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.

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

Response to M: the last word on the whole harvard debate

Posted by Aaron

M wrote on the post titled, “Harvard, Harvard, Harvard” the following:

“It’s true that the name Harvard will help you get a great job after college. However, after the first month of a job, you are evaluated on your performance, not the school you attended. In regards to coasting through life after graduating from Harvard, that is false. The only Harvard graduates who do that are ones with enough connections/money. Additionally, other Ivies, such as U Penn’s Wharton school, lead their students to the fast track in the business world. Non ivies such as MIT and Cal Tech have much better engineering programmes than Yale. Hence, if you are not sure what you are interested in, then Harvard is arguably the best school to attend. Yet, if you have an idea which field you are interested in, Harvard is not necessarily the best choice.”

With any college, the way I see it, you are learning as well as making future connections. For example, here in Los Angeles, going to USC is very helpful since the graduates already have a connection to all the USC alum in California since they have a “we help our own” mentality. This happens with all schools – it’s just something people find common ground with.

The way I see going to a top tier school as an advantage, compared to other schools, is that when applying for a job if you went to, say, Harvard, you almost have

Response to Horace: if only SAT improvement could ever be proven

Posted by Aaron & Dee

Horace commented on AdmitSpit’s About page recently.

“My son who is twelve and in the 7th grade would like to attend a Ivy league school. He recently took the SAT and scored 1720, i.e. CR = 660; Math = 540; Writing = 520. Do you have any proven tools to help raise his score to acceptable Ivy league level within the next four years?”

Advice from Aaron, AdmitSpit’s newest contributor!…

First, I am assuming that your son took the SAT for a program such as the Johns Hopkin’s Center for Talented Youth (CTY).  You should know that your son is scoring above the national senior average for the SAT already, and he is only in 7th grade.

I took the SAT to qualify for this program and scored lower than your son, but still high enough to qualify. The best way to raise your son’s SAT scores is to not

Response to Theodore: why Princeton over Yale?

Posted by DeeTheodore commented on two of AdmitSpit’s blog posts yesterday regarding how to respond to a question about why he prefers one school over another, especially when two schools of similar status offer the same major and equally great social and learning environments. Here’s what he said on the posts titled, “Response to Edie” and “Ivy Leagues are not created equal.”

“I am nervous as usual about the encounter I will have in two days with the interviewer. My most feared question is why princeton over all the other schools; why princeton over for example Yale? Both offer majors i am interested in and lovely learning environments. I mean Yale and Princeton both offer economics and exciting environments. How can you simply decide which is “better” or what makes Princeton tick more than another?!!”

Well, Theodore, I’m really glad you came to AdmitSpit to ask this question because I think you’ll get a response you’ll be quite satisfied with!

When I had my Princeton interview last year, my interviewer was this really sweet young lady now studying at Stanford for grad school and I was the first person she had ever interviewed for Princeton. She told me that Princeton gave her and all their

Sporadic posting in December

Posted by Dee

As you may remember, all of us contributing to the AdmitSpit site are college students, which means, yes, we do get a nice winter break, but we also have FINALS! Ah!

So, just letting you readers know that if your comments don’t get addressed as quickly or if we aren’t able to get a post up on a particular day, we’re sorry, but we have to study too!

The status on the site is that a lot of comments came in last week so we’re working on getting research done to address those, and otherwise we’re just working on getting more posts on academics at different schools. We put up a post about Tufts earlier this week, and we’re still working on Princeton and Georgetown and some others!

How “x” does academics: x = Tufts

Posted by Leo

Chances are the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Tufts is its reputation in Political Science and International Relations. It is undoubtedly very strong in these areas, but is anything but weak in the rest.

The academic year at Tufts is split up into two semesters, which fall at about the same time as other schools on the semester system. Since it operates on a semester system, classes last 13 weeks, and finals in the fall are before Christmas break. In order to graduate from Tufts, you need to complete 36 credits. Most academic classes are one credit, so on average students take four to five classes per semester. The credit limit for each semester is 5.5 without special approval from an undergraduate dean. Although it is possible to go through almost all four years taking only four classes per semester, it is by no means a requirement. Taking five classes is completely feasible and not an unmanageable amount of work.

Tufts, being a liberal arts school as well as a research university, has a quite extensive set of core requirements. Students must complete two semesters of English unless they have an AP English score, which exempts them from some or all of the requirement. Students must take a total of six semesters of language classes, where the first three must be in the same language, and second three

Response to Stephanie and stressed applicant on changing UC apps

Posted by Dee

Wow! AdmitSpit’s been getting comments galore the past few days (which we’re loving by the way!) and here’s two we received regarding changing your UC application after the due date.

Here’s Stephanie’s comment on the post titled, “Recommended SAT Subject Tests for special UC programs.”

“I just applied to 6 UC’s: Berkeley, LA, San Diego, Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara, with mostly undeclared majors in biological/life sciences. I took the Math Level 2 in June 2006 and scored a 650. Since I wanted to raise my score, I took it again in December.. but I don’t think my score improved much. My Chinese SAT 2 score is 790, and my SAT score is 2080. Will my math score greatly hurt my chances of getting in? And is there any way to change what major I put on my application? Or is it pretty much set in stone…”

And, stressed applicant wrote on yesterday’s post titled, “Response to Britt on SAT retakes,” the following:

“Hello! This comment is not related to the post. I know that I can add an additional campus after I’ve submitted my application. But can I change one of the campus I’ve applied?
Thank you!”

Let us address Stephanie’s comment first: You applied for biological/life sciences-type majors and submitted a decent SAT Math Level 2 score of 650, and a very high