Blog posts on college admissions by Arjun Seth
New CommonApp essay topics are out
The Common Application has released its new essay prompts -- which have been the subject of some concern because of the elimination of a "free choice" essay topic and the announcement that the length limit would be strictly enforced. The new essay prompts do stress that the length limit will be strictly enforced, but the stated limit is now 650 words, not the earlier pledge of 500 words.
Scott Anderson, director of outreach for the Common Application, said that the change to 650 words was based on "feedback from counselors."
While the prompts do not include the completely open option, the first one is quite broad and would appear to give students wide leeway to write about topics of their choice. The new prompts are:
- "Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story."
- "Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?"
- "Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?"
- "Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?"
- "Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family."
Interview with Divya Balaji Yale'14
The best part about Yale is that each student at the college has a story to tell. There is something unique about each one of us. This makes social interactions all the more and gives us an insight into the various lives people lead. Apart from that I would also call them hard working but at the same time they know how to enjoy life and live it up to the fullest. Although kids from Yale come across as people who are fully and solely focused on academics, they learn to keep a balance. The college is big on extra circulars and co circulars and, hence, it does take up a large space in our lives. On the whole I feel that I fit into this college community and love my college experience to bits.
- What according to you works better at an undergraduate level, a small liberal arts school or a larger university? Does having to meet a core curriculum turn out to be an annoyance in any way?
I feel that the size of a college is a very subjective thing. A few factors must be kept in mind while making this choice. Some of them being: the student-teacher ratio, the style of the classes, the residential system, etc.
The core curriculum can be annoying in the beginning; however, it enables one to develop a varied skill set and all rounded personality. “I feel that Aristotle and Plato help me in understanding Darwin’s theories” .
2. All the students know that rankings ARE important. But, how important are they in your opinion?
Rankings helped me decide and narrow down on my college list. Not because going to a college up there on US news would give me some sort of ego boost but because they gave me a holistic perspective. The parameters such as academic rigor, extracurricular opportunities, diversity which were important to me while choosing my colleges were covered under these rankings. They just made life easier for me, but then again, it depends on the person.
3. While deciding on colleges what part did the geographical location (NE, Mid West, West, South) and setting (urban, rural, suburban, college town) play in your decision? Did your opinions regarding this fact change when you joined college?
Since, I was applying for full aid I didn’t have the liberty to be choosy about the location. However, I’m happy with Yale, it gives me the city life and college life I was looking for.
4. A beauty of the American education system is that you’re not required to commit to any subject the minute you join. Did this flexibility help you in anyway when you joined college?
When I joined college I was undecided and confused between a few subjects, namely: Biology, history and philosophy. However, college in the US gave me that flexibility and opportunity I needed to make my decision. Also, I think this is the aspect about the education abroad which separates it from the colleges in India. After 2 years of knocking around and indecisiveness I am planning to major in Biology and couldn’t be more satisfied with my decision.
5. How important was diversity to you when you started evaluating the US as an option? Have your notions regarding this factor changed over a period of time? What part does the ‘diversity’ angle play in the college lives of international students?
Diversity was not THE most important factor, but yes I did take it into consideration. Factors like the percentage of international students, making sure that the college had an international students’ office and an international students orientation are important and help in making one’s college experience fun. Yale does have a large population of International students and the students are diverse not only with respect to their nationalities but also with respect to their personalities, majors and thought processes.
6. Did you consider size (student population) as an important criterion while choosing schools? What do you think is a size that is ideal for you? Why?
I didn’t consider size to be an important criterion while selecting colleges. I’ve studied in a lot of schools, which have varied in the number of students they admit, and there was a different charm about each. I also feel that any college where you can find your niche can do you wonders. However, at the end of the day it is very subjective and depends from person-to-person.
7. If there was one aspect of the American education that you don’t appreciate and would want other students to look out for then what would that be?
Well, actually the food at these colleges can be quite a pain. Initially, it all looks and smells good but a few months into college and you want to take those words back.
On a more serious note, the initial set back you get from attending college there can be very hard. College in the US is not as easy in college in India. Keeping a balance between one’s extra curricular activities, academics as well as settling into college can be very taxing in freshmen year. It becomes especially hard for those students whose’ colleges don’t give extensions for submitting papers or tend to be very strict about the academics. At Yale for our extra curricular activities we do get to skirt around our academics a little which makes life a little easy. But, on the whole once you’ve settled into the system it is an amazing experience and college life grows on you.
8. Describe the personality of the student body at your college! Did the personality of the students and the environment of the college come as a shock to you? Do you feel that you have fit into the college community?
