Odds and Ends at the End of College Season

By: Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

May 1^st is the date many colleges ask students to submit an enrollment deposit, so it’s largely seen as the end of the college application season.  Since May 1^st is a Sunday, it’s being extended by one day, in a year where, in many respects, it seems the end really needed to come sooner, not later.  Here’s a quick look at why, along with some seasonal reminders:

·         A Trend Towards Indecision  Counselors from across the country are reporting a notable increase in the number of students who are waiting to the very end to decide where they will continue their education next fall.  There doesn’t seem to be any clear reason for this, other than the dim hope students will start getting called from waitlists before May 1, a rare occurrence to be sure.

·         A Trend Towards Double Depositing?  Indecision like this has been seen in the past, and its implications weren’t good for colleges.  Too many students who wait for a sign on April 30 don’t really get one, so they decide the best answer is to take matters into their own hands and extend their decision-making deadline by depositing at more than one college.  That may work for the student, but it’s bad news for the college that comes up short in enrollment in the fall when 20 double-depositing students pick the other college—and the college suddenly has a $1 million shortfall.  Double depositing is a no-no, kids.  Take the weekend, and choose.

·         Deferral Doesn’t Condone Double Dating  Other students are wondering if they can defer admission for a year (at many schools you can) so they take that year to “try out” another college, then simply stay there if they like it better.  While rules of deferral vary by college, there are very few that allow students to attend classes at another four-year college during the deferral period.  It’s more common to allow students to take credits at community college, but that might be a no-no as well.

·         Colleges Contact Students Over Summer  It’s also time to remind students that colleges often e-mail freshman over the summer about all kinds of important things, like financial aid, orientation, and the scheduling of fall classes.  Now is the time to remind students to keep an eye on the mail and the e-mail.  This isn’t a time to lose your cash or your place at school.

·         Counselors Can’t Just Go Fishin’  The increase in students who lose touch with their college in July and August has a name—summer melt—and it happens disproportionately to low-income students and students who are the first in their family to go to college.  Counselors working with these students will want to review plans for reaching out to these students over the summer to make sure they get the help they need.  This plan could be as basic as a string of e-mails and a disposable cell phones to make calls from the beach, but plan accordingly.

·         Juniors and the Costco Essay  Many juniors have read the story about the student who wrote her essay about Costco, and was admitted to all eight Ivies—so, of course, they are now devoting their muse to crafting a big box paean as well.

I have seen nothing from any Ivy League admissions office affirming that the student’s essay, good as it was, got her in. That means we don’t know why she got in—but we do know that many students don’t get in when their essay lacks originality.  When it comes to applying to college, investing in authenticity is your best buy.

Ethics in College Counseling

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Is it OK for a college to ask a student for a list of all the colleges the student is applying to?  Can a student send an enrollment deposit into more than one college?  Can a counselor tell a student one college is just plain better than another?

These are just some of the issues counselors run into when advising students in the college selection process.  Given all that’s at stake, it’s easy to see the need for a set of common rules and standards for counselors, colleges, and families to live by in college admissions, or getting into college would be more chaotic—and expensive—than it is now.

This is why the National Association for College Admission Counseling has the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice.  Founded in 1937, NACAC is an organization of schools, colleges, companies, and individuals involved in college admissions.  NACAC provides a number of services to families and admissions professionals, including NACAC National College Fairs, NACAC Performing and Visual Arts Fairs, and myriad professional training opportunities.  While NACAC is a member organization, many view the SPGP to be the ethical standard that should be adhered to by everyone in the college admissions field.

The SPGP has three sections.  Mandatory Practices are the actions and activities all NACAC members promise to follow.  These practices show that counselors may “not use disparaging comparisons of secondary or postsecondary institutions.”  It’s fine to talk with students about the qualities two colleges have, and let that analysis serve as its own basis of comparison.  Anything beyond that begins to violate the SPGP. Members violating these practices can be referred to NACAC’s Admissions Practices committee, which can take disciplinary action on the member, up to and including removal from NACAC, and lack of access to NACAC’s college fairs.

The Interpretations and Monitoring section offers clarifications and explanations of the Mandatory Practices.  This section helps members understand the goal of each Mandatory Practice, and often provides examples of appropriate or inappropriate behavior.

The third section, Best Practices, includes additional behaviors, policies, and programs members should engage in, in addition to the Mandatory Practices.  Since Best Practices are strongly recommended, but not required, members may choose to engage in these activities, but are not obligated to do so, and do not risk NACAC disciplinary action if they choose not to engage in them.   This section states colleges should “refrain from asking students where else they have applied”, encouraging colleges not to ask this question, but not making the practice an SPGP violation.

