News: All Schools, All the Time(s)

Question: How do you know it's back-to-school/apply-to-school time?
Answer: The NYTimes does an entire edition of the weekend magazine devoted to education.

And, in true Times fashion, the stories are Exhibit A in what people make fun of the Times (and "liberal media" in general) for: gay middle-school students, precocious preschoolers, inner-city high schoolers excelling and, naturally, green colleges (and locavores to boot).

Maybe more applicable to your application process, check out their advice about applying to school without disclosing your SAT scores. As with anything new (the change to self-reporting SAT scores through the common application is in its first year), there's a lot of.... confusion.

Worrying about reporting test scores make you feel like crying? Here's a reminder of something you get to look forward to. Remember: It's more fun to be the offender than the offended. ----CJ

Favorite Questions: If You Could Meet One Person....

Part of an on-going series of favorite interview questions you'll run into during your college admissions interview --CJ

Question: If you could meet one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? (Alts: If you could have dinner with one person, who would it be? Who would you most like to meet in heaven? etc)

Background/why you're being asked:

Ever since Mitch Albom launched a literary sub-genre of people you'll meet in heaven books this has become a very popular question. The concept is that the person you'd most like to meet reveals a lot about you--if you pick grandma, you're probably very family-oriented. If you pick Abe Lincoln, you've probably got a leadership/history bent. If you pick your cat Toodles, you probably missed the point of the question.

So why are you being asked? Your college interviewer is trying to elicit from you what you hold important and what you most value. And since just asking "what do you value most?" is too dull and straight-forward, you're being asked the same question through the backdoor.

(Note that a secondary reason is to see how deep/clever/profound you are. If you pick the obscure 17th century German philosopher, you either get points for being deep--or it will backfire immensely, as we'll discuss in a second.)

How NOT to respond:

This is actually a lot easier a question than it seems if you're ready for it--the only absolute disasters I've had (I've used this question a couple of times in my college interviews) where when the student was caught completely flat-footed and unprepared. So how can you blow it?

• Don't answer. This should be obvious, but adamantly sticking to "I don't know" isn't a good strategy--even if you really don't know. But, since you're reading this entry, you can think about the question and have some answer already in mind--so you won't fall into this bucket.

• Pick someone completely obvious--or who isn't that important. Everyone's fallback is Jesus--everyone wants to meet Jesus. Which is fine, but it's pretty overused and trite--and would he really have that much interesting to say? After all, the guy's got a pretty good set of four biographies, if you want to get his thoughts on how you should lead your life. If you want to go religious, how about one of the disciples? Or Judas? Talk about an interesting conversation...

The corollary to this is when people pick someone who isn't that interesting or important--and then are unable to support why they picked them. This is where dead family members are tricky--if you want to talk to your great-grandmother, that's fine--but make sure that you have a good rationale for why. 
 
Remember: Your interviewer is really asking about what's important to you. So asking your great-great-grandfather what it was like to overcome the racial and social biases of his day, bring his family to America and start the family business? Good answer. Asking your deceased grandparents for funny stories about your father when he was growing up? Probably an equally entertaining conversation, but not a great college interview answer.

• Pick someone with no good reason. This should also be obvious, but if you get to talk to any one person ever--you need a reason for choosing them. Pick Abe Lincoln? A little obvious, but fine. Pick him and don't know why or what you'd talk about? Bad idea. (Side note: the answer "I dunno--he sounds interesting" isn't a good reason). Make sure you can tie your person into your life, current issues you're facing, or current events (locally, nationally or internationally). 

• Pick someone for a specific reason--but they're the wrong person. This is a much rarer mistake, but happens. Since this is a two-part question (who + why), make sure your "why" really does match the "who". For instance, I once had a student pick President Ford because he wanted to get his perspective on the current state of Israeli/Palestinian affairs. But he didn't mean Ford--he meant Carter (Camp David Peace Accords and all). Ooops.

Rarer still, but still worth warning about--you venture into a more obscure figure (that 17th century dead German we mentioned earlier), don't really know him or understand his work as well as you think you do, and it turns out your college interviewer does. Remember, your college interviewer is probably pretty smart and well-read, so if you're going to go the obscure-dead-guy route, make sure you know your person--and his work--cold.

