Question: How does one fill out paper applications? Is a typewriter required? We don’t even own one! Is it okay to fill out some parts online and then send others (resumes, essays, etc.) separately through the mail?
Even back in the olden days when The Dean was applying to colleges, and typewriters were more prevalent than televisions, students and parents were still in a quandary over how to neatly write within those nasty little lines and spaces on application forms. The solution, however, is simpler than one might think.
For starters, you can certainly mail the different components of an application separately. Rarely will a college request that everything to be sent together, and most expect quite the opposite. The key is labeling. Each document (and, in fact, every page of every document) should contain the applicant’s name along with another identifying detail (school, social security number, etc.) Thus, you should feel free to do part of an application online and send whatever else is necessary via snail mail.
On the other hand, don’t overlook another good old-fashioned option. Paper applications can be completed by hand. It actually humanizes the process and admission folks don’t mind at all–assuming, of course, that the penmanship is not so illegible that it strains tired admission officials’ eyes in the wee hours. Essays and resumes can still be produced via computer and then enclosed (except for Brown, where hand-written essays are required!). Make sure you say, “See attached” at the appropriate spots on the application form, and remember to label everything–not only with the student’s name, but also clarify what the attached document is (e.g., “Short-answer question #3″), whenever you’re not writing directly on the form.
When filling out paper applications, the most assiduous applicants often make a photocopy first (or download and print out a spare) in order to practice and/or avoid goofs. Don’t fret, however, if a mistake is made on a paper application. The occasional cross-out or blob of Wite-Out will never turn an “admit” decision into a “deny.”
Finally, if you own a scanner, it’s also possible to scan paper forms into your computer and then complete them electronically, print them, and mail them, but that’s probably more work (and less fun) than is necessary.
Whatever you decide, there’s plenty of work ahead when it comes to completing application forms, but do relax. You have more flexibility than you may think.
Question: I am an American citizen but live with my family overseas. I am about to start my senior year in high school and am considering taking a year off afterwards to live alone in my family’s Florida home while I work part-time and attend some classes at a local college before I begin my college experience in earnest. Any advice?
Some students who take time off between high school and college think it’s the best thing they ever did–it gives them time out to catch their breath and examine their priorities. Many say they then begin their college careers with more direction than had they stayed on the conveyor belt that took them right there straight from high school.
Conversely, (and, yes, you probably suspected that there are no easy answers), other students who were initially gung-ho about their year away found that, instead, they were lost and lonely, envying their friends’ campus capers and tales of interesting new people to meet and classes to attend.
While only you can guess at which of these groups you might land in, one consideration is that you will be far from your family and–since you’ve been overseas for high school–you may not have a support group of pals nearby to keep you company. We don’t know enough about your situation (e.g., how connected you are to the Florida community where your parents’ home is located, how adept you are at meeting new people at work or in your colleges classes and generally fending for yourself) to give you truly responsible advice.
If you opt for the year off, one thing you should think seriously about doing is applying to college as a senior and deferring admission once accepted rather than trying to start the application process in Florida, after you are thousands of miles from your high school and your former teachers. The vast majority of colleges and universities will hold a place for you for a year–once they’ve admitted you–as long as you pay a deposit, which is usually several hundred dollars.
It’s possible, of course, that your interests and goals will shift during your year off, and you may not want to attend the college that you thought you did, and–in changing your mind–you’ll end up having to fill out applications from afar anyway. (Of course, you’ll lose your deposit, too.) However, do keep in mind, unless you are very focused and disciplined, if you wait until your year on your own to start applying to colleges, you may find yourself taking the path of least resistance–that is, continuing at your local Florida school, rather than going through a thorough college search and application process in order to find the best matches for you.
Finally, if your parents are on board with your idea of time off but are fearful of having every teenager in the Sunshine State beating a path to their unsupervised door, you might want to check out these Web sites below that offer some direction for students considering postponing their college plans.
Question: Will a college give credit or exempt a student from requirements if he or she takes university-level courses through distance learning? I am a sophomore now and expect to take up to 7 classes through the Stanford University distance learning program before I graduate from high school.
Every college makes its own rules, and there’s no easy way to get your question answered without contacting each admission office on your target-college list when the time comes for you to apply. To muddy the waters even more, as the number of distance-learning opportunities increases and as more high school students take advantage of classes at nearby community colleges, many policies are under review, so a response you get right now may be different from one you’d receive by the time you are ready to head to college.
In general, however, you will find it far easier to be exempt from entry-level courses and even from required courses as a result of your Stanford classes than you will to get credit for them. In other words, most college officials don’t want to see their freshmen snoring away in classes that cover material they’ve already studied, and they’ll be willing to let you jump ahead if you can validate your competency in the subject matter. This validation may come from your Stanford grades, from SAT II scores, Advanced Placement exam scores, or from the institution’s own placement tests that are administered during the orientation period.
