In - Your Guide to College Admissions from The Princeton Review

Important Conversations for the College-Bound Student

If you expect to begin college this fall, there are several important discussions you should have with your parents this summer.

Unsure where to start? A recent post from Montgomery Educational Consulting outlines some key topics to broach with the ’rents, including the following:

• Your communication plans. Will you talk by phone or email? How often?
• Finances. How will you get money? How much will you get?
• Your packing list. What do you want to bring with you? What do you need to bring with you?

Click here to read more about these and other important student-parent conversations.

Questions You Shouldn’t Ask College Reps

The college representatives you meet during campus visits and college fairs will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about their school.

While these reps can be a great resource in your college search, you should keep in mind that they’re also gathering some information—about you. They’ll file your conversation with the admissions office and note whether it was generally negative or positive. This will be part of your application if you decide to apply.

So, before you ask a question of a college rep, take a moment to consider how it will reflect on you as a potential applicant.

Some questions are unnecessary. (If you can find the answer on the college’s website, it falls under this category.) Such questions can make you seem like a less-than-serious candidate.

Others questions are inappropriate. (If you’d be embarrassed to ask it in front of your parents, it might be better to save it for a student at the school rather than an official rep.) Such questions can create doubts about your maturity level.

Writing on The Choice, the president of Lipscomb University recently advised potential applicants to think before asking the following questions of college reps:

• Do you have my major?
• Where am I going to live?
• Who is on the faculty?
• Is this a party school?

Click here to read more about each one on The Choice.

The Right Way to Prep for Finals

Want to maximize your study time during finals season?

The College Solution recently posted some great advice on prepping for exams. Check it out here.

Also be sure to check out the IN post on the study techniques scientists recommend.

How to Rock Your First Year of College

Recently admitted college applicants might be wondering what it’ll take to have a successful freshman year.

To this end, Zinch recently asked some college sophomores about their first-year experiences. They offered the following tips for freshmen-to-be:

• Go to class.
• Get out of your dorm room and participate in campus activities.
• Do your reading on a regular basis.
• Be considerate of your roommate.
• If you don’t get along with your roommate, change roommates sooner rather than later.

Click here to read more about each of these tips.

Rising Seniors: Meet the Common App

Students reading the Common Application for the first time are often surprised by its complexity.

Why is it so complex? The 456 colleges and universities that accept it all employ a “holistic” approach to admissions—i.e., they consider many different factors beyond grades and test scores in their decisions.

Fortunately, rising seniors can get to know the Common App before they begin the application process; a preview of the 2012–2013 Common App is now available.

Prior to the summer, you should familiarize yourself with the Common App to get a sense of its breadth and length. During the summer, you should contemplate your strategy for its various sections—e.g., the essay topic you’d like to use, the extracurriculars you’d like to list.

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

Yield: The Number Behind Waitlist Admissions

In the world of admissions, a college’s “yield” is the percentage of its admitted applicants who ultimately choose to enroll.

If, for example, a college admits 2,000 applicants and 1,000 enroll, it has a yield of 50 percent.

The yield is important to applicants because it determines whether—and how deep—a given school will dig into its waitlist.

The New York Times blog The Choice recently posted this year’s expected yields and waitlist admits at some of the most selective colleges in the U.S. Click here to check them out.

Study: Bachelor’s Degree Adds Nine Years to Your Life

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans with a bachelor's degree are expected to live nine years longer, on average, than those without a high school diploma. Click here to read more on Time.

An Inside Look at College Grading

Many undergrads view grading as a secretive process in which the professor's current mood and opinion of you determine whether he gives an “A” or a “B.”

In reality, college grading is a fairly objective process, even when it comes to open-ended assignments such as papers and essay-based exams.

A recent post on the Chegg blog explains the typical professor’s mindset when grading written work and identifies several ways in which you can boost your chances of an “A.” Click here to learn more.

Do Private Scholarships Help Rich Kids the Most?

Outside or "private" scholarships are awards given by nonprofit organizations, corporations, and businesses to help students to pay for college.

Unfortunately, such awards are often of little help to students who receive need-based financial aid.

Why? A private scholarship lowers a student’s financial need. As a result, many colleges reduce the need-based monies the recipient’s aid package.

On the other hand, affluent students—those who do not receive any need-based financial aid—actually get to use private scholarships to offset the cost of college.

Click here to read more on CollegeAdmissionsPartners.com.

Study: Contact Sports Might Impair Students’ Learning Abilities

According to a new study published in the journal Neurology, some student-athletes might be particularly susceptible to the negative effects of repeated collisions.

The study compared college athletes in contact sports—specifically, football and ice hockey—to those in non-contact sports such as track and crew. Athletes received thinking, memory, and learning tests both before and after their sport’s season.

Differences appeared on the learning test. According to the Huffington Post, “22 percent of the contact-sport athletes did worse than expected” on the post-season learning test, “compared to just 4 percent of the non-contact athletes.”

The study’s authors believe that contact sports might be more harmful for some students than others.

Click here to read more about this study on the Huffington Post.