Posting has been light since I was on the road last week. Got a few posting in the works. For now, just a quick not on EA/ED Deadlines Falling Before Nov. 1:

GA Tech-Oct 1
UPENN-Oct. 15, in order to secure an interview (according to one counselor, but not on the Penn website)
CofC-Oct. 15 [...]

Bill “Fitz” Fitzsimmons, celberity admission dean for Harvard, offers insights and advice on the New York Time’s Blog–The Choice–in a five part series. Some samples:
Which schools do Harvard prefer:

A.
Underlying the many questions we receive each year about finding the “right” schooling to prepare for college are two themes:
1. Do colleges prefer some types of high [...]

Starting in 2011, Texas drops its top 10 Percent automatic admission to your first choice school–this resulted in 87% of of UT Austin’s class coming from Texas. Consdierably higher than many other flagship universities. Next year, Texas has adopted the top 8% rule. Same same only different.

I have been a long time advocate of college admission offices having clear policies on “friending” and how they use semi-public information such as facebook or my space profiles in the admission process:
While 86% of college students have a Facebook account, according to a 2008 survey by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, only 13% of [...]

Washington Monthly magazine gained a fair bit of publicity and noteriety when it offered up its rankings based on:
Social mobility: The first column shows the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants. The second shows the predicted rate of graduation, based on incoming SAT scores and Pell Grant percentages, versus the actual rate of graduation. The [...]

Trying to figure out if  a college endorses score choice? Or if they only use the 1600 scale? When is their early decision deadline? You can find it all here on a simple to use PDF download. The authors do warn:
This information is provided as a courtesy and is neither an official nor complete representation [...]

even if they don’t. “With the profusion of companies and Web sites offering to help draft applicants’ personal statements for a fee, no admissions tutor believes them to be the sole work of the applicant anymore,” Geoff Parks was quoted as saying in both The Times and The Guardian. “We certainly don’t assign any marks [...]