Judgment day

Posted by Luke

Judgment day has finally come and passed. To those of you who were admitted under Early Decision, I offer my sincerest congratulations and I hope that you excel and are truly happy with the decision you have made. To those of you who were rejected or deferred, I have a few words of advice:

1. Don’t worry about it

Lots of people are not admitted early. The schools tell you that there is a higher rate of admittance for early appliers, but the rate is still rather low and does not guarantee a spot at the university. Consider this one of life’s little lessons that not everything is certain, but just because you were not accepted does not mean that your life is over. If it is any consolation, I was deferred from the Huntsman Program at Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, but I rebounded and am now attending a very prestigious university with great students and faculty and I couldn’t be happier if I were freezing in Philadelphia. The trick is to not get discouraged, which brings me to my next point…

2. Don’t lose your confidence

Just because one school doesn’t want you in December does not mean that you are not worthy to be there in the spring. You must look within yourself and see if the

A short note on changing UC apps

Posted by Dee

It seems that, although there are no guarantees, if you need to change the major or college you listed for a UC, you can request to change it.

I spoke to an admissions counselor from Berkeley for Lena’s sake in yesterday’s post titled, “Response to Lena on sending scores junior year,” and also managed to ask about changing majors or colleges after you’ve submitted the online application.

Basically she said that you’ve already had the whole month of November to think about what major or college you want to apply to, but if something happens and you really, really feel you want to switch, you can, although again there are no guarantees, write a letter the school, IN WRITING, requesting that your application be looked at under a different major or college. And, you should do this as soon as possible obviously!

Response to Lena on sending scores junior year

Posted by Dee

Lena commented on the post titled, “Response to Stephanie and stressed applicant on changing UC apps.” Here’s what she said:

“I’m a junior in high school currently. If I choose colleges to send SAT or AP scores to (since the tests usually allow you to submit a few free score reports to colleges), what will happen? Will the colleges just ignore the scores since you are not yet applying or is it helpful?”

Well, good news, I did some research for ya, Lena!

After calling up a bunch of colleges nationwide, I’ve determined that the answer is… it depends.

It seems that most of the big-name private schools will keep your scores if you send them junior year, but public schools will not.

I spoke with Mike from the Stanford University admissions office and he said that it’s perfectly fine to send in your scores junior year before you apply; they “index” all

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

Response to Elizabeth

Posted by Dee

AdmitSpit received a comment regarding the UC application from Elizabeth today on the post titled, “Techniques for dealing with character limits.”

I’ll reproduce the comment below:

“Hi I just submitted my uc application yesterday and realized that I went over the word count limit by 35 words. What can I do? Will the college just cut off my essay or should I mail each campus a letter?”

Elizabeth,

I think you needn’t worry about 35 words. The reason I emphasize “think” is because I haven’t seen a print out of your application. I sure hope you, along with every other UC applicant, took the time to print out a copy of your entire application. If so, you could go to the personal statement section and see if it did indeed cut off part of your essay. If it did not you’re probably okay.

The second reason I emphasize “think” is because I hope that this 35 word surplus was not on one response alone, rather that you went maybe 10 words over on one essay and 16 over on another and over by 9 on another; this would be the best scenario as opposed to going 35 words over on one response alone which will be

The last minute

Posted by Dee

Don’t wait until the last minute to submit your UC application. The horror stories you and I have both heard regarding students waiting until one minute before deadline to submit the online UC app only to find that the server is overloaded may be myth or it may be truth; don’t wait to find out.

Submit the UC application as early as possible, or at least at a random time in the day like when everyone else is at school; not at 12 a.m. midnight between November 30 and December 1!

Those ‘potential to contribute’ essays

Posted by Dee

The UC application always has a “Potential to Contribute” essay as do many other colleges, and it’s often difficult to come up with ideas of what to write about; after all, you’re going to school to learn, not to teach.

But, that said, every college or university looks at its students not only as people coming to class to learn, but as investments who will one day, in some way, give back to the university. So, here are some ways I’ve thought of that you can “contribute.” Not all of these will be applicable to everyone; feel free to use these as inspiration for your own essays and be sure that when you write your essay is not generic, but rather it shows who you are.

- Diversity. Plenty of schools are interested in upping their diversity-factor. Maybe this is how you could contribute to the university, by increasing their community’s diversity. Keep in mind that this need not be racial or gender or ethnic diversity, but that diversity can come in many forms; maybe you’re an art-lover in a school that has few or a recreational athlete in a community that is not too sports-enthusiastic. And then the whole purpose of your essay can show how you will “contribute” by

Words from the admissions bins

Posted by Doreen

I came across this article in a newsletter my high school sends out every so often regarding college admissions.

Apparently this was compiled by a member of the National Association of College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. Enjoy!

“Are you sure you sent my recommendation?”

It might help to know that colleges face a mountain of admissions mail every day–mail that requires very systematic and careful handling. As a result, there will be a very reasonable delay between the moment your application arrives at the admissions office and the time it is processed and placed into your file. Let’s hear from the experts on this:

From a large public university: 
“I wish I had a photo that I could send you of thousands of pieces of mail sitting in the mail bins waiting to be processed. Maybe this bit of information will help… we employ an ‘army’ of students to help us process the mail. We receive so much mail that all some students do is simply slit open envelopes, other students will date

Li’s playing the world’s smallest violin

Posted by Dee

Yes, I know the title is cliché, but I couldn’t think of any other way to express my reactions towards this Jian Li character I’ve been reading so much about lately.

I’ve been following with piqued interest for several days now about this whole Princeton vs. Li upcoming lawsuit ordeal. Fellow blogger, Sam Jackson, provides a great, slightly-lengthy recap of the issue at hand in his post titled, “WSJ asks: ‘Is Admissions Bar Higher for Asians At Elite Schools?’ [part 1]” which I will not rewrite again here; I do recommend reading through it to familiarize yourself with the debate and points of contention.

Here’s my take:

I’m a fan of merit. I do support the idea that if you’re more qualified than another candidate, you should get admitted. But, that said, this is not what college admissions is about. In the InsideHigherEd.com article from October 10 titled, “Too Asian?,” (which is also a read I recommend) they report that, with regards to Asian applicants being held to higher standards than Whites, “intensity of concern has grown, as has mistrust of the system.”

Honestly, this is laughable! What system? Since when has college admissions

Thanksgiving is soon

Posted by Dee

And that means applications are due soon enough.

It’s going to be tempting to just slack off, hang out, and pig out on pumpkin pie all weekend, but remember that, while taking time to rewind and recharge is important, Thanksgiving break is the time to get ahead.

Use the extra days away from school to catch up on your school work and to work on college applications. Believe me, if you waste the time, you’ll not only end up behind, but you’ll also be more stressed and frustrated with yourself than ever!