Inside U.S. News & World College Rankings

The U.S. News & World Report is considered by many as the all-knowing, infallible authority on the best–and worst–colleges. In other words, if you care about rank, prestige and honor when it comes to picking a school, the U.S. News & World Report is your number one source. So what factors does U.S. News & World take into consideration? What areas do they weigh most heavily? What details do they ignore?

Orientation Mania Hits College Campuses Everywhere

No, universities aren’t faring a sudden outburst of a neurological disorders, but they’re definitely on high alert. As these warm, musky days of August roll forward, colleges and universities across the country are whipping out the pop-up tents, setting up check-in booths and passing out pre-stuffed folders to freshmen, new graduate students and other fresh faces on their respective college campus. Phew, what a long sentence. In short, it’s orientation week at tons of schools. Bring on the orientating! I have one more day of my journalism graduate student orientation at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, and I’m wiped! In a good way. My 40-or-so other new student cohorts and I have been wowed with dozens of multimedia presentations, lectures and discussions with faculty, program directors and current students. We’re getting a full dose of the opportunities available to us through our [...]

The Not so Summer Blues (The Work Experience Elixer)

I have always considered July 4th as summer’s hump day; The summer days and nights seem to move at a much faster pace after this national holiday. And given that July 4th falls twenty days after the summer solstice summer days should feel as if they move faster. During my high school summers, the July 4th holiday did not remind me that I had ample time to frolic and play. Instead, July 4th reminded me that a new school year loomed in the distance. The period of time between July 4th and the beginning of the school presented a challenge: how should I best fill this time?

Summer Vacation, College Tour-style

While the freedom of summer vacation makes this a logical time to hit up some campuses, the mad rush from quad to quad can also be a little overwhelming. Here are some tips from the experts.

The agony of small envelopes

College acceptances and rejections

The Consortium Factor

Take a look at the list of items below and see if you can spot the pattern: (FYI, this is not a pilot test for a future BG-style SAT exam !) Location Average class size Percentage of students who graduate in four years Consortium membership Available majors Financial Aid If you have not figured out the pattern by now, these are all criteria that most families and students use to evaluate colleges. However, there’s one that should have stood out, or at least made you think twice as to why its was included. Still stumped? (hint: it’s the fourth one on the list). What’s a consortium, you ask? Simply put, a consortium consists of a few colleges who all happen to be within a stones throw from one another (and sometimes  who have agreed  to collaborate, and share resources. In more technical terms, as stated in the Boston Consortium’s mission [...]

Springtime Spawns Senioritis

As a 2nd-semester high school senior drifting through the flora and fauna of April, May and June with a college acceptance letter in hand, school was the last thing on my mind. Sure, I was mildly inspired by my final flower-box project for Ceramics 1, and I had glimpsed the smiley-face bulletin board postings reminding all seniors to “Keep those grades up! Senioritis didn’t get you into college.” And sure,  I had gotten a rather passionate start on my English senior paper on Kurt Vonnegut’s recurring motif of meaninglessness, but my passion contradicted the thesis’s theme of nihilism, so I had to stop caring. Truth be told, it is hard to care about school when graduation is within reach and a new life at college is only a fun-filled summer away. I found myself impatiently counting the seconds to the end of each school day, using my 18-year-old parent waiver [...]

I pick Stan…Harv…Berk… I don’t know.

The Super Six Considerations for Picking the “Right” College? Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Either way, these six criteria are all important factors to consider when deciding on a college. Start with these and you may just make a pretty darn good choice when it comes to college.

Why College? Part 6 — Rejecting College Rejections

How to turn that NO into a YES (sort of): Rejecting College Rejections.

Accepted, Rejected or Worse… Wait-Listed

Okay, wait-listed may not be worse than getting rejected from your dream school flat out, but the uncertainty is nerve-wracking, nonetheless. As acceptance, rejection and waiting list letters pour out from admissions departments from colleges across the country, many high school students are waiting, anxiously stalking the family mailbox. Mailpersons, beware. This year (as in years past) the most competitive and prestigious schools are boasting the most selective application season ever, such as Stanford’s ridiculously low 7.2% acceptance rate. These kind of stats bolster a school’s credibility when it comes to claiming the cream of the crop of its student body. We only take the best, they say. If these kind of numbers blow your mind, check out The New York Times’ 2010 Admissions Tally for a running admissions count of the most selective colleges and universities in the country. And if you’re up for a chuckle about how these [...]