you visit them and talk to them about writing, you may be inspired to write more and your stories will be better when you are inspired. You are already on your way to developing a talent.
4. When you meet regularly with a teacher, you make learning a part of your life. No longer are you just a face in a crowded room. Instead, you will start seeing yourself as part of a learning community. You are not merely a student being graded by a teacher, but a human conversing with another human about ideas that matter to you.
Making A Final Decision of Which College to Attend
Normally, I would advise everybody to spend a few days at your top choices. Live with a student in a dorm; go to classes; eat in the dining hall; attend some recreational and club meetings; and go out to a party. All these will give you a more realistic view of what awaits you. But since this is not possible this year, I would suggest you do the following before making a choice:
Make contact with a student at a vocation-related club and ask about the student’s experience through a scheduled phone or video call. For example, if you are majoring in computer science, then contact the heads of a few CS-related clubs and discuss the student’s thoughts on required and elective classes and extracurriculars. Ask about where people have found jobs.
Contact the head of a club or sport group that you are interested in joining. Talk about activities or conferences that they have put on. Do they impress or excite you? Remember, messaging and texting are not the same as a real conversation on the phone or video conferencing.
Do you know which companies you might want to work for? Go to their LinkedIn page and see how many students from your college choices work there.
Make a spreadsheet with all of the categories that matter to you. Below are some examples. Write out your answers. You can also give a numerical rating out of 100 or 10 to help you compare later.
Talk over your spreadsheet results with a counselor, parent, and a friend. This will help you sort out your feelings. But don't just take your parents' advice. They will have their own reasons for wanting you to attend a school, which may not take into consideration all the factors that matter to you. The same can be said about the friend or counselor. In the end, you need to take all these opinions with a grain of salt.
Go for a long walk or hike somewhere (if your community allows you to) and make a choice. Clear your mind! Once you make your choice, let the school know right away. Don't wait around and have other people's ideas influence your decision. Use your own knowledge and intuition!
Below are some possible categories for your spreadsheet. Remember to put your thoughts in words and a numerical ranking (if this helps you) from 0-100 or 0-10. Include the name of each university and:
Ranking
US Ranking
Department Ranking
Weather
Unique Clubs
My impression of city or town
International Student Support (if relevant)
Financial Assistance (how much?)
Housing and Dining
Research of Professors
Student Reviews
Classes I like
Comparisons of Required Classes
Proximity to cities
Sports Opportunities
Internships
Career Placement
Friendliness of people
Additional Comments
How to Prepare for an Interview
There are a lot of people who go into college or boarding school interviews with minimal or no preparation. This tends to be less the case for jobs or graduate/professional school programs. But, I have seen so many people insufficiently prepared for these interviews that I thought it would be helpful to give some basic principles to help you prepare for an interview. I have also added a special section for international students at the end.
There are a few different kinds of interviewing situations: the alumnus/a interview; human resource/admissions officer interview; and group interview. The first tends to be more casual, and the questions are of a more general nature. The alumnus/a interviewer is usually a more recent graduate and is likely to be more generous to his interviewee; that is, this interviewer does not usually throw curve balls at the interviewee. Human resource professionals or admissions officers will hit a more predictable set of questions, and you will be expected to be succinct and thorough. Questions will usually touch on all the relevant points in a methodical way, so the interview is easier to prepare for in this sense. Unlike the alumnus/a interview, you probably won’t get overlapping questions or very broad ones, like “Tell me about yourself!” which can be annoying to answer. The flip side is that the HR professional or admissions officer will be less satisfied with the general talking points many people present in an interview. They want finer details. Finally, there is the group interview. In academia, this may consist of a group of faculty; a professor, administrator, and student; or a professor and administrator. Whatever the configuration, this is definitely the hardest scenario. You will get the greatest variety of questions, and because there are different personalities involved, this is the scenario with the greatest potential for curve balls. Take heart! If you find yourself being asked to participate in a group interview scenario, you’re on a short list! You are one of only a few people to have made it this far. But you need to break away from the pack at this point. I will show you how to do that.
My tips are based on my own experience and those of my clients. I have interviewed in various scenarios from corporate interviews to university professor job interviews to academic interviews for scholarships. When I take my clients’ experiences into account, I can add still more professional and academic scenarios. Preparation is essential; of that there is not question. But it is still more essential that the answers you deliver not be those frothy, generalizing, and sycophantic answers that some people give.
Get a basic list of questions and prepare. You can find the usual interview questions easily online. But, again, you will need to prepare good answers. Whether you are doing an alum interview or being interviewed by a professional or group, below are some solid tips to give great answers that don’t just respond to the question, but that advocate for your candidacy.
(1) Tell Me About Yourself!
The most open-ended question ever also poses the greatest threat to most candidates. You need to remember what “yourself” comprises. In an academic situation, your response should hit the major points about (1) your major and what you want to study; (2) what has prepared you for this; (3) your career goals; (4) your extracurricular interests. In a professional context (corporate, grad school, or professional school) you would discuss (1) where you are in your career; (2) your career vision; (3) the values that have shaped your work experience. It is, however, unlikely that you would receive such an open-ended question in a job interview.
(2) Why Should We Choose you?
Another open-ended question. You need to be precise and concrete. Talk about (1) your skills and accomplishments; (2) challenges that you have overcome, while staying focused; (3) show that the program is a perfect match for you by referring to faculty research or special courses and show how they connect to your academic and professional goals.
(3) Why Are You Interested In Our School?
A lot students answer this with generalizations: top-program, excellent faculty, research opportunities, etc. Any automaton can produce vacuous flattery like that. What will distinguish you from the pack is to give details about the program that correspond to your particular interests. “Your biology program is excellent.” No. “I am interested in stem cell research and how it can be used in gerontology. Prof. X’s research is particularly interesting to me, as she is studying….” “UCB has the #1 English program in the country.” No. “I want a broad education in different genres and periods of literature, and Berkeley has a robust program across the board in English and American literature, and it is not dominated by any particular school of literary theory. I am especially interested in psychoanalysis and Victorian literature. There are five professors who have worked in these areas, like Prof. X….” Later, discuss extracurriculars. The more unique and special to that school the better. “I really want to get involved in Amnesty International.” No. There are college chapters of Amnesty at every school. “I am a classically trained singer, and Yale has some of the best a cappella singing groups in the country. I love the Baker’s Dozen and the Alley Cats especially. I want to aim to be a Whiffenpoof as a senior.” Detail, specificity, and thoroughness of research will separate the you from the pack on this question. Your competition will probably be droning on about how great the residential college system is—stuff that they read on a general introduction to Yale College. Your interviewer is thinking, “Sad!”
(4) Curve Ball Questions
There are also curve balls that can come your way. “If you had a roommate, who liked to argue with everybody, what would you do?” “If your colleagues at the lab are taking credit for your work, what do you do?” It’s easy to give a wishy-washy answer or to go down a fox hole that suggests you have no people skills. Not being human resource professionals, most of us are not completely prepared for these kinds of situations, and if they happened to us, we would consult a number of friends and advisors to solve them. The reality is you probably won't have a great solution on the spot. So, the best thing is to always keep your goal in mind: to show the interviewer why you are a good fit for that school. Even with these questions, you can take the opportunity to remind them of this: “I realize that some people are more argumentative than others. I would learn my roommate's interests and what he cares about, and talk to him about those instead of arguing. I try to stay positive and not create drama with my colleagues because it takes energy away from my focus. I want to keep my focus on studying European history, in which there are plenty of drawn out, monumental conflicts. I also want to make sure I have time to rehearse for my piano recitals and hopefully also to be a part of the symphony orchestra.” Maybe that is not the best answer for conflict-avoidance or de-escalating a combustible situation. But you did what you could in the moment, answering the question briefly, but not spending too much time on the negative. Instead, you use the opportunity to remind the interviewer of your talents and your academic interests.