What about the student who sends in more than one enrollment deposit?  This is covered as a Best Practice, where “Counseling Members should…(c)ounsel students not to submit more than one admission deposit, which indicates their intent to enroll in more than one institution”.  It’s important to note that this is a Best Practice, not a Mandatory Practice—and this recommendation affects the counselor, but not the student. 

Since students and parents aren’t NACAC members, they aren’t subject to discipline by NACAC—but that doesn’t mean families are free to do as they wish.  Something as simple as double depositing may seem harmless, but this practice has been known to hurt other students, damage college budgets, and have an indirect effect on tuition. 

NACAC’s Student Rights and Responsibilities gives families a clear summary of how they should expect to be treated by colleges, and how families should treat colleges in return.  With everyone following the letter and the spirit of the SPGP, students are able to make better, well-informed college choices.

Helping Students Decide

By:  Patrick O'Connor  Ph.D

Now that the madness of early April has calmed down, the time comes when students will be coming to school counselors, looking for advice on what college they should attend—or if they should go to college at all.  When students need help picking a college, the counselor must resist the temptation to solve “the problem” for the student.  Instead, the counselor must create a platform of decision making based on the student’s needs, interests and goals, and explore the components of that platform with the student. 

The best place to begin is to review the ideas the student has shared with you in the past. This provides everyone with a clear jumping off point by asking one simple question—“Is that still what you’re looking for now, or have things changed?”

This question may knock the student into a profound silence. In the flurry of completing college applications, there’s a good chance the student hasn’t bothered to think about this question until now.  September was eight months and a million adventures ago, so the student may want something different out of college, and not even know it. 

In response, the student may not want to talk about qualities; instead, they will try to talk about specific colleges. “Well, I’m really not that interested in State anymore, and East Coast U didn’t really offer me that much money, and…” 

Drawing on your listening and redirecting skills, bring the student back to the heart of the conversation.  “It sounds like affordability is a new quality you’re considering. Are there other qualities that are new?” The student may respond with an answer that once again mentions a school by name, but will finally provide the basis for a comparison of schools.

As the comparison reaches a conclusion, the counselor can summarize by saying “It sounds like your current list of qualities includes affordability, closeness to home, small class size, and opportunities for independent study. If that’s right (pause to let them correct you), let’s talk about each college that admitted you, and compare them on these same qualities.”

If a student decides their fall plan for college is no longer viable, it’s important to explore the effect this decision will have on those who have a strong interest in the student’s decision; the student’s parents; the coach, music teacher, or admissions officer at the school the student was 99% sure of; other members of the community, who can’t understand why the student would change their mind. Gaining support (or at least understanding) from others may be vital in order for the new plan to work.  Discussing strategies the student can take in approaching these supporters, and even role-modeling practice conversations, could go a long way to help the student.

Similarly, if the student’s ideas can change over time, so can the ideas of others—including parents. While Dad was in full support of an out-of-state college in September, he may find letting go of his son is just too hard to do come April; parental ability to pay for college may have dwindled in eight months. Any number of things can lead to a college decision being made for the student.

After helping the student work through any feelings they may have about these changes (or directing them to someone to help with that), a discussion of college qualities is the best way to help the student focus on the choices at hand, and make the best decision available.  It may take time for the student to fully accept the situation, but the counselor’s support can go a long way to advance this important goal…

…and remember, students wanting to start their search over again in spring of the senior year can do so, with help from the NACAC College Openings Update, which comes out in early May, and lists colleges actively looking for more students.  Take a look.

SAT/ACT Testing for Students Not Going to College

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Spring testing is upon us, and this year’s round of tests brings new challenges, since many states are including the ACT or SAT in their battery of school-wide assessments for the first time.  While counselors are used to managing the energy and anxiety of test-taking students who are thinking about college, a large number of students will soon be taking a state-mandated ACT or SAT who haven’t really thought about college—and, in some cases, haven’t taken courses to go to college.

What’s the best way to guide these students through a test they feel they may not be ready for? Two words come to mind that are in the wheelhouse of every school counselors: Support, and the truth.

Give them a brief overview of the test—that’s brief.  Well-meaning counselors often tend to over-explain a concept to students, and that’s an easy way to lose kids of any age, but especially high school students.  Make sure you’re getting through; look at the SAT and ACT Websites, and put together a 25-word speech that explains what the SAT and ACT cover.  One other suggestion: no word can have more than three syllables. Your goal is to explain, not define.

