Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
A perennial question arises with each admissions cycle: ‘does the major I declare on the application affect my candidacy?’ Point blank answer: in approximately 99.6% of the cases, no. Most admissions officers realize that 80% or more of their freshman class will change majors at least once before the end of sophomore year.
College acceptances generate ineffable joy, while rejections melancholy. A good way to come to grips with the inevitable vicissitudes of the admissions process is to take note of this year’s admissions messages: what they say, and most importantly, how they say it. This should remove some of the apprehension and hurt, while keeping in perspective some of the joy of the admissions cycle. Though, in all honesty, rejection is always difficult, no matter what.
There are outposts in higher education that defy classification and take unique approaches to education. Deep Springs in eastern California comes to mind with its select handful of students who attend for two years and combine deep analysis of such texts as Plato’s Republic with a daily dose of ranching and farming. Another one is Cooper Union in New York. Now, among this select group, with its first graduating class in 2006, is the Franklin Olin School of Engineering located in Needham, Massachusetts, next door to Babson College, the leader in undergraduate business entrepreneurship. All three schools were endowed by entrepreneurial men who intently made them tuition free.
Olin, however, does far more than give free tuition to attract the brightest students.
There will always be endless debates about whether an Ivy League school or other highly selective school is worth the price of admission. Now, however, there is hard evidence about the actual payback for attending a certain school. Not that this information is the last word in these debates, but it certainly supplies the numbers one might want to see when sharpening the pencil and figuring out what are the probable returns associated with attending an UC San Diego instead of a Princeton.
Among the many college information websites, several, such as the College Navigator, from the National Center of Educational Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ with its extensive enrollment and financial aid information, and the College Board site http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/index.html with its college selection tools and college major research information, are stalwarts.