The best part about Yale is that each student at the college has a story to tell. There is something unique about each one of us. This makes social interactions all the more and gives us an insight into the various lives people lead. Apart from that I would also call them hard working but at the same time they know how to enjoy life and live it up to the fullest. Although kids from Yale come across as people who are fully and solely focused on academics, they learn to keep a balance. The college is big on extra circulars and co circulars and, hence, it does take up a large space in our lives. On the whole I feel that I fit into this college community and love my college experience to bits.
9. What are your plans for the future?
I was always interested in conservation biology but it was only this semester that I realized that evolutionary biology really appealed to me. Three professors have been my mentors and it is because of them that I realized the scope of the field and how it personally matters to me. My Faculty advisor is Professor Stephen Stearns who is well known as the mind behind life history theory (why do we age, what does mortality mean, why do we die etc.). The questions that one asks areactually deeply philosophical in nature, stemming from early Greek and Chinese thought. However, the methods chosen to investigate suchquestions are cutting-edge.
I am currently involved in a project that seeks to build and interpret a tree of life for squamates, as well as an excavation project for cretaceous mammals and reptiles in North Dakota. I am really excited about the last two years of Yale. I have finally decided on what to do with respect to my major and I cannot wait to delve into all the research!
CollegeBoard working on changes to SAT Reasoning Test
In a recent article.... a rep from CollegeBoard described forthcoming changes in the SAT.
Late last year, in a talk at the Brookings Institution, Coleman was more critical of the SAT, and in particular of the writing test. He endorsed the addition of that portion of the SAT but questioned the way the current test rewards any argument, without requiring test-takers to use facts or material. "I have a problem with the SAT writing. So if you look at the way the SAT assessment is designed, when you write an essay even if it’s an opinion piece, there’s no source information given to you. So in other words, you write like what your opinion is on a subject, but there’s no fact on the table. So a friend of mine tutors in Hong Kong, and she was asked by her Hong Kong students, where do you get the examples for the essay? She said, you know, it’s the American way, you make them up," Coleman said. "Now I’m all for creativity and innovation, but I don’t think that’s quite the creativity we want to inspire in a generation of youth. That is, if writing is to be ready for the demands of career and college, it must be precise, it must be accurate, it must draw upon evidence. Now I think that is warranted by tons of information we see from surveys of college professors, from evidence we have from other sources, so I think there is good reason to think about a design of SAT where rather than kids just writing an essay, there’s source material that they’re analyzing."
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/27/college-board-announces-plans-redesign-sat#ixzz2NDKOaOBd Inside Higher Ed
A personal essay on 'a person who influenced you' by Dev Bhartia (admitted to Stanford)!
Every morning, much before I hear the six loud bells of the clock tower and the sun’s rays penetrate through my window, there’s a knock on my door.
This is Pharash, 45 years old, house helper, sweeper and caretaker and the only person to know where I keep my letters from my girlfriend. He is like a precise robot programmed to keep my life, and that of seventy other boys in my boarding house, in order. For five years, I saw him every day working; cleaning and washing. It is a mystery to me, how someone who lives such a mundane life still greets me with a flash of his 31 teeth every time I cross his path.
A few months ago, I had a terrible night tossing and turning before my SAT exam. Words swam in my head as I pondered the difference between allusion, illusion and elusion. The next morning Pharash looked more tense than surprised to see me awake. He asked me much like my mother would, “What happened? Why do you look so worried? Has the sun risen from the West?” On filling him in on my war with words he smiled and assured all would be fine. It was the first time I’d heard him speak, and it was a revelation. I didn’t realize that this man, was more than just a ‘come and go’ machine. The fact that he empathized with me like my mother would, convinced me that he would go the extra mile to fulfill my desires.
That afternoon when he came to clean my room, I inserted a Rs. 20 note in his fingers and casually requested him to get me a packet of chips. He frowned and then frowned even more. I snatched back the note and ran to the dining hall for a barely edible breakfast. I felt bad for having crossed the line: I should have respected the school rules. I wished he would not complain about my transgression. To my astonishment, that afternoon, I saw not one but two packets of chips lying neatly on my pillow. He grinned, displayed his 31 teeth, and walked out of the room.
I was taken aback. I couldn’t believe that a man with a large family to support and a meager income to do it with had the generosity to fulfill my petty temptation. Many chips later, I realized that he didn’t grudge me the chips, he was simply against taking money from me. He found joy in giving and had great pride in himself. Secretly, I envied him. For he had found the contentment most people spend their lives chasing. I envied him because he smiled all through the day. I learned from his example, that there are some things money can’t buy. Contentment and friendship are just two of them.