(5) Miscellaneous Questions
“Describe a perfect day for you!”
“Who is your favorite composer/author/scientist”?
“What is your favorite book/musical piece/art?”
“What newspapers do you read?”
These are questions that you should prepare ahead of time. It’s amazing how these will leave you tongue-tied and stuttering. You’ll be thinking, “I know I read the newspaper, but I literally can’t recall the name of any of them. I love literature, but I can’t remember even one author’s name. The English guy who wrote all those plays five hundred years ago?! Him!”
People waste opportunities to further their case by striking out on these oddball questions. They are, however, opportunities for you to show your focus and the depth of your commitment to your research interests or career. If somebody asks you about an ideal day, and you are applying to a music conservatory, should you really be talking about spending most of the day at the mall and then a nature hike? No, your ideal day is going to music theory class, spending time with your piano instructor, doing a work-out listening to Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, and then going to a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the opera. I had a student applying to an outdoor-based school program, who never once mentioned going on a hike or cultivating something outdoors during her perfect day. This kind of thing will not happen if you keep focused on what you are interviewing for! As far as being able to respond to questions, make sure you have a favorite musical composition, book, piece of art, sports team, scientist, newspaper, color, food, etc. And be prepared to talk about what is especially relevant to your field.
(6) Unexpected Questions
You can always use parts of your prepared questions to answer unexpected questions. Remember, you don’t need to answer a question as soon as it is posed. You can pause for a few seconds and think about what you are going to say. Somebody may ask you, for example, “Why don’t you want to go to Harvard?” when you are interviewing for Yale. I have actually received different versions of that question. It’s meant to be provocative and to ruffle your feathers. But it is an easy question if you pause to think about it. Steer clear of the Scylla and Charybdis of going negative on the competition! You can repackage your information from the question about why you are interested in that school. Or how about, “If you had to meet anybody dead or living for dinner, whom would it be?” You can use the information from your favorite composer or artist without scrambling for new—and probably not very good—material. So, pause, and think how you can use material that you have already prepared.
(7) Tips for International Students
Many international students or international executives need to understand that they will have other tasks that the native speaker does not need to worry about: pronunciation and grammar. It is essential that you work with a coach over a long period of time to make sure that your pronunciation is spot-on. Otherwise, your interviewer will get lost by a word that is mispronounced, trying to figure it out while you have moved on to something else. By the time your interviewer has caught up, you will throw them another mispronounced word. In the end, the person will have understood half of what you said, if you are lucky. If you throw in enough poor pronunciation, the interview will be a wash, no matter how good your content. You must prepare your answers and rehearse them. Have your coach write down all the words you mispronounce. Then, focus on pronouncing these every day for several weeks. It’s not easy to break bad habits, but it is essential that you fix your pronunciation.
Imperfect Pronunciation is not a minor thing, as many people convince themselves. It is major, and you probably sound much worse than you think you do. Likewise, if you are constantly misconjugating verbs and using the wrong pronouns, you need to have a coach find your grammatical problems and work on fixing them. You cannot do this in a few days. You need to practice every day for weeks. So, make sure you get started early!
Finally, if you are coming from abroad, it is essential that you hire a native speaker to assess you. In all probability, you have been learning imperfect pronunciation in your native country. Or you have been hearing imperfect pronunciation all around you, and have adopted it from there, if not from your English teacher. The coach whom you hire to assess your English should not be somebody who is afraid of offending you, but somebody whom you have paid specifically for that purpose. So, if you have hired somebody to help you with cover letters and your résumé, don’t use them to assess your language skills. They may be chary to do so for fear of losing you as a client when they tell you what a frightful state your pronunciation is in. But, take heart, you can correct many problems with pronunciation in a few weeks or months with dedicated effort!
What Are Colleges Looking For?
Quite simply, a good student. However, a good student is not just somebody who gets good grades or test scores.
There are a number of characteristics that define the good student—not just a student in school, but in life. I have worked with all kinds of people, from a sixth grader in Beijing, China to a Google engineer in San Francisco to a retiree in Florida writing the novel he has always wanted to write. I have travelled all over the world to lecture and work one-on-one with students from the hallowed halls of Oxford University to a classroom in an obscure after-school program in Taipei. No matter what the age or where they are, there are certain characteristics that define students who are “successful.” By “successful,” I mean students who are able to achieve what they set out to do and to live their lives with as much honesty as possible. Whether you are ten or eighty, there are common characteristics of a good student.
Authenticity. People who are always worried about appearances, ask me, “What do universities want to read in my application?” Or, “What answers do they want to hear?” Such people tend to be inauthentic and insincerity always shows through in an essay or an interview. There is an animal instinct in us that can smell a phony. When you are authentic, you write about things that genuinely mean something to you. You present vivid, moving, grounded details. A phony chooses the experience that “makes me look good” and writes about it in a stale, clichéd manner with an intoxicating dose of platitudes. Be honest with yourself and respect your audience enough to be frank with them.
Discreet. Having said that you should be honest, you should also exercise discretion. This means you need to judge your audience and consider what you reveal and how much of an experience you disclose. The alert reader who just read the above may think, this is an instance of hypocrisy on my part. But it’s not. The good student exercises discretion. He remembers he is applying to a college, graduate school, job, or award. The bad student writes as if she were talking to her therapist, or tries to make the reader feel sorry for him, revealing things that are inappropriate. The good student keeps it professional, relevant, and real for a college essay or job interview.
Answers the Question. The good student answers the question. That may seem really simplistic, but about 80% of students do not write essays that address the topic. Most of the reason is because they did not feel like doing the homework—the research that is required to answer the essay question. When asked to explain his interest in a school, he will talk about the school’s ranking or the “elite faculty” and “excellent course offerings.”
The good student has researched everything related to her interests at the university: majors, specific courses and requirements, research centers, extracurriculars, internships, faculty, faculty research and books, etc. She demonstrates her research in the essay or during the interview and draws bridges always to how specific things—a research center or faculty member—will help her accomplish her goals.
Take Advice from Authorities. If you are hiring a college counselor or an editor, you are doing so because you trust his or her judgement. They are your hired mentors. A good student recognizes that some authorities have the education, experience, and perspective that they don’t have. That doesn’t mean you don’t trust yourself. You just trust yourself enough to put yourself in good hands. The good student accepts criticism and focuses his energy on doing research and making productive changes to his essays or interview responses. The bad student reacts to criticism by finding other authorities who think differently than his mentor. The bad student argues and gets defensive. The bad student “sticks to his guns,” seeks advice from conflicting sources, and trusts his own ideas about writing over accomplished writers and editors. This is not believing in oneself; it is just being a bad student.
Recognizes Limitations. Americans are taught to “think big” and that “anything is possible.” Please, take that with a pinch of salt! Remember what “thinking big” means to you. It means going to acting school, if that is what you really want to do, with the attitude that if it does not work out, you can transfer your skills to other settings. It does not mean that you HAVE to go to the Royal Academy. It means going to law school or nursing school at fifty because that is what you want to do, and you know there is a demand for people with those qualifications. It does not mean that after a career of indifferent grades and lackluster participation in your community, you are going to become obsessed with getting into a top-ten university. That is self-defeating. Thinking big means that you recognize what your goal is—to become a nurse, or a professional editor, or a financial analyst—and you take the steps to get there. Instead of pouring all your energy into the slim prospect of getting into MIT with your 3.6 GPA, 650 on the Math I SAT Subject Test, and sparse list of achievements in science, the good student keeps focused on her goal. She puts her energy into getting into the best the undergraduate program that is right for her (listen to my podcasts or read one of my blog articles on choosing the right college ). She does not get lost in a forest of “big dreams” or illusions about winning a lottery and getting into Stanford based on some magical college essay or the “right story.”
