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So, Now What? Waiting for your College Application Responses

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Now that so many seniors have submitted their college applications, the hard part begins — waiting.

We know it can feel like torture to wait the few weeks or months until college decisions are released, but there are certainly some things you can do in the meantime:

• Make sure your applications are complete. The worst kind of surprise is getting a letter saying your application was not reviewed because it was not submitted properly. Luckily, colleges do a great job of notifying applicants early on if anything is missing. But this typically requires you to check your email and log in to the individual college portals. So do your part.

• Get ready for interviews. Many colleges will offer you the option of an interview with either an admissions officer or an alumnus of the school. Find out which schools offer, recommend or require interviews. If you need to sign up, please do so. And then prepare. Have parents, teachers or mentors hold mock interviews for you. Be ready to answer the most basic questions: Why do you want to attend college X? What do you hope to do with your life professionally? What are your most important activities? Most importantly, get familiar with the interview setting.

• Start thinking money. You should sit down with your parents and talk finances for your first year. Will you be expected to contribute? Will you have a credit card for emergencies? Will your parents give you an allowance each month? Will you need financial aid to cover personal expenses? If you know money will be tight, this is a great time to get a job. Stores are always looking for extra holiday help and with some luck, that temporary job could become one that you have until you leave for school. Don’t assume that your parents are ready or able to support you throughout college.

• Consider financial aid deadlines. If your parents are applying for financial aid, do the research and give them their list of to-dos. Most forms cannot be completed until the start of the new year, but some schools will require forms with estimated numbers to be submitted earlier. This helps those schools to start estimating how much aid they can provide to you.

• Keep up your grades. There is nothing worse than working hard for three years and then having your grades tumble in senior year, damaging your chances of getting into your dream colleges. Many schools will look at your first-semester senior year grades. And all schools reserve the right to rescind your admission if your grades fall below a set criteria. The rule of thumb is no failing grades (Ds or Fs) and try to keep your GPA to where it was before you applied. If you are seriously worried about a specific class, take the steps necessary to bring your grade up. If you know that your grade is going to be a D or an F, get signed up for a replacement course immediately. Your school counselor and Insight counselor can help you figure that piece out.

• Keep up with your activities. Surely you were involved because you loved each activity. So there would be no reason for your involvement to drop. If you decide to try some new activities and as a result trim down on previous ones, that is OK. But if you wrote on your application that you will be involved in certain activities and that college calls to check up, you don’t want to give it the impression that you exaggerated or lied about your involvement. This could cause serious damage to your application.

• Try to have fun. Assuming that you are taking care of the items listed above, try to relax and have some fun — this is your senior year of high school! Find time for your friends, families and most of all yourself. Pursue your hobbies or get involved in new ones. Get the most out of senior activities. There is no better way to take your mind off of the agonizing wait than to have some fun.

You’ll be surprised to see how quickly time flies by and your college decisions will be in your hand. At that point, you will have some major decisions to make.

So until then, congratulate yourself on a job well done and make the best use of your time. Counting the days and minutes will only be more torture. Go out and live your life!

Creating an Admissions Appropriate Online Persona

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The advent of technology certainly has made the college admissions process easier and more accessible to the nearly 2 million high school seniors who apply each year. But it has also made our lives so much more transparent and visible than ever before. And college admissions officers, trying to glean as much as they can about their candidates, have begun turning to the Internet to do so.

While many kids choose to turn off their social media accounts during the important admissions season, I would recommend letting admissions officers into your online lives a little bit more — but do so very carefully.

Most teenagers these days have Facebook accounts, Instagram accounts, and more and more are tweeting regularly. Some are even on LinkedIn hoping to get a jump start on their networking. And while teens typically look to social media for staying connected and keeping up, it can also be a huge opportunity to show admissions officers what you do in your free time.

So follow these steps for creating an admissions appropriate online persona:

• Privatize whatever you don’t want admissions officers to see, whether pictures or posts. While you cannot control what others post, you can control what others see. You should become familiar with the different privacy settings and test them out as soon as possible. If there are pictures up that you definitely don’t want viewed by admissions officers, or anyone, kindly ask the people who posted them to remove them. If your online self simply does not show you in a positive light and no amount of fidgeting with settings will change that, then block anyone you don’t know from seeing your information. But you should also then think about what you post going forward. These sites are not going anywhere and admissions officers and even employers will be checking them out in their decision making process.