Pharash may not be a Mahatma Gandhi or a Nelson Mandela, but remains someone that has taught me important lessons. I see in him not the ability to do great things, but the greatness to have the ability to do small things. Much before I hear the six loud bells of the clock tower and the sun’s rays penetrate through my window, I shall await the knock on my door by a thin, slender man in a striped shirt and khaki pants.
UChicago has released their 2013 supplement essay prompts.
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“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” –Oscar Wilde.
Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined).
Inspired by Martin Krzywy, admitted student Class of 2016.
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Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of Physics).
Inspired by Doran Bennett, AB’07.
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Susan Sontag, AB’51, wrote that “Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.” Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967.
Anonymous submission.
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“...I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present." –The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern
Present: pres·ent
1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift.
Let’s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc. — pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it.
Inspired by Jennifer Qin, AB’16
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In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun.
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So where is Waldo, really?
Inspired by Robin Ye, AB’16.
Dhrupad Bhardwaj's UPenn CommonApp essay
When I was seven my father wrote the following quote in my birthday card - “Life is all about a few moments, it’s figuring out which ones, is what counts”. Eight years later that line rang in my head.
The Table
11th May 2008. It was the last day of my first Model United Nations. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) had done a stellar job of breaking down a complex multi-angled problem and finding solutions for it. Never the less the committee was divided into a number of parties and with the best debaters in the country all packed into one room, egos and pride were at stake. It was fairly certain no one was going to give up their place in the limelight for the larger purpose. Time wasn’t on our side either and we had just 4 hours of committee time that day. Finally the German delegate broached the topic of formulating the resolution. The executive board called for an un-moderated caucus for 2 hours. And then broke out the frenzy.
I wasn’t exactly afraid of public speaking. I’d spent more time on stage than I care to admit. I’d done everything from eating pie to simulating murder while reciting memorised lines. In high school I went a step further and took up debating. The spontaneity the task demanded came to me naturally and I enjoyed locking horns with the sharpest minds India’s finest schools had to offer. MUNs were unchartered territory until my school decided to host one. La Martiniere College Model United Nations was the first of its kind and every school worth its salt sent a team to engage in three days of riveting debate. After rigorous screening, I was selected as the Delegate of Iraq in ECOSOC.
The chaos in committee was getting uncontrollable. People were arguing about issues remotely related to our topic. Each was out to protect their egos in a futile battle. I was running from one team to another getting them to consider and negotiate a consolidated resolution. Unfortunately a rookie representing a relatively insignificant country is hardly in a position to advise seasoned delegates. On the far side of the room I saw the executive board’s table. Seizing the moment, I climbed up on it, took the microphone and said “Okay listen up, we have exactly one hour to draft a, but unfortunately you all are too busy squabbling about irrelevant rubbish. And it’s morons like you in important places who make sure the world goes to the dogs. This is my MUN and this simulation will only fail over my corpse. It’s time you listen to the rookie.”
My first MUN taught me plenty. Working as a member of the organising committee I learned of the rewards of hard work, the joys of teamwork, the value of patience and most importantly the ability to stand out. 20 odd MUNs later and a few awards, I’d say I did well for myself. I look at a college education as a table which will allow me to stand above the rest. It will put me in a position to voice my opinion where everyone can hear me, yet it will give me humility that it is thanks to some of the brightest minds in the world that I am where I am. And I’m certain, a strong education by my side, I have a lot to say on top of that table.
Also, in case you’re curious, we did get a resolution drafted. And then we passed it, unanimously.
A brief history of SAT, part-1
Where and Why? History of the SAT and ACT, pt. 1
You are here, at this blog, for a specific reason. No, not time pass. Please let it not be time pass. No, you are here because you want to know about the SAT or ACT. You want to learn little tips and tidbits and hints and ideas etcetera etcetera to help you master the standardised entrance exam, this one guardian at the gate of college that determines whether you are worthy of passing through. You sigh deeply and perhaps a bit unhappily at the prospects of having to devote your time to preparing for this exam. Maybe you feel particularly irritated or annoyed that such an exam could determine so much, that it could have such control over your future.
As you sit there, reading these words on your computer screen or smart phone or pad or whatever, you perhaps wonder, with a great deal of frustration, ‘Why do I have to bother?’ And of course ‘Who decided this anyway?’ So, today I’m going to take a day off from the hints and tips and such, and give you a crash course in the history of the standardised entrance exam. Hopefully, by the time you walk away or close your laptop or turn off your pad, you’ll have a better understanding of how we got to this moment and how the test became…well…the test. And in order to do that, we need to step back to the beginning. The very beginning…….