Accepts Responsibility. The good student accepts his list of accomplishments or failures. There is nothing more off-putting to a prospective university or employer than somebody who is always making excuses. Life happens, and it happens to everybody, pretty much without exception. The good student nevertheless is able to excel even as life throws all its hurdles at him. The bad student writes in his essay asking why he chose a major or why he is applying to that school, “I would have done better if I did not have to take care of my elderly grandmother and make money to pay for family expenses.” In the end, the university will accept the good student who answers the question positively and supported her family, took care of her grandmother, and still had time to get straight-A’s and help the community in big ways. The good student can also score more ordinary grades, but accepts that his string of B’s are, given the circumstances, a real success. Rather than choosing schools whose cut off is well above a 3.0, the good student hones in on the right set of schools and owns his accomplishments. The bad student bemoans all his misfortunes, familial obstacles, or other limitations. The good student embraces having done well enough and focuses on what the essays are requesting, rather than making excuses.
Accepts When Something is Done. When a good student is told by his editor that his essay is “ready to submit,” he moves on to the next project. The bad student second guesses and argues with the mentor or editor. He asks for writing advice from his father and mother, who are not writers. He “polishes” the good essay by degrading it with superfluous (and often misused) vocabulary and adds some clichés and platitudes, because he thinks that makes it sound more solemn and erudite. In the end, he throws in a few grammatical errors for good measure and mars a perfectly good essay. The bad student inevitably complains to his editor that he is afraid that “the essay does not answer the prompt.” The bad student’s parent—also inevitably—chimes in. The bad student is up late at night spinning his wheels, getting frantic, and sending messages to his editor about his worries. The good student knows her limitations enough to accept that if the authority on writing says it is done, it is done. Instead, she makes the productive decision of moving on to new essays and new projects.
Moves On. The good student in life accepts rejections; takes the right lesson out of them; and moves on. If you are working with a good counselor or editor, then you know you wrote the best essays you could. The good student does not blame the failure of the application on not “presenting the right story” or “giving the admissions panel the answers they wanted to hear.” This is a kind of magical thinking and a way of evading the hard work of a realistic self-assessment. The good student accepts the competition may have been more accomplished or represented the demographics the committee was looking for (this is more and more the case with universities, who are looking to fill demographic quotas). The good student analyzes the weaknesses in her portfolio and finds constructive ways to fix them in the future. She adjusts her game plan. This does not mean abandoning her goals, but changing the course by which she will get there.
The good student always remembers that the important thing is keeping a clear vision of his goals, and that while the path is not always a straight one—or even the one he imagined—that by moving on, moving forward, he will get closer to his goal.
How to Answer the "Why this College?" Essay
What Is This Essay?
The most selective universities, colleges founded by a religious order, and technical or art schools all expect their students to demonstrate why they would like to attend that school. Notice, I write “demonstrate.” That is, you will need to prove to the university that they are a good match for you.
Every question is some variation of what one college poses bluntly: “Why us?” Inevitably, students have a terrible time answering this for a number of reasons, but it usually boils down to two factors: (1) they have not done the homework on the school; (2) they write about something else. The two are connected: it is because they have not done the homework that they write about themselves, their parents, their past accomplishments, their insecurities, their ideas about life in general—in short, about everything but what they are meant to address in this essay.
In principle, this is a very easy essay to write, but initially it throws ninety percent of the students I counsel for a loop. To be effective, it requires a great deal of research about the school in question. The essay demands introspection about what you want to study at that particular university—not just in general. In a broader sense, it also asks of you to think about how you imagine your time at that school impacting you career and your future role in the community. So, if you have not—or do not want to—do the homework to write this essay, which includes research and introspection, you may write something that, quite frankly, will get your application thrown on the reject pile.
I want to urge you to harness your fear and trembling of the admissions committee positively. The tendency is to do one or more of the following things to placate the readers of your application: flatter, pander, try to make them feel sorry for you, give them an inflated sense of your virtue, or distract them with other topics or other people’s accomplishments. Please avoid all of these. Just answer the question! The reality is, unless you have some truly exceptional accomplishments, there will be thousands of students that may be all more or less on par with you.
By showing the university you know very little about it, or don’t care enough to research it, you will likely end up on the rejection pile. Conversely, if you show them that you are a very good fit, you can edge out some of the competition, who are otherwise on par with you, and perhaps also more qualified applicants.
All things considered, with applicants who have similar test scores, grades, and comparable accomplishments, a university is going to accept the applicant who will be most likely to thrive at that school. It is very unlikely that somebody who knows nothing about a university—or only knows the minimum—is going to do much more than tread water when he or she arrives in the fall.
So, before I tell you what the essay should look like, here is what it is not. It’s helpful to see what doesn’t work first. However, beware, as you snigger at some of these examples, you will probably see characteristics of your own essays here! The word for essay in French is essaie, and in addition to a written composition, it also means “an attempt.” Think of your first efforts to write these on your own as attempts. Without proper guidance, and searching for random advice on the internet, they may look no better than these!
[For the sake of confidentiality, the following excerpts are not taken from actual student responses, but they are modeled on the recurrent mistakes I have seen over the years.]
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the applicant’s misguided attempt to flatter the admissions committee into sending an acceptance letter.
“Columbia University presents the most outstanding academic resources imaginable with many of the world’s leading professors. The exquisite Morningside campus fills my heart with longing for success. Once I saw the elegant dome of the library, dappled with sun, I knew: Columbia is by far the most perfect university for me.”
“Princeton has created an infrastructure for its students to become successful, fulfilled, and happy adults. And, Princeton is renowned for its partnerships with distinguished employers in a myriad of fields. Everyone knows or has heard that employers like Princeton students. Princeton’s commitment to its students finding his/her individual passion is famous. Couple that commitment with the opportunities for employment and career exploration, making Princeton the ideal place for somebody like me who is ready to take his future seriously.”
Maybe you are chuckling. But if you aren’t, let me explain what is wrong with these. You may be saying to yourself, “But it’s true! I saw it on their website!” That is part of the problem. These are marketing statements, but whipped up into an almost meaningless froth at this point. The sample essays above are full of hyperbole—that is, exaggerated language—and, even if what they are saying is true in some measure, by virtue of being so over-the-top, they come off as insincere.
Notice, too, there are no specifics!
There are no specifics related to this student’s career, this student’s academic path, and this student’s extracurricular choices. Let me ask again, why is X University the perfect school for you? My guess is that the writer of the Princeton essay (#2) felt that he was covering all of his bases by referring to “infrastructure” (big, adult word), student wellbeing, partnerships with employers, and career opportunities. But at the end of the day, this could be copy on a brochure—and not a brochure for Princeton. More likely, you would see this paragraph advertising a third rate, for-profit school which is itself pandering to students.
Platitudes
Although most students reserve the treasure trove of their platitudes for the personal statement—or the essays focusing on diversity, community, or volunteer activities—platitudes often rear their ugly heads in the “Why this University?” essay.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a platitude as “a flat, dull, or commonplace remark or statement, esp. one spoken or written with an air of importance or solemnity.”
Maybe you are bewildered and have no idea what I am talking about, but chances are the “solemnity” of the application process is inciting you to become platitudinous in spite of yourself. Does the following look familiar to you?
“I must confess that I’ve always believed college to be the beginning of my adult life, which I realize is also the greater part of my life. Even though I have spent my childhood studying at a rigorous school, I have always had this deep-rooted sentiment that college is where my future really was going to start for me. Therefore, I am very particular as to where I make that start, for it determines how my future will unfurl.”
