Fairview High School
Post-Grad and Counseling Centers
(revised 12/1/2007)
When letters of acceptance or rejection arrive, students may face some very disappointing news if they have not balanced the competitiveness of their selected colleges. The news comes in many forms, including not getting into the most competitive college(s), not having enough money to go to the most-wanted school, or having an unexpected change in a family situation (such as needing to stay closer to home or find a less expensive college). Some of the ensuing distress can be prevented by a more objective composition of the list of colleges and universities to which students apply.
Students
often are so enamored with popular college names that they fill their list with
too many highly competitive colleges. Here is one
example of a list that is likely to lead to disappointment and upset:
q Stanford
q Harvard
q Princeton
q Yale
q Columbia
q Duke
q Pomona
q University of Colorado at
Boulder
There
are roughly 1,750 four-year colleges in the U.S., yet one might think that
there were only 50, because every year students are attracted to the same 50
names. The problem with this tendency to focus on the
most-popular colleges is that it distracts us from finding other colleges that
do an excellent job with the things we are most interested in.
Getting to College Tip –
There is nothing wrong with applying to a couple of the most-named colleges. What is missing in the above example is the middle ground. To fill the gap between safe schools and reach schools, add to the list some colleges that are a little more comfortable to get into and that do an excellent job in an area of interest. These schools will afford the student a reasonable chance of being accepted and a fair to good chance of receiving some merit scholarship money.
You
might think that because Fairview is an excellent high school and a student is
taking demanding courses, that it is only reasonable to assume that he or she
can gain entry to a very competitive school, if the student just applies to
enough of them. It is true that Fairview is well known
around the country and, because of the rigorous program, FHS students get into
all ranges of colleges. However, due to the tremendous
growth in college applicants and the relatively static number of seats at the
most competitive colleges, there is much more demand than supply. The consequence is that highly competitive schools must
turn down most of their applicants, even though they are fully qualified to
do the work.
Applying
to the most-competitive colleges has become akin to playing the lottery. Consider for a moment what makes a college highly competitive. It is strictly a comparison of the number of applicants to
the number of available seats. It is not necessarily
equal to having the best philosophy department or (fill in the blank with an
area you love) department. A well-known college may garner
over 20,000 applications for 1,000 slots. As the
college becomes more and more widely recognized as a highly competitive
college, even more students decide to apply. Thus,
there is an ever-widening gap between the number of qualified applicants and the
openings. Applying to several highly competitive
colleges is like buying several lottery tickets, instead of just one; it is
still a lottery.
An
example of a list that is likely to lead to a satisfying result
is one that includes the full spectrum of schools:
q A small, reasonable number
of reach schools. These are schools at which the
student has about a 10% to 30% chance of being accepted and little likelihood
of receiving merit scholarship aid.
q Two to four more comfortable
schools. These are schools that give a reasonable
chance of being accepted and a fair to good chance of receiving some merit
scholarship money
q One to two safe schools. These are schools that are affordable and at which the
student is highly likely to be accepted.
There
are several ways to find more comfortable schools. You
can search by admissions department or by the quality of individual departments. Descriptions of majors and their quality are available in
the Post-Grad center at Fairview High School.[1] Specific strategies for finding these schools or comparing
department subject areas of interest are also available in the Post-Grad
Center.
Students – Do yourself a favor by expanding your
college list to include some of the more comfortable schools.
Come to the Post-Grad Center for information that is tailored to you.
Parents – Do
your student a favor by helping them find a way to reduce the stress and
distress of applying to college. For
some tips on finding useful college guides, use this link to "Which
College Review Publications are Credible? Where Should
I Start?"
Also, for an in-depth discussion of college admissions, read Harvard Schmarvard (Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That is Best for You) by Jay Mathews.[2] It is available in the Post-Grad Center and in local bookstores.
[1] Note, too, that some of the schools may well be ones with outstanding Honors programs, which serve as a competitive college within a college. Use this link to see more information about Honors programs
[2] Prima Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7615-3695-7.