Note also that if you pick some obscure intellectual figure, you run the risk of coming across like a pretentious ass, and that's never good. In general, I'd stay away from the uber-obscure, unless it really--really--is the person you'd like to meet and you're willing and able to explain your choice for the next 15 minutes.

How to nail it: 

The main trick to nailing this one--as with many questions--is to be ready for it. Give it a little advance thought, get your person and rationale ready, and you'll be ready to nail this interview question to the wall. Couple of pieces of advice:

• Be genuine. This is always good advice, but particularly here--if you can think of someone that you really, genuinely would want to meet, your explanation for that choice will be cake. It will also come across well with your interviewer--even the most novice college interviewer can tell a genuine response from a canned one.
  

• Focus on the rationale first. Remember, what you're really being asked is what's important to you, so use that as a starting point. What is important to you? (more on this here, here and here) Starting with what's important to you, who would be the best person to teach/explain/help you with that? There's your person--and your rationale. You get added mileage if you can work this into an aspect of your application you haven't already discussed.
  

Quick example--say that environmental issues are very important to you. You'd probably enjoy talking about modern environmental issues with someone like John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. Good answer!


Bonus--if you start with something that you're passionate about, it's easy to talk about that topic and really focus on the "why" part of the question. (For our Muir example, you could talk about how it'd be interesting to get his thoughts on climate change and the current environmental challenges we face, what he'd do to focus public attention, what sort of policies he'd want to see enacted, what he'd be particularly happy/upset about when viewing his own legacy, etc). You're setting yourself up for a softball that you can nail.

Some ideas:

Still can't come up with a person? Some suggestions:

• Personal selections can be low-hanging fruit--just avoid being trite. Go ahead and pick grandma--just have a really interesting rationale ready that you can offer before your college interviewer's eyes glaze over. (see above)
  

• Common historical figures. For some reason, the historical responses are always the people you learned about before 5th grade: George Washington, Abe Lincoln, FDR, JFK, etc.

• Science (or other occupational) figures. Want to be a doctor? Maybe you should pick Louis Pasteur, or Marie Currie. Business figures (Buffett, JP Morgan, etc) work if you want to talk about business. Supreme Court justices (either current--Scalia, Ginsburg--or dead--Taft, Learned Hand) are also good picks, since they tend to be associated with concepts or philosophies that are interesting to talk about. Plus, Learned Hand is such a cool name....

• Academic figures/authors. If you're an agoraphobic writer, Dickinson or Thoreau might be good pics. Philosophers--Hume, Kant, etc--are fun picks because they give you a lot to talk about, just be careful that you're ready to talk philosophy with an interviewer who probably studied your person in college.

• Religious figures. Anything religion-related can be a little touchy, but I think it's fine here. As mentioned earlier though, everyone picks Jesus--if you want to stay Christian, I think Paul would be a fascinating person to talk to. Or go Eastern--hard to argue that meeting Buddha wouldn't be enlightening.

• Sports/entertainment figures. I'd probably avoid picking Brittney or Paris, but someone like Robert Redford or Charlton Heston would be interesting because of their work outside Hollywood. In general I'd avoid these though, for fear of looking shallow.
  

Just remember, whomever you pick, what's key isn't who, but why--make sure you have a compelling reason for picking them, which ideally ties into the main themes of your application. Put some thought into it, and you'll be golden.   -------CJ

News: Should you Friend?

In case you missed it, USA Today (I know, we're going highbrow... bear with me here) ran an interesting article on college admissions that looked at social networking--specifically, should you friend your college admissions officers on Facebook?

In a nutshell, no, you probably shouldn't. Like many non-traditional admissions gambits, it introduces a lot of new potential downsides for your application, and the benefits of doing so are pretty slim. After all, do you really think you're going to get into Dartmouth because you friended their admissions staff?

David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, puts it rather diplomatically:

"I think that the general consensus among administrative offices … is that personal connections through social networking sites probably raises more potential problems that it solves," Hawkins says.

The real reason it's a bad idea to friend the staff is buried at the bottom of the article:

Out of the 401 schools surveyed by Kaplan, just 9% say their staffs have looked at students' social networking pages to help evaluate applicants. Of those, 33% say viewing applicants' pages negatively impacted their evaluation and 31% say it positively impacted their evaluation.

