Not going to your ED school?

Posted by Dee

What happens if you don’t go to the Early Decision school you were accepted to?

Eh, chances are nothing.

Barbara sent us a comment last week on the post titled, “Response to Theodore: why Princeton over Yale?“ inquiring on this topic, and the answer is that seldom, if not never, has a college actually pursued legal means of dealing with students who disregard the promise they made that, if accepted, they will attend the school they were admitted to early decision. Basically, most of the ED agreements list that only for financial reasons are you allowed to decline your ED acceptance; if you really can’t raise the funds to attend their school. So, there is definitely a financial out of your ED acceptance.

There are obviously plenty of myths floating about as to what happens if you break your Early Decision promise. For example, is it true the ED school you turned down will tell every other school you were accepted to causing the other schools to

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

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

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 Britt on SAT retakes

Posted by Dee

AdmitSpit received the following comment from Britt today on the post titled, “Typical SAT scores for specific top schools.”

“I need help. Is it wise to repeat SAT in January? I got a good math score but my critical reading was below 600 but above 500. I want to go into a mathematical based field. Please help me before I register to do it over. I want to go Columbia.”

I think Britt’s comment dances around the essential question: under what circumstances should I retake the SAT?

My answer to this is, if you think you can score higher AND you want to score higher, retake!

It’s that simple, I believe. I scored a 2230 on my SAT the first time I took it, and for me, while I think I could’ve scored higher, I did not really want to score higher. Both parts are essential to deciding whether or not to retake.

What I mean by “I did not really want to score higher” is that the idea of sitting in the designated SAT administration classroom for four hours did not, for me, outweigh

When to know if you’re accepted early

Posted by Dee

It’s December, which means that results from early admissions will be back soon enough.

Again, there seems to be no comprehensive list anywhere on the Internet that compiles the dates when each of the top schools report their decisions for early admissions, so I created one! The name of each school, along with the date you should expect a response and any special notes are provided. This data was taken from each college’s admissions Web site.

Brown: Early Decision applications decisions mailed “mid-december” 2006.

CIT: Early Action application decisions mailed “mid-december.”

Columbia University: Early Decision application decisions mailed “mid-december.” You will either be accepted, in which case you must accept the offer of admission unless financial reasons release you from the ED agreement, deferred, or rejected

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