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This is part of a series of posts providing advice you can use when completing The Common Application for 2011. You can find the entire series, including tips for the Common App’s required essays and advice on completing the activities section at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-common-application-tips.

Several colleges offer applicants the opportunity to submit a personal letter of recommendation.  For Duke University, it’s an optional letter from a parent, sibling, relative or friend.  Dartmouth College is a bit more restrictive, requiring a letter from one of your peers.

How should you approach this portion of the application?  Should you send something at all?  In the case of the Duke application, consider sending a letter if you feel that it will enhance you application and add a different information from what you have already provided.

One year, an applicant submitted a letter from his mother with his application.  At the time, I was reviewing applications for Washington University, and the letter stood out, as it was completely unsolicited. (It was probably also written for another college, which was fine.)  The mother, well she made a compelling argument for her son, beginning with the obvious statement, “that I am his mother, and of course I think that he is wonderful.”  In subsequent paragraphs, she went further, offering anecdotes about how her son interacted with others and addressed problems.  She acknowledged his weaknesses, “he spends more time on the computer than we would like.”  The key to her recommendation was its focus on the student with the supportive anecdotes providing new perspective.

In a peer recommendation, a student supported her classmate by calling her experimental, and referred to their trip to a Japanese restaurant where the applicant ordered squid and eel, leaving the writer to timidly order fried vegetables. This student wrote a short — 3 paragraphs — letter, but she covered the nature of their relationships and personal experiences that brought the candidate to life.  

Perhaps the most important thing you can do in submitting one of these letters, is find a writer who is truly willing to spend the time it takes to write a focussed, specific, and interesting letter that will enhance your candidacy.

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Here is the U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best national universities. There are really no surprises here.

Top 10 Universities

1. Harvard University

2. Princeton University

3. Yale University

4. Columbia University

5. Stanford University (tied)

5. University of Pennsylvania (tied)

7. California Institute of Technology (tied)

7. Massachusetts institute of Technology (tied)

9. Dartmouth College (tied)

9. Duke University (tied)

9. University of Chicago (tied)

Here are some of the other new rankings, offering a bit more variety:

Top 10 Colleges with the Lowest Acceptance Rates

1. Curtis Institute of Music (5%)

2. Cooper Union (7%)

3. Harvard University (7%)

4. Yale University (8%)

5. Juilliard School (8%)

6. Stanford University (8%)

7. College of the Ozarks (9%)

8. Alice Lloyd College (9%)

9. United States Naval Academy (10%)

10. Columbia University (10%)

Top 10 Colleges that Offer the Best Value

1. Yale University (54.3% receive aid; average discount is 73%)

2. Harvard University (60% receive aid; average discount is 72%)

3. Princeton University (58.7% receive aid; average discount is 69%)

4. MIT (62.2% receive aid; average discount is 68%)

5. Stanford University (49.4% receive aid, average discount is 69%)

6. Columbia University (49.2% receive aid; average discount is 66%)

7. Dartmouth College (53% receive aid; average discount is 66%)

8. California Institute of Technology (54.6% receive aid; average discount is 66%)

9. Duke University (41% receive aid; average discount is 63%)

10. Cornell University (44.7% receive aid; average discount is 61%)

Other rankings include: the schools with the highest diversity ratings and the schools with the highest graduation rates.  

You may also want to check out the rankings methodology section—the articles in this section will shed light upon how U.S. News came to their conclusions. It is also important that you understand that there is no way any “official rankings” can mirror your own priorities and values in a college education. You need to create your own set of criteria and then choose schools based on those criteria. U.S. News rankings (or any other rankings) should never replace that process. These rankings do, however, serve as a tremendous warehouse of data that you can draw on when starting to research and compare programs. It is a fine place to start your research and a terrible place to end it.

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While the weather outside may suggest otherwise, fall is right around the corner, and those college application due dates are going to start sneaking up on you before you know it….

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This is part of a series of posts providing advice you can use when completing The Common Application for 2011. You can find the entire series, includng tips for the Common App’s required essays and advice on completing the activities section at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-common-application-tips.

As one of the most selective colleges in the country, many students apply to Harvard, yet only a small percentage receive an offer of admission.  Harvard College could admit an entire class of students with 4.0 GPAs and 2400 SAT scores.  They don’t.  Yes, their admitted students present outstanding academic qualifications.  They are well-rounded extracurricularly, or they are, in the words of Harvard “well-lopsided.”  Either way, students at Harvard are actively engaged in something, whether it is many things, or one thing.  