When it comes to getting actual credit for college classes you’ve taken prior to formal matriculation—whether these classes are on campus, online, or elsewhere—that’s where you’ll find college policies varying and changing. Even those schools that do grant credit for your Stanford accomplishments will probably put a ceiling on just how many of these credits they’ll accept. You should also consider taking Advanced Placement tests in the subjects you cover in your Stanford courses, even if you aren’t taking the official AP classes at your high school. Colleges and universities that don’t award credit for your Stanford work are likely to give it for high scores on the AP exams.
Good luck to you as you make your course and college decisions. It sounds like you’re doing some wise planning already.
Question: Is there a limit to the number of times I can take an AP exam, if I want to improve my score?
Here’s the scoop on repeated AP Exams straight from the College Board Web site:
You can take an AP Exam each time it is offered (AP Exams are offered once a year in May). Your grade report will include your grades for all the AP Exams you have taken, including yearly “repeats” of the same subject exam.
Of course, few students will get a shot at an AP test more than twice, unless they try it the first time in the spring of sophomore year. In most cases, it probably doesn’t make sense to go for more than two rounds, anyway, since your score is unlikely to improve after your second attempt, and the tests are costly. If however, you take an exam at the end of your junior year and you score a 3, and you plan to attend a college that gives credit for 4’s and 5’s, it may be worth trying again the following spring. This is particularly true if it’s a subject you’re continuing to study even after completing the AP course.
The College Board Web site has answers to other AP questions that may arise. If you haven’t found it already, go to:
Question: My son, a high school junior, will soon be interviewed for the Telluride Association Summer Program. What should he expect at this interview, and how can he best set himself apart from the other candidates who will undoubtedly be bright, accomplished students like himself? Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated, since he would very much like to attend this program.
The Telluride Association Summer Program typically blips onto a student radar screen at PSAT time. That’s because those with top scores are invited to apply to TASP (which, by the way, is free), although they are not guaranteed admission. All must go through an exacting application process (lots of essays!) and then, if they make the next cut, an interview—which is where your son is right now.
The program is a six-week educational experience that brings together young people from around the world who share a passion for learning. Telluride students, or TASPers, attend a seminar led by college and university faculty members and participate in many other educational and social activities outside the classroom. It’s a great way for bright and accomplished high school juniors to “find†each other and share their ideas, and it’s also one of those things that make college admission officials sit up and take notice.
The TASP interview process is based largely on the application essays that each student submits. That is, he or she should come prepared to discuss the essay content and the thought processes that produced it. According to one Telluride staff member, these essays are typically a jumping-off point for additional questions that may begin with the essay material but wander away on a number of different tangents.
The most successful candidates are thus those who are conversant with their own essay answers but who can also “think on their feet†so that their responses won’t be rigidly limited to the concepts they’ve already expressed in writing. However, stresses the Telluride official, the organization is seeking students from wide-ranging backgrounds and with diverse points of view. “It’s not about where they stand, but how they stand,”she insists.
Your son should expect his interview to last about an hour, and it will be conducted by one, two, or even three interviewers. While the latter may seem most daunting, in reality, it’s often these larger group events that are more relaxed and informal. Interviewers range in age from 20-something to 60+, and their styles are equally broad. Some undoubtedly will “connect†better with your son than others, but all should make an effort to put him at ease if he is jittery or tongue-tied during the session.
Overall, your son will have the best shot at TASP if he is able to come across as someone who is comfortable in the world of ideas—both generating them and expressing them. He can also walk out of his TASP interview knowing that he’s now prepared for the college interviews ahead.
Question: I am a homeschooled sophomore. What constitutes a AP course? I have elected the hardest courses that are available to me. Will the Ivy League colleges take this into account even though technically they are not AP courses? Would taking some AP tests be good?
Taking AP exams is a great idea for homeschoolers. College admission officials realize that some homeschooled students pursue a very rigorous curriculum, and some do not—very much the way it is for students who attend traditional high schools.
One of the best ways indeed to prove to admission folks that being home schooled doesn’t mean a day full of Beverly Hills 90210 reruns and microwave popcorn is to tackle AP tests and get good results.
You should find most of the information you need about taking AP exams at:
You will see that anyone who feels qualified to do so can sign up for these tests. You need not have completed official Advanced Placement courses first. From this Web site, you will also find links to study materials that can help you determine what each tests covers and how to prepare.
Note that home-schooled students wishing to take A.P. exams must contact the A.P. officials by early March in order to arrange a test site (usually at your local public high school) for the test administration that spring. All of this (along with the exact deadline) is explained on the Web site mentioned above. Since you are only a sophomore, however, you may want to wait until next year. Keep in mind, however, that you don’t want to postpone A.P. exams until the spring just before you go to college, because then your test results will not arrive in time for admission officials to see them. Because A.P. tests are not required, you are likewise not required to submit scores you don’t like.
In general, whether you are taking an A.P. test or not, as a homeschooled student, you would be wise (and often expected) to provide college admission committees with a fairly detailed outline of each course you’ve completed, which will help them determine just how demanding it was. You should also consider taking SAT II subject tests in as many subjects as possible, because these, too, can indicate that you have pursued a challenging curriculum. For more information about SAT II tests, the subjects offered, and registration details, go to: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/lc_two.html
Question: I am a high school junior who just took a political science class at a local college through a “dual enrollment” program, and I will receive college credit because I earned a B. I am also taking AP Government at my high school. Can I skip the AP exam, since I’ve already gotten this college credit?
