What do you know about the colleges behind the March Madness teams? Check out this viz for 8-year trends--including test submitters.

Despite my affinity for charts, visualizations, and lists, I confess that I have mixed feelings about the public’s growing interest in college data . (Thank you, Ron Lieber, for the profile in the NYT!) For selfish reasons, I am gratified. There’s nothing like demand when it comes to enhancing one's bottom line. More importantly, though, knowledge is power. Equipped with the right tools, families are empowered for a proactive college search. My concern is that familie

The culture seems resolved to believe that college admissions is a meritocracy, and I get it. World-class achievers have adhered carefully to the prescribed formulas for success handed down to them by their dream colleges. They follow all the rules, rushing toward the goalpost, and we want to believe their efforts will suffice. Unfortunately, most of them are tackled at the one-yard line, courtesy of a bunch of unwritten rules which were never in their playbooks. Then—becau

Every student brings value to the process, an application “wallet” which holds up to six kinds of admissions currency: 1) the academic record; 2) standardized test scores; 3) extracurricular activities; 4) the ability to pay full price; 5) the commitment to attend if admitted, and 6) the capacity to meet a particular need of an institution. Decent performance on the first two measures alone will all but ensure admission to less selective universities, but what about highl

Last Updated on November 10, 2020 by Real College Matters What is the most profound thing you’ve ever heard? Who said it to you? Amy Frederick is a fellow mom at my church. She is someone I’ve always respected because of her intellect and character, but I can’t say that our lives leave room for a lot of time together. Anyway, somewhere in the dense church mom-fog between infant room drop-off and mission trip send-off, Amy and I found ourselves in a theological discussion. I d

Last Updated on November 10, 2020 by Real College Matters About six months ago, I wrote a blog post about the most profound thing anyone has ever said to me. Now, I’m going to share the best insight I’ve gleaned from an admissions officer at a highly selective university: “If you all would make some decisions before you apply, we wouldn’t be in this mess. The importance of making choices cannot be overstated as the student approaches senior year. “He’s just going to apply to

Last Updated on November 10, 2020 by Real College Matters 23 April 2019 (Earlier post, revised for the Class of 2020 and their mentors) “If you all would make some decisions before you apply, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” The year was 2014. The speaker was an admissions officer at a highly selective university. By “this mess,” she meant the admissions frenzy as she saw it then. Ah, 2014—the halcyon days when Stanford admitted 5% of its hopefuls. When UCLA received fewer than

Tomorrow, May 1, will be college decision day for some students; for others, it’s six months past decision day. For more than a handful of colleges, it’ll be a day to calculate how much space still remains in the class and strategize ways to fill those seats. In our house, this May 1 will be Brian Beckley Day. Brian is our senior’s school counselor. He’s one of those people who is too wise for his years, and the philosophy he articulated to us a while back has come to inform