So almost none of the admissions folks you friend are ever going to look at your profile. And when they do, it's most likely to have no impact--but if it has an impact, it's as likely to be negative as positive. You gain nothing. So don't do it.

But, if you really must friend your college admissions officers, have enough sense to sanitize your profile. If your profile photos have a chance of ending up here you probably don't want admissions folks coming across them.

Read the full USA Today story here.  -----------CJ

Top 5 WORST Answers Ever

I try--really hard sometimes--not to burst into laughter during a college interview. But it's tough when you get answers like these (all of which, by the way, are real).

1. "I wish everyone would dress better" (Answer to "If you could change something about your high school, what would it be?") Maybe if you were applying to a fashion institute you could get away with this one.
2. "Easy--I've wanted to go to Brown since grade school! My parents both went there, and..." (Answer to "Why do you want to attend my school?") Note that I don't interview for Brown.
3. "Well, I don't really like being around a lot of people, so the sciences have always been very attractive." (Answer to "What's your favorite subject and why?") Even if it's true, why would you admit it?
4. "Why?" (Answer to the question "What is your favorite academic subject?") I dunno.... maybe it has something to do with college?
5. "A dwarf." (Answer to "What would you be if you could be anything?") This applicant would have gotten points for creativity, had Lord of the Rings not just come out.

 Happy interviewing! -----CJ

Rumor Mongering

I'm planning on compiling a list of questions that people have been asked by interviewers from various schools this season. If you've had a college admissions interview already and want to share what you were asked, email me.

I'll start posting compilations over the coming weeks. Thanks! ----CJ

Power of the First Impression

I had just finished up my first interview. I was looking around for my 5:30 admissions interview when I saw the girl I thought I was supposed to interview walk into the coffee shop. I must have been wrong though, since she avoided all eye contact--with anyone--as she retreated to the coffee bar to order. 

I waited a few minutes to see if anyone else would come in. When no one did, I decided to approach the girl I'd seen earlier, who'd retreated by then to a table in the far corner of the shop.

"Hi, are you (let's call her Amber), by chance?" I asked, walking up to her table.

"Um, yes," she said, refusing to look up. Her eyes darted around and finally came to rest on her glass of water.

"Great! I'm CJ -- I'm your interviewer," I said, extending a hand.

She looked up like I'd just slapped her, and after a few seconds decided that she couldn't avoid shaking hands. Her handshake was moist and frail. I was afraid I was going to break her hand. She mumbled what I thought must have been a greeting.

"I'm at a table on the other side of the shop, but let me grab my things and I'll join you," I said, already looking for a way to end the interview quickly.

Ding.

Advice

What's the old cliche in sales? "You only great one chance to make a first impression"? That's never been more true than in your college admissions interview.

Let's face it, your college interviewer is busy--they may be interviewing a dozen applicants--and they're human. We all make snap judgments of people based on a first impression, and it should only be expected that your college interviewer will do the same. Maybe--maybe--you can claw your way back from a bad first impression (for the record, the applicant above didn't), but why dig yourself a hole that you have to climb out of?

Particularly when the bar for a good first impression (we'll talk "great" in a second too) is relatively easy. At the risk of sounding like your mom for a second, in order to make a good first impression, make sure you:

• Dress neatly. I've already covered what to wear here, but whatever you decide to go with, try to be put together. Don't wear anything too wrinkled. Avoid anything with food stains. Just be put together.
• Make eye contact. Volumes have been written on the language of body language, and one key element is good eye contact. Avoid eye contact and you look afraid, uncomfortable and nervous (at best). Making eye contact with your college interviewer signals that you're confident, comfortable, approachable and friendly--all qualities you want to convey. 
• Smile. There's no simpler way of making someone like you than to smile at them. 
• Offer a good handshake. No need to crush your college interviewer's hand in a vise-like grip or anything, but don't offer up a limp fish. Take your college interviewer's hand firmly and shake it like you're happy to see them. 
• If you're seated, stand up. This is a basic manner's thing, but more than anything else, it's awkward to greet someone who's towering over you if you're sitting down. Stand up, greet, then offer them a seat.
• Greet your interviewer by name. Not "Bob" or "Grace", but a "Great to meet you, Mr. Turner" goes a long way.
  

