Don't Worry: There's A College For You

On Average, The College Acceptance Rate Is Above 70 Percent

(U.S. News & World Report) 


Reaching for more. Next, pick your schools on a continuum in terms of reach. "The trick is for the safe schools to have all the same characteristics as the reach schools," she says. "Often what students do is put all their research into their reach schools and never consider the others."

Liz Freeman, 17, took such advice to heart. "I thought it was easier to cancel out schools by what I didn't want," she says. Since ease in getting home to McLean, Va., was a priority, Alaska, Hawaii, and California were no-gos. "I knew I was interested in science," she says. "I don't know if I want premed or research, so I looked at schools that have good science programs in general." Hoping to learn Hebrew, she dropped Amherst when she learned that it offers only a self-study program rather than a formal language class.

As simplistic as it might sound, visiting schools is crucial. Indiana University's Kuh offers a list of questions to ask. How often do students talk with faculty members outside the classroom? How often do students study abroad? "The fact that large numbers do so makes for a different atmosphere," he says. "Students come back with a more open worldview." For Judith MacKenzie, a Seattle-based educational consultant, the most important question to answer is, "Can I see myself here? If you're a night owl," she says, "does the library close at midnight, or is it open all night?" When Freeman went to visit Drew University in Madison, N.J., she asked about the Hillel Center for Jewish life on campus. "They couldn't remember the guy's name, so they were going to give me his number," Freeman says. "Instead, they ended up giving me the hotline number for something like the Holocaust Remembrance Club. I high-tailed it out of there."

Happy as a clam. Freeman got a thumbs up from her No. 1 school, Washington University in St. Louis, where she applied early decision. Others have made their own luck. Taylor Corbett realized that he'd had blinders on about Bowdoin, and regrouped: He chose Occidental College in Los Angeles, the school that most reminded him of Bowdoin's nurturing environment. Most of the time, says Eric Staab, dean of admission at Kalamazoo University in Michigan, "students adjust to fit an institution." Jack Blackburn, the dean of admission at the University of Virginia, says that although students can transfer in after a year, march down the lawn, and get [their] degree with us, "it happens infrequently." More often, he says, "they go to another school where they're happy as a clam. They get involved in sports, the college newspaper, the glee club, and a girlfriend or boyfriend."

Paul Sperduto's experience is in line with that. The Atlanta native visited the University of Virginia when he was 13, tagging along on his older brother's college visit, and decided he belonged there. Five years later, as a high school senior, he felt just as firmly about it: He wanted to be surrounded by smart people, he wanted athletic teams to cheer for, and he was taken with the campus's classic beauty. "I thought U.Va. was it," Sperduto says.

But things didn't work out as he'd planned. Wait-listed and ultimately turned down, he switched gears. Now, he's a rising sophomore in the honors program at the University of Georgia. Keeping an open mind makes all the difference, he says. He'd been told Georgia had a reputation as a party school but now he says that was "clearly wrong." Georgia, he says, has "infinite possibilities with thousands of activities. I'm having a great time." So can you.

• Don't Worry: There's A College For You • Warning! Helicopter Parents At 1,000 Feet! • Tough Times For Girls? • Time To Think Globally • Paying With Less Pain • Coming Up With A Short List • The Early-Bird Dilemma • Need Extra Help? Don't Be Afraid To Ask • How U.S. News Does The Ranking

[steeepe]

U. S. News and World Report uses certain methodology in its rankings of U. S. colleges and universities. However, if you look at worldwide university ranking performed by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which is highly respected by academicians, the list is different: Harvard (1), Stanford (2), UC-Berkeley (3), Cambridge (4), MIT (5), followed by Princeton (8) and Yale (11). Obviously, the handful of schools at the top are about equal, and I wouldn''t make a big deal about rankings at that level.

[wadyaknow]

I''m glad my school - Pennsylvania - made the top ten. Oh wait - I went to Penn State - we make the top ten party schools!