You should definitely take that AP exam. Many colleges do not give you credit for college courses you took before you matriculated. Even if you already know the college you expect to attend (which is unlikely at this point) and that school does give credit for dual-enrollment classes, you can’t predict if you’ll end up transferring somewhere else before you graduate from college. So our advice is to definitely go for the AP exam. Most colleges and universities give credit for scores of 4 or 5 on the AP test; some even give credit for a 3.
Question: I am currently in an accelerated/honors chemistry class with an A+ average. I had signed up for the AP version of the class at my school, but I changed my mind at the last minute because I got worried about the possibility of messing up my class rank and GPA. Would there be any way for me to prepare myself to take the AP exam in May even though I haven’t had the class?
There’s a good chance that you will be able to succeed on the AP Chemistry exam even though you didn’t take the AP course. You need to talk to whomever teaches the AP chem class at your school and ask what sort of preparation you can do on your own to take that exam.
If this is the same individual who teachers your accelerated/honors class, he or she should know exactly where to direct your independent study and will probably encourage your efforts. Hopefully, any other teacher would do the same. However, you need to steel yourself for the possibility that some teachers may resent the fact that you avoided the tougher course and now want to try the test anyway. Nonetheless, it’s certainly an idea worth pursuing. In fact, you may find that there isn’t a lot of difference between the materials covered in your chem section and those studied by the AP students.
Question: Over the summer, I received an application for my daughter to be in Who’s Who Among American High School Students. She said it was no big deal and that all students get them. I recently found out that not all students do get that offer, but I have already thrown away the application. How can I go about getting another one?
Visit the Web site below to contact the Who’s Who folks, if you want another application.
http://www.eci-whoswho.com/
Your daughter, however, is right. Who’s Who is primarily a money-making outfit that takes advantage of high school students (and, especially, their doting parents) by listing names and achievements in their “selective†book and then selling this book to families for a ridiculously steep price.
It’s true that not all students are invited to apply or selected for inclusion. That’s part of the racket. If every kid in your daughter’s class had been singled out, then you’d sniff the scam right away. The idea is to make you think that only the cream of the crop pass muster.
While Who’s Who indeed lists many outstanding young people, it is not an honor to be tapped for it, and college admission officials aren’t the least impressed when they see it on an application. In fact, at the more elite colleges it can almost have the opposite effect—that is, its inclusion on a roster of honors and awards suggests that the candidate is provincial or naïve.
So, our advice is to save your money. Perhaps you can use it to take your daughter out to celebrate her accomplishments (and yours as a parent!) in a more meaningful way.
Question: Next year I plan on going to college on early admission/dual enrollment instead of finishing off my senior year at my current high school. I know the junior college within my city allows this, but I was wondering where I could find a list of other colleges that accept early admissions.
Though the terminology may vary somewhat from school to school or region to region, there is a difference between “Dual Enrollment†and “Early Admission.â€
Typically, under a Dual Enrollment program, a student is still officially a member of her high school senior class while she takes her courses at a nearby college. This is often a community college but not necessarily. Some Dual Enrollment students take all their classes on a college campus; others take only some. Many return to their high schools in the afternoon for extracurricular activities, just as if they still attended there full time, and they graduate from high school with their class in the spring. If this is the type of experience you are aiming for, your high school counselor should be able to give you the names of participating colleges. If he or she mentions only the junior college you cited, but there are other neighboring institutions that are more attractive to you, you should certainly ask if you could take your classes there instead.
At the end of the school year, many dual-enrolled students apply to attend other institutions, not the one where they spent their Dual Enrollment year. College admission officials tend to be impressed by high school seniors who have sought a more challenging academic experience through Dual Enrollment. Note, however, that, while they may welcome you to their campuses, they may not give you college credit for the courses you took while you were dual-enrolled. Different colleges have different policies in that regard. Some will tell you that since you were taking those classes to fulfill high school graduation requirements, then they cannot be used to fill college requirements as well. There are no across-the-board answers on this one, so be prudent and make sure you are clear on credit rules at each institution you are considering.
Early Admission is something else altogether. Go to this Ask the Dean response about Early Admission in detail. EA students are not “dual enrolled.†They have actually applied to colleges in their junior year, just as if it was the senior year. Once admitted, they matriculate following 11th grade. As you will read in that Ask the Dean column, depending on the regulations in your high school, you may have to be approved for Early Admission by your administration, and you might graduate at the end of 11th grade when you leave your high school, or you may have to wait until you have completed your first college year.
Most colleges and universities will give full consideration to Early Admission applicants who have the endorsement of their teachers and counselor, but they do tend to scrutinize these candidates very carefully to make sure that they are both academically and emotionally prepared to start college at a younger-than-usual age.
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