Weekly Update: January 21

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN’S MASK ORDER

Governor Youngkin issued an executive order this week that gives parents the final say on whether or not their children wear masks in schools, even if the schools have a mandatory mask policy in effect. Many school districts, including FCPS and Arlington County, are still requiring masks for now, and several parents have filed lawsuits in response to the order. The biggest impact we will see in our area will likely be at Catholic schools, as the Diocese of Arlington has opted to follow Governor Youngkin’s lead. With a child in one of those schools, I’m a Iittle nervous to see how this plays out…

MARYLAND UNIVERSITIES REQUIRE KN95 MASKS

Meanwhile, several colleges and universities in Maryland are requiring everyone on campus to wear high-grade masks. Johns Hopkins is requiring N95 or KN95 masks or two surgical masks, while UMD and Towson will require KN95 masks in classroom settings. 

“CALIFORNIA FOR ALL COLLEGE CORPS” LAUNCHES PILOT PROGRAM

Governor Newsom recently announced a pilot program that will cover $10,000 of tuition costs at 45 California colleges and universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA, for students who complete at least 450 hours of community service. Students can volunteer for one year to serve in high-need areas like climate action, K-12 education, and COVID-19 recovery. 

BOSTON COLLEGE MERGER WITH PINE MANOR

During the pandemic, many smaller colleges faced financial hardships that required school closures, including Pine Manor college in Massachusetts. Luckily, the school merged with Boston College and is now launching the new two-year Messina College, with the goal of recruiting, retaining, and graduating underrepresented and first generation students. The institute will have housing for students on its campus, and BC’s president said that he hopes students graduating from Messina will be able to transfer to Boston College. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We are picking up now with law school admissions for juniors in college this spring - this is really the time to start preparing to apply to law school! One myth that many students come to us with is the idea that law schools only care about GPA and LSAT score. While GPA and LSAT score are very important in this process - in fact, we’d argue that these numbers are more important overall in the law school process than for undergraduate applications - they aren’t the only factors. This article covers six important factors in law school admissions, including life experience, work and volunteer experience, and motivation. 

Of course, these factors definitely play a role in admissions. However, it is important to consider them in the context of your application. If you are applying to law school straight from undergrad, your GPA is going to be a very important factor. If you are applying to start a second career after 10 years in the working world, your work experience is going to carry more weight! 

Most of our students and families are familiar with Naviance - the software that helps two-thirds of American high school students with their college research. This article explores how Naviance collects data on applicants and allows colleges and universities to advertise directly to a certain pool of students, basing targeted ads on criteria like geographic location and race. This is definitely something that students and parents should be aware of - and be careful to think critically about the schools that Naviance suggests to them! 

This article takes a deep dive into the establishment of Florida International University, from its origin on an abandoned airfield to its recent receipt of a $40 million donation from MacKenzie Scott. The school now has the number 6 ranking for social mobility among all universities in the country, and jumped 22 spots in the U.S. News rankings in 2022 compared to 2021. If you are interested in the rise of a newer college to the public eye, it is definitely worth looking into FIU. Especially if you want to say goodbye to this awful weather!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We’ve used the space in the last few weeks to spotlight extracurricular and summer opportunities that students can use to improve their communities and their college applications. This week, we’re sharing an opportunity to become a student board member of McLean Community Center. There are two board slots available for teens who are residents of the MCC’s tax district (Small District 1A-Dranesville) and will be 15-17 years of age on May 21, 2022. One slot is for a student living within the Langley HS boundary, and one slot is for a student living within the McLean HS boundary, although neither student needs to actually attend the schools. Candidate petitions are due by March 11. For more information, check out the Community Center’s website. 

We have these opportunities in mind because we are spending a lot of time this month with our current juniors, discussing high school course selection, testing plans, extracurricular activities, teacher recommendations, and more! This is a perfect time to get started on the undergraduate or law school admissions process - for more information, book a Meet & Greet to chat with us. 

