Authenticity Is Key on the Application

The headline of an MSNBC article last week screams, “Typo On Your College Application May Get You In.” The insinuation is that if you make some mistakes on the application you look more human and less like an automaton.
But the real point of this article is on the essay: demonstrating some humility, a bit of human frailty, or a dose of self-awareness is likely to lead to a more informative essay than one that shouts out your accomplishments, your invincibility, and your ability to overcome anything life might throw at you.
Super-heroes are out. Real people are in.
Literally.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:

In an age when applicants all seem to have volunteered, played sports and traveled abroad, colleges are wary of slick packaging. They’re drawn to high grades and test scores, of course, but also to humility and to students who really got something out of their experiences, not just those trying to impress colleges with their resume.
The trend seemingly should make life easier for students — by reducing the pressure to puff up their credentials. But that’s not always the case.
For some students, the challenge of presenting themselves as full, flawed people cuts against everything else they’ve been told about applying to college — to show off as much as possible.

My advice to students is to not pretend. To be themselves. Not to be afraid to demonstrate their humanity.
I also make clear that the essay is theirs: I won’t write it for them. Of course I provide pointers and ideas for restructuring, and clarifying points. But I try not to put ideas into their heads or words into their mouths. As a professor, I taught college students for years how to write term papers, how to construct an elegant paragraph, how to develop the trickle of an idea into a gushing torrent of insight. It’s something that I enjoy, and frankly I’m pretty good at it.
My aim is to guide from the side, provide counsel, and set the course. The navigation of the essay is up to the student.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
“Mapping College Journeys”
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SAT Scores Down a Bit Nationwide

The College Board reports that 2007 average scores on the SAT I exams dipped slightly, bringing them to the lowest level in 13 years. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that a large part of the reason for this decline is the increase in the number of test takers, including some students who never considered themselves college-bound.
Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times article explaining what happened:

The declines for the class of 2007 were not caused by a single factor, College Board officials said. But the increase in the number of traditionally underrepresented minority and low-income students taking the test played a role, they said. So did a new requirement in Maine that all high school seniors take the exam, including those who would not in the past have viewed themselves as college bound.
Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, said in a news conference, “The larger the population you get that takes the exam, it obviously knocks down the scores.”
Wayne Camara, vice president for research and analysis at the College Board, described the declines from 2006 to 2007 as statistically insignificant.
The officials trumpeted the size of the group that took the SAT — nearly 1.5 million seniors — and the expanded diversity of the test-takers. Hispanic, black and Asian-American students accounted for 39 percent of the seniors who took the test, representing the largest proportion of minority test-takers since the SAT was introduced in 1926. In all, 35 percent of those taking the exam would be the first in their family to attend college.

So that’s the good news.
The bad news is that with more students taking the SAT, the tougher the competition will be for those kids in the middle of the pack to land spots in some colleges. With the number of admissions slots relatively finite, a greater number of applicants means greater competition for those slots.
The fact that more kids are taking the SAT won’t affect the competition at the higher end of the scale at the more selective colleges. But the further down the selectivity curve, the greater the competition for college admission may become.
So demographics and a greater emphasis on creating a college-going culture in many public schools may put actually be bad news for some kids.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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College Rejections Are Up (Way Up) in 2007

The Today Show reported last April that college admissions offices are rejecting applications in record numbers. The piece does a good job of demonstrating how a colleges, students, and demographic changes are combining to create a “perfect storm” for high school seniors.

Need help navigating in a storm? Consider hiring an expert to help.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
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Beware Marketing Glitz from the Office of Admission

