BRITTANY MASCHAL CONSULTING

The Two Most Important Letters in College Admissions

By Brittany MaschalMar 14, 2023

Could not agree more with Rick Clark’s recent post about institutional priority. It’s something we talk about a lot with families and that needs to be taken seriously in the college admissions process. Who a college admits is ALL about them and their needs.

If you are a senior, many colleges will release decisions in March. If you are denied from a selective college, my hope is you won’t question your academic ability or lose sleep trying to figure out what was “wrong” with you or what you “could or should have done differently.” IPs mean admission decisions do not translate to “We don’t think you are smart” or “You could not be successful here.”

College Admissions Regular Decision (RD) Notification Dates

By Brittany MaschalMar 10, 2023

RD results start to roll out in March, with most released by early April. College Kickstart tracks release and tentative notification dates and includes last year’s for reference. Stay up to date here!

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Early Decision Continues to Attract Students

By BMC BloggerJan 31, 2023

Inside Higher Ed’s headline, not ours 😉

But yes, it’s still ED or bust at many top US colleges, and those spots are getting even harder to come by. As the ED application numbers rise, a change in strategy is often needed. Our prediction:

“In” in 2023 –> match schools in ED.

“Out” in 2023 –> overreaching in ED (or SCEA or REA!).

Find an interesting article on the use of early decision here!

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Choices and Options: A Blueprint for College Admission for Everyone

By Brittany MaschalDec 28, 2022

Everyone should read the Georgia Tech admissions blog.

Read rick Clark’s recent post here. For juniors, this section for seniors is important. Read it now, and read it again this summer when you finalize your college list.

Be reminded that your chances of being admitted to a school with an admit rate below 20% do not go up 20% by applying to 20% more of those schools. Trade out “dream school” for IRL colleges. Apply to a group of schools (you figure out the number but generally more than 2 and less than 10) where you know you will be thrilled to get in and excited to go.*

*and we might add: where you can actually get in! Thanks always, Georgia Tech, for keeping it real!

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High School Class of 2023 Early Decision & Early Action Notification Dates

By BMC BloggerNov 29, 2022

From College Kickstart: Schools often post results in advance of official notification dates, so they’ve compiled the most recently updated dates where available, as well as last year’s notification dates for reference. Bookmark this page, as they will be updating it frequently over the next 30 days.

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Public Flagships Are Hard to Get Into!

By BMC BloggerNov 21, 2022

UGA continued to serve up a competitive EA round, especially for out-of-staters. Look for other public flagships to do the same again this year (we’re looking at you UF, UNC, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and of course the more selective UCs).

The UGA admissions blog is a must-follow, but if you want to make even more sense out of data they shared, head to Edison Prep’s website.

It is crucial for students to maintain excellent grades in rigorous classes, raise their GPA if possible, and consider the impact of test scores; at schools like UGA, and we would argue MANY other schools—even those that are test-optional—they matter.

Academic rigor continues to be far more important than extracurricular activities, with the average EA applicant (not admitted student!) having 9+ AP/IB classes by graduation.
Senior Associate Director of UGA Admissions David Graves posted a quote on the UGA Blog that we still sincerely wish were included at the top of every UGA mailer: “When parents or students say that their schedule is already so busy with other activities that it is tough to handle challenging courses…instead of dropping rigorous courses, maybe an activity could be dropped.” We tell students daily that no one has ever been ever rejected for having too low of a “play practice score,” but millions of applications are rejected each year for low GPA, low rigor, and/or low SAT/ACT scores. Activities matter if and once your core academic metrics are in the right ballpark.

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Why Your “Academic Narrative” and a Foundation for Your Intended Major Matter

By BMC BloggerOct 13, 2022

Let’s say you were a star student at an Illinois high school last year. You want to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, so you check out the Princeton Review’s guide. You find out that Illinois is competitive in admissions, but how competitive?

The answer actually depends on what you want to study.

To reach its class of 7,963 first-year students this fall, the university started with 63,258 applicants. It admitted 28,355 of them. That’s a competitive class to be sure, admitting 45 percent of those who applied.

But let’s say you want to study computer science, which was the intended major of 16 percent of the applicants. Of the 10,214 applicants, the university admitted only 7 percent of them.

Or let’s say you wanted to study business, which was the first choice of more than 10 percent of all applicants. Of the 6,771 applicants, 28 percent were admitted.

Major matters, and if a major is competitive, you need to be competitive for it. You need to take the right classes and have a resume that points toward that major. You’ll want to read more here!

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Florida’s State University System (SUS) – Free Webinar

By Brittany MaschalSep 05, 2022

What does it take to get admitted to a state university in Florida?

Join JRA Associates for a webinar at 7:00 PM Eastern on September 7, 2022.

This session will specifically address Florida’s State University System (SUS). You can sign up here. Here’s what you’ll learn:

Admission criteria for all 12 state universities
How these universities recalculate GPAs
The latest happenings on the 12 campuses
How under-qualified students may still gain backdoor admission—legitimately
Florida’s state universities’ national ranking
How to maximize your chances of admission

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Edison Prep’s UGA Data Repository and Strategy Page – Tracking UGA Stats Since 2012!

By BMC BloggerAug 27, 2022

This is the UGA data we all need! If the University of Georgia is on your list, especially if you are from out of state, you need to give this page a close read.

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University of California Admit Rates – In State & Out of State

By BMC BloggerAug 14, 2022

The team at College Kickstart reviewed the recently released Fall 2022 University of California admissions data and has summarized it on their blog.

California residents and students applying from out of state should review this information. Follow College Kickstart for admissions insights and trends!

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