Do Asians face discrimination when applying to Ivy League schools?  Do they need to appear less “Asian” when submitting their college applications in order to be admitted?  These are questions I often receive when counseling students on competitive admissions — usually when students learn I worked as an admissions officer at MIT and Caltech.  They’re questions I’ve come across in articles such as “’The Asian Penalty,’” most recently featured in The Boston Globe.  And while the questions posed might sometimes lessen the sting one might feel at the possibility of not getting admitted to one’s dream school, the reality is much more complex.

As a college admissions consultant with College Coach, I’m frequently asked to compare academics at two different institutions. “Which school offers the better academic experience?”  This is an impossible question to answer because of the incredible variability between institutions and their offerings, not to mention the incredible variability between students (goals, talents, abilities, learning styles, comfort zones, etc.). Nevertheless, it is a question that is asked and so I thought I’d provide an answer… at least to a part of it.

Below is my nearly verbatim response to a student who asked me to compare academics at a large public research institution (call it Big U), a medium-sized public liberal arts and science hybrid (call it Hybrid State College), and a small, niche liberal arts college (call it Lakeview College). Names have been changed to reflect the generality of the discussion:

Most students picture opening the envelope or their email, and finding the announcement of their admission to the college of their choice: the ultimate fulfillment of their dreams as a high school student.  In general, I find students don’t think much beyond this moment, aside from imagining how great college will be.  (For the record, college is pretty great!)  Most parents, however, realize that this celebratory moment is just the beginning.  The transition to college is really exciting on paper, but it is also one of the most challenging moments in the life of a student and her family.

The College Transition for Parents

Parents, as you try to help your student with the transition to college, you must first and foremost be aware of how different college is from when you attended.  Technology, specifically the internet, has dramatically changed how students and parents conduct business with the school.

Some years ago on a soccer sideline somewhere, or maybe in the chatty pre-show moments of a high school theatre performance, a mom or dad started the dreadful rumor that one must complete hundreds of hours of community service in order to even be considered for admission to the top colleges and universities in the country. Since that day, this misinformation has been taken as gospel by college-bound high school students and their parents. But they’re wrong.

Let’s all pause for a moment and say this together: there is nothing extra special about community service.

Now that I’ve said that, let’s throttle back from the edge so you can understand what I mean. When colleges and universities consider a student’s extracurricular profile, they are looking for the ways students have made an impact on their communities. One student might run track. Another might join the wind ensemble. A third might tutor elementary school kids. A fourth might volunteer at the local soup kitchen. As a college admission officer, I had no preference for one of these students over any of the others.

When it comes to deciding what to do for your summer activities, it can be hard to make sense of what matters to colleges and what doesn’t. Given the wide range of options, what are the best things to do? How should students prioritize? And when is the right time to get started?

Some programs have bumper-sticker names and the price tag to match. While it seems simple and logical that big-name programs are correlated with competitive positioning in the college admissions process, that’s not really how it works. There are a few exceptions to the rule, of course; a handful of summer programs (very few!) that by name alone will turn an admissions officer’s head. But even those special opportunities are not likely to make or break your application on their own.

Colleges want to see students use their time to explore interests, expand depth of understanding or exposure to a subject, or further develop a concentration or talent.

That loud exhalation you heard over the weekend was the sound of tens of thousands of high school students submitting their first round of college applications before early deadlines on November 1. For those of you who have confidently put your personal statements and supplements in the hands of admissions officers at your first-choice colleges, congratulations! You’ve earned a well-deserved break from essay writing and resume building, and may even want to share your status with your friends on Facebook or your followers on Twitter. But before you publish that tweet, take a step back, and think about the door you may be opening.

Engaging with College Social Media Accounts

Colleges and universities are using social media as much as their prospective students. Have you seen the Tumblr for the University of Michigan’s admission office? Or the Twitter account for Harvard? These can be great ways to follow along with your favorite schools—and to learn more about what they offer. But be cautious of over-connecting with schools, particularly small ones. While Harvard (with half a million followers) might not notice that you show up in their mentions every single day, Connecticut College (with just 8,000) surely will. And it’s not just a school behind that account, it’s a real person who might even be reading your application. Every time you comment on a school’s Facebook post or reply to one of their tweets ask yourself, “would I want this comment included as part of my application?” If not, toss it.

Universal College Application Tips: Alternate Versions and How to Request Letters of Recommendation

You’re in the home stretch! Now that you’ve filled out the Universal College Application, just a few steps remain. Read on to learn about creating alternate versions of your application, as well as how to request letters of recommendation from your guidance counselor and teachers. And stay tuned for our insider’s view to using the Common Application. Expert tips on completing the Common App will be posted in August.

Step 8:

Once every required field is complete and you’ve had a trusted adult (or two) proof your application for typos, you’ll be ready to submit your UCA. Similar to the Common App, once you’ve submitted your application to schools A, B, and C, you won’t be allowed to make any changes on your forms for those particular schools. However (and this is a BIG however), you can create as many “copies” of your application as you like for submission to other schools. Which leads me to my next tip…

A guest post by Lisa Oppenheimer

Call it the “Scarlet H.”

The “H?” “For Helicopter Parent.”

The dreaded label hovers over all parents as we try to help (and yes, over help) our children, but never more than when our progeny apply to college. That’s when we become, well…crazy. Legends abound about parents writing essays, berating admissions officers, and, in one particularly creative urban legend, applying to schools on our offspring’s behalf (I’m told by a reliable source that the last one is more or less impossible, but you never know). 

“Congratulations! You’ve been chosen out of a select group of students to apply to XYZ College using our Shining Stars Application!”

One of my students received an email with a message similar to this from a school he hadn’t heard of before. He was excited that the admission office was interested in him, but he wondered how they knew who he was. He hadn’t visited the school or even looked at their website.

If you’re like most students, you’ve been receiving tons of publications and emails from colleges across the country. In some cases, these mailings are coming from schools that you’ve selected. Maybe you visited the campus or filled out an inquiry form at a college fair or signed up online for the mailing list. But some of these mailings are likely coming from schools that you hadn’t considered before.  So how did they find out about you?

If you follow The Insider blog, you may have read about Alex Bickford and Marj Southworth’s latest trip to the Light House maternity home for young mothers in Kansas City or the work of Mary Sue Youn, Lisa Albro, and Sally Ganga with Big Brothers Big Sisters at American Express in New York City.  While College Coach has always maintained a commitment to community outreach, we have recently formalized that commitment with the formation of our Community Support Committee.

The mission of the Community Support Committee is to deliver superior college counseling programs to non-profit organizations and community groups whose constituents could not otherwise afford these services.  Through the donated time of College Coach educators, the Community Support Committee is able to offer programming in the areas of college admissions and college finance.