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Can Less Mean More In College Application Race?
Can Less Mean More In College Application Race?
- 23% of high school seniors applied to six or more colleges last year, a huge jump from 13% in 2000
- The process should be fun, not stressful. It’s a time to learn about yourself and develop life skills like decision-making, researching, interviewing and networking.
- The more colleges in play, the harder it is to write quality essays or get even basic information right.
Stanford Educational Studies Program (ESP)
Welcome to the Stanford Educational Studies Program!
We run Splash!, the program that brings high and middle school students from everywhere to Stanford’s campus for a two-day learning extravaganza. Classes are taught by Stanford undergraduates, graduate students, and other community members.
Life at Penn State – Going from a Gael to a Nittany Lion « OneDublin.org
Life at Penn State – Going from a Gael to a Nittany Lion « OneDublin.org.
A personal experience of a Dublin High student (class of 2010).
Book: Competitive Colleges (29th Edition)
Understanding the College Admission Process – Ted Spencer, Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Michigan (p. 2)
- Gathering Information
- catalogs
- brochures
- pamphlets
- DVDs
- website
- other helpful sources
- High School Counselors
- Parents
- College Day/Night/Fairs Visitation
- 5 major areas to know:
- Academic preparation
- The admission process
- Financial aid
- Social life
- Job preparation
- 5 major areas to know:
- Alumni
- Campus Visits
- The Admission Process
- Admission Criteria
- your academic record and skills
- Does the college or university require standardized tests – the ACT or SAT? Do they prefer one or the other, or will they accept either?
- Do they require SAT Subject Tests and, if so, which ones?
- Are Advanced Placement scores accepted and, if so, what are the minimums needed?
- In terms of grades and class rank, what is the profile of typical entering student?
- Type of admission notification:
- rolling system – within several weeks of applying
- deferred system – notification is generally made in the Spring
- The Application
- Read the application to learn the following:
- Is there an application fee and, if so, how much is it?
- Is there a deadline and, if so, when is it?
- What standardized tests are required?
- Is an essay required?
- Is an interview required?
- Should you send letters of recommendation?
- How long will it take to find out the admission decision?
- What other things can you do to improve your chances for admission?
- Submit your application early.
- Read the application to learn the following:
- Transcripts
- Required Course Work
- Challenging Courses
- expectation of most selective colleges: 7 or more honors classes or 4 or more AP courses during their 4 years in high school
- important that you make good grades in those courses
- Transcript Trends
- performance in upward or downward trend
- develop good academic habits
- Freshmen – you are in the college-preparatory track
- Sophomore – choose more demanding courses; become more involved in extracurricular activities; balance your academic and extracurricular commitments – most critical and telling year
- Junior – 2nd most important year – at the end of your junior year, many colleges will know enough about the type student you are to make their admission decision.
- Senior – Upward and positive trend must continue - almost all selective schools review the final transcript, so your last year needs to show a strong performance to the end.
- Admission Criteria
- The Application Review Process
- 1st reviewed by non-counseling staff to determine if your have completed the application properly.
- Reader Review
- each application is read by two or more admission staff members and in some cases, faculty members are also readers.
- if all readers agree on the decision, a letter is sent.
- if the readers do not agree, the application will be reviewed by a committee or may be forwarded to an associate dean, dean, or directory of admission for final decision.
- Committee Review
- a committee member is assigned a number of applications to present.
- that person will prepare background information on each applicant and then present the file to the committee for discussion and a vote.
- Counselor Review
- many selective public institutions use this process
- the counselor responsible for a particular school or geographical territory makes the final decision.
- the same counselor is also the one who identified and recruited the student, thereby lending a more personal tone to the process.
- Computer Generated Review
- many large state universities use this process
- if applicants meet the required GPA and test scores, they are immediately notified of the decision.
- Word of Advice
- exploring as many college opportunities as you can
- avoid focusing on just one college or, one type of college
- take advantage of every available resource
- build a checklist of what you want our of the college experience and then match your list with one of the many wonderful colleges and universities
California Bay Area – Selected High Schools & School Districts
# |
County |
Website |
Accountability Progress Report |
| 01 | Alameda | URL | APR |
| 07 | Contra Costa | URL | APR |
| 38 | San Francisco | URL | APR |
| 41 | San Mateo | URL | APR |
| 43 | Santa Clara | URL | APR |
# |
School District |
Website |
Accountability Progress Report |
Cty # |
| D01 | Dublin Unified | URL | APR | 01 |
| F01 | Fremont Unified | URL | APR | 01 |
| L01 | Livermore Valley Joint Unified | URL | APR | 01 |
| P01 | Piedmont City Unified | URL | APR | 01 |
| P02 | Pleasanton Unified | URL | APR | 01 |
| A01 | Acalanes Union High | URL | APR | 07 |
| M01 | Mt. Diablo Unified | URL | APR | 07 |
| S01 | San Ramon Valley Unified | URL | APR | 07 |
| S02 | San Francisco Unified | URL | APR | 38 |
| F02 | Fremont Union High | URL | APR | 43 |
| G01 | Gilroy Unified | URL | APR | 43 |
| L02 | Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union | URL | APR | 43 |
| M02 | Milpitas Unified | URL | APR | 43 |
| M03 | Mountain View-Lost Altos Union | URL | APR | 43 |
| P03 | Palo Alto Unified | URL | APR | 43 |
Note: All APRs are linked to 2008-09 Accountability Progress Reporting available on CA Department Education API website.
