In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

Is “Most Likely to Succeed” a Curse?

A segment on NPR today looks at individuals who were voted “most likely to succeed” by their high school classmates. Is this title a motivator for recipients? Or is it more often a burden? Listen to the segment here.

How to Find Gay-Friendly Colleges

For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LBGT) students, college may come with hopes for a more open and accepting environment.

Indeed, many U.S. colleges boast of a prominent LGBT scene and a supportive atmosphere on campus. The question is how to identify these schools. While many LGBT-friendly colleges are found in large, liberal-leaning cities, others are in less predictable locations.

To give themselves as many options as possible, LBGT students should consult several online resources produced specifically for them.

The Princeton Review produces two LGBT ranking lists—“LGBT-Friendly” and “LGBT-Unfriendly”—both of which are available for free on PrincetonReview.com.

StateUniversity.com recently had a great post on this subject in which it identifies two more online resources: Newsweek’s Best Gay-Friendly Schools and Campus Pride’s LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index.

And if you’re still into old-fashioned books, The Princeton Review publishes The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life—a great supplement to the up-to-date online resources mentioned above.

Juniors: Don’t Throw Away that “A”

Now that the school year is just about over, it might be tempting to discard your notebooks, tests, and papers.

While it’s always liberating to shed some “baggage,” you should carefully sort through your work before you make a trip to the dump or recycling center.

The reason? Many colleges require graded writing samples as part of their applications for admission. If you decide to apply early, or if you simply don’t receive many writing assignments in the fall, your best bet will be to use writing samples from your junior year.

MyCollegeCalendar.org suggests that juniors “save all ‘A’ graded writing assignments (essays, term papers, laboratory projects, and any other top-graded papers) from this year just in case one of their colleges requires [the] submittal of a particular type of writing assignment” with their application.

Doing so will ensure that you’re not kicking yourself in the fall when it’s time to provide a sample of your graded work.

Should You Pick a Major Based on Your Future Salary?

Last week I reported on the typical salaries earned by bachelor's degree holders in over 170 different majors. Over $90,000 a year separates the highest-earning grads (petroleum engineering majors) from the lowest-earning grads (counseling psychology majors).

While it’s important to note these substantial differences—particularly when college is such a big financial investment—students should keep in mind that bachelor’s degree-related earnings are only part of the picture.

A recent piece on DailyFinance.com focuses on two additional factors—grad school-related earnings and the non-financial rewards of one’s major.

On the subject of grad schools, the Post article highlights elite professional schools in areas such as business, medicine, and law. Such schools routinely enroll large numbers of students who, as undergrads, majored in unrelated disciplines. As these schools are tied to some of the most lucrative careers in the U.S., it is possible to study what excites you and then boost your earning power in grad school.

The Post article also discusses the non-financial rewards of a major, such as opportunities to study subjects that truly fascinate you, to ask questions that you find important, and to define yourself. Such opportunities are limited when you choose an undergrad major based solely on future earnings.

Happy Jobs for Grads

You’ll often hear that a certain job is “hot.” This usually means a large number of new openings and rising salaries. It doesn’t mean, however, that you’d actually enjoy doing it every day.

Fortunately, CareerBliss recently compiled a list of hot jobs for recent college grads that actually takes worker happiness into account. Their top job? Software engineer. Check out the full list and methodology here.

Schools for Students with Learning Disabilities or ADHD: American University

This spring I’ve put up a series of posts for students with a learning disability or ADHD on the transition from high school to college.

If you’re an LD or ADHD student and you haven’t yet applied to college, you may be wondering which schools might make this transition a little bit easier for you.

To let you know which schools really go the extra mile for LD and ADHD students, I’m profiling several of the best over the coming weeks. Each of these schools is featured in the current edition of The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Disorder.

All feature highly structured services and all employ staff certified in learning disabilities and ADHD. At many, the LD/ADHD staff director is directly involved in admissions decisions; as a result, admissions requirements at these institutions may be more flexible.

If you’ve received one or more significant accommodations in high school, any one of these schools would be an excellent option for your undergraduate education.

The first school is American University in Washington, DC.

School: American University

Program name(s): Learning Services Program, Academic Support Center, Disability Support Services

Goal of services: To assist students with the transition from high school to college during their freshman year and to promote full participation in academic programs and other campus activities.

Offerings: Additional support in college writing and finite math; general course and learning accommodations.

Duration of offerings: Until graduation.

Additional application for LD/ADHD students: Yes.

Total undergraduate enrollment: 6,430

Total number of students receiving LD/ADHD services: 175–200

To read what undergraduates at American University have to say about their school, check out the following comments, taken from The Princeton Review’s Best 373 Colleges guidebook:

Juniors: Secure Your Teacher Recommendations Before the Summer

While you won’t complete your college applications until the fall, there are several good reasons to approach teachers now—before the start of summer—about your letters of recommendation.

• It is courteous—it gives each teacher more time to think about and write your letter.
• It is impressive—it shows that you’re a mature student with the ability to plan ahead.
• It gets the jump on other students—it puts your letter at the front of the line (if you wait until the fall, a teacher may be swamped with other recommendation requests).

For more info on how and who to ask for letters of recommendation, check out MyCollegeCalendar.org.

Selective Colleges Shouldn’t Be Havens for Wealthy Students

Many successful individuals attend less-selective colleges. Depending on your interests, a less selective school could be the best fit for you, both academically and socially.

That being said, the tendency of highly selective colleges to admit affluent students at a much higher rate than non-affluent ones is a troubling one. Seventy percent of the students at the most selective colleges and universities in the U.S. are in the top 25 percent economically; only 14 percent are in the bottom half.

One could assume that affluent college applicants present better credentials, but evidence doesn’t support this. Instead it shows that low-income students with high test scores are significantly less likely to enroll at four-year colleges and universities than their affluent peers are. In the absence of rational explanations, dubious ones—such as the astounding advantage that legacy applicants enjoy at places like Harvard—begin to take their place.

If you’re wondering why I’m making such a big deal about this when I started this post by praising less-selective schools and their students, it comes down to the financial resources of highly selective schools and the expectations that they have of their students.

If you enroll at a highly selective college, you’ll be expected—from your very first day as a freshman—to finish and get a degree. To this end, the school will back you with its considerable resources.

Data shows that it's much harder to slip through the cracks at a highly selective colleges and universities. Graduation rates for students with equivalent standardized test scores are about 20 percent lower at low-selectivity schools than they are at high-selectivity schools.

For-Profits Spend Less then Publics Do on Educating Their Students

As you consider potential colleges, you should consider where your tuition dollars might go once you enroll.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics—a federal agency—found that for-profit colleges and universities spend less than a third of what their public counterparts spend on educating students. It also found that graduation rates at for-profits are significantly lower.

For-profit schools most often compete against public universities and community colleges for students. Despite for-profits' relatively poor outcomes, they have grown in popularity over the last year.

College Towns Are Amazon.com’s Most Well-Read Cities

If you consider yourself a book worm, you’ll most likely have plenty of company when you head off to college.  

Amazon.com recently published a list of America’s most well-read cities. The list is based on the Amazon’s sales of books, magazines and newspapers nationwide. Topping the list are four college towns—Cambridge, Mass., Alexandria, Va., Berkeley, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich.