In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

MIT Building Becomes Giant Tetris Game

Computer scientists at MIT recently turned the school’s Green Building into an 18-story Tetris board. Check out the video below. For more details, visit PCWorld’s Geek Tech blog.

Total Student-Loan Debt Reaches $1 Trillion Today

According to the New York Times, several events across the U.S. will mark—and protest—the occasion. Click here to read more.

Graduation Gifts for College-Bound Students

Zinch recently suggested five items that every college student should own. Click here to check them out.

Both Obama and Romney Oppose Student-Loan Interest Hike

The interest rate for the Stafford loan, one of the most popular—and affordable—federal loans for college students, is scheduled to jump from 3.4 to 6.8 percent this fall.

Courting the young voters who oppose this scheduled hike, both President Obama and Mitt Romney, his likely opponent in the upcoming election, have declared their opposition to it.

Click here to read more on the Campus Overload blog.

A Student’s View: Admissions Predictions

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

It feels great to be finished with the college admissions process. While I still have to decide where I'm going, I no longer need to worry whether I’m doing “enough” to get into a good college. And that’s a relief.

Anyone applying to college today knows that the top schools accept a ridiculously low percentage of applicants. Admit rates only sink further each year as the number of applications per student grows.

After awhile, the tough odds can get into your head. While I chose extracurricular activities that were of interest to me, I was always thinking about how everything would look on my college application, which was stressful.

Against my better judgment, I tried to predict the schools I would get into. I thought I would get into Lehigh and the University of Richmond, and I was actually right. However, I also thought I would get into Georgetown over Northwestern and the opposite happened. Among friends and classmates, there were many puzzling results, like getting into an Ivy League school but not Duke or Lehigh.

I guess there are too many variables to say with any certainty what colleges will do. However, you don’t have to try to predict the future. If you have a smart list of schools, you can be confident you will get in somewhere. If I could do it all again, I wouldn’t get so stressed out.

University Suspends Pledging Due to Safety Concerns

Binghamton University in New York recently announced that it has suspended all “pledging” to its fraternities and sororities.

Pledging is the process by which Greek organizations select and initiate prospective new members. According to the New York Times, Binghamton has received numerous complaints of dangerous behavior during pledging activities on its campus.

Click here to read more on the Times.

Next Steps for Admitted Applicants: The Housing Application

To all the applicants who have recently chosen a college—congratulations! Getting in and deciding where to go is a terrific accomplishment.

So what happens next? Once you submit your enrollment deposit, your new school will send you a variety of forms. Some are sort of annoying (e.g., the vaccination form), but others are more interesting (e.g., the class registration form).

Another form that will soon land in your mailbox is the housing application, which will determine where—and with whom—you live on campus in the fall. As your dorm and your roommate(s) will play a substantial role in your freshman year, Montgomery Educational Consulting has offered the following advice to consider as you fill out this important app:

• Be honest.
• Investigate “living and learning” communities.
• Be prepared to compromise.

Click here to learn more about each of these tips.

The Truth About Student Debt

It’s enough to frighten any college-bound student.

Total student-loan debt in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past decade, and it recently surpassed credit-card debt.

However, a recent feature on NPR says these numbers might be misleading when it comes to the average student.

Over the past decade, the average debt-load of public-college grads has only increased about 15 percent. (The average debt-load of private-college grads has increased about 29 percent.) Not inconsequential, but not catastrophic, either.

NPR reports that the overall expansion in loan debt is primarily due to a greater number of students attending college rather than bigger loans for students.

Click here to learn more.

Juniors: The Application Process Begins Now

If you’re a high school junior, it’s time to start getting your ducks in a row for the fall application process.

Montgomery Educational Consulting recently suggested 10 things juniors should do before the summer begins. These include the following:

• Visit a college or two.
• Talk to your senior friends about the admissions process.
• Approach teachers about recommendations.
• Brainstorm essay topics.
• Request info from the colleges on your list.

Click here to read more about these and other activities for juniors.

Financial Advice for Admitted Applicants

Have some questions about your financial aid offers?

The New York Times blog The Choice is now accepting questions for Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org.

Click here to submit a question for Mark. His answers will be posted on The Choice starting Monday.