With the lawsuit involving Asian-American students’ undergraduate admissions to Harvard moving forward to trial in October, the case has the potential to create waves of changes in the admissions world. I found this article in the Boston Globe particularly helpful in thinking about the nuances of the case, as well as some brief overviews of the different parties who are involved. … Read More
Carnegie Mellon Eliminating Demonstrated Interest
Carnegie Mellon University Undergraduate Admissions recently released news that they are making some significant changes to their application process. One big change is eliminating the “demonstrated interest” aspect, which previously was used to judge how much a student seemed genuinely interested in the university through participating in CMU events on campus or in their hometowns, completing an alumni interview, and … Read More
Harvard lawsuit reveals application scoring system
While the lawsuit involving Harvard undergraduate admissions continues to unfold, news outlets are reporting some of the information that has been released so far. Harvard admissions ranks students between a 1-6 in each admissions category, including using pluses and minuses to indicate being at the upper or lower end (ranking a 4+, for example). The Harvard Crimson article cited about … Read More
Harvard Retracts 10 Offers to Students Who Posted Offensive Memes in Facebook Group Chat
The story of ten students losing their offers of admission to Harvard University is gaining momentum. Many of us have been warned, or have warned others, that nothing on the internet is every truly private. Even popular shows like South Park and Black Mirror have delved into this idea of losing privacy through our use of social media.What interested me … Read More
Californian teenager shares essay accepted to all Ivy Leagues
It’s not often students share their college application essays in such a public way. What stood our to me in Cassandra Hsiao’s essay were the narrative qualities. She gave the story of her family’s English language a beginning, middle, and end. While some of her essay is about her mother, I think Cassandra did a good job of keeping the … Read More
Hampshire College says “no more” to SAT/ACT tests
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/21/hampshire-reports-successful-admissions-year-going-test-blind Hampshire College is not the first school to step away from using standardized tests as part of a holistic college application process. One potential downside is becoming ineligible to participate in many of the “official college rankings” lists. But these lists tend to represent a number of factors, including alumni donations, that don’t necessarily provide insight into the academic … Read More
Video applications instead of grades
http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/for-applicants-who-send-videos-goucher-college-will-be-grades-optional/38933 There are a small number of schools looking to enter the territory beyond transcripts, grades, and essays. Is this a reflection of an increasingly multi-media centered culture, or a way to allow students (and only students) to speak for themselves? I was certainly curious reading through this article, and wondered about what narratives or cliches video-watching admissions counselors might … Read More
Finding good advice on writing the personal essay
It is truly overwhelming how much information there is out there on the college application process. From student-driven sites to official college websites, how can you know which information to trust? I have read many articles online with advice on writing the college essay only to get to the bottom and read that the author of the article has no … Read More