Lastly, we are also working on trying to reduce student stress and anxiety as much as possible. Just when everything felt like it was going back to normal again, the omicron variant came in with a fury and did a number on adolescent mental health. if you are noticing your student’s anxiety becoming an issue at home, you should check out this week’s parent workshop by the highly-sought-after Dr. Dan Shapiro. There are so many families who could benefit from some help in this area, and we think Dr. Dan is great!

You can register here for Thursday’s program.

Have a great weekend, and stay warm!

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Weekly Update: January 14

Happy Friday! A note that our office will be closed on Monday for MLK, Jr. Day. Have a great long weekend!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

TOP COLLEGES SUED FOR ANTITRUST VIOLATIONS

Sixteen top universities, including Yale, Georgetown, Penn, MIT, Brown, and Northwestern, are being sued for antitrust violations in response to the way that they work together when determining financial aid awards for students. The lawsuit was filed in Illinois this past weekend, and claims that over 170,000 students were overcharged in a financial aid system that amounts to price-fixing by the colleges. 

Though the schools do coordinate their financial aid processes, this system has been exempt from antitrust laws because all of the schools named in the lawsuit are need-blind, so financial need is not considered a factor in their admissions processes. But the lawsuit casts doubt on whether these universities truly do not consider need as an admissions factor. 

This is why we never recommend “applying just to apply” if you already know you won’t qualify for need-based financial aid! For more about this, check out our blog post on the FAFSA.

GO DAWGS!

On Monday night, the University of Georgia beat Alabama in the national football championship. This is the first title for Georgia since 1980. UGA’s campus as well as the city of Atlanta and other areas around Georgia have been celebrating the historic win!

ENROLLMENT CONTINUES TO DROP

This feels like a groundhog-day story at this point, but college enrollment nationwide continued to drop this fall, despite vaccine availability. The decline equals over a million students in the workforce rather than in the classroom, which we can expect to have an impact on the US economy moving forward, especially if this trend continues beyond the pandemic years.

UVA PROVOST BECOMES PENN’S NEXT PRESIDENT

Liz Magill, the Provost at UVA, has been selected as the next president of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, Magill became the first female provost at UVA. Magill will begin her new role at Penn on July 1. Ian Baucom, the current Dean of Arts & Sciences, will become UVA’s new provost. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

This week’s biggest story is that of Mackenzie Fierceton, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Fierceton was admitted to Penn as an undergraduate, first-generation student - she wrote her senior thesis based on her time in foster care. After Fierceton was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, however, her story began to fall apart. 

An anonymous informant emailed Penn’s administration to reveal that Mackenzie grew up in an affluent suburb, with her mother, who was a college graduate. The email, sent to both Penn and the Rhodes Trust, included images of Mackenzie from her high school yearbook - skydiving, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. Both organizations began extensive investigations into her story. Ultimately, Fierceton withdrew from the Rhodes scholarship. Penn is also withholding her diploma until their investigation is complete. 

In December, Mackenzie Fierceton filed a lawsuit against Penn for their handling of her case, and particularly the “unjust” withholding of her degree. The case also raises issues of how victims of child abuse are treated, and whether her essays and descriptions of her childhood are reflective of what she experienced. 

At the center of the controversy was Fierceton’s undergraduate admissions essay, detailing the severe child abuse that landed her in the foster care system. These events have brought to the surface the pressure that some students feel to write about trauma as the topic for an engaging college essay. But as we tell our students every year, you don’t need to have experienced hardship to write an engaging essay - and pretending you did can clearly backfire! Our Wow Writing Workshop process helps students tell THEIR stories in a clear, interesting, and exciting way.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

In our midweek blog this week, we covered your questions about summer opportunities. And yes, you should begin thinking about summer opportunities now! A couple that stood out to us this week were Vanderbilt’s Programs for Talented Youth, which serve students in grades 1-12. Applications are open now for the university’s in-person residential Summer Academy for 7-12th graders, as well as the Virtual Research Experience. 

