Great College Advice

During my recent visit to the University of Wyoming, I came across two women chattering away in Mandarin Chinese.  While one was Chinese, the other was from Saipan, a small island in the South Pacific that is within the US Commonwealth (like Puerto Rico or Guam). Her name is Jennifer “J.J.” Jang, and she’s a [...]

Often when I visit a college campus, I sit down with students to discuss their experiences. Such discussions initially unnerve the students (”Who are you, and what do you want?”).  But when they realize that I’m genuinely interested in learning about their college, they usually open up and share the good with the bad.

The young [...]

Just a couple of weeks ago, the National Council for College Admissions Counseling issued a report calling on colleges to reduce the importance of standardized scores in the admissions process.

But as long as public rankings of colleges and universities, such as those issue by US News & World Report, it’s unlikely that colleges will dump [...]

I recently visited the University of Wyoming. Situated in Laramie, the university is the only four-year college in the entire state. As such, the entire population is focused on providing Wyoming students with the best in higher education.

I met with Brooke Spicer, an Admissions Representative, and asked her what would make for a [...]

One of the great myths about college admission is that the process is merely a matter of doing your best in high school, getting good scores on some tests, writing a decent essay, and then simply submitting your application to the admissions office.  Then you just sit back and pray those admissions officers will love [...]

Sixty percent of college students in America are women; men go to college in fewer numbers.  Some campuses are content to reflect this gender gap, but many are not.  Most strive for a balance of men and women on their campuses.

The result:  boys are favored in the admissions process, sometimes with a 10-20% better admit [...]

Princeton Review’s Guide to the Best 368 Colleges is a best seller. For good reason. It can be very helpful in elucidating some of the key features of the colleges lucky enough to appear between its covers.
But it can also be something of a tease: check out my post yesterday for titillating [...]

Colleges cite their student-to-faculty ratios and average class size as indicators of the intimacy and quality of the educational experience they offer to students. Rankings systems, such as those employed by US News & World Report and Newsweek, include these statistics among their variables. I’ve been writing about these statistics and what they [...]

Student-to-faculty ratios are generally considered to be an indicator of the quality of the educational experience at a college. The lower the ratio, the more personal and intimate the experience ought to be. And yet some colleges have very low ratios and enormous class sizes. Plus, these statistics are easily manipulated by [...]

Last week, I spent a couple of days on the campus of Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s part of my job to research college campuses, to wander around, talk to professors, start up conversations with students, and take the requisite campus tour.
The purpose is to help match students to colleges. I’m [...]