How many people get perfect 2400 in SAT test?
According to this article, “Over 100 Score Perfect 2400 in New SAT”:
- as the 300,000 students who took the first sitting of the new test March 12, 2005 began receiving scores, the College Board reported that 107 scored a perfect 800 on each of the three sections – writing, critical reading and math. [That is 1 out of 2803, 0.000356%]
- Of the 1.4 million 2004 high school graduates who took the old SAT, 939 scored a then-perfect 1600 [That is 1 out of 1490, 0.00067%]
According to this article, “Michigan Teen Gets Perfect Scores On SAT, PSAT, ACT Tests” (April 27, 2009):
- The College Board has reported that roughly 1 in every 5,000 students taking the SAT gets a perfect score.
- The ods for the PSAT are 1 in every 1,000
- 17-year old Willa Chen, a senior at Canton High School in Canton, Michigan, has made history by getting a perfect score on all 3 of her exams (PSAT, SAT, and ACT).
According to this article, “Willa Chen scores perfect on her ACT, SAT and PSAT”:
- The College Board reports approximately one student in 5,000 taking the SAT gets a perfect score of 2,400, while the odds are a little better, one in 1,000, on the PSAT, The Detroit News reported.
- The other major college entrance test, the ACT, which comes from a contending organization, states the odds of a perfect finish are one in 14,000.
According to this article, “How many people have gotten a perfect score on the SAT”:
- Of the 1.5 million students who took the SAT in 2008, only 294 students earned a perfect score.
According to this article, “Four area students score 2400 on SAT — perfect” (September 5, 2009):
- Profile for: Tom Hui is a self-described video game lover. Michelle Liu calls herself a nerd. Marissa Pan simply likes books, and Tanya Nguyen prefers balance in her life.
- What do they have in common? All scored 2400 on the SAT, putting them in the elite company of 297 nationwide and 10 in Georgia earning perfect scores last year (2008).
According to this article, “Perfect score on the SAT?” (link to PDF file):
- 294 college bound seniors out of a total of 1,518,176 who took the test in the year 2008 got 2400
- 5683 college bound seniors out of a total of 1,518,176 who took the test in the year 2008 got 2300 or more
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Education Funding
Is CA ranked 47th or 25th?
10 Facts About K-12 Education Funding
Interactive Map: Title I Education Grants
Comparing California (June 2008)
Analysis of the 2008-09 Budget Bill: Education – Per-Pupil Funding
Getting the Facts Straight on Per Pupil Spending in California (Posted on April 03, 2008)
The Census Bureau report strongly refutes the oft-cited “fact” that California is near the bottom in per-pupil school spending. The national average was $9,138 in 2005-06. California was at $8,486, with New York the highest at $14,884 and Utah the lowest at $5,437 – one of 22 states, in fact, that fell below California’s level.
In terms of school revenues, California was 25th among the states at $10,264 per pupil, just under the national average. It was above average in per-pupil income from federal and state sources and about $1,700 per pupil below average in local revenues, thanks to Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax limit measure.
Per-pupil spending rankings all relative
Why are the rankings so different?
Education Week adjusts per-pupil spending to reflect regional variations in cost of living, particularly teacher salaries, and the National Education Association does not.
Both start with similar spending in California during fiscal 2004-05. Education Week uses federal data, $7,905 per pupil; the NEA uses its own data, $7,942 per pupil.
Then Education Week applies a 1990 federal “geographic cost of education index” that drops California from 30th to 46th at $7,081 per pupil, well below the national average of $8,973 per pupil.
Spending more than $12,000 per pupil in Education Week‘s ranking are New York, New Jersey, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Below California are Idaho, Arizona and, at the bottom, Utah at $5,463 per pupil.
Per-pupil spending in public schools (2001-2002)
National Per Student Public School Spending Nears $9,000 (US Census – May 24, 2007)
The nation’s public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.
New York spent $14,119 per student — the highest amount among states and state equivalents. Just behind was neighboring New Jersey at $13,800, the District of Columbia at $12,979, Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Seven of the top 10 with the highest per pupil expenditures were in the Northeast.
Utah spent the least per student ($5,257), followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). All 10 of the states with the lowest spending per student were in the West or South.
Education spending, per pupil, apples to apples
More spending doesn’t equal more learning
Los Gatos Education Foundation – Finance A-B-C’s
Q&A: Why disparities exist in some California school districts
Analysis compares districts’ spending, academic performance
Spending far from equal among state’s school districts, analysis finds
Is college or postsecondary study really necessary?
