An Bui, Spelled An With 1 N

It’s fall - delicious apples (and apple cider doughnuts!), changing leaves, football, and of course, college admissions season. 

If you’re thinking “no duh, An” I wouldn’t blame you.

After my years of test prep and admissions consulting, I can’t stop myself from offering advice at this time of year. Of course, this is free advice - take it or leave it as such. To everyone in the admissions process - good luck. It’s a process that you should try to enjoy. As much as it’s about getting into college, it’s also about selecting the right university and educational experience FOR YOU. 

Yes, it’s about YOU.

1. Take some time to think about the essay questions before you start writing. My little brother said it best:

College applications aren’t hard, it’s the “Who are you?”, “Why are you great?” and “What experiences make you special?” essays.

The key to a successful application really is communicating those answers to college admissions committees. However, it’s important that you also think about what YOU think makes you great and what experiences make you special. If you’re a senior, you pretty much have achieved everything you can to get into college at this point. If you think you can benefit from taking another year off before college, do so. CAVEAT: BE PRODUCTIVE

Do NOT take a year off to live on your parents’ couch. Take a year off and do something meaningful. Find a cause, a goal, or a mission and work towards making your vision a reality. If you aren’t successful in a year (yes, world hunger is not a problem that can be solved in a year), think about how to communicate the progress you’ve made and the lessons you’ve learned. 

Colleges want interesting, thoughtful members of the community. This is especially true of smaller schools. Heck, I’m not in college anymore and I love knowing interesting, thoughtful people. You already are interesting and thoughtful - demonstrate it with storytelling in your essays.

2. Study for those standardized tests. They don’t measure your intelligence, they don’t predict success in college, they have their own biases… BUT standardized test scores are one area in which you can put your best foot forward in the small amount of time you have before applications are due. It’s not too late for seniors to register for the December SAT. I know you’re busy. You have a life, a job, homework, sports practice… but seriously. For only a month and a half or so, focusing on the SAT or ACT to get your scores up may result in admissions to your top choice college and opportunities for scholarships. It’s one of the most high impact things you can do if you’re applying for admissions next fall.

Take a look at PrepMe - I’m not getting paid to recommend them - I just think it’s a great program. PrepMe achieves statistically significant score improvements if you do the work at a fraction of the cost of other tutoring programs. With tutors from the University of Chicago and Stanford who are available 24/7 via email and live chat, it’s college prep on your schedule. Make it a priority to study - you’ll be glad you did when scores come back!

3. Take some time to BREATHE. Everyone who knows me probably thinks this is ironic, but I’m being completely serious. Make sure you spend a little time doing something for yourself, to keep in mind what your goals and motivations are for applying to college. If it’s expected by your parents and teachers, why? What potential do you have that they see? How have you been and will you be continuing to contribute to your community and the greater world around you? If you want to go to college for the intellectual development, to satisfy your need to learn, or any other number of valid reasons, keep them top of mind. If you focus on your values and getting one step closer to them, you’ll be successful no matter where you choose to go. 

Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist is a quick, short fable about following your dreams. I recommend buying it and reading it - it’s a book that is simple in message but very thought provoking. 

This is a big year for everyone applying for the next steps in their educations. It’s a time to enjoy the process and realize that you’re going to learn about yourself, if you open yourself up to the process in a thoughtful manner. 

ps - for food p0rn, take a look at my Posterous.

The NYT’s “The Choice” blog recently posted some advice entitled: “Free Fashion Advice for College Inverviews, From a $15,000 Consultant” and my first thought? Seriously?!? You’ve got to be KIDDING me. A “free” fashion show modeling looks from Greenwich’s Rugby by Ralph Lauren store?

I have nothing against college admissions consulting and nothing against college admissions consulting at that price point.  I do, however, balk at advice given by admissions consultants that add very little value to parents and kids already worried about the college admissions process. With my experience helping kids get into college from my years with The Princeton Review and as a Swarthmore College Alumni Interviewer, I present to you…

“Free Admissions Interview Advice From an $100/hour Consultant”

1. Play up your assets. This does not mean cleavage, legs, or broad shoulders. This means highlight parts of who you are that you think are important. This can be lessons you’ve learned from leadership roles, participation in groups or communities, or classes you found interesting and why. Regarding dress, wear what you’re comfortable in and something that communicates how seriously you’re taking the interview. If that’s a suit, that’s a suit. If it’s a cute, knee length skirt with a modest top, then skirt and top it is.

