GAP Year Abroad–A Great Way to Prepare for College and Learn About the World

I recently attended a GAP year fair to learn more about the growing number of excellent programs for students who want to take a year out between high school and college to pursue something different. Some students engage in community service, some travel the world, and some opt for another sort of educational experience.

At the fair, I met Chris Stakich, the co-founder and executive director of “Thinking Beyond Borders.”  This is an eight month GAP year program structured to expose participants to several key global issues.  I was so struck by the content of this program that I took Chris aside to ask him a few questions about his program.

This interview appears in the video below.


Technorati Tags: GAP year, college, university, application, admission, global, world, economic development, global issues, Chris Stakich, Thinking Beyond Borders Del.icio.us Tags: GAP year, college, university, application, admission, global, world, economic development, global issues, Chris Stakich, Thinking Beyond Borders

Bennington College: Creative, Self-Directed, Intellectually Serious Alternative

I recently spent a gorgeous spring afternoon on the campus of Bennington College in southern Vermont.  The campus is a lovely mixture of colonial architecture and internationalist modern styles, and 650 students are proud to be known as a relatively off-beat, alternative, and artistic bunch.  Like Marlboro, Bennington does not offer traditional majors, but requires students to develop their own plan of study that is closely supervised by the faculty.

This video offers a brief summary of my visit to Bennington.


Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant


Technorati Tags: Bennington, College, Vermont, liberal arts, independent, academic, plan, faculty, admission, application, Marlboro, arts, dance, Del.icio.us Tags: Bennington, College, Vermont, liberal arts, independent, academic, plan, faculty, admission, application, Marlboro, arts, dance,

Marlboro: Quirky, Offbeat, Intellectually Serious Community

I recently visited Marlboro College in southern Vermont.  Many colleges claim to be unique.  Marlboro merits the label.

With only 320 students, Marlboro attracts students who want to take charge of their own intellectual development, who want to live in a quiet, rustic environment, and who are serious about getting involved in a tight-knit community.

Here’s a short video that summarizes my visit.



Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant


Technorati Tags: Marlboro, College, Vermont, liberal arts, independent, academic, plan, faculty, admission, application, Bennington, arts, dance, Del.icio.us Tags: Marlboro, College, Vermont, liberal arts, independent, academic, plan, faculty, admission, application, Bennington, arts, dance,

Accepted or Rejected? The Envelope Please….

Today is April 1st, the day by which colleges and universities across the land must tell their applicants of their decision:  accepted, rejected, or waitlisted.

I was interviewed by Forbes.com the other day regarding my opinion about how students should handle the prospect of being rejected to their first choice school. You can read what I said on the Forbes.com site here.

But the best advice comes from students.  This short video offers the best advice I could possibly give to a student whose hopes have been crushed.  He’s a sophomore who has turned lemons into lemonade.

Take it from this guy…who has been there before…



Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant



Technorati Tags: college, application, admission, rejection, denied, acceptance, advice, Villanova, Harvard, Princeton Del.icio.us Tags: college, application, admission, rejection, denied, acceptance, advice, Villanova, Harvard, Princeton

Wanna Get Into College? Show the Love!

Even in the economic downturn, many of the top colleges are still inundated with applications. Some colleges, like Williams, have experienced a decline in applications. Still, the desks of admissions officers are piled high with file folders containing the applications of qualified candidates–many, many more than they can ever accept.

I wrote a very popular article a while back with some advice about how to “dance with an admissions officer.” I offer some tips about how to show the love to an admissions officer, and let that person know that a college (Williams, for example) is really and truly the perfect college for you.

Then the other day, the Boston Globe published an article proclaiming that colleges now favor applicants who show keen interest.

In many respects, the use of “demonstrated interest” (as admissions officers call it) as a criterion for admission is a repsonse by colleges to the huge increase in applications they have seen over the past decade or so.  The Boston Globe reports figures from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) showing that 22% of colleges now use “demonstrated interest” as a criterion–up from 7% in 2003.

Here’s a snippet from the Boston Globe article that explains the rise in importance of “demonstrated interest.”

The growing importance of “demonstrated interest” is the product of a number of overlapping factors. High school students are applying to a greater number of colleges to better their odds of acceptance, which has made it harder for colleges to estimate how many actually plan to come. This year, the financial downturn and the credit crunch have further complicated the process, with families expected to base their decisions more on cost.

Amid such unpredictability, students who seem excited at the prospect of arriving on campus in the fall are in high demand, admissions officers say. In an ironic twist, the volatile nature of admissions has given students a measure of control over the process.