- Over the past quarter century, wage gaps between workers with different education levels have increased, largely due to falling real earnings for those with less education.
- Real weekly earnings for workers with less than a high–school diploma fell from $462 in 1979 to $337 in 1998. This downward trend continued for all workers who were not college graduates.
- Twenty years ago, the average college graduate earned 38 percent more than the average high-school graduate. Today, it is 71% more.
- Occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree will grow almost twice as fast as the overall average.
- The three fastest growing occupations, require at least a bachelor’s degree and have higher average earnings.
- All of the 20 highest paying occupations require at least a bachelor’s degree.
|
Educational Level |
Years in Work-place |
Average Annual Income (US Census Bureau, ‘00) |
Average Monthly Income |
Lifetime Income (annual income x years in workforce) |
Estimated Cost of Degree (Average) |
Net Lifetime Benefit (lifetime income – cost of degree) |
|
|
High School Graduate |
47 |
$28,800 |
$2,400 |
1,353,600 |
$0.00 |
$1,353,600. |
|
|
45 |
$35,400 |
$2,950 |
1,593,000 |
$4,000 |
$1,589,000 |
||
|
Bachelor’s Degree |
43 |
$46,300 |
$3,858 |
2,083,500 |
$32,000 |
$2,051,500 |
|
|
Master’s Degree |
42 |
$55,300 |
$4,608 |
2,377,900 |
$40,000 |
$2,337,900 |
|
|
Doctorate |
37 |
$70,500 |
$5,875 |
2,608,500 |
$58,000 |
$2,550,500 |
|
|
Professional (Doctor, Lawyer) |
37 |
$80,200 |
$6,683 |
2,967,400 |
$75,000 |
$2,892,400 |
From the Department of Labor Statistics, 2000.
Source: Building a College Culture by Leslie Hays (Powerpoint)
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Public School Teacher Tenure in California
Proposition 74: Teacher Tenure Ballot Measure
January 2006
Prop. 74: Support 44.8%, Oppose 55.2%
- California was the first state in the country to establish teacher tenure law in 1921.
- Current state law mandates that teachers gain tenure in California after completing a two-year probationary period during which time they can be dismissed for poor performance by their school district.
- Once tenured, teachers gain a degree of security in their positions and can be dismissed only for just cause. State law dictates conditions under which a tenured teacher can be dismissed including unsatisfactory performance or misconduct. Low student achievement is not included as a condition for dismissal.
-
The Initiative
-
It would raise the amount of time new teachers must wait before they are covered by job protection rules from two years to five years for a certified position.
-
It would also allow the school district to dismiss an employee after two consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluations.
-
Other Reference
- The Hidden Costs of Tenure
- The Facts, Myths and Realities about Teacher Tenure
- Teachers agree: Bad teachers with tenure too tough to fire (USATODAY.com)
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Working Off The Tab
Richard C. Morais, 03.10.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Programs offering academic credit for paid internships have new appeal.
(Forbes)
Drexel is among a subset of major schools in the nation–including Northeastern, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Cincinnati and Kettering–that offer highly sophisticated work-for-credit programs called "co-ops.”
Takach, a communications major who is also an editor at Drexel’s student newspaper, is enrolled in the school’s five-year "co-op" B.A. What this means is that this month, in her sophomore year, Takach begins a six-month stint working at Philadelphia’s Chamber of Commerce for $442.50 a week. She will continue in this way–six months of paid work in an organization related to her field of study, six months of classes–until she graduates in the spring of 2012.
Drexel has 1,600 firms and organizations participating in its work-and-study program, the biggest of which are Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news - people ), Siemens (nyse: SI – news - people ), Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA – news - people ), GlaxoSmithKline (nyse: GSK – news - people ), Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT – news - people ), Motorola (nyse: MOT – news - people ), Sunoco (nyse: SUN – news - people ) and Johnson & Johnson (nyse: JNJ – news - people ).
Most of the university’s 13,197 undergraduate students, says Peter Franks, executive director of Drexel’s Steinbright Career Development Center, are drawn to the 91-year-old co-op program, covering 73 majors, because they believe the practical, mostly paid internships built into their college degree give them a competitive advantage when they are looking for a job after graduation.
The school offers four- or five-year versions of the B.A./B.S. work program, and claims 50% of its students are offered full-time jobs after graduation by one of their co-op employers. Over a third of Drexel’s alumni take up these offers.
"The co-op allows students to make better career decisions, because they have tried different kinds of jobs while at school," says Franks. It also gives employers a chance to kick the tires of prospects. Drexel has retained 85% of its employer-partners during these hard times.
But in this sobering moment in history, co-op programs like Drexel’s are not just good job-procurement programs for graduating students. They can also be an attractive way for students and their families to defray costs while in college.
A year of room and board (but not food) in Drexel’s five-year program costs Takach $39,437. According to the university, Drexel’s work-study program generates for students, on average, an additional $14,500 per six-month work stint.
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