Tell them how they are already prepared for the test.  The classes students are taking give them a chance to make sense out of new ideas and words every day, and that’s what three sections of the ACT (and half of the SAT) are all about.  Some Math questions may ask them about concepts they’ve never heard of; it’s best to let them know that ahead of time, and to let them know that if their best answer is “beats me”, they should try and see if there’s one answer they know is wrong, pick something else, and move on.

Show them the format of the test.  Athletes take extra time warming up on fields they’ve never played on; that should be the case here, too.  Khan Academy and other Websites offer brief introductory videos and sample problems for both tests. Showing the students the format of the test will allow them to get comfortable with how the questions are asked—and comfort and awareness are about 60 percent of the goal for test prep.

Tell them how the results are going to be used.  Students new to the SAT and ACT may fear their scores will be sent to colleges or employers without their permission, so make sure you talk with them about how much they control their own scores.  Other students will worry their scores will be shared with the local media, or their teachers.  If your school shares individual scores with teachers, explain how this will help students learn more, and that the scores are still confidential.  If individual scores are shared with the media without student consent, stop doing that; it’s against the law.

Remind them of the relevance of the test to their plans for life after high school.  The results of a bad test day rarely have to be shared with a college, and almost never have to be shared with an employer—and if the student is headed to a community college, they may never see the light of day.  Students who aren’t thinking about college don’t know the limits of test scores; our task is to make them less scary, and to make sure students know they’re in control. Does this mean they shouldn’t do their best?  Of course not.  Plans change, and unimportant things may suddenly matter.  Ask any college applicant who never cleared their Facebook page. 

Bill Helps Counselors Stay on Top of College, Career Change

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Many college admissions decision come out this week, and most school counselors agree, the end can’t come soon enough.  We are certainly excited for the students who are receiving good news, and more than sympathetic to the students who receive other news. But this year, along with being there for our students, there is a feeling that something happened in the world of college admissions that can best be described as, as…

…weird.

It’s been a year where nothing stayed the same.  SAT test scores were sent, often missing crucial college deadlines for early applications.  A general response was “Boy, thank goodness everything is OK at ACT”, but they then experiences the same problem, and ran into some irregularities in the new rubric used to score the Writing test. 

Add in the occasional public college that admitted every student who applied (and some students who didn’t), and other colleges that decided to defer students simply because the college didn’t have enough time to read all the applications, and it’s clear the admissions world has changed dramatically.  And all of that happened even before the highly selective colleges reported another “record year” of applications, leading to an even smaller percentage of admitted students.

Education blogs are replete with calls for reforming college admissions to take the stress out of the process, all in the name of protecting students.  The intent is noble, but the proof is in the tweaking, and right now, there’s something else that can easily be tweaked first.

Part of the reason school counselors feel out of touch with the college selection process is the torrid pace of the changes, but another part is the lack of access to resources that help them understand the changes.  Professional development opportunities exist that try to keep counselors in the loop, like annual updates from College Board and ACT, but too many counselors are being told they can’t leave the building, and must suffer through full days of professional development focused on classroom teachers. 

That may help build camaraderie in the building, but when your best senior comes asking for information on the latest colleges that no longer require any testing at all, a counselor’s answer can’t afford to be a year old, since dozens of colleges have dropped the ACT and SAT this year alone.

Michigan is trying to meet counselors’ needs for updated college and career information with a bill that’s currently in front of the Michigan Senate Education Committee.  Right now, counselors must complete 150 hours in professional development work to keep their license or certificate—and those hours could be in anything.  House Bill 4552 would set aside a few of those hours, and make sure counselors have access to updated training in college and career advising.

This modest tweak turns an ineffective state mandate into one with more focus, and more purpose.  Best of all, it relies on local school districts, counselor organizations, and business and industry to develop professional development that meets the needs of counselors, tailoring the training to meet the college and career needs of the students they serve. College tours, financial aid updates, tours of skilled trades facilities, and more, would become a bigger part of a counselor’s ongoing learning, making their insights into postsecondary options more relevant to students, families, and the state’s economy.

There’s no question this year will be remembered as one of huge change, and more change is slated to come in the fall.  In Michigan, House Bill 4552 can help counselors not only embrace the change; it will help them shape it, all for the better.

College Decisions Over Spring Break

By:  Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Let’s face it—even though there school counselors are highly trained professionals, there are times we blame things on the elements—especially the moon.  How many times have students been behaving like zombies, and we mumble to ourselves, “It must be a full moon”?

