collegeplanning102: Navigating the Financial Maze

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How do I construct a compelling application?

According to Dunn, the short answer is “set the bar higher for yourself.” He encourages students to take the “high subjects” and really reach for their full potential. “If you can take honors classes, that's good. Colleges would rather see kids get a B in an honors class than an A in a regular class,” Dunn says.

Lewis says students also need to remember that grades and GPA are two very different things. “Given the huge variation in grading scales, competitiveness and subjectibility of grading scales, a 4.0 in one school may be equivalent to a 3.4 in another. As a result, most admissions offices focus on course selection first (for example, how many honors or AP courses a student has taken) and then look at the actual earned grade in that class, as opposed to just looking to cumulative GPA and making a decision from there,” Lewis says.

What about SATs, you ask. While still important and not something to be downplayed, Lewis says, the significance of SAT scores is increasingly giving way to the value of high school course selection and grades. Some schools, including Susquehanna, have even become SAT optional.

“Our Write Option policy allows applicants to submit two graded writing samples instead of standardized test scores,” explains Markle, adding that the National Center for Fair and Open Testing lists more than 730 colleges as being SAT optional.

In addition to strong academic standing, our experts say sports participation, community service and other extracurricular activities can also play an important role in the selection process. “All these activities are very important to Susquehanna and many other selective colleges. We want to enroll a diverse student body with a wide range of interests and talents. Knowing more about what an applicant does beyond the classroom will help the admission committee to differentiate among candidates who may have similar academic records,” Markle says.

However, when it comes to extracurricular activities, Lewis contends that quality is far more important than quantity. “Most schools would rather see students who have committed to two or three activities and really excelled in them over a student who is involved in a dozen activities that entail going to a one-hour meeting every seven weeks,” he says. To really stand out, Lewis recommends taking on leadership roles in your activities and competing for awards and recognition for your work.

Summing up the selection process, Herr says: “Most schools are looking at the whole student as both an academic and a leader. Grades, courses, writing, recommendations, activities and, of course, SATs all play a role in the decision-making process. It's best to contact each college's admissions office to find out what their review process focuses on.”

 

I've been accepted. What additional research is going to be important to help me figure our whether this is the right place for me?

“When making the final decision, there are many things to consider. Sure, cost and aid are at the top of that list. But the right school can provide an incredible educational atmosphere, numerous opportunities and a comfortable living environment, all of which are things to consider since this is where you'll call home for the next four years,” says Herr.

So what constitutes an “incredible educational atmosphere?” We asked George Kuh, director of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Chancellor's Professor of Higher Education at Indiana University Bloomington.

Put simply, Kuh says, a strong undergraduate foundation produces graduates who can think clearly, write coherently and draw informed conclusions about the information presented to them.

“In a world where information comes at us so fast and changes so quickly, the Net Generation needs to acquire a capacity for discernment. That is, the ability to evaluate the quality of information and separate the fluff from good material,” Kuh explains.

This generation also needs to possess more intercultural knowledge. “They need to know and understand how to work with people from different backgrounds,” Kuh says.

In these regards, Kuh says: “You can't separate liberal arts and professional school anymore.” Aspects of both are important in producing well-rounded citizens.

Evidence of this can be seen in graduate school admissions. According to Morrison, students at 78 percent of the top graduate schools, law schools and medical schools come from colleges of 3,000 or less, most of which are liberal arts schools “broader in their scope and less vocational.”

So how do we tell whether a school is providing the strong undergraduate foundation Kuh describes? In higher education circles, the level of “academic rigor” is frequently discussed. However, Kuh says: “Academic rigor does not mean a lot of work. It means enough challenging work that stretches students by setting high expectations for performance.”

Study abroad, internships, student/faculty research and capstone, or senior year, experiences, are all examples of how students may be “stretched” in the learning process. “The number of faculty with terminal degrees and the number of microscopes in the labs don't tell you anything about the quality of the experience. What really matters is how students use these resources,” Kuh says.

Is the kind of learning experiences a school offers consistent with its values and missions? How often does the school take stock of what they're doing? Is there an intentional design of courses? Do they connect to the whole of the intended learning experience? These are the types of questions Kuh recommends prospective families explore.

In short, he says, ask, “What evidence does this institution have that I will be encouraged and supported to do these things?”

If this question were posed to Linda McMillin , provost and dean of faculty at Susquehanna University, she may well point to the deliberate emphasis the institution places on learning goals and curriculum assessment. “There has been a lot of work on both the department level and the university level to determine what it is we want students to learn. In turn, the curriculum committee spent most of last year examining how the core curriculum maps to these learning goals,” she says.

While these are important considerations, often times the decision on where to attend college comes down to “the right fit” – that intuitive feeling of belonging at one institution over another. “The real challenge,” Lewis says, “is finding a school where you can get a great overall experience, which is something that transcends just looking at the student-to-faculty ratio, graduation rate and endowment, to the much broader questions of, ‘What type of student does well here, and how would I fit into that?” 

“I truly believe that finding the right school is about finding the right relationship, one where both the school and the student have much to offer each other.”