National Admissions Statistics

By Ashley Wellington

I intended to write this week’s blog about the national admissions statistics for the class for 2014. I wanted to evaluate percentages and point out various developments, but it doesn’t take an expert to interpret these facts. Almost all the competitive schools received more applications than ever before (Yale being the exception), and as a result, they accepted an even smaller percentage of students than they had in previous years.

Just to give you an idea of the numbers, here’s a chart with data gleaned from each school’s website. It’s certainly not a comprehensive list since it’s missing many top-notch schools (UC Berkeley, Swarthmore, Pomona, Lehigh and Washington University in St. Louis, just to name a few), but it’s a good representation of what’s happening at the top tier:

College 2010 Apps 2009 Apps % admit ’10 % admit ’09

Harvard 30,489 29,114 6.90% 7.00%
Yale 25,869 26,000 7.50% 7.50%
Princeton 26,247 21,963 8.18% 9.80%
Stanford 32,000 30,430 7.20% 8.00%
Brown 30,136 24,900 9.30% 10.80%
Penn 26,938 22,808 14.20% 17.10%
Duke 26,770 23,875 15% 18%
Cornell 36,337 34,381 18.40% 19.00%
Columbia 26,178 25,428 9.16% 9.79%
Dartmouth 18,778 18.007 11.53% 12.04%
MIT 16,632 15,661 9.70% 10.70%
Northwestern 27,615 25,300 23% 27%
Williams 6,633 6,015 18% 20%
Vanderbilt 21,800 19,350 16.30% 18.90%
Amherst 8,088 7,679 15.20% 16.00%

I certainly don’t want to scare anyone away from his or her lifelong Ivy League aspirations, but it’s important to be aware of the challenges so you can put your best foot forward. I have been watching these statistics for almost ten years, and can confidently say that this trend of increasing difficulty isn’t going to stall any time soon. According to a 2007 New York Times article, “Twenty-five to 40 colleges that have traditionally been perceived as being a notch below the most elite have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing competitive crush at the top… The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation with the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become a more national obsession.”

When I was going through this process in the fall of 2001, the strategy was to apply to seven or eight schools, including one reach and one safety. Now, students are advised to apply to upwards of fifteen different institutions, and since the common application is gaining momentum, it’s possible to accomplish this with the simple click of a mouse. The competition for financial aid is also on the rise (particularly in this economic climate), so it’s smart to seek assistance from as many schools as possible and compare the packages they offer.

So how do you market yourself? Colleges want to see how a student stands out from the crowd. They want insight into personality, spark, drive, sense of humor, kindness, and other skills and characteristics that don’t manifest themselves in a transcript. A well-written essay can make the difference among applicants with similarly high grades and scores. Additionally, the essay gives students with lackluster grades an opportunity to write their way to a fat acceptance envelope. As a result, the essay portion of an application is quickly becoming the most significant factor in admissions.

Luckily, The Edge offers summer SAT and College Essay Bootcamp programs, happening in August. These provide a great opportunity to jumpstart your applications and prevent unnecessary stress when the school year resumes. Check them out on the website!

Enhance Your Vocabulary with Simple Steps

By Ashley Wellington

When I first started tutoring, I would naively assign long lists of vocabulary words for students to learn each week. Unfortunately, though, my good intentions yielded one of two results: either the students would feel overwhelmed and do nothing (in which case, I’d receive an apologetic shoulder shrug at best), or the students would simply memorize the definitions for our next session and forget everything shortly afterwards. I’m not sure which scenario is worse. I understood why my students were so unmotivated; after all, knowing sophisticated vocabulary words really only helps with the twenty or so sentence completion problems, and even then, it’s possible to excel by simply using process-of-elimination techniques. Sure, you can get by without actually knowing the words, but improving your vocabulary will absolutely help you understand the Critical Reading passages and recognize grammatical errors in the Writing section, so you might as well try to learn a few new words.

Start by picking up the newspaper and reading an article or two that you find interesting. Circle any words you don’t know, and write them down in a “vocab journal” – this can be anything, from a spiral notebook to a word document. In fact, keep track of any unfamiliar words you encounter in school or conversation as well. Then, make a point of looking up all the words, and revisit them occasionally to make sure you’re retaining the information. Seeing words in context is infinitely more helpful than memorizing an isolated definition, so exerting this small bit of effort each day will slowly (but effectively) make you a better reader and writer.

Next, take a look at some Greek and Latin root words. Have you ever heard the rumor that learning Latin will help you ace the SAT? There’s definitely some truth to it. This is an especially helpful site:

https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx2.htm

Knowing that “chron” signifies something time-related can help you eliminate “anachronistic” from your answer choices when you’re looking for a word denoting weariness, even if you have no idea what the word means. Familiarizing yourself with these prefixes and suffixes is an efficient way to learn new vocabulary, and it certainly offers a more realistic approach than attempting to memorize thousands of new words before the test date.

Overall, keep this aspect of your preparation gradual and manageable.