• Watch the language. Whether you are tweeting, writing wall posts or making comments, be aware of your language. Definitely no cursing allowed. Write intelligently and thoughtfully. Don’t write anything you would not want your mother to see. Don’t write something that you wouldn’t say in person – just because you have the mask of your social profile, make sure whatever you are saying is something you would be comfortable saying in-person. 

• Do damage control. Go through your online profiles for the last two years. If you are unsure about something that is posted, delete it. Err on the side of being too cautious. While admissions officers will not spend hours digging through your profiles, you only have one opportunity to make a first impression, so make sure that any click one would make on your profiles would lead to something interesting and positive.

• Post about the positive things in your life! If you had an amazing debate round, or really connected with someone you volunteered with, or had a really amazing volleyball match, feel free to post. If you philosophically disagree with a theory you are learning in economics, are excited about spending the holidays with your favorite cousins, or are counting down the days until the next school dance, feel free to post.

• Be yourself and post about things that are important to you. Doing so will let admissions officers learn more about what you think about in your spare time and how you interact with others. If you love to blog about current events, make those blogs public. If you watch all the new movies and immediately write reviews, make those reviews available. You can still be a teenager. You certainly should not try to be someone you are not. Rather, this is an opportunity to highlight what you want others to see — exactly what you are trying to do in your college applications.

Social media makes it easier for people to see what you don’t want them to see, but it can also be a great opportunity to give others a glimpse into who you are. Rather than wasting that chance, make the most of it by making the most of all that technology has to offer.

Think it Through: Early Decision

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With Early Decision deadlines just around the corner, it is crunch time for college applicants. As important as it is to submit the highest quality application, it is equally important to make sure that Early Decision is the right option for the entire family.

Early Decision is the admission option through which a student makes a binding commitment to one school if accepted early. Statistics have shown that there is a slight increase in admission chances in the ED round. And the logic makes sense. ED applicants tend to be high-quality applicants who have not only gotten their act together to submit their applications earlier, but also have completed their testing and are satisfied with their grades and other accomplishments.

From the colleges’ perspective, they are getting inundated with top students who are ready to accept an offer of admission. Many colleges will often fill up half of their incoming class with ED applicants, making the regular round more competitive.

Why, and why not? 

With all the pros to applying for Early Decision, many students often wonder, “why wouldn’t I apply ED?”

The answer is simple: financial aid.

The chance of receiving merit-based aid from the given college decreases when a student applies for ED. The colleges simply do not have to woo students in this round with financial incentives when the student has already essentially committed. They would rather use those funds during the regular round to create an incentive for their most highly sought applicants.

All students are guaranteed need-based federal financial aid, assuming they apply. So need-based aid is not in jeopardy. If the college does not provide merit-based aid, then that factor may be irrelevant. However, the financial aid conversation should not stop there. Students may still be applying for Regular Decision to other colleges that do provide merit-based aid. If that is the case and if finances will play a major role in the final college selection plan, many families will choose to forgo the benefits of ED for the chance of saving some money in the long term. In a similar vein, students who have a strong chance of acceptance at an in-state public college, with significantly less expensive tuition than private colleges, will decide not to apply for ED.

Think it through carefully. 

Before jumping into the ED process, families should sit down and really think through all the options. Often, families get so excited about a given school and the prospect of applying for ED that they wait to have the financial conversation. So students should apply for ED if they meet these criteria:

• They are absolutely in love with their ED choice and believe it will be the best school for them in the long term.

• The family is fully prepared to pay either the full cost of attendance or the difference between cost of attendance and financial aid awarded.

• The student would not choose another school based on a lesser overall cost.

• The family would not choose another school for factors other than financial, such as location, size of campus, overall educational experience, personal or familial reasons.

• The decision was made rationally and not just emotionally.

Students who get accepted ED rarely ever regret getting in, but there are cases every year when families receive their estimated financial aid for the ED school and suddenly get very anxious because the aid they received is significantly lower than what they had hoped for. Anxiety typically ensues — not the emotion anyone should feel after an acceptance. Colleges are not obligated to meet the full financial need of families. So it is important to be knowledgeable and to think long term, not just about getting the acceptance offer.

Mindfulness

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“Mindfulness” is the hot new buzz-word sweeping through education, psychology, corporate consulting, and just about every domain of our modern lives. From the New York Times to the cover of TIME magazine and a recent TIME article, mindfulness appears to be hitting the mainstream like never before. But what does it mean? And how does it help?

As a graduate student of counseling psychology, I focused much of my research and clinical training on understanding the psychological benefits of mindfulness. In particular, I am interested in the growing body of research literature that shows how mindfulness training benefits adolescents and students in building underlying cognitive skills that enhance learning.