2. Highlight FIT, not HAIR. Ok, highlights in your hair can be super cute as well as make you look polished and professional, which is always appreciated. More important that great hair is highlighting how you fit in with the college culture. Prospective students can divine a bit of college culture from admissions brochures, online resources like the Princeton Review, and connections w/ current students via Facebook.

As an interviewer, I’m asking myself “Is this student one I see at Swarthmore, and one I see being successful at Swarthmore?” I find that students answer that question in the natural course of the conversation.

3. Make it easy for admissions officers to want you for the class. Think about how you’ve been contributing to your school, community, and other organizations. Think in terms of measurable impacts you’ve made. Be REALLY clear about what you’re looking to get out of a college experience, even if it’s “I’m looking to learn about what I want to learn about.” Connect the experiences you’ve had with how you see yourself contributing to the college community.

If you’re looking to have a fairly active social (read: partying, drinking, etc.) life, think about what you’re willing to do when you’re not partying, drinking, etc. You might want to consider taking a gap year if you consider college a four year party. At $200k/BA at a private school, that’s a pretty pricey cover charge.

Last words of advice:

Remember, college admissions committees are putting together a well-rounded class, not necessarily a class of well-rounded individuals. They want a group who can bring out the best in each other and contribute to the academic, athletic, artistic, etc community and culture of the college. If you’re an all-around rock star in all of the above, continue to be so. If you’re all-around mediocre in all of the above, you might want to think about spending your time going deep and being amazing at the one you’re most passionate about, be it school, a volunteer program, a sport, or an activity.

Yes, college admissions is getting more competitive each year. However, if you focus on the fundamentals: doing well in classes and standardized tests, contributing in class and the community, and genuinely being interested in finding a great fit for college, then you’ll be fine in the process.

One of my favorite professors once said:

Focus on the process. You can control the process. The minute you start thinking about the outcome, you’re screwed.

Columbia University, Rodin's Thinker, via flickr user wallyg

Yesterday, Mark C. Taylor, chair of Columbia’s religion department, wrote in a NYT Op-Ed piece, End the University as We Know It:

GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).

From this controversial opening, Professor Taylor argues for a hgher education system that follows an interdisciplinary, collaborative model that mobilizes scholars around problems and produces scholarship in a more consumable fashion. 

Social media applications/tools have enabled its users to do what Professor Taylor is advocating. Twitter enables the rapid mobilization to address problems. Wikis result in information in a consumable fashion via real time collaboration. All of this consumer generated media (CGM) creates a body of knowledge whose value comes from the integration of various perspectives. Holding the appropriate context and understanding how the various pieces fit should be a driving force in these collaborative processes.

Do graduate students and scholars miss the point if they think that their training prepares them only for the profession of their graduate degree, be it academia, journalism, law, planning, business, etc.?

Yes. Absolutely yes if they cannot connect what they know and what they are learning to value creation and problem solving. Thinking about the process of learning, what is being learned and what that means are some of the values of a liberal arts education. Does this create students who can apply their skills in different contexts?  Will these students have more options than those who cannot?

Professor Taylor leaves us with valuable advice: 

“Do not do what I do; rather, take whatever I have to offer and do with it what I could never imagine doing and then come back and tell me about it.” 

Applying this entrepreneurial perspective higher ed will enable it to evolve with society.

Annually, US News publishes its rankings of higher ed institutions and programs. In its online content about graduate programs, I discovered an article by Frank H. Wu, entitled Why Law School Is for Everyone.

Within the article, Wu disabuses readers of the idea that the legal profession reflects the picture painted by Boston Legal or LA Law. A more accurate picture includes document review, research, deal making, ethical questions and billing clients - a more accurate and much less glamourous picture. 

Dean Wu writes: 

[I]n reality, legal reasoning demonstrates the power of rational thought…Professors are realizing that they ought to cultivate multiple intelligences, not limited to the technical logic of analogizing and distinguishing precedent and hypothetical fact patterns. They see that the Juris Doctor program at its best continues the well-rounded liberal arts curriculum, presenting an array of intellectual challenges…Whether [law-schooled individuals] ever appear in court or draft a will, they will have been well served by learning how to stand up and speak out. They have been inspired by a sense of civil rights as well as civic responsibilities. They are ready to become leaders.