As it turns out the moon really is to blame for a major counseling issue this year, as Easter falls close to the time many highly selective colleges are sending their admissions decisions.  We’d all like to be there to offer words of support for our students as they hear their decisions, but if you can’t be there due to vacation, consider sending a pre-emptive note of support—like this:

Dear Seniors:

As is sometime the case, our Spring Break will coincide with the release of admissions decisions from many of the colleges and universities where you’ve applied.  This is an exciting time, and we look forward to hearing your results when school resumes.  Until then, please keep these three important points in mind:

Consider where you hear the news.  Many colleges will release their decisions by e-mail, which means you could be anywhere when the news is released.  At first, it might seem that it doesn’t matter where you are, or who you’re with, when you open your decisions—but students often feel differently once they’ve opened an e-mail and responded in ways they hadn’t expected.  You’ve worked hard on your college applications, and there will always be time to tell someone else, once you know the decision yourself.  Consider opening your decisions in a private space; it will give you time to plan how to share the news with others.

Read the decision letter carefully, two times.  An offer of acceptance usually requires you to submit a deposit, and can include other activities to complete, like signing up for orientation, and responding to financial aid offers.  You don’t want to overlook these important, and required, events, since they may impact your ability to attend the college of your dreams!

If you’ve been waitlisted, you want to read the letter carefully to make sure when, and how, to contact the college.  Some ask you to send in a postcard or e-mail to stay on the waitlist; some will allow you to submit additional materials for the admissions office to consider (and some won’t—so make sure you know which is which), and some will tell you to do nothing at all.  You’ll want to do the right thing, so make sure you understand how to proceed.

Share your results with your counselor when school reopens.  Most students think we know your college decisions before you do, when, in fact, we often never know your admissions results unless you tell us!   Keep your letters together (including the letters with scholarship information), and bring them in on the first day of school—remember, you have to do this in person.

It’s been an incredible honor to work with you this year.  Let’s bring this college search to a great close, as you head towards your last spring in high school—and beyond!

The Best Testing Advice to Give

By:  Patrick O'Conner Ph.D

There seems to be little slowing of the changes in standardized testing, and that makes it hard for counselors to offer advice to students about which tests to take, and when. No one wants to steer students in the wrong direction, but not saying anything can be grounds for students to lose their faith in you as a trusted adviser.  As we approach spring testing season, it may be best to pull out some reliable advice that has stood the test of time—so if a student asks about testing, tell them to:

Take both tests once, and their favorite one twice.  I’ve offered this advice in the past, and some counselors think this is too much testing, but this counsel has stood the test of time.  Just like two Social Studies teachers take different approaches when discussing the American Revolution, SAT and ACT are trying to measure the same thing, but in different ways.  The only way to decide which version is best for you is to try them both—and once you know, sign up for that test a second time, to make sure you have a solid score.

Complete this testing by the end of junior year.  A growing number of students are holding off on taking their college tests until fall of senior year, especially when it comes to the new SAT.  No one has said why this is occurring, but there’s a sense students feel College Board may “tweak” the SAT this summer if the first few rounds of the new version don’t go well.

A veteran college counselor says we shouldn’t hold our breath.  Unless the highest score on the March edition turns out to be 250, College Board has never changed a test midstream, so it’s unlikely to happen this time. In addition, holding off on taking the test means you have little room for a second try until November—and given how many colleges want early applications, this can lead to narrowing college options artificially.

Send your scores NOW.  I have never understood the strategy to testing where students receive their SAT or ACT scores first, then send them to the colleges.  To begin with, the testing fee includes the right to send your scores to four colleges, and if you don’t do that, you have to pay for Every. Single. Score Result.  Since no college is known to penalize students for a low score if a higher score exists, this causes nothing but anxiety, and higher profits for College Board.

If this isn’t enough motivation, know that two colleges are strongly urging students to send test scores in the spring,  since both SAT and ACT have had trouble delivering test scores to colleges on time this year.  No test scores means an incomplete application, and that means your application gets read later—never good news at a college that practices rolling admission.

Test optional college choices exist.  Sometimes the best advice to give a student who doesn’t want to take the ACT or SAT is “OK.  Don’t.”  This not only gets their attention; it opens their eyes to the hundreds of great colleges that don’t require test scores from most of their students  as part of the admission process-  and that list is growing daily.  Take a look at http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional , and double check a college’s Web site to make sure their policy is up to date.