This preamble sounds pompous, more befitting a (bad) biography of Julius Caesar than a high school senior’s retrospective. It’s what Boston College, in one of their essay prompts, cautions students to eschew: “You should be careful to avoid self-aggrandizing choices...” The lines attempt to sound very solemn and important, but in fact say nothing more than, “College is important to me, and I realize that it will have an effect on my future.” How is this ultimately mundane realization supposed to be impressive?
Digressions
Your Life Story, Somebody Else’s Story, Book Reports, Griping, and Trauma Capsules
When you are picturing your future, it is inevitable that you will think about your past. You will remember your life story, books you have read, gripes about your school, family, or community, and the traumatic events you have suffered (particularly if they are fresh on your mind). I have been impressed by what my students have survived: domestic violence, the sudden death of a parent, war, divorce, life-threatening disease, bullying at school, poverty, and discrimination. But this is not the place to elaborate on those, as pressing as they feel. You can address these factors in a constructive way in the personal statement. As far as this essay goes, however, you would do well to avoid these painful topics or mention them only as they relate to the school. Here is an example of a paragraph that digresses in a number of ways:
“Wellesley College has a century and a half dedicated to educating, inspiring, and supporting female students to pursue any career. Wellesley graduates include Madeleine Albright, the Secretary of State under President Clinton; Hillary Clinton, the New York Senator; the film director, Nora Ephron; Diane Sawyer, the news anchor. Secretary Albright’s story particularly inspires me. She immigrated to the US after WWII had ravaged her home country. Just over a year after becoming a US citizen, she began her studies at Wellesley. It is no doubt in part because of her empowering education at Wellesley that Albright became the first female secretary of state.”
The above does indeed give us a window into what matters to this applicant, and it also gives us a picture of some of the graduates from the university, particularly Albright. But it avoids doing what this essay is meant to do, which is to provide a clear picture of how the applicant sees herself at Wellesley. It does not fulfill the terms of the essay topic.
It’s also normal that a seventeen or eighteen year-old applicant is going to be heavily influenced by parents. I have seen many students continually make reference to a parent’s accomplishments, mistakes, or life story in the “Why Us?” essay. Here is an example:
“I want to work in engineering like my father. He came to the United States from Germany in the 1980s to study at Cal Tech. Although he knew little English, he was able to learn fluent English in six months time and was a triple major. Since then, he became the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, won three Olympic gold medals in two different sports, and was on the short list for a major national book award.”
Believe it or not, I have seen essays that wax poetic, like this one, about somebody else, while barely referencing the university in question.
Another mistake I have seen often is beginning this essay with a paragraph on a book or famous person that inspired you (most likely cut and pasted from another essay). That may be interesting, but it has no place here, and it is obvious to the reader that you are cutting and pasting to avoid a direct answer to the question.
Finally, there is griping.
“The country I live in is hierarchical and discriminating. If you don’t fit into the mold of what is considered desirable, you are subject to insults, exclusion, and lower pay. I have seen, for example, somebody who was educated at a famous university in England come back home and find himself unable to get work. On the other hand, somebody from a higher caste with less desirable qualifications will receive many job offers. I want to go to Vassar College because they are the opposite of this. Vassar is a place where people from any background can go and study. At Vassar, I would meet students from totally different cultural contexts, who are treated equally. I know that this kind of educational and social environment will help me in exactly the ways my community of origin failed me—and failed others.”
The “Why Us?” essay word limit is anywhere from 150-600 words with the average being about three hundred words. There is no room for complaints of this sort. If you feel like you would like to show how your new community contrasts with your old, save it for another essay and make sure to put a constructive spin on it. However, I would advise students to keep their focus on positive goals. Nobody likes a complainer—however legitimate your complaints are. I am not telling you to discount your own lived experience. However, there is a time and a place for everything; and this is simply not the place for griping.
The Exemplary “Why This School?” Essay
Like the personal statement, you will need to put this essay through several drafts. So, don’t expect to write it out the day before it is due. Once you have a working essay, you will be able to use it as a template for other schools. However, even these later essays will still require a great deal of research, drafting, and revision on your part. So, plan ahead!
The “Why Us?” essay needs to show two things to the admissions committee: that you have done your homework on the school; and that you have thought long and hard about your career and life goals. This essay should connect these two things together, showing the committee how you will get closer to your career goals at the school.
If the essay does not include a separate section for discussing your academic major, you will explain your choice of a specific academic major here. You will show your deep knowledge of the program and its uniqueness. For example, studying a major as common as “Economics” at the University of Chicago versus UC Berkeley is going to be very different. Studying English at Yale or UC Irvine will also be quite different. As a bright and informed student, you will know the difference and demonstrate your understanding of the particular slant of the department to which you are applying. You should refer to a particularly relevant course or courses (taught or supervised research classes) in which you plan to enroll to further your studies. Also, you may mention professors whose areas of research appeal to you, based on your past interests and new areas that you would like to explore. You could also point out research centers and internships only available at that school that will get you closer to your goal. Finally, you may discuss courses outside of your major that interest you at the school, and why.
It is not uncommon with schools like NYU—one example school here—for the student to praise the university’s diversity. However, it’s not enough to describe or wax poetic about diversity. Tell them which clubs or groups or activities at NYU will help you explore the diversity of people and ideas. If you want to study abroad for a semester or a year or a summer, mention the NYU programs that you would like to attend and why? Which countries? What will you study? How will it help you develop your career goals and develop you as a person?
Finally, you should discuss which extracurricular activities you will explore: like sports, special interest clubs, art, music, etc. Are there any clubs that are unique to NYU that you want to join? For example, the college chapter of Greenpeace or Amnesty International is not unique. You could go to any school and join those. Instead, explain what in the City of New York will help you to further develop those interests. For example, if you were a jazz aficionado, mention that you are dying to spend time at the Village Vanguard or Smalls in Greenwich Village.
Let’s start with a three hundred-word essay for a make-believe school: Posh University. The instructions read as follows: “What is it about Posh University that has led you to apply?” The word count limit is 300 words, which is on the high end of the average range of 200-300 words.
Just a couple years ago, when I defined “business,” I thought of the stock market and global corporations. My definition expanded when I became involved in social entrepreneurship through Up-Enders. I led a project to address educational inequity in Detroit and developed an application connecting volunteer tutors to students at under-resourced schools. I realized that business tools, developed by principled entrepreneurs, might fix problems faster than the most well intentioned government programs.
At Posh University, I will major in Ethics, Politics, and Economics. The program’s unique combination of moral philosophy, political science, and economic theory supports my goal of using business to make a social impact. The substantial moral philosophy requirement will ground my business education in social responsibility. I will take the Foundational Series seminar, “A Bridge Across the Income Divide:Business, Government, and Non-Profits”to begin to think about how to plan the courses in my major with the end goal of a career in business and public policy. Because I envision working for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or the World Trade Organization, I will pursue the International Political Economy minor to learn the political aspects of business issues in different countries. I can further expand the knowledge I gain in the classroom through internships in D.C. Posh University’s partnership internships make it possible for me to gain practical experience at the Department of State, a nonprofit, NGO, or the World Bank.
I will deepen my knowledge of various kinds of loans to stimulate developing economies through Prof. Magnus’ “MicroLoans to Africa” research group at the Hope Economic Development Center. I plan to study abroad at Posh’s school year abroad program divided at the London School of Economics and Catholic University of Leuven, where I will learn about the EU, global finance, and public policy.
This essay begins with a piece of experience that defines the applicant’s priorities and the goals. It’s not necessary to a “Why Us?” essay, but in this case, it helps to explain why the student is interested in a very specific major. When choosing an interdisciplinary major, it is helpful to very briefly reference your academic preparation or pertinent life experience, as it is relevant to the major. It makes your choice more persuasive. When discussing a generic major, like “English,” discuss the particular resources of that department that are of interest to you: classes, research centers, or professors’ research.