But before we dive in to how mindfulness helps in greater detail, let’s talk about what mindfulness is.

Here is the definition I use: Mindfulness is the act of intentionally paying attention to what arises in the present moment with a kind, open, curious attitude. Or put more succinctly: Intention, Attention, Attitude (see Shapiro & Carlson, 2009).  Mindfulness can be practiced formally or informally, either through traditional techniques such as meditation, or by brining mindful awareness to everyday activities such as reading, eating a meal, or taking a standardized exam!

Research shows that when students practice mindfulness it reduces mind-wandering, enhances memory, reduces anxiety, and facilitates better learning outcomes. The growing trend in mindfulness curricula for schools is testament to how broadly beneficial mindfulness is to improving academic performance.

Moreover, we live in a world where access to higher education, funding for educational institutions, and the development of curriculum standards are increasingly tied to standardized exams. A growing body of research provides encouraging evidence that mindfulness training can level the playing field and better equip students to meet the demands of our test-driven educational system.

In particular, the specific pressure associated with standardized exams and their role in gating access to higher education, coupled with the estimated prevalence of test anxiety, provides a compelling case for complementing traditional test preparation with mindfulness training. Mindfulness practice has been shown to decrease stress, reduce test anxiety, improve emotion regulation, and have a measurable positive impact on standardized exams.

It is estimated that up to 40% of all students experience some level of test anxiety and that those who experience higher levels of test anxiety perform lower on tests and in other measures of academic achievement. In my years working as an educational consultant, I have witnessed the negative impact of test anxiety first-hand. A student who has spent all week studying hard for an upcoming exam simply blanks under the pressure of the real thing, and thus begins the self-perpetuating cycle: “I’m just not good at math, so why waste my time…”

Test anxiety as a specific form of anxiety has been the focus of a large body of research, dating back to the 1960’s. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara recently utilized a randomized controlled investigation to assess the effect of a two-week mindfulness training course on the verbal reasoning section of the GRE with surprising results. When compared to a nutrition class, mindfulness training reduced mind-wandering, improved working memory, and produced an average improvement of 16 percentile points on the GRE, an improvement that is analogous to a 100 point improvement on the critical reading section of the SAT.

Join us for our September Wellness month as we explore mindfulness and what it means for us as students, parents, and humans. 

Insight’s 18th Birthday Celebration!

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This past Sunday, August 27th, the entire Insight team celebrated our 18th Birthday at “The Art of College Admissions” Seminar event, held at our Cupertino location.

The event marks an exciting time at Insight, as we open two new locations this year in Newton, MA and Santa Cruz, CA. Celebrating 18 years gives us a chance to pause and reflect on how far we have come, and celebrate the milestone with the many families who attended our seminar.

“The Art of College Admissions” is an informative look at the college admissions journey. Combining the 18 years of experience Insight holds with our strong team of Counselors, we present advice and strategies to families as they navigate the often confusing and challenge journey through high school and during college applications season. This past Sunday, we enjoyed a lot of great questions from families in different stages of that journey, and we wanted to share some of those questions and answers with you in the hopes that it can assist you on your path.

Question: Should subject tests be related to the major I pick?

Taking subject tests related to their interests allows students to demonstrate mastery of these subjects and readiness for their majors. For instance, a student hoping to study medicine could take Biology and/or Chemistry. In fact, some BA/ MD programs want to see a Chemistry Subject Test score. However, taking an additional subject test outside an area of interest, such as US History or Spanish can show a student’s ability to master a diverse range of topics and is recommend by some colleges. More competitive colleges may also like to see a subject test in a subject unrelated to the major (for example an engineering major applicant who does well in the Literature or US History tests). A final point is that the Math Level 2 test is a test we recommend that almost all college applicants we work with take (unless there is a serious issue with performing well in math subjects).

Question: If you’re on the waitlist, do you know your position? 

Waitlists are unranked and, hence, students are not given a position. Admissions officers will go to the waitlist once they have received all Intent to Register commitments (this means when a student has accepted an offer to attend) from admitted students. Accordingly, they will try to fill the holes in their class with the waitlist candidates. Waitlists are used to help Admissions officers manage enrollment to make sure they aren’t left with a class that is under filled or over filled.

Question: Should we think about Canadian Schools such as University of Waterloo or the University of Toronto?