How to Get the Most Out of Your College Visits

By Jessica Brondo

Spring is in the air and while most of you will want to spend your weekends hanging out outside with your friends, it is a great time to get in some college visits before summer is here and college campuses are empty. You can usually see about two schools a day, so if you plan your itinerary wisely, you can definitely get in a good number of visits before school is out.

Your First Visit

Most schools will offer an information session, which will give you valuable info about academics, student life, campus/dorm life, financial aid, and admissions statistics. This is normally followed by a campus tour, which gives you a great idea of the type of students who attend. Both of these are must-dos on your first visit to the campus, and you absolutely MUST sign in at the admissions office. They definitely track how many times you visit the school and appreciate students who visit multiple times because it shows a sincere interest in the school. In addition to the info session and the tour, you can also try to have lunch or coffee/tea with a current student to get a more personalized account of what the school has to offer. You can try to arrange this through your high school (if there are alumni from your high school at the particular college you want to attend) or you can do this through mutual personal interests. For example, if you are on the tennis team or mock trial team in high school, you might want to go to the tennis team or mock trial team website of the the university you are looking at and get the contact info for one of the officers. If you shoot them a polite e-mail, giving them enough warning, they will probably be willing to make the time to meet with you.

Subsequent Visits

There are many things you can do on your second, third, or even fourth visit to a school. At this point, you don’t need to sit in on the information session or go on another college tour. Instead, you want to make it more personalized. To show your academic enthusiasm, register to sit in on a class in one of the departments you are most interested. You most likely will not be able to say anything during class (and I’m sure you’d be too intimidated to anyway), but stay after class. Introduce yourself to the professor; tell him what you liked about the class; make a connection! You should also try to do some sort of activity that gives you a glimpse into student life. Go see a show or a game or participate in a conference or music event on campus. Normally, the admissions office will pair you up with a campus buddy who can take you around campus for the day.

If you really want to immerse yourself into the campus culture, schedule an overnight. These can be done through the admissions office (or more informally through friends and friends of friends). Try to do one weekday and one weekend day (Thursday/Friday or Friday/Saturday…..BUT some (or actually MOST) students try not to take Friday classes so if you are doing a Friday/Saturday visit, make sure you can sit in on a class). This will give you a total picture of what a typical day is like for a student and will also give you a better picture of what the nightlife is like so you can make sure that it is something you are comfortable with.

However, the MOST important thing to do is sign in with the admissions office (AND have fun!). Just remember that you’re probably going to hate some of the schools you visit and you’re going to fall in love with some of the schools. Both experiences are going to help you finalize your college list. Sometimes it is just as important to figure out what you DON’T like about a school as it is to determine what you DO like. Take Notes! You can use them for your discussion with your college counselor.

If you can’t find the time to go on college visits on your own, The Edge offers a service during the summer and throughout the year called Edge On Tour. It is a 2-5 day program that takes groups of students on college visits throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, or Southeast. Contact us at info@edgeincollegeprep.com for more information.

Applying to University in the United States

By Jessica Brondo of The Edge

The application process to US universities can be a rather intricate one for US students; for Europeans applying to US universities, it can seem like a completely daunting, and utterly foreign experience. The application and the selection criteria of US universities is so vastly different from those of European universities that it does not even help to do a European application. Because of this, the earlier a student decides that applying to US universities is a remote possibility, the better.

Extra Curriculars/Activities
Unlike their European counterparts, US universities place considerable emphasis on extra-curricular activities and community service. Whereas a European university mainly focuses on a student’s scores and academic pursuits, US universities look at the whole package; it is not uncommon for selective universities in the States to reject applicants with perfect SAT scores and top marks in their schools who have no extra-curricular activities. US schools are looking for well-rounded students with captivating interests to create a unique campus community. As such, it is really important for European students to start pursuing interests and projects that reflect their passions early on in the high school careers. US schools give much more weight to activities that students have pursued for several years than to a laundry list of activities that a student joined in his last two years of high school to “pad his CV.” Schools want to see an ongoing interest in something, whether it’s music, sports, or volunteer work. For example, a student interested in politics might want to join clubs like the Law Club, Mock Trial team, or Debate Team and might participate in his school’s Model UN conference. He might also consider volunteering for an election or for a specific political party and then could consider doing a work experience with an MP or other government official.

Academics
The education system at European high schools is very different from the Us system in that students select about three specific subjects on which to focus. European students’ educational experience is highly specialized by the time they complete high school. A student can be a science expert, taking only Biolgoy, Chemistry, and Physics or could specialize in the social sciences by taking Geography, Economics, and History. US students, on the other hand, are exposed to all subjects throughout high school and have a very broad knowledge of all subjects. This is not a problem for European students in most cases. However, an area of particular concern has been on SAT II exams. Many US universities require students to take two SAT II exams in addition to the regular SAT. SAT II exams, unlike the SAT, which is a logical reasoning exam, test students on different subject areas. The specific subjects available are Math Level 1 & 2, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English Literature, US History, World History, and most languages. For a student pursuing social sciences, there are not many options for SAT II exams because the World History exam focuses on Latin America, Asia, and the United States, in addition to European history. When selecting a course of study, it is always a good idea to keep these ideas in the back of your mind because certain subjects lend themselves to specific SAT II exams.