So you have narrowed down your list, and come to the conclusion that you have a school that you LOVE and they offer early decision and/or school(s) that you like that have early action. Should you apply using early decision or early action?
Are your grades as good as they can be? If you are counting [...]

Today, I begin a series on applying Early Decision or Early action. Typically both these programs have November 1 deadlines and will tell you by mid December if you are admitted. What’s the difference?
Early Decision is like a marriage: It is binding. You have made a promise to go if admitted.
Early Action is like dating: [...]

From a friend down Sotuh:

HS Class of 2010

Early

Regular

Total

Early
% of class

University
Type
Admit
Applied
%
Admit
Applied
%
Admit
Applied
%
Difference
Filled Early

Harvard
None

2,110
30,489
6.9%
2,110
30,489
6.9%

0.0%

Princeton
None

2,148
26,247
8.2%
2,148
26,247
8.2%

0.0%

Emory
ED1
350
709
49.4%
4,094
14,840
27.6%
4,444
15,549
28.6%
21.8%
7.9%

Brown
ED
567
2,847
19.9%
2,237
27,289
8.2%
2,804
30,136
9.3%
11.7%
20.2%

Columbia
ED
631
2,995
21.1%
1,766
23,183
7.6%
2,397
26,178
9.2%
13.5%
26.3%

Cornell
ED
1,167
3,579
32.6%
6,100
32,758
18.6%
7,267
36,337
20.0%
14.0%
16.1%

Dartmouth
ED
461
1,594
28.9%
1,704
17,184
9.9%
2,165
18,778
11.5%
19.0%
21.3%

Duke
ED
602
1,924
31.3%
2,770
24,846
11.1%
3,372
26,770
12.6%
20.1%
17.9%

Johns Hopkins
ED
494
1,155
42.8%
3,271
17,300
18.9%
3,765
18,455
20.4%
23.9%
13.1%

New York Univ
ED
1,155
3,140
36.8%
9,350
34,040
27.5%
10,505
37,180
28.3%
9.3%
11.0%

Northwestern*
ED
618
1,776
34.8%
5,733
25,839
22.2%
6,351
27,615
23.0%
12.6%
9.7%

Penn
ED
1,200
3,842
31.2%
2,630
23,096
11.4%
3,830
26,938
14.2%
19.8%
31.3%

Pomona
ED
98
516
19.0%
882
6,251
14.1%
980
6,767
14.5%
4.9%
10.0%

Stanford*
EASC
753
5,566
13.5%
1,547
26,456
5.8%
2,300
32,022
7.2%
7.7%
32.7%

Yale*
EASC
730
5,235
13.9%
1,210
20,634
5.9%
1,940
25,869
7.5%
8.1%
37.6%

Boston College*
EA
2,500
5,800
43.1%
6,500
23,230
28.0%
9,000
29,030
31.0%
15.1%
27.8%

Chicago
EA
1,676
5,883
28.5%
1,884
13,487
14.0%
3,560
19,370
18.4%
14.5%
47.1%

Georgetown
EA
1,160
6,105
19.0%
2,240
11,995
18.7%
3,400
18,100
18.8%
0.3%
34.1%

MIT*
EA
590
5,684
10.4%
1,021
10,948
9.3%
1,611
16,632
9.7%
1.1%
36.6%

Notre Dame*
EA
1,801
4,200
42.9%
2,199
10,315
21.3%
4,000
14,515
27.6%
21.6%
45.0%

*Some data extrapolated using the reported acceptance percent

April 7, 2010

First up, Washington Monthly National University rankings:
Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research(producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). For an explanation of each category, click here.

sort

Institution
sort a-zsort by state

Social Mobility
sort

Research
sort

Service
sort

Overall
Score
Students
receiving
Pell grants
Predicted grad rateActual grad rateRank
Research
expenditures,
in millionsRank
Bachelor’s
to PhD
rank
Science &
engineering
PhD’s
awardedRank
Faculty
receiving
significant
awardsRank
Faculty in
national
academiesRank
Peace
Corps
Rank
ROTC
Rank
Federal
work-study
funds spent
on serviceRank
Community
service
participation
and hours
served
Rank
Service
staff,
courses and
financial aid
support
Rank

1
Univ. of California, San [...]

Now that the common app has been open for three days, time to start tackling your personal statement/college essay.
I have written extensively about the subject and gathered some of the best links on the web to help you–just click here.

A new book, Higher Education by Andrew Harker, is generating some intense discussion. As part of the research for the book, they have generated an interesting list of colleges where great teaching is happening:
As we traveled around the country researching our book, we, in fact, found some colleges that we thought were doing their job [...]

Today I gave a workshop on using personality testing in the college search process. The site we used:
Shanghai American School Guidance website.
Some great books on personality profiles (some college or career specific):

Amazon.com Widgets

Today in our session on Best fit, I mentioned some great reads for counselors that influenced my thinking in how students make decisions.

Amazon.com Widgets

While many students consider taking a year abroad in their junior year, a growing number of colleges offer freshman year abroad, according to Inside HigerEd. Indeed a list compiled on the NACAC list serve reveals just how involved it has become:

NYU x11 (to Florence, Paris, London, Abu Dhabi – http://www.nyu.edu/studyabroad/freshmen.programs/)
Skidmore x8 (to London – http://cms.skidmore.edu/ocse/programs/london_fye/index.cfm)
Suffolk x8 (to [...]

Much has been written and discussed about student’s online pressence since I first conducted a study of how admission officers google applicants or friend them on facebook or myspace. Below is a series of tools and articles collected through NACAC. Hat tip to Marcie.

Tools:
Reclaim Privacy: - if you install this bookmarklet using the instructions [...]