So how do you put the basics together? If you're at the meeting location first and you spot your interviewer as they walk in, first make eye contact. If they hold your eye contact and acknowledge you--smile, nod at you, wave--then they're probably your interviewer. When they walk over, stand up, offer a hand, smile while looking them in the eyes, and say something pleasant, like "Are you Mrs. _____? Great, I'm ______, your 4:30 interview. I'm so happy to meet you!"

Sound simple? It really is--no one should mess this up, but about 20% of the college applicants I interview do. 

How do you go from "good" to "great"?

There's probably a dozen ways to make a "great " first impression in your college interview, but the easiest way? Be energetic and enthusiastic.

I'm not talking about being some over-the-top, hyper-caffeinated Bring It On reject--just show a higher level of energy and excitement in your interview than you otherwise might. This shows your college interviewer that you're eager and interested in attending his or her school, which gives you a leg up on other applicants who don't seem to care.

Also--and more importantly--enthusiasm is contagious. If you show excitement and enthusiasm, your interviewer will also feel excited and enthusiastic. And what do they have to be excited about? Easy--your application!

I don't think any of this is rocket science, but it's the little things that separate college applicants--and super-simple things, like making a good first impression, are so easy that there's no excuse if you flub it.  -----CJ

Favorite Questions: If You Could Change One Thing...

Part of an on-going series of favorite interview questions you'll run into during your college admissions interview --CJ

Question: If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be and why? (Alts: Change one thing about your high school experience, about your classmates, etc. Related: What's your favorite class/teacher/aspect of your high school and why?)

Background/why you're being asked:
So you're sitting in a college admissions interview, and all the interviewer wants to ask about is your high school experience? Yup. This is a slightly tricky question to answer correctly--chances are, you probably haven't been asked something like this before and so don't have an answer ready (well, you hadn't... now you do). 

It's also a question that makes you think on your feet--you have to identify something you're unhappy with in your high school experience, articulate it coherently (where interviewees often trip up) and then explain why and how you'd fix the problem. It's tough to nail.

And that's the point. 

I ask this question in interviews that are going well as a way of pushing the interviewee a little harder to see whether they're a good applicant or a great applicant. 

Great college applicants are engaged with their surroundings--they're not just passing through life, they're actively interacting with their surroundings. As such, they're aware of the problems and shortcomings around them and have thought about ways to improve their environment. 

That level of insight and engagement is what your college interviewer is probing you for.

How NOT to respond

Again, this is a tough question, so a mediocre answer isn't going to hurt you that much. That said, there are some ways to blow it:

• Think your school is perfect. No school is perfect--surely there's something that you'd improve if you could. Not being able to come up with anything says that you're not a very critical thinker and/or haven't given your educational environment much thought. Not good.
• Hate your fellow students. Think everyone at your school is a mouth-breathing redneck? You might be right--but disparaging everyone at your school makes you come across as an anti-social loner. There's a fine line--complaining that your classmates are unengaged because your school doesn't offer a very broad curriculum? Fine---the problem is the curriculum, not your fellow students (per se). Complaining that your fellow students are "dumb and boring and just care about basketball" (direct quote from one interviewee I had)? Makes you sound like the friendless kid who eats lunch alone in the school office.
• Wish we didn't have to take French/math (or any variant that could be summed up as "I really don't like classes"). This should go without saying.
  
• Be shallow. Think your prom this year sucks? Hate the food in your cafeteria? You're probably right--but this isn't the place to voice that opinion.
  

How to nail it:
What your interviewer is looking for is depth of thought and the ability to critically engage with your environment. If you're deep and engaged, you're in luck--if you need to fake it, prepare for the question ahead of time! If you could change anything.... what would it be? 

