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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > January > 03 > Entry
Clean your desk, find good advice
Back from vacation this week, I was cleaning off my desk and found a humorous, but potentially helpful, list of tips from Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews for what not to do on your college application. Jay apparently wrote this in October and I meant to blog about it then. It may still be useful to a few seniors with applications to do. Juniors, print it out and save it for next year.
As the husband of a guidance counselor, let me add a few additional college application tips:
—Get to know your counselor. It’s a big mistake to go four years through high school and talk to your counselor for the first time when you bring your applications in for processing as a senior. Savvy top students begin building this relationship as underclassman and it makes a difference.
Your guidance counselor becomes very important in application process. Many colleges require a letter of recommendation from your counselor. The better they knows you, the better the chances that they will know you enough to write a convincing letter. Also, your counselor will be key to helping your applications along and getting them in on time. Trust me, you will need your counselor to do you favors. They will be more inclined to help you if they know who you are.
—Get your applications in early. If there is one complaint every counselor has it is the kid who wants to apply to and Ivy League school and drops the complicated application on their counselor’s desk the day before it is due. Not only is that aggravating and unfair to your counselor, it also increases the likelihood that mistakes will be made or things will be left out. And how good of a recommendation letter will that counselor be able to write in such a rush?
—Take the SAT or ACT a lot. I think I’ve told this story here before. My best friend in high school got a shockingly bad SAT score his first time taking it. In a panic, he asked a counselor if he should take it again. She gave him the worst possible advice, which no decent counselor would give today. She told him it wouldn’t be “fair” to the other test takers if he took it again. What about being “fair” to yourself? At my urging, that old pal took the test six times, doing better each time, until he raised his score 200 points and got into a decent college.
—Put your heart into it. Don’t try to “spin” your way into a good college when you write your essay. Write from the heart about something you really care about. And when you pick your schools to apply to, don’t focus too much on where your parents went or where your friends think you should go. Look for schools that match your personality and interests. Visit your top choices and pick the one that feels like home.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Comments
By Mary
January 5, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
So old prof, what makes grades given by teachers and professors any better, especially given grade inflation, subjectivity and bias of the grader, disenfranchisement of underchallenged and high IQ students from the grading games? Should we just draw names for the admissions process?By Oldprof
January 5, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Scott, statistically you’ve just proven that SAT and ACT tests are invalid. Allowing low-scoring students to re-take the test creates “deviation toward the norm”—all of the lower-scoring students eventually raise their scores. This skews the results. The real world doesn’t often give second chances, so if we’re going to use admissions tests (and there’s good reason that we shouldn’t) then there should be limited opportunities to take a Mulligan.By Mary
January 4, 2008 7:33 AM | Link to this
Scott, I think public school guidance counselors should schedule all students equally. Of course, most school districts provide more coaches than counselors for fewer student/athletes. The fair haired are probably getting more than their fair share of services in their school district, anyway. For example the Springboro locker room shown in this morning’s paper just for the elite men’s basketball players. I do not think that should be allowed in public schools whether it is donated or not. Of course, the taxpayers pick up the tab for their coach, transportation, insurance, maintaining special competitive athletic facilities,etc. The other advice you show, counselors should be drilling into all students. Perhaps the schools should pay for early and more SAT testing, more academic opportunities, instead of supporting and allowing plush athletic facilities. Many gifted students who test in the SAT and ACT in the sixth through 8th grades (usualy at their parents’ expense)score way above grduating high school seniors in their district, but the districts don’t do squat for them.