The student in the above essay does a good job showing that he has researched his major and thought about how taking part in that program will help reach his goal. It’s important to state some sort of career or educational goal—even if it may very well change while you are at school. At this stage in your life, it is important to show that you are capable of imagining a vocation and thinking through the steps that will get you there. It is also essential to demonstrate that your experience has led you to form ideas, take ethical stances, or explore specialized areas of research. In this essay, you should show how the seeds of these experiences can start to grow into something more mature through the opportunities at the university.
Just think, what are the seeds that I am taking with me to school? How at this stage in my life can I grow them at this particular school.?
The last part of the essay can be used to discuss clubs you might join, sports you would like to participate in, school year abroad programs, symphonies you might join, or museums where you would like to volunteer. It really depends on what your interests are. It is of course much better if you can show a link between what you have already done in these areas and what you plan to do at the prospective school. For example, if you were in a high school orchestra, you might discuss joining a chamber orchestra or symphony at your university. However, you could also describe something totally new. Just try to draw some sort of bridge. For example, you may have always wanted to play polo, but never had the opportunity. Maybe, you played lacrosse or horseback rode. Make the connection between that past experience and your desire to play polo.
We shall move on to the longer essay. NYU’s 400-word maximum is a little longer than the word limit for most universities. However, there are even longer essays, such as Cornell’s 650-word limit.
We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. We are particularly interested in knowing what motivated you to apply to NYU and more specifically, why you have applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and/or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please tell us why you are interested in each of the campuses, schools, colleges, or programs to which you have applied. You may be focused or undecided, or simply open to the options within NYU's global network; regardless, we want to understand - Why NYU? (400 word maximum)
When I visited NYU this summer, I was thrilled to see a diverse community living and working together. I saw people from all over the world eating by international food trucks, playing the guitar in Washington Square, and discussing their classes outside Bobst Library. Once I could picture my daily life at NYU, I started my research. I discovered not only an undergraduate major in Educational Studies, but also over a dozen specialized programs. NYU’s extensive educational resources will enable me to achieve my goal of becoming a teacher for children from two through seven years of age, who have mental and physical disabilities.
My career goal has come out of my volunteer work the last five years with special needs students through the Careers in Teaching program. Only a well-prepared and educated teacher can empower special needs students to become self-driven and autonomous. As a primary school teacher with the right tools, I stand a chance of helping those children become self-sufficient and fulfilled adults.
I am applying for a dual major in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education at the NYU Steinhardt School because of the curriculum, which prepares teachers to understand developmental psychology as well as specialized pedagogy in literature, science, and math. The programs offer courses, such as “Principles & Strategies for Teaching Students with High Incidence Disabilities,” focusing on a variety of disabilities, such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. I particularly relish the intensive fieldwork of the program with four modules of “Student Teaching in Early Childhood Education” at local schools. Having many students with different disabilities, rather than just one or two isolated cases, in a culturally diverse classroom will provide the most challenging and rewarding practical experience.
In addition to my studies in Education, I have many extracurricular ambitions. I will continue to report for a newspaper, as I did in high school. Writing for the Washington Square News, I will raise awareness about learning disabilities. I will write about Autism and Down Syndrome, offering facts and background knowledge to promote an understanding of the behaviors that often cause alarm and fear. I will also audition for one of the many jazz ensembles organized at NYU, and would especially like to play saxophone for the Ralph Lalama Ensemble.
Some students think that you have to begin with an explanation of how you became interested in the school, starting with a virtual tour, a campus visit, a report from a friend who is a student there, or some other experience. That’s not true. In this case, however, it does help to give a frank description of how this student began to envision herself there. Then she found that the academic programs were also great matches for her. It is sincere without being hyperbolic. Eschew words like “perfect,” “the best,” or “amazing,” because it comes off as pandering. But do be honest in an understated way. Sincerity shows through.
Although this essay is not particularly an example of literary elegance, it covers all the bases. It does so in a way that shows the student has (1) done the homework on the school; (2) thought about her past experience and connected it to what she wants to study; and (3) has a clear idea of what she wants to do with her education. Again, while this third point may change while you are at university, one very important characteristic of a successful student is somebody who is able articulate a goal and then plan out the steps to get there. It’s also about being able to always see beyond the horizon at a career. However, I can tell you from experience, easily three quarters of students are unwilling to even do the first step: research the school in depth and find out if it is a good match for them.
This essay is not just an opportunity for a school to get to know you. It’s a helpful exercise to see if it is the right fit for you. Students who take this essay seriously will weed out schools during the application process. Think of what you are sparing yourself by doing the homework now: potentially four years at a school that does not offer what you need to get to the next phase of your life.
College Visualization Exercise
Do this visualization exercise before you put the first school on your list. It will guarantee that you are on your way to creating a Smart List.
Imagine you are living a day at your ideal college. This should be a lot of fun. Go somewhere comfortable and inspiring. You should not be staring at a cinder block wall or sitting on a crowded bus. Sit outside in a park on a sunny day, a garden, or a courtyard at your favorite museum. You can walk along the beach or lake or at a tranquil park for half an hour before to clear your head. Now sit down with your notebook (not your laptop or phone) and write with pen and paper at least a few sentences for each of the sections below.
What does your home there look like? Is it a dorm room or a shared apartment? Describe it in detail.
Do you walk or bike to a dining hall to eat breakfast, or do you commute on public transport? Describe the walk or ride to eat breakfast. What does the dining hall or place where you eat look like? Who is there? Where do you sit to eat and with whom?
Now imagine walking around your campus. What does it look like? Does it have modern buildings, red brick, or Gothic? What kind of people do you see on campus? Is it a diverse group of people, or is it more homogenous?
What is the weather like as you walk to your first class? Is it cold or warm, sunny or rainy?
Do you see trees and manicured lawns around you or are you walking on urban streets to class?
When you get to class, how large is the room? Does your professor say hello to you by name or do you slink in anonymously with a hoodie?
After you are done with classes, do you go play sports on a team? Or do you share a cab downtown with friends to a play or an art gallery exhibit opening? Describe your ideal after-class activities—not what you think you should be doing.
Do you go study in a big, old-fashioned library or in a café full of hipsters on their MacBooks?
Do you go to a gym on campus or work out at a crunchy neighborhood yoga center?
If it’s a weekend night are you heading to a frat or sorority party, partying in a trendy club, or going to a poetry reading in a stately hall?
By the time you finish this exercise you will be ready to create a list of schools that reflect the things that matter to you: urban, rural, or suburban? Cold or warm climate? Modern or traditional campus? Greek or Geek? A university that provides housing in small colleges with their own dining halls or that has big, high rise apartments in the city?
How Do I Organize My College List? Make a Smart List
Make a Smart List, not a list organized by chronological deadlines, alphabetically, or by school ranking. A Smart List is comprised of three short lists, ordered according to priority for you—not US News and World Report. Apply to safety schools first, then work down your list!
I would seem to be micro-managing my students by giving directives about how to organize their college lists. However, this small bit of organization is crucial. It is not an overstatement to say that how you organize your list may determine where you spend the next four years of your life—and beyond.
Why Organization Matters
Let me explain why. Many students whom I work with choose to ignore my advice about limiting the college list to 9-12 schools. After we collaborate on a twelve-school list, they add another half dozen or more schools. The final list may have fifteen or twenty schools. The consequence is that they erode their chances of getting into the “perfect match”schools by dissipating their time and energy on random schools.
