2016-2017 Common Application Essay Prompts
No changes to the CA essay prompts for the upcoming admissions cycle; yay!
Most of my students disregard the prompt when thinking about their essay, but when it comes time to submit end up categorizing it as #1. See all five options below. Time for juniors to start brainstorming!
2016-2017 Essay Prompts
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
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Geographic Diversity as an Admissions Priority?
Penn’s admitted student pool has for some time now represented all 50 states and is ~10% international. What would be interesting and insightful to publish would be the socio-economic diversity within the pool per state. This recent article attempts to highlight that Penn is diversifying their class by admitting more students from previously underrepresented states, but does it really make a difference if they are from the same socio-economic backgrounds as those from the east coast, Texas and California? I also wonder what the admit pool per state would look like if legacy admits were taken out? The world may never know!
Don’t Believe The Hype
No, this post is not about the famed Public Enemy jam (but if you’ve forgotten it, sit back, relax and take a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQaVIoEjOM). It is about the onslaught of “college admission revolution” talk/projects/reports of late. Remember a few months ago when 80 colleges and universities joined “The Coalition” for access, affordability and success, and everyone freaked out? Well, the hype train has left the station again with “Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions,” a report who authors hope to inspire a more caring and authentic generation of young people. But, these hyped coalitions and reports are just that. As Sarah Harberson’s HuffPost College article aptly points out:
“Turning the Tide” beckons our youth to focus on quality and authenticity. What’s missing is a call to action for colleges who have been complicit and damaging to the “common good” of youth and opportunity. If colleges want to encourage caring, authentic and ethically-sound students, they need to make sure they are living by the same mantra. It is time to rebuild the playing field of college admissions. It should not only be a level playing field, it should be hallowed ground. To do that, colleges need to come clean about who really gets admitted before students believe that being authentic is more valued than being privileged.”
I won’t be holding my breath for colleges to change, but it could happen. Maybe, hopefully, someday.
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Body Language Tweaks: Power Poses
Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions—and even our body chemistry—simply by changing body positions. These hilarious power poses are no joke, though despite how they are presented above. Cuddy’s work is thought-provoking, she teaches at HBS, and you should watch her TED talk (here) if you want to learn more.
Hip Hop and High School
Hip hop has been making its way into schools for some time now (both in the US and abroad). Brian Mooney did it last year, even prompting a visit from Kendrick Lamar to his classroom, which you can read more about here and here, as well as on his blog. And long before, Tomas Alvarez III, a social worker in Oakland, California started one of the first programs called Beats Rhymes and Life at Berkeley High School in 2004. Based on a club he launched as part of his dissertation research, Ian Levy has developed a program at New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science II in the Bronx as part of an expanding education movement to harness the widespread appeal of hip-hop music and culture to promote academic and social goals.
“Hip-hop education is everywhere,” said Christopher Emdin, an associate professor of science education at Teachers College at Columbia University who moderates a weekly chat group on Twitter called #HipHopEd and, along with the artist GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, sponsors an annual competition for students to rap about science. “There is no school in an urban area that does not know about hip-hop, or that has not experimented with it.”
Read the full article here and check out Mr. Levy’s Donors Choose page here.
The Importance of Mentors in High School
Alyza Sebenius’ recent article in the Atlantic that focused on mentors, specifically their role in the lives of students with disadvantages, brought me right back to my dissertation. Although the article discusses the power of mentorship broadly, I was especially excited about the discussion of Robert Putnam’s Our Kid’s (an updated, sharper Bowling Alone), whose work and definition of social capital/social capital theory I use in my dissertation:
Putnam, who in his book notes that privileged youth are two to three times more likely to have an informal mentor outside of their family, said that “kids from working-class homes need more caring adults in their lives.” Disadvantaged students, he said, often lack access to the range of role models available to their more privileged peers—such as coaches, clergy, neighbors, or family friends. Absent these advisors, underprivileged students may be deprived of the kinds of information necessary for navigating and thriving in large institutions like colleges—for exercising what Putnam described as “savvy.”
This information, my dissertation and many other studies found, can be obtained when students develop relationships with not only mentors outside of school but also teachers, counselors and even principals. It is no surprise that this article goes on to discuss school counselors (and college) specifically:
Mentors are just one form of role models on campus that can shape student outcomes. School counselors represent another tier of non-teacher adults who can make a large difference for students: A 2013 study correlated the addition of a single guidance counselor at a given school with a 10 percentage point increase in four-year-college-going rates at the school.
Read the full article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/mentorship-in-public-schools/423945/
Class of 2020 Early Admission Results
Class of 2020 Early Admission Results
The institution (Plan) | Applied | Admitted | Rate | Link |
---|---|---|---|---|
Brown (ED) | 3,030 | 669 | 22% | Link |
Columbia (ED) | 3,520 | Link | ||
Dartmouth (ED) | 1,927 | 494 | 26% | Link |
Dickinson (ED1) | 251 | 220 | 88% | Link |
Duke (ED) | 3,455 | 813 | 24% | Link |
Georgetown (REA) | 7,027 | 892 | 13% | Link |
Harvard (SCEA) | 6,173 | 918 | 15% | Link |
Johns Hopkins (ED) | 1,929 | 584 | 30% | Link |
Middlebury (ED1) | 636 | 338 | 53% | Link |
MIT (EA) | 7,767 | 656 | 8% | Link |
Northwestern (ED) | 3,022 | 1,061 | 35% | Link |
Princeton (SCEA) | 4,229 | 767 | 18% | Link |
Stanford (REA) | 7,822 | 745 | 10% | Link |
University of Georgia (EA) | 14,516 | 7,500 | 52% | Link |
UPenn (ED) | 5,762 | 1,335 | 23% | Link |
Williams (ED) | 585 | 246 | 42% | Link |
Yale (SCEA) | 4,662 | 795 | 17% | Link |
How many schools should I apply to?
For most students, counselors recommend applying to between six and eight colleges, with at least one safety school, one reach school, and a few good fit schools where you feel you’re likely to be admitted. I agree! Too many students today are applying to 10, 12, even 20+ schools. Applying to more schools does not mean, in most cases, getting more acceptances (from my experience). Read more from Money’s Kaitlin Mulhere, here.
Because college admissions decisions will soon be rolling in…
As parents and students begin to obsess over admissions decisions here’s some perspective (that I have posted before). It is harder to get a job at Wal-Mart in Washington, DC. Wegman’s in Pennsylvania boasted an acceptance rate of 5% in 2014. And Google only has room for one half of one percent of its job applicants.