Canadian Universities can be a great place for students to gain an international education that is relatively affordable, close to home, and as academically rigorous as American universities. The weaker Canadian dollar makes these universities as (or more!) affordable than the University of
California schools. Just keep in mind that currency fluctuations make the four-year costs unpredictable. While there are some cultural differences, such as a much smaller fraternity presence, Canadian Universities have been attracting more and more Americans, and unlike other international universities have a very similar admissions process, timeline, and requirements to American universities. Universities in the Toronto area are also a shorter direct flight time away than Boston or New York.

Also, the University of Toronto likely has the better international reputation but Waterloo has the better reputation when it comes to computer science & engineering (and mathematics), especially in Silicon Valley.

 

Below are some photos from our wonderful day, you can see more on our Facebook page.

Thank you to all the families that attended!

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Q&A with Insight – Ajit Jain

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Our Q&A with the Insight team continues this week with Ajit Jain, the Co-owner and Co-CEO of Insight Education! Celebrating our 18th Anniversary, Ajit looks back on his fondest memories. 

 

Where did you go to college?

I attended the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada where I grew up. I studied Civil Engineering with a focus on structural engineering and construction management.

 

What is your favorite memory from your college days?

My engineering program was quite brutal so the happy memories are few and far between in all honesty. But I do remember an all-nighter in my second year for an environmental engineering class. We had to write code for the processes related to a water treatment facility and there was a bug we couldn’t find. Our group of four was going nuts trying to crack the problem and finally my friend, who is still my friend today, figured it out. We were filled with emotions that I had never before felt for schoolwork. It was likely a combination of relief, joy, and exhaustion all rolled into one and it drove us to dance around the computer lab like lunatics.

 

What inspired you to become a college admissions counselor?

My path to Insight wasn’t an obvious one. Purvi Mody and I met at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, pursuing our MBAs. Her lifelong focus had been education and I was looking for a change career-wise. After spending my summer at McKinsey & Co on two separate strategy consulting projects, influenced by the entrepreneurial spirit at the Stanford GSB, I was inspired to think of going out on my own after graduation. Although I interviewed and got offers from traditional corporations for full-time post-MBA work, nothing really got me excited. Serendipitously, while in Boston for an interview, an education company in Cupertino posted about selling their client list. Since I had no background whatsoever in education or college admissions, other than applying for undergrad and grad schools, Purvi Mody and I teamed up to make a bid for the client list and start Insight Education. Early on, I was motivated more by the entrepreneurial opportunity that Insight presented but as I slid into the counseling role I realized how valuable a role we play in the lives of each individual student and their families. And that continues to motivate me today.

 

What is the best thing about being a college admissions counselor?

There are two things that I enjoy most. The first is the moment, as a counselor, when you realize that an essay has finally made it to the finish line. There is no scientific method that tells us when an essay is final. Rather, it is a feeling you get that crescendos as you read the essay and ends with fireworks. The second is results season. As kids hear back from the colleges they’ve applied to and get their offers of admission, our office is filled with both nervous tension and pure joy. The way a student chooses to share the news and the words they use is just as exciting as the result itself! At this point in their lives, barely young adults, seeing and feeling that sense of accomplishment that they’re overcome with, with never gets old.

 

What is the most challenging thing about being a college admissions counselor?

One of our responsibilities as college counselors is serving as mediators between the student and his/her parents. This requires a skilled diplomacy and a great deal of patience. Especially when managing expectations in terms of a student’s preferred list of colleges to apply to and a parent’s preferred list.

 

Reflecting on the fact that Insight is now 18, what is your best memory from this time?

My fondest memory is hearing back from my first student to have been accepted to Stanford University. It was my first year working as a college admissions counselor at Insight and I was learning and doing as I went along. Seeing his email, which I believe said, “Yippee!” was a special Insight moment for me.

 

Looking forward to the next 18 years, where do you see Insight Education? What has changed, and what hasn’t changed? 

I hope that the company can continue to grow while honoring our mission and values. Many companies struggle to stay true to their identity as they grow and in our case, working with high school students, it is imperative that we don’t allow that to happen. 

 

Tell us about your favorite restaurant in the Bay Area

I have a nostalgic place in my heart for Celia’s Mexican Restaurant in Palo Alto because that was where I had my first meal after moving here. It was also where I celebrated my first Bay Area birthday and where my oldest son had his first birthday party!

 

Who is your favorite sports team?