By the time the later deadlines come—from mid January to March—the student will likely have run out of steam. At that point, he just starts taking schools off the list that have too many essays, difficult or new essay questions, or just on a whim. The rationale I am given at that point tends to be irrational or half-baked. A student may have spent months on the first three essays for the early action school to which he applied, but writes the last twenty essays for the remaining regular decision schools in two weeks. The essays are ill-conceived, full of grammatical errors and platitudes, and even include some spelling mistakes for good measure. The student rushes through the applications on the list in a tizzy and delivers essays that greatly reduce her chances of receiving an offer from the school.
You can see the problem here: the student will in all probability ruin his chances of getting into schools where he may have thrived. When April comes around, the applicant will receive 25% to 50% fewer offer letters than he would have with the Smart List. That “dream school” will just remain a dream.
How Do I Start?
How do you organize your list? The best way is to edit it down to 9-12 schools with 40% target schools, 40% reach schools, and 20% safety schools. You don’t have to put as many safety schools because the odds of getting into each of them is high. I recommend submitting an application to your state school, so you know you can count on that option. Also, choose a good private university with higher than 70% acceptance rate (they do exist!) for your second safety school. Your parents’ alma maters might also qualify as safety schools.
Secondly, do not just focus most of your energy on “reach” schools because unless you are in the top 10% of your class at a very elite private school (a so-called “feeder school”) or a highly selective public, magnet school, or your parents are alumni of that school, the probability of you getting in is not high enough that you should expend most of your energy on them. You should have target schools that you are excited about, and these should be the focus of your verve and vigor. It’s just not good strategy—or good self-care—to focus the greater part of your psychic energy on schools that are unlikely to be real possibilities.
Thirdly, apply to the safety schools first. You will only have two to three safety schools on the list, and more likely than not, they will have few or no essays (most university systems that have the word “state” in them don’t require essays). Apply in September or October to these so you can enjoy some emotional sanity. Psychologically, you will feel like you are on firmer footing knowing that you have options, which you actually like, and that you are confident will offer you a spot. If they have rolling admissions, even better: you will be applying to the remaining schools with confidence. Make sure the safety schools are places where you can see yourself being happy. If your safety schools are places the thought of which makes you break out into a cold sweat, the whole process of applying to colleges will be harrowing. You will be tyrannized by dread of four purgatorial years of penance for your high school sins, rather than joyfully anticipating the beginning of the rest of your life.
Four Easy Steps to Make Your Smart List
1. Apply to your safety schools in September or October!
2. Once you know which schools are your priority, put the five priority schools at the top of the list, regardless of the deadline. These include “reach” schools, but should be mainly “target” schools: 2/3 or 1/4 are good ratios of “reach” to “target.” Then take those five schools and order them by deadline. Remember, if both your parents went to Princeton, and you are in the top 10% of your class, then Princeton is a “target” school, regardless of the fact that for almost everybody else it is a “reach” school. If you are sixteen and already won a Pulitzer Prize, most likely everybody else’s “reach” will be your “target.” If you have been recruited by the head athletic coach of a university, that school will also likely be a “target.” If your parents are both professors at Williams, your chances are good enough of studying in the Berkshires that this #1-ranking college will also be a target. So, be careful that how you qualify a school is also adapted to your circumstances.
3. Create a second list of schools that are further down in your priorities. These are places that are not as good a match (based on the criteria from your ExecuTutor College Visualization Exercise and objective factors). Now organize these by deadline.
4. Create a final list of low priority schools. The last list should include schools where you have less than a 10% chance of being accepted (to determine this, read How Do I Know What My Chances Are?) and schools that are still good matches, but for whatever legitimate reason (weather, campus, part of the world, etc.), you are not as keen on.
Now that you have your Smart List sorted out, you can be sure that you will not short shrift good options because they have a later deadline, because their national ranking is lower than another school, or because they happen to begin with a W rather than a B. I realize most students will still work through their school list based on chronological deadline or national ranking, but the smart students will have more thick envelopes in their mailbox come April if they use a Smart List.
Choosing a University Based on Prestige Could be Wrong for You
The college admissions scandal—involving schools such as Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and USC—has received much attention from the media. However, nobody has looked into the soul of the matter, to uncover how going to a school based on its prestige alone can derail a student’s life. It may take a student off the path to self-discovery and building healthy self-esteem required to lead a fulfilling and productive life.
One of the more famous students in the college scandal, who had been admitted to her parents’ dream college, confessed that she really had only gone to party. You know you are at the wrong university or institute of higher education when you find yourself partying to the point where your studies are just a side note in your life; if you are paralyzed by depression and can’t get your work done; or, if you feel disconnected and isolated.
The difficulty in this is that all of these scenarios can be explained away through psychological reasons: the student is lacking in motivation without parental support, does not organize his or her time well, or is taking a while to adjust to being independent. While those may be valid in some cases, in my experience both as a student and as a lecturer at the university, the problem is often more one of driving a square peg into a round hole. There is a mismatch between the student and the school.
Sometimes, it is not the parents’ doing, as in the legal cases now on the national stage. Not all parents force their children to go to a university that has a prestige factor that correlates with their own idea of where they belong in society, or where they aspire to be. The student may think that a university letter of acceptance is a kind of “prize” that validates all of his efforts, confirms his intelligence, and opens up a door to the elite life he envisions for himself.
First, I am going to explain why not to choose a university based on prestige alone. Then, I am going to give a few examples of the exceptional situations when choosing a university based on prestige is okay. Finally, I am going to describe the process by which a student ultimately finds the education or experience that she needs to pursue a career that is truly fulfilling—without wasting years on the wrong path or settling for a career that pays the bills, but leaves her empty inside.
The Ivory Tower May Be Your Prison
Lauren graduated at the top of her class from a private school in the United States. She was accepted at Yale, Princeton, Williams, and a number of other famous schools. She decided to go to Yale based on the prestige and because they had a lively choral and “a capella” scene. She also dreamed of being a doctor, like her aunt. She had already spent several summers working for her aunt, learning about her medical specialty, and really loving it. She started at Yale with a pre-med focus. However, the sciences at Yale are extremely competitive, and the grade curve brought her marks down. At the end of her sophomore year, she had a C-average in her pre-med classes. That would not be good enough to get into a decent medical school, she thought. Demoralized, she dropped out of pre-med and pursued her major in the humanities. In the end, she went to law school, and became a lawyer for five years. Prestige continued to determine all her choices: she chose her career path—corporate law, her law school, and her law firm, all based on the social caché they carried. However, she hated the law and was extremely unhappy at her highbrow firm. Once she had children, she dropped her career altogether.
Isabella also got into a number of Ivy League schools, but opted to go to Yale. Originally from Colombia, she spent a lot of time as a teenager playing volleyball on the beach. She loved it, and it gave her energy for other things, such as studying. At Yale, the first division team was too good for her to compete on, so she gave up playing. She also had never experienced a northeastern winter or interacted much with New Englanders. Neither agreed with her personality and disposition.
She endured several semesters of serious depression, and had to leave at the end of her sophomore year to take time off. Although she graduated and did well in her classes, her undergraduate experience was an uphill battle. She left New Haven feeling she was never centered or stable enough to take advantage of what the university had to offer. She was always playing catch-up with late papers and did not go deep into research for her classes. Isabella was too stressed and unhappy to get involved in extracurricular activities. Instead of using her time at university to develop her interests, she graduated without any real conviction about what she wanted to do. She chose a career she was indifferent to and only worked at it for a few years. Like Lauren she abandoned her career path.
Lily was a student from a large Chinese city who had always wanted to go to a UC. Before she arrived on the UC Davis campus, she had given little thought to a major \ or where she wanted to be. At this large public university in the agricultural heartland of California, she found herself lost and unsupported. She didn’t like the small-town feel of Davis. She stopped going to class altogether. I lost touch with her, so I don’t know what ultimately happened. I do know she spent a great deal of time with a psychiatrist, who treated her for a supposed depression.