Last night I was researching colleges for one of my clients and had a look at High Point University in High Point, NC. I previously knew nothing about.
The website is impressive. It was clearly constructed by masters of marketing and public relations. The president, Nido Qubein, is a fantastic businessman and public speaker, and he clearly is a motivator and visionary. And undoubtedly his leadership is having an impact: new classroom buildings, new schools, new residence halls, and impeccable grounds.
Nido Qubein
But what struck me most is that this university has learned that marketing and PR make a huge difference. The school has a “Director of Wow.” I’m not kidding. This person’s job is to make everyone on campus feel great, take pride in the school and its people, and generally make people happy. (Perhaps he worked for Disney World before coming to HPU?).
This link will take you to a page of videos produced by the university. The first one, “Prepare to be WOWed,” is a good example of masterful marketing. It’s professional, the messages are clear, and the viewer comes away with a feeling that High Point is perhaps the most wonderful college on earth.
Have a look.
Impressive, right?
But think about it. Just because a college is great at marketing does not mean it is a great college. The video says almost nothing about academics, about professional placement, about the kind of kids who go there, about its athletics, extracurriculars, learning centers, or just about anything really useful for a college-bound student to know.
The video sells a feeling. A sentiment. An idea that you will be loved. That you will be nurtured. That you will be pampered, even.
While it’s true that every college does have a personality, and in a sense, each is trying to sell that “feeling” of love for one’s school, this glitzy marketing video–and other techniques used on the website–do not convince me that High Point University will be a good fit for every student. Nor does it convince me that there is substance underneath the veneer of good feelings.
To be clear, I’m not knocking HPU. I’m still learning about it, and it may be a great place for certain kinds of students who want a certain kind of educational atmosphere and educational programming.
And I’m not even knocking the fact that colleges and universities are becoming better at marketing themselves. They are taking lessons from Nido Qubein and other masterful marketers as they sell their services. And why not? Like any other business or service provider, institutions of higher ed need to convince consumers that they are worthy of your educational dollar.
But caveat emptor: buyer beware. videos like this–and many others that colleges are now creating to help sell their services–should be viewed with caution and a dose of skepticism. Don’t be snowed by the glitz and glamour. Remind yourself that they are selling, and that you must do some due diligence before letting yourself be hooked. Dig beneath the marketing veneer.
For example, what are faculty saying about the quality of education at HPU? What do they say about the quality of the students, the learning atmosphere, the value of the education that is provided? What do the data tell us?
In order to decide whether the school is right for a particular student, we need to look beyond the feel-good videos. We need to dig into the data, talk to students (ones that are not managed by the admissions office!), and to faculty. This sort of research takes time and effort, but it’s well worth it if you plan to invest tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars into an institution.
Fortunately there are professionals out there who can help you find the right fit.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consultant and Healthy Skeptic
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Study Abroad: Caveat Emptor

At the dawn of the 21st century, every college in America is touting its smorgasbord of study abroad opportunities, from Albania to Angola to Australia and back again. For colleges, these programs are “must-haves,” just like climbing walls, salad bars, and frisbee golf. And these programs have proliferated in a very short amount of time. How did this happen? The free market stepped in to provide “study abroad services” to colleges that could not economically create their own programs.
But as everything in a market society, some shady practices have developed along with the demand, and it turns out that some colleges–and even individual college administrators–sometimes get kickbacks to promote certain programs over other, or to build exclusive arrangements with certain study abroad companies.
The New York Times recently ran an article (registration required) exposing some of the cozy relationships between colleges and study abroad providers. Here’s an excerpt:

At many campuses, study abroad programs are run by multiple companies and nonprofit institutes that offer colleges generous perks to sign up students: free and subsidized travel overseas for officials, back-office services to defray operating expenses, stipends to market the programs to students, unpaid membership on advisory councils and boards, and even cash bonuses and commissions on student-paid fees. This money generally goes directly to colleges, not always to the students who take the trips.
Critics say that these and similar arrangements, which are seldom disclosed, typically limit student options and drive up prices for gaining international credentials compared with the most economical alternative — enrolling directly in a foreign university, paying generally lower tuition to that institution and having the credits transferred. Some campuses require students to use one of several affiliated providers, but some even have exclusive arrangements with study-abroad agents, further limiting options.

The article also highlights the case of a Columbia student who wanted to go to Oxford to study for a year at one of the most prestigious colleges within the Oxford system. Because Columbia had an exclusive financial agreement with another, lesser college, the student was not allowed to transfer his credits earned at Oxford back to Columbia. He appealed, and lost. So he dropped out of Columbia and graduated from Oxford.
The cautionary tale here is that not all study abroad programs are alike. While some universities have rich academic offerings and exert tight quality control over their programs, others are simply “credit mills” shepherd large groups of students overseas, through them into some classes of questionable value, and transfer some (always good) grades back to the students’ home universities.
Meanwhile, many cash-strapped universities are happy to send kids overseas for reasons other than the transformative experience of learning another culture. Universities make agreements with study abroad providers, whose programs cost considerably less than the cost of tuition at a private, 4-year college. Mom and dad are paying full tuition at the home university, while the university turns around and pays the provider perhaps a third of what a semester’s tuition costs. And the university pockets the rest. Moreover, the university doesn’t have to construct new dorms for all those kids on their junior year abroad…thus saving even more money over the long haul.
What’s the point here?
The point is that students and their parents needs to be as careful about choosing a study abroad program as they are about choosing a college. Some study abroad experiences have the potential to expand a student’s horizons intellectually, culturally, and socially (and geographically, of course). But others are not worth the price of admission.
So look carefully at those study abroad options. Does the college create its own programs or buy them “off the shelf” from other providers? Who are those other providers? Does the college have exclusive arrangements, or can students create their own programs or choose others that are not on the college’s “official, approved list”? Does the college’s academic faculty exert any oversight at all over the study abroad program, or is it run as a profit center within the university administration?
The answers to these questions…as well as the goals of the individual student…should guide you as you investigate study abroad options.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting and Study Abroad Specialist
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Preparations for NACAC