Stuck? Couple of safe ideas for responses:

• Balance. Is your school too focused on athletics? Do a couple of clubs dominate, to the exclusion of smaller groups? Is it so academically focused as to be a pressure cooker? Some variant on "The culture of my school places too much emphasis on X, to the exclusion of Y and Z" is a good answer--it's generally hard to argue about needing better balance. How would you fix it? Easy--balance things... better.
• Lack of diversity. Like "balance", "diversity" is one of those concepts that's tough to argue against nowadays. Maybe the diversity you need is cultural and ethnic diversity--but maybe it's academic diversity (not enough varied courses) or diversity of activities (does your school offer water polo?) Fixing this is tougher--lack of diversity in your student body is typically a result of geography. Lack of course or extracurricular diversity is probably a resource issue. Ready to argue for higher property taxes to fund your water polo team?
• Lack of community. Another concept no one can argue against--everyone likes having more community. Should your school encourage more student-to-student mentoring? Should there be more programs aimed at bringing students from various backgrounds together? There you go: community building. Another variant of this is your school's role within the broader community--community service in your town, tutoring younger students, etc. 
• Lack of student input. Is your school too top-down, with little input from the student body? Arguing that your school should take more student input into consideration is another easy point to argue--and you can get somewhat creative in how you think student input should be gathered and incorporated. 

Bonus: Tie your answer into why you want to attend the school you're interviewing for. For example:

"I think my school does a lot of things right, but its biggest shortcoming is a lack of diversity of classes---we have the basics, like American literature and chemistry, but no chance to really explore a topic deeper in a classroom setting. If I could do anything, I'd address this, perhaps by allowing students to pursue independent studies for credit so they could pursue topics they were interested in. This is actually why I'm so excited about attending your school--it seems like it's large enough to offer a huge selection of departments and classes, and everything is strong across the board."

Again, a little preparation here goes a long way. You're going to be stressed enough during your interview--spend a few minutes prior to your interview preparing for this question so you'll be ready for it.   -----CJ

We're number #327! What College Rankings are Good For

Just in case you've been hiding in a cave--or hiking the Inca Trail to pad your resume--the annual US News & World Report college rankings are out. And with them, the annual are-rankings-good-or-bad controversy.

First, the rankings themselves:

• Harvard, Princeton and Yale, the perrenial top three, are yet again on top
• Cal Tech, MIT, Stanford and Penn show up tied for fourth
• Columbia, U. Chicago and Duke round out the top 10. 

(By the way, I once heard the rumor that the year that Harvard dropped out of first place, the ranking's managing editor--a Harvard grad--fired half the staff. Probably an urban legend, but Harvard hasn't been out of the top place since...)

And, just as predictable as the list of schools in the top 10, is the coverage of the media (no less than 1,600 stories as of today, according to Google): Do Rankings Matter? Did Our Local School/Alma Mater Move Up (or Down)? Who Are the Fascinating People Who Compile the Rankings?

A better question: Who cares?

First, the rankings themselves have been around long enough that everyone's (hopefully) on to the fact that the difference between a score of 87 (#12 Washington University) and a score of 85 (#15 Cornell) is really irrelevant. 

Second, any ranking methodology--and the US News one is about as refined as any--is always going to be open to criticism. For instance, US News gives 25% of its score to a survey of academics who rank other schools' academics. 

Is the dean of School X really the best person to assess the education of School Y? Maybe, although academics are as susceptible to marketing and reputation--and peer envy--as anyone. And should this category get 20, 25 or a 30% ranking? Change anything slightly and you reshuffle the whole mess.

Point: Any "objective" ranking is, well, not. They're always subjective, just with numbers.

So are they worthless?

Not really. The rankings are a great starting point. Read through the top 100. Familiar with Carnegie Mellon? It's a great school, and if the fact that it's in the rankings brings it to your attention for further investigation, then the rankings have done a great service.

US News actually--for all their overly precise scoring flimflam--does a great job of highlighting schools that doing something cool. In addition to sub-rankings by geography, you can now sort by majors, up-and-coming programs, teaching, etc. They also do a great job of compiling all the information (class size, acceptance rates, % on financial aid, etc) in one location. 

So, take it with a grain of salt. Don't apply (or don't don't-apply) to a school just because it's #22 this year on the US News rankings. Use the rankings for what they are--a starting point.

By the way, if you're not a US News fan, you'll be happy to know there are also rankings of schools by social good, green-ness, and of course, return on investment (don't get me started on that one...). 

And naturally, rankings of what really matters.

If you're already sick of all the rankings.... you might enjoy this last one. ---CJ