In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

The Long Road to a Transfer Admission

On the surface, transferring seems like a good back-up plan. If you don’t like the college where you end up, you can leave it for another school.

The truth is that getting into college as a transfer student takes just as much work as getting in as a freshman. Aside from filling out applications, you’ll have to get to know your professors and secure recommendations. You’ll have to get high marks in all of your college courses. And you’ll want to participate in extracurricular activities to boost your candidacy.

A recent article on the Huffington Post details the many steps required to submit a strong transfer application. Click here to check it out.

My take? College-bound high school students should do plenty of research to ensure that they really like the schools on their list. Who wants to go through the admissions process twice?

Handling College Rejections

Even if it’s from one of your reach schools, a rejection letter might sting a bit.

A recent article on GoLocalProv.com discusses how to stay positive and ensure that you receive some acceptance letters in the New Year. Click here to check it out.

College Students Abusing ADHD Drugs

Doctors frequently prescribe stimulants—e.g., Ritalin, Adderall—to help students with ADHD.

Unfortunately, in a recent study at the University of Michigan, a remarkable number of college students with ADHD said they abused such drugs.

In the study, 40 percent of students with ADHD said they had misused their prescribed stimulants within the past year. The most common type of misuse was overuse.

Click here to read the study’s abstract in the journal Pharmacy Practice. To learn more about ADHD, check out this article on the Huffington Post.

Avoid These Common FAFSA Mistakes

College Solution recently posted 10 FAFSA mistakes for college applicants (and their parents) to avoid in the New Year. These include the following:

• Leaving answers blank—enter “0” or “not applicable” where appropriate.
• Using info from the wrong tax returns—use your 2011 returns for this year’s FAFSA.
• Inflating your parents’ education—only select “college” if they’re actually college grads.
• Listing retirement savings—don’t include any money that your parents have in retirement accounts.

Click here to read more about these and other common FAFSA mistakes.

Is Your Parent Too Involved in the Admissions Process?

If your mom or dad says “we” when discussing your list of schools, this article on the Huffington Post is mandatory reading.

Women (Not Men) Going Back to School

According to Department of Labor and college enrollment numbers, women are more likely than men to return to school when unhappy with their employment options.

Click here to read more on the New York Times.

Plagiarism Addicts

The end of the semester is term-paper time for college students everywhere.

Amidst the many students who work hard on their papers, some students bypass the writing and the research. They download pre-made papers, or they cut-and-paste others’ writing and pass it off as their own work.

This type of dishonesty is typically viewed as a choice—perhaps one made under end-of-semester stress, but still a choice. As such, colleges punish it harshly.

However, a recent article on the Huffington Post describes a new view on plagiarism. The basic gist? Many of today’s students survived on “Googling” and “cutting & pasting” as high schoolers—it’s an ingrained habit for them. Some are simply unable to break this habit when they reach college.

Click here to learn more and get the author’s take on this argument.

What do you think? Does referring to plagiarism as a “habit” let these students off the hook too easily? Speak your mind in the comments section below.

Ivy League Athletes Held to High Standards

The Ivy League—which, officially, is nothing but an athletic conference—is part of the NCAA's Division I.

However, it differs from the rest of Division I in a couple of important ways. Its schools do not give athletic scholarships. And its athletes must meet complex and rigorous admissions standards.

A recent article on the New York Times takes a closer look at these standards, which the Ivy League schools use to ensure competitive balance amongst themselves. Click here to check it out.

College Winter Wonderlands

If skiing, sledding, or snowshoeing is your thing, U.S. News has posted a list of the five best college towns for winter enthusiasts. Click here to check it out.

Are You Applying to the Wrong Colleges?

Some applicants leave themselves without any good options if they aren’t lucky enough get into one of their reach schools.

Of course, they don’t do this intentionally. It just happens that their match schools aren’t a good financial fit. And their safeties are too safe.

If this sounds a bit like your list of colleges, you should know that you still have time to apply to additional schools. Click here to learn more on the College Solution blog.