How “x” does academics: x = UCLA

Posted by Rotem 

At first I was intimidated to come to such a large school like UCLA, but I have found that classes are not as daunting as I expected.

UCLA runs on a quarter system. Fall, winter, and spring quarters are each ten weeks long with one week for finals. Fall quarter begins in late September, and Spring quarter ends in mid-June. There are also two summer sessions that are each six weeks long. The quarter system is a great way to try out many classes you are interested in. And if you dislike a class, it goes by fast anyways!

Students need a minimum of 180 units to graduate. Unfortunately, there is also a

They told you to wait

Posted by Doreen 

I know how frustrating it is to be waitlisted. I applied to six private schools last year, five of which were Ivies, and when I got the responses from the Ivy schools, two of the five had waitlisted me, one of which was one of my top choice schools.

Naturally I was frustrated — yes I had other options – I had other great schools I could go to in the fall, but being waitlisted was almost as bad as being rejected since I had little idea about where I stood! Should I wait around for their response before submitting an affirmative answer and deposit for another school? When would they make a final decision on my admission? Would they ever make a final decision or would they just leave me hanging forever? Did being waitlisted and then getting accepted make me less than my peers who were accepted first? How many other people were waitlisted? Did they rank the waiting list? How can I find out how high up I am on the list? Or… how low I am on the list?! If there is a list that is… the unanswered questions go on and on. So, here are some thoughts in retrospect.

The decision letter:

The letter they send you saying that you’re waitlisted will tell you little beyond the fact that you were put on the waiting list; they’ll probably comment that you’re a great student and that there were so many qualified students that they couldn’t have space for all of the wonderful applicants and yadda yadda. Some schools may include percentages of applicants that were waitlisted with you, but this is rare — usually they leave you in the dark on those things.

The postcard:

Usually, the school will give you the option though of staying on the waitlist or not.

Decisions are out: season 2007

Posted by Doreen 

So decisions are mostly all out for most of the colleges and universities across the country, and whether you’re in heartache or heaven right now, we’ve got a lot of content planned for you readers for the next few days… here’s what’s on the schedule, folks:

Tonight: Post about being waitlisted to the private universities

Later (yeah, I know that’s not very specific!): A post about connecting online to fellow accepted students, a post about admit weekends, an article about academics at UCLA, a post about being accepted for the spring semester at a school but not for fall freshman status, and a post about contesting a declined admission for the UCs.

As BB said, we are helpful… so add us!

Posted by Dee 

BB left the comment on the post we wrote for him/her titled “Response to BB: how many years of language is enough?” saying:

“Thank you very much! By the way, I am a junior. I’ve finally decided to not take the 4th year of Spanish. I am EXTREMELY involved in Band and Journalism, and while AcDec isn’t considered AP/Honors, it will probably be one the the most rewarding classes I will ever take in high school. In addition, I hate Spanish – though i do have an A. Again, thank you. This site has been so helpful!!”

BB — I’m so glad you found AdmitSpit helpful because that’s our whole point of existing! As you can tell, we definitely don’t post daily (we’re students too ya know!) so, to get updated without checking the site everyday and getting annoyed that we haven’t posted, there’s an easy solution… add us!

On Yahoo!:

The best way to go about adding AdmitSpit to Yahoo! is to go to http://alerts.yahoo.com and sign into Yahoo!. You’ll see that right now you’re on the “Create an Alert” tab, so click on “Feed / Blog” (which right now has a yellow NEW! icon by it) which will take you to a new page. In “A. Enter the URL for a web site’s RSS feed, if you know it” type http://admitspit.wordpress.com/feed, and when it says to choose how often you want Alerts delivered, I’d recommended keeping it on “As they happen” so that you get changes immediately, but changing “Major changes” to “Just new items” (the third option in the menu) so that you only get, well, new items. Then select how you want your Alerts delivered, whether just to your email or if you also want it sent to your Y! Messenger or Mobile, if you have it. Then click the orange “Save Alert” button, and on the next page hit the orange “Done” button, and you’re all set!