So, keep up the dance.  Don’t forget to send thank you cards, emails, and Facebook messages to admissions officers at the schools you admire.  Don’t be a nuisance.  But don’t hesitate to flirt!

Mark Montgomery
Educational Planner

Technorati Tags: admission, college, application, acceptance, officer, selective, Williams, Ivy League, demonstrated interest, NACAC Del.icio.us Tags: admission, college, application, acceptance, officer, selective, Williams, Ivy League, demonstrated interest, NACAC

Colleges and Universities React to the Economic Crisis: Gnash Teeth, Wring Hands…and Repeat

In a pair of pieces appearing this past weekend in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, two journalists illustrate that this admissions season perhaps will be the wackiest ever.

Not only are students sweating over whether they will be accepted or rejected, colleges are facing the same anxieties: will enough students say yes to their offers, thereby helping to make their financial targets for the year.

“Financial targets,” you ask? “You mean to say, Mark, that this admissions process is largely about making budget?”

Um, yeah.

You see, most colleges and universities, both public and private, are tuition-driven. That is, each year’s expenses must be paid by the tuition revenue collected that same year. Hand-to-mouth. Year-to-year.

Only a handful of really wealthy, heavily endowed universities are immune to the fact that tuition revenues keep the doors open. And with the financial crisis affecting everything in our economy, colleges and universities are finding it difficult to plan–at the very least.

And a few, like the College of Santa Fe, may actually shrivel up and die.

A while back I prognosticated some of the potential effects of the financial crisis on higher education. It’s too early to tell whether any of my predictions will come true.

But one thing is indisputable: most colleges are worried about their yield rates and their budgets.  (Skeptical?  Read the article from the New York Times here and the Los Angeles Times here.)

So here is a refined set of prognostications for how college and university admissions and financial aid offices will likely react to tough economic times.

  1. More students will be placed on waiting lists. And the students most likely to be pulled off waiting lists will be those able to pay the entire cost of tuition.
  2. More colleges may be unable to meet the full financial need of those students they admit. And those colleges that do not meet full demonstrated need will meet a lower percentage of that need than in the past.
  3. Admissions offices will have a keen eye cocked on persistence rates: are current students leaving because they can no longer afford to pay tuition?
  4. Transfer students with ability to pay full freight may have better chances at some selective colleges this year, especially if persistence rates drop due to financial difficulties (see above).
  5. Colleges will do everything they can to maintain levels of financial aid at past levels–in the aggregate. But in practice admissions and financial aid may be more stingy in doling out the merit aid this year.
  6. Whatever the impact the economic crisis has on admissions, there is little doubt that students will see an impact on their experience in college. Announcements of hiring freezes mean larger average class sizes. Some campuses are eliminating competitive sports. Student services may be cut back commensurate with staffing cuts.

Only a few short weeks (days, even!) until colleges and universities send out their admissions decisions and financial aid offers.  And then another 30 days of anxious waiting as students make their decisions about which college will earn their loyalty…and their money.

Technorati Tags: college, admission, application, financial, aid, scholarship, loan, credit, crisis, economic, downturn, acceptance, rejection Del.icio.us Tags: college, admission, application, financial, aid, scholarship, loan, credit, crisis, economic, downturn, acceptance, rejection

Millsaps College–Distinctive Features and Admissions Priorities

I recently visited Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, to find out for myself why this small, liberal arts college is included in Loren Pope’s book, 40 Colleges That Change Lives.  I was able to spend some time talking to the director of admission, Mr. Mathew Cox.

This short video highlights three distinctive features of Millsaps.  It’s a wonderful place.

Mark Montgomery
College Consultant

Technorati Tags: college, liberal arts, admission, small, selection, choose, choice, decision, Millsaps, Jackson, Mississippi Del.icio.us Tags: college, liberal arts, admission, small, selection, choose, choice, decision, Millsaps, Jackson, Mississippi

Audition Tape for College Admissions

As an amateur actor and singer myself, I enjoy working with students who seek a college where they can further their interests in the performing arts.

I have a client this year who is a very talented hip hop dancer, singer, and actor. He is also a very nice kid who has been more than willing to think outside the box as he has searched for the colleges that best match his interests, abilities, and aspirations. He had decided not to apply to dance, drama, or theater programs, preferring instead to find a liberal arts college with strong performing arts programs.

Many clients write in and want examples of a strong audition tape for a performing arts audition. I recommend this example to you as a good model.