In all three of these cases, there was a mismatch between the school and the student. Either it was in the wrong part of the world, too big or too small, too competitive, or did not offer the support needed. Lauren wanted to be a doctor. When she arrived in New Haven, she knew what her passion was. Yale was a good place for her to explore her interest in singing, but didn’t help her fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. Had she gone to a school with less of a cutthroat pre-med program, she could have been a physician today. If she had not made all her decisions based on prestige, she would have pursued medicine by going to a medical school that was not famous. Isabella would have been happier in a southern school with a more agreeable climate where she could play volleyball outside most of the year. Things as simple as more sun and athletic opportunities and friendlier students would have provided the environment for her to thrive, rather than just survive. Lily did not take into account any of her needs. She underestimated the culture shock. She would have benefited from a more intimate college where a student would not get lost, most likely in an urban or international setting.
Just by being depressed and disconnected at a prestigious school, think of the people that Isabella and Lily never met and the opportunities they never pursued. They were never contented and confident enough to allow themselves to relax and go deep into their passion. By being fixated on the status of the school she attended, the career path she pursued, and the company she worked for, Lauren never became a doctor.
When is Prestige a Good Thing?
For some, choosing the prestigious school might be the right choice. I know a man who did not get into any of the schools he wanted to attend, but was accepted at Stanford. Both his parents had gone there and donated generously, so he was accepted as a “legacy” applicant. He was going to pursue a public career, and the kinds of elite social connections he could make at Stanford would make a big difference in achieving his ambitions. Given the limited choices he had for college and the nature of his chosen career, Stanford was a good option. Another example is a student who wants to purse academia as a professor or university administrator. Academics are extremely label conscious, and in order to get into a prestigious graduate school, coming from an elite undergraduate program is often important. A little known fact is that the top universities in this country usually offer full financial aid to students of parents whose income is below a fairly high threshold. So, if you were choosing between free tuition at Princeton and paying full fare at George Washington University, then Princeton would most likely be a better choice—at least financially. Finally, there are those pursuing jobs in investment banking or finance for whom a degree from a top university can prove highly advantageous.
For a select number of careers, prestige may be the necessary key to open a vocational door. The same key is simply not required for a majority of careers. That is a fact!
The Road Less Taken
In many cases, a choice based on the prestige of a university is simply not a good idea. It might result in a career path not taken, an arduous and unpleasant climb, social isolation, self-doubt, and opportunities missed. It may actually limit opportunities, rather than opening doors. Worse, a student can come away from the experience believing that he is not really passionate about anything, so why not just take the road more traveled and follow the money? That path seldom leads to happiness.
I also know some real life examples of people who, early on, were considered failures by their families. Karen never did well in school. She graduated high school with a C+ average and was the type of person who always complained about being bored. She did not know what she was good at or even what she enjoyed. However, because her parents both went to an elite university, she was accepted under the lower admissions standards of a “legacy” applicant at Rice University in Houston. Rather than matriculate, she disappointed her parents still further by enrolling at a community college near home. She took classes in business and didn’t like them. She quit school and became a bartender. She took pleasure in the conversations that she had with her customers at the pub. Then her mother got early-onset Alzheimer’s, and Karen decided to help take care of her mother. She discovered a calling in health care, and went back to community college. Now she had a focus. In the end, she became a nurse, working three twelve-hour shifts each week. She continued bartending as well on the other days, and she is one of the happiest people I know.
When Leila was a senior in high school, she already knew she wanted to become a doctor. Everybody around her thought she was not academic enough to achieve the grades it took to be accepted into medical school. Although she was offered a place at Barnard, she instead chose an obscure school that also had a very good record for getting students into medical school. Nevertheless, she didn’t get into any American medical schools. So, she decided to attend a reputable medical school abroad. She surprised everybody and became a neurologist and now has a practice in New York. She chose her own path and reached her desired goal, regardless of her family’s opinion.
Be Open…Cast a Wide Net
Higher education should be a gate to doing what you want to do. It shouldn’t be about impressing others. Ultimately, even if you get that degree from a top-20 university, if it erodes your self-worth or makes you unhappy, you will be missing invaluable life opportunities. You may also not end up doing what fulfills you. Rather than allow yourself to be derailed, consider all kinds of options and cast the net wide: small liberal arts colleges, technical schools, art schools, and even a community college. A prestigious school can indeed open some doors for you. However, if you are unhappy and unfocused the whole time, more than likely, it will close more doors than it opens. You deserve to find the perfect “key” to the rest of your life.
Jeffrey Weiner holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Masters from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from UC Berkeley. He has taught literature at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. He currently is president of ExecuTutor, a company specializing in preparing students to identify their university of choice and successfully navigate the admissions process. For more information, contact Jeffrey directly at www.execututor.com.
Choosing Your Colleges: A Primer for Parents and Students
There are two things to remember about coming up with a senior’s college list: most parents’ ideas about universities are at the very least twenty years outdated, and most students are only familiar with a handful of the most recognizable names. Well-intentioned parents can influence their student's ideas about where to go to school in ways that are ultimately not in their kid's best interest.
The list is the first step in giving your student the opportunity to arrive on a campus next fall that is the best match for personality, academic interests, and abilities. Having the right assortment of schools from the beginning ensures that your student will have the best shot at being happy and productive.
Why?
When we come up with a group of prospective schools based on outdated knowledge, misguided ideas about prestige, and misinformation about relative cost, it is all too likely that you won’t come up with the best list. Your student will just need to make do rather than thrive at one of these universities. So, here is my advice for students and parents. These are separate lists, but students and parents should read both of them.
Parents:
1. Update your information. When I was applying to colleges in the early 90’s many of the schools that are now highly selective were much easier to get into, had smaller endowments, and therefore their reputations were modest. Carnegie Mellon, which now boasts some of the best departments in the country, was a shoo-in if you were an above average student. It was the same for New York University, Barnard College, Boston University, Emory, and Rice. But all that has changed. It’s not just because there are more students applying to college. These universities have had large investment in their facilities, faculty, and endowment. They attract better faculty because they have more money to dispense. Departments get better and more prestigious when they have the money to attract the best faculty. The end result: more students apply for a limited number of slots and the school moves into the highly selective or extremely selective category. But people in my generation or older will often come to the table with outdated information that misleads them.
2. Don’t fall prey to prestige myths. If you never knew the school existed, you probably think that the fault is with the school for not being famous enough to be on your radar. You will hear this over and over, and chances are you will disregard the advice unless you understand why this is wrong-headed. If your son or daughter plans on going to graduate or professional school, there is usually data available on a school’s success rates at placing their students in medical, law, or graduate school. I counseled a student who was a devout Christian, and her priorities were a school in a bucolic college town, a faith-centered curriculum, pre-medical course offerings with hands-on opportunities, and a chance to play on an athletic team (but she wasn’t good enough for Division I sports). So, I put together a list that reflected all those priorities. However, her parents' number one choice for her was based on prestige myths derived from people they knew. The school they wanted their child to apply early decision was very urban, secular, was designated Division I for athletics, and did not have the best offerings for the pre-medical track. In other words, they chose the opposite of all of her priorities. The parents preferred the school because they thought since it possessed overall prestige she would have a better chance of getting into a medical school. In fact, there are faith-centered schools with even higher success rates placing their students in medical school. So, what was the point?