Another way on Yahoo! to add AdmitSpit content is, if you use My Yahoo!, to add the AdmitSpit feed. Go to your My Yahoo! page, click the blue “Add Content” button, which takes you to a new page. From here, click the “Add RSS by URL” blue text in the blue “Find Content” box (the first box that is). On the next page that takes you to, type http://admitspit.wordpress.com/feed, and click the grey “ADD” button. On the next page that takes you to, click the yellow “Add to My Yahoo!” button, and you’re all set!

On Google:

Google Alerts are also a pretty good way of getting updated on AdmitSpit content, even though the Google Reader is probably better (because with Alerts on Google you may also get results about what other people are saying about AdmitSpit rather than just our content exclusively).

To get Google Alerts for AdmitSpit, go to http://blogsearch.google.com, and type AdmitSpit. You’ll get a page with a list of results, look in the left bar under the grey “Subscribe:” box, and you’ll see a link to “Blog Alerts” with a little envelope icon next to it. Click on this, and it will take you to a new page. I suggest keeping all the settings on the right as the have them; the “Search terms:” should be “admitspit” with “Type:” as “Blogs” and “How often:” as “once a day” and now, just enter your

Response to Theron: A-levels, SATs, and decisions, oh my!

Posted by Dee

Prepare for a long comment folks! From Theron in England:

“Hi, I’m posting because I have two worries concerning college applications, one of which concerns SAT scores.

1) In the Sat I received a score of 2220, with 800 in Writing and 800 in Critical Reading but 620 in Maths. I am planning to apply to the top colleges in America, and am therefore wondering if I should retake the SAT in the hope of receiving a higher Maths score, as I realise it’s below average for a top university. However, I don’t think it’s worth the effort to retake the entire exam for the sake of a few extra points, as this is a good reflection of my current ability in Maths (I was getting 580 in practice tests). I attend school in England, meaning I have A levels to study for and I don’t think I can devote more time for Maths, which I’m not taking at A Level. Any guidance as to whether I should retake the SAT 1 is much appreciated.

2) My second problem is the fact that the SAT 2 (subject tests) don’t really fit my abilities. I am doing Geography, Economics, Medieval History and English for A level, so I have decided to definitely do Literature as one of my subject tests, but the other three subjects aren’t offered as SAT subjects. I have to decide whether it’s worth me spending a large proportion of my time studying for the French Subject Test or Biology Subject Test when I have to revise for my A Levels between now and May as well. Although I am relatively good at French and Bio, I have looked at the preparation books for these tests and I will have to make a serious commitment to receive a high mark in the SAT tests.

Any feedback is much appreciated, and sorry my post is so long thx.”

Well, Theron, before being able to offer any guidance, I had to first decode half of your comment. Haha. No really though, what are these “A levels” of which you speak?

Apparently, A-Levels, short for Advanced Level, are optional exams taken by students in the UK in various subjects. The tests are graded A through E, with a U for a failed grade. Apparently, as compared with similar US exams, like APs, A-Levels provide more depth into each topic, but they’ve been criticized for exactly this reason in that most A-Level students will only take three, maybe four, subjects in their last year which doesn’t provide much breadth of study, especially when many students choose related topics (and compare that with the usual six to eight classes most US high school seniors take in varying subjects). But, A-Levels also come in tons of different flavors — unlike our 20 SAT Subject Tests and 37 AP courses available — totaling nearly, if not more than, 100! (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

So, now to your problem #1.

I think it’s clear you know that you should not retake the SAT exam. A 2220 is a very decent score, and believe me, I’m thoroughly impressed with your two 800 scores! Yes, your math score is low, but with your insight that you doubt it will improve plus saying you don’t really have time to make it improve drastically, I say, what’s the use in a retake? Read the post titled, “Response to Britt on SAT retakes” for the details on our thinking on that note.

So, problem #1 is solved satisfactorily I think. The overall 2220 score is totally fine, and after all, it’s not like you’re applying to be a math major! … Right?

Now onto problem #2.

Well, Theron, you’re right about this one that they definitely don’t offer three out of your four A-levels in SAT Subject Test form. So, definitely do the Literature SAT Subject test, and then from there I guess you have two options: 1.) revise your A-Levels to fit with the SAT Subject Tests — like doing French or Biology to replace

Response to BB: how many years of language is enough?

