In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

Is Single-Sex Education Overrated?

According to a new report titled “The Pseudoscience of Single Sex Schooling,” single-sex education might actually do more harm than good. It cites evidence that separating students by gender increases stereotyping and sexism.

Click here to read more on the New York Times.

Parting Ways with Friends for College

It’s unwise to choose a particular college because it’s where your friends will be going. Even if you’re really close with your buds, chances are each of you has different goals for college and the future.

But even if you know this, it still might be difficult to imagine being apart from your closest friends. You might be worried that, if you split up, things will be different when you see everyone again on breaks and over the summer. You might be scared that the new friends you make in college won’t compare to your current buddies.

If you have these concerns, you should know that things most likely will be just fine when your group of friends splits up for college. To get an idea of how things might work out, check out this testimonial from a current college student who had similar concerns as a high school senior.

Five Factors for Your College Search

School comparisons are often easier if you have a way to sort the information you collect during your college search.

The New York Times blog The Choice recently suggested five categories for organizing school info:

• academic rigor;
• location, geography, and demographics;
• programs of interest;
• cost of attendance; and
• chances of admission.

For more advice from the editor of The Choice, check out the below segment from NBC’s “Today” show.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Students Thwart Plan to Stop the Sale of Energy Drinks on Campus

When the University of New Hampshire announced a plan to remove energy drinks from its convenience stores, dining halls, and vending machines, the reaction from its student body was swift and strong. There were immediate protests, and student complaints flooded Facebook and Twitter.

By the end of the day, the university had promised to “review” the plan.

UNH has already eliminated trans-fats from most of the food it serves on campus and removed salt shakers from its dining halls. According to the Campus Overload blog, the university’s goal is to have the “healthiest campus community in the country” by 2020. Click here to read more.

What do you think? Are energy drinks a health risk for busy college students? Or are they a relatively minor issue among other student health concerns? Email me at INblog@review.com and let me know!

Don’t Sweat the Admissions Interview

"Do college admissions interviews really matter?"

This question was raised during a panel at the annual NACAC Conference last week.

During the discussion, admissions pros admitted that the quality of their own interviewers varies widely, and that they tend to downplay the contents of interviews when making their admissions decisions. Smart students should look at the interview primarily as an opportunity to gain additional information about the school, rather than vice-versa.

While you still want to put your best foot forward in an interview (check out some tips for interviewing with admissions officers here), you shouldn’t imbue these meetings with more importance than they actually possess. The New York Times concludes that “unless a student doesn’t show up or fails to speak,” an interview won’t have too much bearing on his or her admissions decision—i.e., there’s no need to get too stressed out about it.

Click here to read more.

A Student’s View: The Common App Essay

Jennifer Angelo is a high school senior and a contributor to The Princeton Review’s IN blog.

"The essay is probably the most difficult part of the Common Application,” concedes Villanova University freshman Genevieve Weikert. “I wanted every word [each] college read from me to be tailored to [it] and how I could succeed there. However, it is impossible for one essay to do this."

Genevieve ended up writing her essay about her experience at a summer program, which uncovered interests in business, politics, and international relations. While some of her schools didn’t have all of these programs, the Common App essay gave her no choice but to send the same essay to all of them. "If each school were to have its own core essay,” she argues, “it would be easier to express how I see myself as a student there."

Genevieve's story is one to which many seniors can relate. How do you write a single essay for different schools? And what topic should you choose when the options are essentially limitless? In an effort to figure out how to approach my own essay, I decided to consult a few different sources.

A “College Reception” Is . . .

. . . a special event for prospective students of a particular college.

It’s similar to the information session the school gives to campus visitors, but it’s in your hometown or somewhere nearby. (Many college receptions are held in hotel conference rooms or high school auditoriums.) From the school, you’ll have a chance to meet admissions reps and, frequently, students and professors.

Click here to read more about college receptions on the Montgomery Educational Consulting blog.

The (Un-)Scientific Way to Choose a College

What do you do once you have all of the facts?

According to the keynote speech at this year’s NACAC Conference, you go with your gut.

The speaker, a neuroscience writer, argues that people should rely on their intuition when making complicated decisions—it provides better results than rationale thought.

While it seems unwise to eschew reason during your college search process (you should pay attention to facts such as cost, location, and academic offerings), instinct might be necessary to access less-tangible information—for example, the vibe you felt during a campus visit.

Click here to read more on the New York Times.

College Is Not a Fairy Tale

The “college isn't worth it” crowd likes to argue that college is little more than a four-year vacation you cannot afford. This argument is often reinforced by statistics from the book Academically Adrift, which states that students’ critical skills improve little during their college years.

According to a recent opinion piece on Inside Higher Education, this argument is very misleading.

The author of the piece, a college instructor, calls “the idea that college is a low-stress, light-work period” a fiction. Why? It simply overlooks the amount of hard work that college entails for countless students. This hard work is one of the reasons college graduates are more likely than their less-educated peers to become successful professionals.

Of course, some students are chronic partiers (these students probably take less from the college experience than do their hardworking peers). But the gross claim that college is “easier than the real world” is simply untrue.

Click here to read more on Inside Higher Education.

What Do Colleges Think of the “Gap Year”?

I’ve already written a few posts about the “gap year”—a year away from school prior to the start of college.

While the idea of a gap year is appealing to many students, some are afraid to ask for one after they accept a college’s offer of admission.

This trepidation is understandable, but students have little reason to worry here. According to a recent New York Times article, admissions officers are generally big fans of the gap year. There is now a belief that the gap-year experience reinvigorates students and improves their attitude toward school. Additionally, a former admissions dean from one elite college suggests that students who have taken a gap year get better grades than their peers do.

Click here to read more on the New York Times.