Here are a few tips for completing your Harvard application: 

• The suggested deadline is December 1 for all candidates.  Try to meet it, rather than the final deadline of January 1.  While you might want to consider utilizing the December or January test dates to finish your testing (Harvard will accept them), having the bulk of your application submitted will allow more time for scheduling your alumni interview, and for you to tie up any missing recommendations.  
• Harvard requires the ACT with writing or the SAT exam.  They also require 2 SAT II subject tests in different subjects, and encourage the submission of additional scores.  If you have strong scores in additional subject tests, or on AP or IB exams, add that information to your application.  For many students, scores on the SAT or ACT increase if you have taken the test for a second time.  With score choice, you can try a second time without adversely affecting your application.  Take the test a second time.  A tenth time?  Unless something has changed dramatically that will improve your scores, spend your time on other pursuits.
• The Harvard supplement does not require an additional essay, however, you may choose to submit one on the topic of your choice.  Before you feel compelled to fill blank space, be certain that you will enhance your application by adding additional information.  For instance, they mention that you might include a list of books that you have read in the last 12 months.  If you spend substantial time reading for pleasure or intellectual engagement, this might prove compelling insight on your application.  If your list outside of AP English includes only a few bestsellers and a Chicken Soup for the Soul, consider the reader of your application.  One extra page, times 30,000 applicants, means you best have something meaningful to say.

Harvard accepts the Common Application or the Universal College Application.  You can find the Harvard supplement with each.

 By Whitney Bruce, who has worked in college admissions since 1996. She has served as an Senior Assistant Director of Admissions (Washington U), Application Reader (University of Michigan), Assistant Director of College Counseling (private prep school in St. Louis), and an independent college counselor. She is happy to advise you as you apply to college.

Save 10% off any non-rush college application advising and editing with our early bird special. Enter BA10 at checkout and save. The special ends August 31!

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• An Inside Higher Ed article, “Era Ends for 3 Subject Test Requirements,” bids farewell to the SAT II test (also known as “achievement tests” or “subject tests”) at most universities. William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, explains that “the university decided to stop requiring three subject tests because the writing test on the main part of the SAT has turned out to be a valid predictor of grads, just the way the subject tests are.” Only Canada’s University of Toronto still requires three subject tests. Other schools, like Stanford and Georgetown, may encourage applicants to take the SAT IIs, but do not require that they do so.
• Average ACT scores took a downward turn this year, yet more students have proven that they are prepared for college by surpassing the test’s four “college preparedness” benchmarks, reports a U.S. News article last week. According to Cynthia Schmeiser, ACT’s president and COO, these seemingly contradictory findings actually show progress. “It’s slow progress,” she says, but “[w]e are headed in the right direction.” Overall, readiness in math and science is up, while readiness for college-level English is down.
• A Chronicle article discusses the results of an Education Trust report that reveals disparities in college graduation rates among white, black, and Hispanic students at private and public universities. 60% of white students earn degrees within six years of beginning college, while only 49% of Latino students and 40% of black students complete school within that same timeframe. Schools that have made efforts to close this gap “have achieved smashing success…while others have records of shocking irresponsibility.” The message here, according to the Chronicle article, is that “what colleges do for students of color powerfully impacts the futures of these young people and that of our nation.”
• Graduates from Ivy League institutions are 4% more likely to repay their student loans, reports an NPR article, “Ivy Grads Outperform Their Public-School Colleagues on Loan Repayment.” Harvard topped the repayment list with an 84% average pay back rate (Harvard Business School’s repayment rate is even higher at 88%). For the “public Ivies,” the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the College of William and Mary tied for first place at 79%. On the lower end of the spectrum, Brown University came in at 63% and Miami University of Ohio at 62%.

Related Accepted.com College Resources:

• Essays that Stick, a free, instantly viewable or downloadable webinar
• 5 Fatal Flaws, a free, 5-day email course

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This is part of a series of posts providing advice you can use when completing The Common Application for 2011. You can find the entire series, including tips for the Common App’s required essays and advice on completing the activities section at http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/tag/2011-common-application-tips.

To me, Princeton has one of the more interesting applications.  Like Harvard, they eliminated early action/early decision, instead requesting materials in mid-December with a final January 1st deadline.  The Princeton supplement really allows students to become a person in front of the reader.  The section entitled “A Few Details” has been there for years, and applicants can truly address the categories in just a few words.  Complete sentences and lots of explanation aren’t necessary or even encouraged.   Resist the urge to be someone you are not in this section.  As a Princeton applicant, you are no doubt intelligent, passionate, and accomplished.  Be that same intelligent, passionate, accomplished teenager in this section.  Your answers to these details need not all be highbrow, super-intellectual, SAT-word answers.  

In its longer writing sample, Princeton offers four choices for candidates to write one essay of about 500 words.  

1.  Tell us about a person who has influenced you in a significant way. 

• This question overlaps with the Common Application essay, and it is obviously crucial that your answer to this question not overlap with your previous essay.  If your primary Common Application essay addresses this question, select a different topic for the supplemental essay.  With this topic, it is easy to tell the reader a lot about the person who has influenced you, yet miss the opportunity to explain how that person’s influence has impacted you.  A strong essay does both.  

2. Using the statement below as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.

“Princeton in the Nation’s Service” was the title of a speech given by Woodrow Wilson on the 150th anniversary of the University. It became the unofficial Princeton motto and was expanded for the University’s 250th anniversary to “Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”

Woodrow Wilson, Princeton Class of 1879, served on the faculty and was Princeton’s president from 1902–1910.

3. Using the following quotation from “The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society” as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.”

Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University

 4.Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation at the beginning of your essay.

•  The final three topics all address one point “tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world.”  Each of these questions is asking you, the applicant, to tell a story. Pick an experience, large or small, that impacted you, and share it with the admissions committee.  Once you have told your story, ensure that you address its impact on you.  Your options in this question allow you to address this in any number of ways, from the most macro, global event, to a smaller, more personal moment.

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This fall, 228,994 veterans will attend 4,400 colleges and universities using new federal benefits, as well as taking advantage of new school-sponsored tuition assistance programs, reports a Washington Post article.

1,100 colleges have teamed up with the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer veterans tuition reductions. Different schools are pledging different amounts for subsidies. For example, Harvard plans on offering 50 undergrads $3,000 each and 20 law school students $20,000 each for the upcoming school year. Texas A&M will contribute 25 undergraduate veterans with $12,000. American University will give 24 undergraduates up to $13,800 each.

The Yellow Ribbon program, part of a relatively new GI Bill that was passed last year, will cover the cost of in-state tuition at state schools and will offer dollar-for-dollar subsidies at private and state schools, matching whatever tuition aid the school provides with government money.

The bill, which applies across the board at four-year institutions and community colleges, also promises stipends that cover housing, books, and supplies.

This year, the GI Bill will be expanded to include tuition benefits to spouses or children of veterans. In other words, a veteran can transfer his or her benefits to a spouse or child for up to 15 years post-service.

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• MBA Admissions: Military MBAs Have Lessons for All MBAs
• Financing Your Future: Winning Fellowships, Scholarships and Awards for Grad School, an instantly downloadable ebook

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The Common Application was posted for download on August 1 just after midnight. At 3:30 AM, NYU had received its first application, mere hours after the form went live, reports a New York Times The Choice blog post. The applicant, Cree Bautista, 17, of Austin, Texas, said he wanted to get the application done quickly and that he wanted to prove his interest in NYU by being the first to submit an application.

This caused a number of top adcoms to speak out against rushing college applications.

For many undergraduate programs, applications aren’t due until January, sometimes even later. According to NYU’s incoming dean of undergraduate admissions, Shawn Abbott, NYU likely “won’t even download [applications] until months from now. It’s not a horse race.”

In the first week after the Common Application went up, close to 1,000 applications had already been filled out and submitted, almost four times more than during last year’s comparable period.

A commenter posting to the blog post points out that Cree’s early submission may prove to be worthwhile—”he received some publicity and thus, the always important ‘edge.’ Plus he did something for NYU (publicity), so now they owe him—a little.”

Maybe.

Tomian, that same commenter, also points out the “daunting” fact that a 400% increase in Common Applications this early in the game can’t bode well for applicants.

If it keeps up at this rate, than that will certainly be true. It will be harder this year than ever before for applicants to sharpen their competitive edges and gain acceptance to top colleges in the U.S.

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