Since I am obsessed with sports (along with my 7 year-old son), this is a challenging question! As a native Torontonian, I would have to say that I love the Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, and Raptors. The Leafs and Blue Jays were around when I was a kid so there is a lot tied to my childhood that those teams remind me of. I will never forget the Blue Jays winning two World Series, back-to-back, in 1992-1993. Celebrating on the streets of Toronto was amazing! The Raptors came along when I was in college so it was a huge deal in Toronto that Canada was finally part of the NBA. Locally I do love the San Francisco 49ers and they are by far my favorite NFL team.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I wish I had a more exciting answer. But my spare time is spent with my family/two boys. I am especially busy with my older son as I zip him around from his guitar lessons to baseball and football practice. Life is busy but fun!

 

If you could pick any 3 people in the world to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

I would invite Wayne Gretzky, Bill Clinton, and Bono from U2. Wayne Gretzky is my idol and in my opinion the greatest athlete of all time across all sports. I grew up watching him and idolizing him. I think that Bill Clinton and Bono are very similar individuals in spite of their very different paths. They can captivate a stadium filled with people or they can connect with a person one-on-one. Their charm, wit and concern for social issues is compelling and would make for an unforgettable dinner party.

 

If you had to pick a motto to live by, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid.

 

What is your favorite weather season and why?

As a Canadian living in California I always say that summer is every day. While it may get a bit chilly here and there in the Bay Area “winter” it doesn’t fluctuate enough for me to really sense a difference. Growing up I preferred Spring and early Fall because the weather was nice but less humid than a Toronto summer.

 

If you weren’t a college admissions counselor, what would your dream job be?

I would play centre ice for a professional hockey team and for the Canadian National Hockey team in the Olympics.

 

Where in the world would you love to travel?

I would appreciate the chance to drive across Canada one day with no calendar or schedule rushing me along. In spite of having grown up there, I know much more of the United States than I do Canada. Further out I’d love to visit Brazil, Argentina and possibly Kenya.

 

Any parting words of wisdom or advice to students?

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Similarly, you will not attend 100% of the college you don’t apply to.

Q&A with your Counselor – Zach Pava

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Welcome to a new Insight Series: Q&A with your Counselors. We’re starting off with our Insight Counselor Zach Pava, who works with us out of his hometown in Boston. Get to know Zach and a little more about why he loves being a College Admissions Counselor!

 

Tell us about Insight Education Newton?

We offer a comprehensive yet personalized approach to college admissions counseling. Counselors work one-on-one with students, in conjunction with their families, and schedule recurring meetings to aid in academic support, course selection, setting goals, staying organized, test prep and decisions. We also cover extracurricular activity building, help with applications and inquiries for volunteering, summer internships and jobs, interview prep, major selection, college research, essay development, application review, and more!

 

Where did you go to college? What is your favorite memory from your college days?

I graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut with a degree in psychology. Trinity is a small liberal arts college located between Boston and New York, and combines a beautiful, green college campus with the resources of a small city. I built life-long friendships with terrific roommates and enjoyed playing intramural sports on the quad. My favorite classes included Mass Media & Pop Culture, Creative Writing, & Social Psychology.

 

How long have you been with Insight Education? 

I started working with Insight Education in May, 2013 and am now entering my 5th full season as a college admissions counselor. I look forward to many more as we continue to grow this terrific company.

 

What inspired you to become a college admissions counselor?  

I have worked with students of all ages ever since graduating college. As my students have grown older over time, so has the need to build services for older students as they’ve matured from 5-year-olds to middle schoolers to teenagers on their way to applying to and selecting the “right” college for them. It’s truly a privilege to witness their growth and progress over a period of years and I have had the rare opportunity to build long standing relationships with families across the country.

 

What is the best thing about being a college admissions counselor?

My favorite part about my job is being able to help students grow socially, to become their own people, to maximize their potential and find their voices, and ultimately, to be happy with their choices. I want them to head to college with the confidence and ability to make decisions that will positively influence their futures.

 

What is the most challenging thing about being a college admissions counselor?

We work long hours during the application season, which runs from about July to December each year.  I casually refer to it as our “tax season.” I think sometimes finding the appropriate balance between work and family is challenging, particularly when students rely on you so heavily for support.

 

Tell us about your favorite restaurant in the Newton area

Mandarin Cuisine has been a personal favorite of mine since I was young. I originally went there on Sunday evenings with my family and continued regular lunch visits with my best friend during high school and beyond. They are always very friendly and deliver great food with incredible speed. The scallion pancakes are a must!

 

Who is your favorite sports team?