If you don’t have the money to spend this summer on an impressive-sounding college program, don’t worry! There are plenty of free or even paid opportunities to specialize and develop your niche as an applicant. We’re excited about the course options available through FCPS’s High School Academies, which give the opportunity to specialize in a variety of areas for all FCPS students!

That’s it for today - enjoy the long weekend!

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Weekly Update: November 19

We can’t believe we’re already more than halfway through November - hope everyone stayed warm this week!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

GEORGETOWN LAW RECEIVES APPLICATION INCREASE

As we’ve mentioned before, we expected the COVID-19 pandemic to lead to more students attending graduate school. And right in our backyard is a great metric - Georgetown Law receives more applications than any other law school in the country. And for Fall 2021, applications went WAY up - 41%! As a result, the admit rate dropped from 21% to just 12% last cycle. This is reflective of an increase in law school applications overall, which were up 26% around the country. 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHANGES GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Soon, students in Montgomery County Public Schools will have to take 0.5 fewer elective and PE credits - bringing the total number of required credits down to 22.5, just half a credit above the state required 22 credits to graduate. PE teachers are opposing the change, arguing that with the mental health implications of COVID-19, physical activity is more important for students than ever. 

CDC INVESTIGATES FLU SPREAD AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

In just over a month, over 500 cases of the flu have been diagnosed at the University of Michigan - an extreme level of spread. Due to the unusual size of the outbreak, the CDC has stepped in to provide support and evaluate vaccine uptake. The university is urging as many students as possible to get their flu vaccines, especially before traveling home for Thanksgiving break and potentially increasing the spread. 

HOWARD PROTESTS COME TO AN END

We’ve been covering the ongoing student protests at Howard University, and now, a month after the student occupation of the Blackburn Center began, the students have reached an agreement with the school administration. The changes promised by the administration include a revision of the school’s sexual assault policy, a review of campus policing, and a food bank for students on campus. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Colleges around the country have been dealing with worsening mental health of students, an issue that the pandemic has brought to the forefront. A Fairfax County student, now a junior at UNC, was an integral part of developing the student response to the two suicides at UNC earlier this year. Ethan Phillips was helping to implement “postvention” strategies, to help avoid “suicide contagion” in the wake of campus suicides. This article covers some of the essential steps of postvention, and how students and schools can support their communities after tragedies. 

We mentioned the creation of the University of Austin last week - a new school spearheaded by conservative founders who hope to change the way that colleges admit students and champion free speech on campus. The Washington Post published an op-ed this week that dives into how the school will function. Notable changes include the idea of an entrance exam graded by professors in lieu of a traditional admissions process, which the university’s founders say will increase the role of merit in college admissions. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Now that many of the early deadlines have passed, we are keeping our fingers crossed and our eyes on the list of decision release dates for our class of 2022 students. This time last year, UGA and Tulane decisions were rolling out! While we’re not sure we’ll see such early releases this year, students should expect to start receiving these notifications in early to mid-December - so keep an eye on your email! 

In the meantime, we’ve enjoyed working with our class of 2023 students to start their college lists and plan their research for the holiday breaks (we’ve had some eager class of 2024 students planning visits as well!). This is a great time to spend looking at colleges, so take advantage of it! If you or your student are feeling overwhelmed by putting together a list and completing research, book a Meet & Greet to hear more about how we can help set you up for success over the holiday break. 

Our office will be closed next Thursday - wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving! 

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Weekly Update: November 12

Good luck to everyone submitting in advance of the November 15 early deadline on Monday!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

EARLY APPLICATION NOTIFICATION DATES

College Kickstart has released their list of notification dates for early decision and early action applications. If you submitted an early application, you may want to bookmark this page - they keep it updated regularly with statements from the schools, as well as information on last year’s release dates. Keeping our fingers crossed for those of you expecting mid-December decisions!

UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN ESTABLISHED

No, not UT Austin - a group of scholars and activists have set the plans for a new college, the University of Austin, which they say will be dedicated to free speech. A soft opening is planned for the new institution next summer with a non-credit discussion course on censorship at institutions of higher education. And this is no online-only university - the plans allow for in-person classes and a campus in Austin. Still, the university aims to reduce tuition costs below the national average. 

But the University of Austin isn’t the only new college opening even as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on older institutions. Some of these new colleges, like the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine, focus on in-demand disciplines like computer science and technology. Others are aiming to serve underrepresented populations in traditional colleges, or to keep costs down by avoiding the traditional structures of higher education. 

JILL BIDEN KICKS OFF VACCINE CAMPAIGN IN MCLEAN

The first lady and the surgeon general visited Franklin Sherman Elementary School to offer a message to students and parents at the school’s vaccine clinic. So far, over one million children have received the COVID-19 vaccine! 

LOUDOUN COUNTY HIRES FIRM TO INVESTIGATE SEXUAL ASSAULT

Two weeks ago, we wrote about the student walkouts at Loudoun County schools in protest against the school’s handling of sexual assault cases. Now, the school system has hired a firm to provide an independent review of their response to the situation. We will see whether the review leads to any changes in how these events are handled in the future.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We’ve covered the change in TJ’s admissions policy on the blog before, and this article from NoVA magazine dives deep into the two sides of the argument when it comes to admission. The Coalition for TJ argues that the new admission policy discriminates against Asian American students, and also that it could lower academic standards and lead to deserving students being denied admission. On the other side, the TJ Alumni Action Group believes that broadening the admissions pool will combat inequity and a lack of diversity at the school. And while this issue is salient to those of us in Northern Virginia, it may also set an example for other elite schools around the country. 

Even as new colleges are being created, many liberal arts colleges continue to suffer in the wake of COVID-19 changes. This article explores whether the liberal arts model can survive - especially in a world that rewards research and innovation over teaching, discussion, breadth of knowledge, and other key attributes of the liberal arts. But all hope is not lost - the article lists several ways that liberal arts colleges could innovate in order to stay relevant post-pandemic and beyond. 

Finally, as schools continue to be the focus of political battles, school board members have been facing threats. The threats come as a result of everything from objections about the way children are taught about race in the classroom to COVID-19 restrictions like mask-wearing. While clashes between parents and school board members are not new, the escalation of threats of violence demonstrates just how contentious school-related issues have become.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are so excited that Staci has started full time with our team this week! Our students already know and love Staci from all of their essay work, and we are thrilled that she will be able to continue working with our students and helping them to achieve those “17-year-old perfect” essays! Keep an eye out for more from Staci on the blog next week :) 

Right now, our juniors are really focused on the college search process, and we are so excited to get their feedback! It really is like a puzzle, finding a great list for each individual student, and so much fun to hear about the schools that our students feel would be a perfect fit. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed by the choices or unsure how to research schools, book a Meet & Greet to learn more about how we can help!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Coronavirus: What You Need to Know

Whether you are more of the “doomsday prepper” type or think this is all overblown, there’s no denying that Coronavirus is a hot topic right now. We decided it was probably a good time to revisit our cancellation policy to ensure that we are providing the best possible service in the best possible environment!

Client Cancellation Policy

As our clients know from their contracts, we have a strict 48-hour cancellation policy - for any reason. However, we’re not doing this to be mean; in fact, we actually this policy in place to help our students.

Since we are dealing with teenagers (who often-times have 123,352 better things to be doing than writing their college essays), we can’t make it too easy to call in sick. This is particularly the case because so much of our strategy involves helping our students complete excellent work on a specific timeline.

Not only does this help each incentivize each individual student to uphold their commitments, it also helps the client base as a whole. Imagine if we had 5-10 students canceling meetings each week at the last minute for social obligations or other completely avoidable reasons. This would mean that 5-10 other students were blocked from booking those meetings.