1636 – Harvard College is the first institution of higher education started in the land that would later become the United States of America
1693 – The College of William and Mary, the university that educated Thomas Jefferson, is opened as the second school of higher learning in the USA
1701-1776 – Eleven more colleges are started before the American Revolutionary War, including colleges that would later become Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth
1837 – Doors open for the first colleges devoted entirely to woman and to Blacks (Mount Holyoke and the African Institute – now Cheyney University)
1830-1860 – The building of colleges and universities boom as 133 of those still around today are founded, mainly due to expansion westward towards the Pacific Ocean
1861 – There are over 200 colleges and universities in existence when the American Civil War starts
1862 – Congress passed the First Morrill Act, which donates public land to states to set up educational institutions; this law led to the founding of many state and public universities throughout the country
1867 – Two years after the Civil War ends, the southern colleges are still in a state of ruin and the Department of Education is created to help restore order to all academic institutions
1870 – The so-called ‘Age of the University,’ which would last for forty years, begins as an increasing number of philanthropists encourages the concept of the ‘well-endowed university’
1890 – The Second Morrill Act expands the public land that can be used for colleges, thus allowing a surge in the number of academic institutions
1891 – Stanford University is founded in California
By the end of the 1800s, there are hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the United States. All of them had their own admissions processes that gauged the success of prospective students through some similar and some very different criteria. For example, from 1600 to 1800, the main foci of admissions were: knowledge of classical languages, specific readings, and my personal favourite, moral character. Moral Character…this is not necessarily something that can be objectively tested, particularly in a country with such varying religious practices.
Through the 1800s, professors started to conduct the admissions processes rather than the university presidents, and thus accepted or rejected people as they saw fit. This created a bit of chaos in the admissions process as not only did each college have different criteria, but also each DEPARTMENT within each college had its own criteria. This made it impossible for high schools to properly prepare their students for the arduous journey to college. Some kids would get in, while others wouldn’t. Some colleges liked them, and others didn’t. This became confusing and annoying and frustrating and made students and parents and colleges disillusioned with the whole process. A change needed to occur, and fast.
And this is where our story continues…… in the next post.
Schools that don't require any standardized test reports
Here are examples:
American University Arizona State University, Tempe Bard College Bates College Bennington College Bowdoin College California State Universities such as Fresno, Long Beach and San Marcos College of the Holy Cross Connecticut College Denison University Dickinson University Franklin and Marshall College Gettysburg College Goucher College Hampshire College Juniata College Knox College Lawrence University Lewis & Clark College Mount Holyoke College Northern Arizona University Pitzer College Providence College Rollins College Sarah Lawrence College Sewanee: The University of the South Smith College University of Arizona University of Kansas, Lawrence University of Montana, Missoula Wake Forest University Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Interesting Medical School option in Asia
Finding good med schools is a difficult task for students. Here's something to cheer about. Over the years National University of Singapore has attracted students from India looking at quality med schools. (Go to http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/corporate/ )
The new University of Newcastle, located in Johor, Malaysia seems like a great option if you are considering schools in Asia.
Here's the link to the site http://www.ncl.ac.uk/numed/undergraduate/mbbs/index.htm
College admissions reps visiting India this season
High school seniors get busy this app season.
Students in Delhi will get to meet admission reps in August, September and October.
Here is a list of college's planning visits soon:
23 Aug NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE
24 Aug Trinity Dublin
26-28 Aug Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
26-28 Aug Rollins College, Florida, USA
28-30 Aug Amherst College, Oberlin College, Tufts University and Tulane University, USA
29 Aug Nagoya University, Japan
8-10 Sept The Five Claremont Colleges Consortium - Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, Scripps College, CA, USA
10-11 Sept Yale University, CT, USA
17 Sept Boston University, MA, USA
18 Sept Bowdoin, Kalamazoo Skidmore and Smith College, USA
19 Sept Bard Early College at Simon's Rock, MA, USA
4 Oct Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Union and Wheaton College, USA
9 Oct Linden Tour (See participating American colleges)
Agnes Scott College (GA)
Bryn Mawr College (PA)
Clark University (MA)
Colgate University (NY)
Connecticut College
George Washington University (DC)
Grinnell (IA)
Hult International Business School (London)
Knox College (IL)
Loyola Marymount (CA)
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Northeastern (MA)
Penn State
Reed (OR)
St. Olaf (WI)
Syracuse University (NY)
Texas Christian University
Trinity University (TX)
University of California, Davis
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Denver
University of Miami
University of Missouri
University of Richmond (VA)
Vanderbilt (TN)
Vassar (NY)
Washington and Jefferson (PA)
Winthrop University (SC)