I’m getting excited about my September trip to Austin for the annual conference of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC). I’ll have the opportunity to attend a college fair and meet with dozens of college admission counselors in the search for schools that match the needs of my clients.
Furthermore, I’ll visit several other colleges and universities for an insider’s tour to what makes those schools different. Again, my aim is to get a better feel for which colleges will be a good match for clients.
Here’s a list of the schools I will visit:

  • Trinity University (San Antonio)
  • Austin College (Dallas)
  • Southern Methodist University (Dallas)
  • Texas Christian University (Fort Worth)
  • University of Dallas (Dallas)
  • University of Texas (Austin)
  • Southwestern University (Austin)
  • Rice University (Houston)
  • University of Saint Thomas (Houston)

    • There’s nothing like getting a first-hand knowledge of colleges and universities. These experiences better prepare me to serve the needs of my clients.
    Mark Montgomery
    Montgomery Educational Consulting
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    College Board Exits the Student Loan Business

    The New York Times reported on August 23 that the College Board–the home of the SAT–has decided to leave the student loan business in the wake of crackdowns on shady practices in the industry. Here’s an excerpt:

    In explaining its decision to abandon the business, the College Board cited new legislation and regulations cracking down on relationships between lenders and colleges that have been enacted in the wake of revelations that numerous lenders were paying colleges commissions or bonuses in exchange for business. College officials have also received free trips, meals and other perks to win spots on the so-called preferred lender lists that students rely on when selecting a loan company. …

    The association also emphasized that its student lending operation had accounted for less than 1 percent of the $618 million in revenue in the year ending June 30, and that shutting it down would affect only 15 employees.

    It’s a shame that access to higher education in this country has become so expensive that families have been duped by dodgy lending practices. Let’s hope that this scandal will help clean up the industry a bit. Let’s also hope that families will become better educated consumers, and that they will find the expertise they need to play the college admissions and financial aid game.
    Mark Montgomery
    Montgomery Educational Consulting
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    Consumer Reports Weighs In On Financial Aid

    The September 2007 Issue of Consumer Reports contains a call for greater clarity and consistency in the way colleges award financial aid and communicate those aid packages to families. Here’s an excerpt:

    Students and parents should have access to understandable information at critical points in the financing process. The current system makes that nearly impossible. Colleges calculate the cost of attending in different ways, so comparisons are difficult. Financial aid award letters don’t always make clear the difference between grants, which don’t need to be repaid, and loans, which do. They also give little or no guidance on how to minimize loans, secure low-cost financing, or figure out the bottom-line costs of loans.

    The article goes on:

    Research by Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has found that students and their parents turn most often to a college’s financial aid office for the ins and outs of paying for an education. But the information they get is often inconsistent and at times misleading. For example, some expensive colleges give enticingly large financial aid awards, but hide the amount families must pay.

    The editorial then calls upon Congress to make legislative requirements for colleges to disclose financial aid information in a more consistent manner, and for lenders to disclose loan terms more clearly.
    All this points to the fact that colleges are businesses, and they will continue to try to entice students to their campuses. I don’t believe most college in America are trying to be sneaky. But they are trying to award aid dollars in a way that will bring in the maximum number of students to the campus at the lowest possible subsidy.
    This also points to the fact that many families need independent, expert advice to help them navigate the college admissions and financial aid process. Colleges and lenders have become more savvy over the years in how they market to families. Now it’s time for families to learn how to best play the same game to their own advantage.
    Mark Montgomery
    Montgomery Educational Consulting
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