Truly, this impacts everyone. After a decade of running a business with a high-school-age client base, we are 100% confident that this type of policy is best for everyone.

This Doesn’t Mean Show Up Sick!

It is fine to come with a cold, but students who are contagious cannot attend in-person meetings. We mostly follow Fairfax County Public Schools’ sick policy. If you have a fever, you are contagious and you should not be here.

One exception where we do NOT follow FCPS policy is with head lice. Knock on wood, I don’t think any of our clients have had head lice before while working with us, but just in case - do not come here with head lice!

Additionally, if CDC recommendations are more stringent than FCPS recommendations, we will follow those. For example, as of today (March 5), the CDC recommends 14 days of self-quarantine after traveling from Italy. FCPS does not; we will go with the CDC. Please let us know immediately if you have been to any of the countries on the CDC list or have had contact with anyone that has.

No Wasted Time

Students who are contagious or quarantined but still fine to complete work should simply switch their in-person meetings to remote ones. We hold remote meetings via Zoom, which is a video chat tool that also allows for super-easy screen sharing when working on essays, applications, and other documents. It’s like skype, but better! If you would prefer to switch a planned in-person meeting to a remote meeting for any reason, just email Rebeccah and she’ll take care of it for you. Please CC Colleen and your coach (if applicable) as well so that we can make sure that very-last-minute requests are not missed.

If you are truly too sick to work over Zoom, we will take the hour of time that you reserved and put it towards something else beneficial! We will never bill you for twiddling our thumbs during a missed appointment! Instead, we’ll take your reserved time and spend it doing something useful that doesn’t require direct student interaction. Maybe it’s plotting out a strategy and outline for repurposing specific essay content for individual school prompts; maybe it’s reviewing work that has already been completed; maybe it’s performing research for program-specific questions to ask an interviewer.. there are typically quite a few things we can do!

Snow Day Policy = Public Health Risk Policy

If for some reason Fairfax County Public Schools needs to close because of a public health risk, we’ll just jump right to our snow day policy. All meetings will be automatically canceled and we’ll contact you to reschedule. We may decide it’s fine for our office to remain open on a case by case basis, and we’ll contact you to give you the option to come in if you desire in that scenario. If you choose not to come, there will not be a cancellation penalty.

Upholding Our Own Standards

We’d also like to share an update to our team member sick policy, given the current landscape. We absolutely hate canceling meetings, because we know what an impact it has on our clients. Even though we try as hard as possible to avoid this, sometimes there’s just no way around it if we want to maintain a healthy office environment. So, not only will we hold our staff to the same health guidelines as students, but we’ll also hold ourselves to the same cancellation penalty if we have to be the ones to cancel.

If Fairfax County Public Schools are open but a member of our staff is contagious or quarantined with less than 48-hours notice, here’s what will happen:

1. We’ll first try to switch to a Zoom meeting, if the team member can meet remotely.

2. If that’s not possible, we’ll try to find a different team member to step in. This may require switching to a Zoom meeting, but we’ll do our absolute best to find a different coach to substitute if the meeting involves a coach. We will not assign substitutes for meetings with Colleen.

3. If we can’t offer a remote meeting or a substitute, your next hour of work with us will be free. One catch: you do have to spend that initial time block doing something productive relating to the college admissions process :)

Double-Check Spring Break College Trip Plans

This isn’t about our own office, but given what may be ahead, it’s wise to start thinking now about what will happen if colleges close as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, but you still need to try to squeeze in those visits. You will likely have to identify a few other days this spring to be able to visit while schools are in session.

Double-Check Standardized Test Cancellations

It’s possible that the College Board or ACT will need to cancel upcoming SAT or ACT administrations, as they have already done in other countries, as a result of Coronavirus. Typically, when tests are canceled in the United States, makeup dates are provided. Please monitor your email carefully in case you are impacted by a cancellation.

WASH YOUR HANDS!

Please, please, please!