Posted by Dee

BB commented:

“I was recently reading a Princeton Review college book and it said that many of the Ivies – notably harvard along with a few companions – highly recommended four years of a foreign language. When they say “recommend”, what does that really mean? Does it mean “mandatory”? Thank you. I would fit Span IV into my schedule, but i simply cannot legally take 8 classes. I’m taking the four AP core classes along with journalism, Symphonic Band (highest band), and Academic Decathlon. Is that good enough?”

This is a fantastic question, BB. I remember struggling with this question myself… I attended a private middle school where we were a year ahead in language from our public school counterparts, so when I moved to my public high school I was in French 3 in freshman year and completed French 4AP in sophomore year.

What was I to do?! All the colleges were recommending four years of foreign language and I was already done two years early! Should I take French 5AP? Then what about senior year? We didn’t have a French 6. Plus, I didn’t even like French all that much, so dealing with two more years would just be a bane to my schedule when there were other courses I preferred taking. Would completing 4AP be good

College rankings boosting college presidents’ bonuses

Posted by Dee 

Bob Werber from Inside Higher Ed commented on the AdmitSpit post titled, “Ranking run-ins” today to let us know about an article they wrote related to the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

The article, “Should U.S. News Make Presidents Rich?” details Arizona State University’s move to link tens of thousands of dollars in bonus pay for the university’s president, Michael Crow, to improved U.S. News rankings.

Initially upon reading Bob’s comment and the first part of the article, I was quite annoyed, and agreed with the sentiment and words that Lloyd Thacker, a “leading critic of the role of magazine rankings,” shared saying that boosting Crow’s salary based on rankings was “rotten, educationally irresponsible, wimpy, short-sighted, and wrong.”

But before running with that view, I realized that perhaps Arizona State’s decision

An exclusive Q&A with Zinch.com’s Mick Hagen

Posted by Doreen

A new site, Zinch.com, founded by Princeton student Mick Hagen, is live and, might I say, pretty cool! Here’s an exclusive Q&A with Mick. If you have questions for him, leave a comment. He’s a really nice guy (see photo) and I’m sure he’s up for answering any queries you may have!

Doreen: So, Mick, Zinch.com was launched just this week. How does it feel?

Mick: Doreen, my oh my. It feels so good. No. I take that back. It feels great! After months and months of brainstorming, research, broken pencils, programming, headaches, late nights, sack lunches, and prayers… we’re finally live. Now we just gotta preach the good news of Zinch, and let the students know about it.

Doreen: So, what is Zinch? Tell us about what it does for students, and how it works on the admission officer’s side as well.

Mick: Zinch.com is a tool to level the playing field in college admissions by giving every high school student in America the opportunity to showcase themselves, communicating those talents and accomplishments that make them unique. This information is then sent to the specified college or university the student wishes

They’re out to make college admissions a zinch

Posted by Dee 

Not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a new college admissions site on the World Wide Web that we here at AdmitSpit think any soon-to-be college applicants may want to check out.

It’s called Zinch, and we’ll post a Q&A with Zinch’s President Mick Hagen (who by the way is taking a year off from Princeton University to test the Internet business waters!) in the next few days.

So look forward to that before the weekend, and in the meantime, check them out – the video that’s on their homepage when you click on the “What’s Zinch?” button is particularly helpful; they’ve got some pretty cool features and scholarship money up for grabs too.

Ranking run-ins

Posted by Dee

Not unlike most years, the U.S. News and World Report 2008 college rankings are of course expected to receive controversy when published in August this year… but there’s a new something festering beneath the tidy, numerical surface this time.

Plenty have spoken out publicly against the rankings over the years, but not college administrators, who, if anything, bow down to the wondrous accuracy of the rankings in hopes of being boosted up them… I don’t call that subjective at all. But this year, it seems more college presidents are out to complain… finally!

According to an article published today in Inside Higher Ed, nearly a dozen liberal arts colleges are set to join the initiative that Sarah Lawrence College’s president, Michele Tolela Myers, began Sunday — against the revered U.S. News rankings. Apparently, Sunday Ms. Myers publicly charged the publication with making up data about Sarah Lawrence (apparently the issue is that Sarah Lawrence made the decision not to collect or use SAT scores in their admissions process so U.S. News decided to make up an average SAT score… one standard deviation lower than the SAT averages of schools similar to Sarah Lawrence!) So now, a handful