Have a look and let me know what you think!  Would you want him on stage at your college or university?



Technorati Tags: college admission, performing arts, audition, video, tape, reel, college selection, college match Del.icio.us Tags: college admission, performing arts, audition, video, tape, reel, college selection, college match

Technorati Tags: performing arts, portfolio, drama, theater, acting, music, dance, college, admission, university, application, Colorado Del.icio.us Tags: performing arts, portfolio, drama, theater, acting, music, dance, college, admission, university, application, Colorado

How Competitive is College Admissions? Enough to Tempt Parents to Behave Badly

The Chicago Tribune ran a story on Monday about the lengths to which some parents will go to get their darlings into college.  The whole process of selecting and applying to college is certainly stresseful.  And there is no doubt that the competition is fierce.


It’s also true that in some school communities, the competition is even more fierce.  At toney private schools in the East, for example, there may be 30 members of the 100 students in the graduating class who are all applying to Harvard or Tufts or both.  Clearly, no college will want to admit every student from that school who applies, even if every last one of them has perfect grades and a perfect test scores.  Colleges are social engineers, and to accept so many from one place would throw the community out of balance.


So, as this article describes, some parents are not holding back in their attempts to sandbag others’ kids in order to promote their own. Here are some examples of sandbagging from the article:


  • Anonymous notes to the admissions office recommending that they look at a rival’s Facebook page.
  • Phone calls suggesting that a student is lying about particular accomplishments or extracurricular involvements.
  • Newspaper clippings attesting to a student’s involvement in a crime or other bad behavior.


While this article does shed some light on how desperate a small number of parents (and their students) are to get into the most competitive colleges, the article does suggest that to focus on this sort of aberrant behavior only fans the fires of the fall admissions frenzy.


The article suggests that most admissions officers ignore these instances of parental interference, unless the letter is signed or unless it presents some sort of hard evidence–like the newspaper clipping.  The fact is that the practice of sandbagging other students is both rare and ineffective.  And if you read this article carefully, amid the sensationalist hype are some strong indications that the article’s headline bends reality in order to attract readers.


Here are some passages from the article that cool the hype.


College admissions officials said they do not track how many of these letters, calls or e-mails they receive and said they are unsure whether they’re getting more of them.


So is sandbagging becoming more common?  No data.  Admissions officials are “unsure” if the practice is increasing as competition increases.  Fact is, this practice has been going on for a long time.


“We see everything. Nothing shocks us anymore.”


So says the dean of admissions of Northwestern University.  Thus the article’s implication that sandbagging is a new phenomenon is misleading. Desperate and silly parents have been around for a long time.


…anonymous allegations typically get thrown in the trash. If the letters include specific allegations or a newspaper article detailing criminal activity, officials might follow up with a call to the applicants or their high schools.


Thus, sandbagging does not work.  Admissions officers are not stupid.  And they are also prudent.  So if they receive random messages written in crayon in unmarked envelopes, admissions people have a good laugh at the sandbagger’s expense and move on with their job.  Or they are careful to investigate specific allegations (which often turn up in teacher recommendations, anyway…either as the discreet but clear note at the bottom saying, “Call Me!”, or as a very weak letter of support).


The article also drops a little hint toward the end of the article that helps identify one of the sources of the problem, in general.  High schools generally do not put disciplinary information onto a transcript, nor do they report disciplinary actions to colleges in other ways.  This information is somehow deemed “private,” while the academic information is readily shared with college admissions officers.


In my mind, this is a huge problem.  It is also one of the reasons so many private consultants deal with families who arrive on our doorsteps with stories like this: “My daughter is really a great kid.  Of course, there was that one time she was busted for cocaine possession in Daytona Beach, and that time she was suspended for a week for selling marijuana–it was only a tiny amount.  We know you can help us tell her story in a way that will help cover for those minor infractions so she can get into the school of her dreams.”


I tell clients right up front that I will not be an accessory to a lie.  I will help the student explain the mistake, and if appropriate, help the contrite and apologetic young person explain past transgressions in terms of lessons learned and prospects for a better future.


While sandbagging is sleazy, I find it more sleazy–and much more common–that parents are totally comfortable with lying on behalf of their own child than they are willing to tear down someone else.  This finding is no consolation, to be sure.  But at least I keep my own conscience clear and my reputation intact.


Mark Montgomery

College Counselor






Technorati Tags: Chicago Tribune, admission, competitive, selective, college, university, Ivy League, application Del.icio.us Tags: Chicago Tribune, admission, competitive, selective, college, university, Ivy League, application