College Admission Blog
A Refreshing Look at the College Admission Process
Jen Fitzpatrick the Director of College Guidance at Sewickley Academy has written a solid post that stands up against the din and hype that have become part and parcel of the college admission process. Titled “College Guidance: 5 Best Tips & Practices,” it’s really more than five recommendations. And, more than recommendations or prescriptions for [...]
Read MoreWhat College Grew Out of A Boarding School?
Great story, and now answer to a boarding school trivia question, Earlham College‘s rise out of the Friends Boarding School is told in a recent article in the Palladium-Item (Boarding School Becomes Global College). Friends Boarding School opened in 1847 with 23 boys and 22 girls. Quaker families had moved to area as “an escape [...]
Read MoreThe Academic+Athletic Post Graduate Student Combination Done Right
It’s no secret that the grade improving, transcript burnishing, transcript mills that work to qualify students for NCAA division I athletic programs have been newsmakers of late. The stories leave us all shaking our heads at the complicity and willful ignorance of coaches and schools. On the flip side, competitive men’s basketball and football teams [...]
Read MoreLittle Known World of the Long-Snapper Received Some Boarding School Attention
The little known world of the long-snapper received some boarding school attention. Sam Rogers, a rising senior at Mercersburg Academy recently committed to play football at Syracuse University for Orange coach Doug Marrone. If you’re unfamiliar with the whole notion of long snapping, the long snapper is a specialty position in football that requires the [...]
Read MoreWhy a Family Should Consider a Girls Boarding School
Westover School head Ann Pollina joins us for short conversation covering “why should a family consider and an all girls’ boarding school?” Pollina makes he case that the question requires two answers, one for the entire family, and the other for the student. Pollina explores how a girls school provides an environment unlike any other. [...]
Read MoreThe Liberal Arts Ain’t Dead Yet
Never underestimate the need to be fully fluent in the language- to able to read, understand, draw inferences, draw conclusions, draw parallels, to challenge and change ideas. To think. Much has been made about how the world has changed; how it’s different; how, for instance, computers and social networking have changed the ways we create [...]
Read MoreA Reluctant YouTube Star: Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg Considers New Media
Admittedly, we didn’t write about Macalester College president, Brian Rosenberg’s self-parody of President’s Day- the first time. The video of Rosenberg poking fun of his self importance is roll-on-the floor funny. But- being a college production- we thought it fell just outside our boarding school purview. Change of heart. Rosenberg recently revisited his performance in [...]
Read MoreInternational Baccaulaureate Curriculum Augments Traditional UK A-Level Exams
Saw this tidbit in an article in The Independent (UK) (Independent Schools Are Wise to Look Overseas): “European families have been attracted by private schools offering the International Baccalaureate in addition to A-levels.” While UK secondary schools and their graduates will continue to be measured by student success on A Levels (proficiency tests for university [...]
Read MoreThe Top Ten List of What I Learned as a Parent About Searching for the Right College
So it’s finally over. The decisions are in, the choice is made, and the bumper sticker is on the car – and what a ride it has been! Fourteen months ago, I bought a GPS (whom we named Rhonda – “Help me, Rhonda!”), got in the car and set off for a tour of Maryland, [...]
Read MoreA Circle of (College Financial Aid) Hell?
Round about the end of January, I went around muttering about the tenth circle of hell, the one that Dante left out of his Inferno, the one reserved for those parents and students who need to fill out college financial aid forms. “I’m in financial aid hell,” I wailed in a desperate email to a [...]
Read MoreGetting to Know Bridgton Academy
Chris Webb, Bridgton Academy (Bridgton, ME), Director of Admission, elucidates how the academic, social, and athletic of their post graduate population shape Bridgton’s programs. The school’s the only prep school for postgraduate young men. All of Bridgton’s students hold high school diplomas and they (and their families) have come to the decision that an extra [...]
Read MoreBrehm Preparatory School Makes the Jump to High Level Basketball
In “It’s Not Just Basketball,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bryan Burwell chronicles the rise of international calibre high school basketball at Brehm Preparatory School. Brehm sudden ascention in the international and collegiate basketball scene has raised some eyebrows. In Brehm’s story, you see and hear the echoes of the reasons other boarding schools commit to [...]
Read MoreBeing Rejected
Being rejected is hard. However the rejection is couched, whether in flowery language, or via George Clooney characters, or with brave reassurances about the competition, the climate, etc., we are ultimately being told that we are not wanted, not needed or not good enough. It’s been happening a lot lately. With our struggling economy millions [...]
Read MoreHarvard Study Questions the Predictive Value of Advanced Placement Courses in Science and Math
A four year study by Harvard’s Philip M. Sadler and UVA’s Robert H. Tai concludes that, while the curriculum and rigor required of student in AP courses is worthy, success in AP science and math courses cannot predict a student’s success once in college. Sadler concludes for the Harvard Gazette (High School AP Courses Do [...]
Read MoreChattanooga Area Boarding School Alumni and Administrators Talk About College Preparedness
In “Boarding School Has Benefits for College-Bound” writer Katherine Proctor spoke with alumni and administrators about the how boarding experience prepared students for collegiate life. University of Tennessee at Knoxville freshman Christine Waite said her days as a boarder at the Baylor School helped her adjust to college. ‘After boarding at Baylor, I had no [...]
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