3. Look at specific departments and their course offerings. If your son has been volunteering as a teaching assistant, taking education courses at the local community college, and willingly spent two summers teaching disabled children, why would you prioritize a school with no Education major? I had such a case. The student had a mediocre GPA, all 3’s and one 4 on the Advanced Placement exams, and an above average, but not outstanding, SAT score. Where he excelled was in his commitment to education. His parents wanted him at a U.C. because of the system’s reputation—even though no campus offers an Education major. It didn’t make sense to prioritize a public university system with rigid acceptance criteria. The student didn’t meet most of these criteria. Moreover, given the fact that their son had already shown a steadfast commitment to education, it seemed particularly important to be steadfast in pursuing his passion. In the end, given that tuition cost was not an issue for the family, I was able to persuade the parents to apply early decision to a private university. This school stood out because of its very specific course offerings in early childhood development and special education, which were the student's particular focus. The school didn’t meet some of the criteria on the student’s wish list, but it was a better compromise than a U.C. with no education major any way you looked at it.
4. Be clear about cost. As a counselor, one of the first things I have to explain is cost. A fancy private university, like Yale, they assume would have to be prohibitively expensive if an okay school like George Washington University is as costly as it is. That could not be further from the truth. Schools like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Duke all offer zero tuition to students whose household income is under $60-125,000 per year, depending on the school. Some, like Princeton, even pay for room and board. It means that talented students from relatively affluent households, as well as those who are disadvantaged, can attend Princeton for less than it costs to attend community college. Likewise, many small liberal arts colleges and large universities with big endowments offer many of their own scholarships and funding opportunities. The bottom line: don’t choose a school based solely on the sticker price. And definitely don’t make the choice based on assumptions rather than real information.
Students:
1. Do this visualization before anything else. Imagine you are living a day in your ideal college. What does the place you live in look like? Is it a dorm room or a shared apartment? Do you walk or bike to a dining hall to eat breakfast, or do you commute on public transport? Perhaps you are driving the car your parents gave you for your high school graduation. Do you meet friends in a café near campus? What does your campus look like? Does it have modern buildings, red brick, or Gothic? What kind of people do you see on campus? Is it a diverse group of people, or is it more homogenous? What is the weather like as you walk to your first class? Is it cold or warm, sunny or rainy? Do you see trees and manicured lawns around you or are you walking on urban streets to class? When you get to class, how large is the room? Does your professor say hello to you by name or do you slink in anonymously with a hoodie? After you are done with classes, do you go play sports on a team? Or do you share a cab downtown with friends to a play or an art gallery exhibit opening? Do you go study in a big, old-fashioned library or in a café full of hipsters on their MacBooks? Do you go to a gym on campus or at a crunchy neighborhood yoga center? If it’s a weekend night are you heading to a frat or sorority party, partying in a trendy club, or going to a poetry reading in a stately hall?
By the time you finish this exercise you will be ready to create a list of the things that matter to you: urban, rural, or suburban? Cold or warm climate? Modern or traditional campus? Greek or Geek? A university that provides housing in small colleges with their own dining halls or that has big, high rise apartments in the city?
2. Be honest with yourself. Take stock of what you know you like studying and not what you think you should like. If you aren’t certain about what kind of career you will pursue, then think about which activities outside school you enjoy, as well as which subjects you did best in and were effortless for you. If you really love animals and science, then a school like U.C. Davis would be a better match for you than Stanford. Although the latter is ranked overall much higher, Davis has unparalleled offerings in veterinary science and agriculture. If you love literature, then consider a school that has a number of well-developed literature departments, a creative writing program, or a school of journalism. The more course options that exist in your various areas of interest, the more options you will have once you are enrolled as a student.
3. Do the homework for your parents. Provide your parents with information on the department(s) that interests you at a school, the course offerings, and rankings. This kind of hard data will help persuade otherwise obstinate parents to make a choice based on information rather than misinformation or outdated ideas they may have.
4. Get to know your first choice school. Consider going to summer school, if it is offered, at your favorite school. Many schools like Yale, Cambridge, and University of Virginia offer summer programs for high school students. It gives you the opportunity to see if you actually click with a school once you get there. If the courses are taught by regular faculty, it will also give you a chance to do well and get a recommendation from a professor at that school. It’s a win-win proposition.
5. This is about you, not your parents, not your friends. Remember, the next four years are the only, or one of the only, times when you can be this self-centered. At no other point in your life will you have fewer responsibilities or worries. With that in mind, make it the best four years you possibly can by choosing the right place for you. Don’t succumb to the pressure from your friends or parents to apply to schools that don't fulfill most of your criteria.
6. Dream, but be realistic. Realistic does not mean abandoning your criteria and settling for mediocre. It means that your list possesses a range from more selective to less selective. These schools, whether harder or easier for you to get into, reflect all or most of the things that matter to you. If your college list is all Ivy League schools and then two more down-to-earth options that you are ambivalent about, then you don’t have a good list. You should have three or four schools that will be a reach for you either because they are extremely selective or because the average for GPA and exams is either the same as yours, or a little above; two or three that you have a decent chance of getting into, but nothing is sure; and two schools that you have an extremely good chance of being accepted to because your scores and grades are far above the average for that school. There are a number of schools that will be a perfect match for you in all those categories, from your “reach” school to the “safety” school.
a. Be realistic about finances as well. If you find yourself in the awkward situation of having parents who are well-off but don’t want to pay for an expensive private school, and you are under 24, you will not be able to get need-based scholarships or loans. There are exceptions made in certain situations, for example if you were to become orphaned or marry. There are, however, many schools that offer merit-based scholarships regardless how much your parents might earn. If your parents have limited means, then you will qualify for scholarships and loans, but you should think hard before putting yourself into massive debt. 50-60K per year for four years is a lot of money to pay back.
i. Again, there are caveats. If you are going into education or non-profit you can get into a loan forgiveness program where you will pay back the loan through an income-driven repayment program. When ten years of full time employment end, you will be freed of your debt even if you paid back way less than the principal you borrowed. However, if you are working for little outside of education or non-profit, say as an actor, a fine arts painter, or a barista, you will be saddled with the debt for decades. However, you should know that income-driven plans will save you from total ruin by generally only siphoning off 10% of your income. [See the cautionary tales of taking out too much debt in Consumer Reports]
The solution? Chances are you can find a very good public university at a fraction of the cost of a private university or a public university outside your home state. You will come out with minimal to no debt. The worst-case scenario is you spend one or two years in community college to shave off the cost of four full years at an expensive school. Then transfer to a four-year university that meets all your criteria. You may also choose to establish residence in a state with strong public universities, and then apply after you have been living their the required time period (1-2 years, depending). In the meantime you can enroll in community college, get an internship in your prospective field, and work.
7. Don’t eliminate schools because of early deadlines. That’s a terrible reason for weeding out schools. Get organized early so you don’t miss out on what might have been a very good fit.
8. Don’t rule out schools that have funny names. I am not being trying to be cheeky here. Swarthmore, Skidmore, Gonzaga, and Grinnell are all good schools with unfortunate names. A name can affect our opinion unconsciously or consciously.
9. Don’t be afraid to leave your state, your time zone, or even your country. I have a student who really wants to study fashion. The best possible place for her would be in London at Central St. Martin’s, which has turned out more hot young designers than all the other fashion schools combined. However, she and her parents took it off the list because they thought a school in London would be exorbitantly expensive and there was a psychological block to being so far away. The perceived sense of distance and the misinformation about cost would have eliminated her best choice. The reality is that the cost of student housing in London is on par with expensive cities like Berkeley, Palo Alto, and New York City, and the tuition is actually less than their top choices in New York City. As for distance, London is certainly much further away from California than Manhattan, but if the student is only traveling home a few times a year, it doesn't make that much of a difference.
These guidelines help us use reason and data to make the best choices. Choosing colleges is as much an emotional as an academic decision. Today more parents evaluate how well they did as parents by the reputation of the college that their children will be attending. For students, it also sets an indelible mark on the beginning of their journey to adulthood. You and your student can collaborate on this together and help each other make a list that reflects your student’s abilities, personality, and academic interests. Ultimately, finding colleges that fulfill these three categories is what will allow your student to thrive in college and beyond.