My Successful Letter of Appeal to UC Berkeley

Republished from The Huffington Post: https://huff.to/Yb74KD UC Berkeley was my dream school. In fact, as a student at a large public high school in the East Bay, as the son and grandson of alumni, and as a young person interested in politics, the University of California, Berkeley, was one of the few schools I knew. I applied in November of my senior year of high school. That spring, I received a thin letter in the mail from the admissions office. I went to the garage to open it, to receive the good news. Maybe the small letter would inform me that the fat packet of smiling faces of my future classmates was on its way or available online? Nope. I decided to appeal the decision. I knew the odds were slim: less than 1 percent of the student body at Berkeley were admitted off an appeal. Additionally, I was under the [...]

What the US News College Rankings Can and Can’t Tell You

I’ve been reflecting recently on how much useful information can actually be gleaned from poring over US News & World Report Rankings. To structure my thoughts and start a discussion, I have constructed a very preliminary table of what I believe the rankings can and can’t tell you about any college. My thoughts reflect how I read into the rankings based on my experiences visiting a range of different campuses and talking to students from a broad array of schools. You can read about US News’ Methodology, and be sure to check out their suggestions for “How to Use the Rankings Wisely”. As US News themselves say, the rankings should be a starting point for your exploration. More nuanced answers to questions, including valuable anecdotal evidence, about individual colleges can be found in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site. Remember though, visiting schools and talking to current students [...]