The Boston Celtics have been the team I’ve followed most passionately since I was young. The Red Sox are a close second though and I try to get to a few games a year at the TD Garden & Fenway Park. Seeing both play in the Bay area against the Warriors and Giants was exciting.  It’s fun to root for your teams as a visitor and you learn to appreciate the passion of fans in other areas as well. There is a healthy respect between Boston and San Francisco.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I enjoy doing fun activities with my family. My wife, Tarah, and I have two young children, a 3-year-old boy named Benjamin, and a baby girl, Emily, who joined the family just this May.  We recently returned home from Maine, where we spent time playing on the beach, took trolley rides around town, and enjoyed the freshest lobster in the world.

 

If you could pick any 3 people in the world to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

I’d pick Barack Obama because he is the best public speaker I’ve ever heard. I’d pick Patriots coach Bill Belichick because he is the worst public speaker I’ve ever heard. And I’d pick comedian Larry David to see how quickly he could make each of them retreat from the table.

 

If you had to pick a motto to live by, what would it be?

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things…” No wait I’m sorry, that’s from The Shawshank Redemption 🙂 Seriously though, I would tell students in particular to “Try new things, as many as you can. The older you get, the fewer opportunities there are to explore your passions and find time for hobbies.”

 

What is your favorite weather season and why?

My favorite season by far is the fall. The leaves changes color, the summer heat disappears, my kids enjoy Halloween, and football returns. My favorite weather exists in October, when I can walk down the street comfortably in blue jeans and a t-shirt, a mellow breeze accompanying my stroll.

 

What is your favorite holiday to celebrate and why?

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, a time of family gathering, great food, and (usually) no snow on the ground yet.

 

If you weren’t a college admissions counselor, what would your dream job be?

I would either be a full-time screenwriter creating a new film comedy every 18 months or a professional poker player in Las Vegas, one of my favorite hobbies during my free time.

 

Where in the world would you love to travel?

I would love to visit Barcelona, Australia, and Italy, none of which I have been to.

 

Any parting words of wisdom or advice to students?

Be yourself and stay true to who you are. There will always be people in your life who want you to travel a specific path, either directly or indirectly. Find what you truly love and do whatever you can to pursue it.

 

Zach works in our Boston office and is taking new students now! Contact us today to set up a meeting with Zach.

How Do I Find My Passion?

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I have had the great honor of sitting on panels about college admissions. One that has stuck with me was a panel to share with students the true value of a college education and how to best prepare for it. It was an opportunity to see life not as one big race to the finish with college being the first major marker, but rather as a journey that is unique and very personal. One student asked a profound question:

“Everyone talks about passion, but I don’t know what mine is. How do I find it?”

Right then, I realized that we use the word “passion” too loosely. We ask teens to define their life’s calling, pushing and pushing them until they can say at least one thing they like. Then we label that a passion and use it to box them into a category. We tell teens to write about their passions on their college applications or to explain them in the college interview. We don’t give them a choice. Or worse, we look down upon those who cannot relay their passions in life quickly and deeply.

Let’s step away from the word passion. Even the most accomplished adult might have a hard time explaining her passion. And one’s passion does not have to become one’s career, and one’s career does not have to be a passion.

When I was younger, I loved swimming and did it competitively. I also acted in several community plays. As I got older I joined about a million activities and loved each one for different reasons. But I would have been hard-pressed to call any one of those my passions when I was a teen. I love my job and I love writing, but are they my passions? Maybe. But giving my interests a title doesn’t benefit anyone, least of all me.

So rather than trying to simply define passion, people — especially teens — should simply look for new and varied opportunities and experiences. You will never know if you like something until you try it for yourself. Use high school as a playground to try new subjects, explore activities and look to your community for different ways to get involved. You may not always be successful, but failure and disappointment are the building blocks of life. Embrace them and you will more quickly find what you love.

Too many high school students feel the need to simply check off the necessary items for the college admissions process. And I get it, these teens are under enormous pressure to succeed within a specific definition. But if we as a society could give them more space to make mistakes, to take risks and to broaden their perspectives, we will actually engage an entire generation.

Rather than forcing them to memorize facts, we can create problem solvers. Rather than forcing math and science, English or a foreign language on those who simply do not have the interest or skill for it, let’s encourage students to explore and push their boundaries for the sake of learning.

My answer to that teen is, your passion in life is going to evolve throughout your existence. Rather than focusing on finding it, focus on what you love to do, what you are curious about, and where your strengths are. Then step back and look at careers that might allow you to integrate as many of your interests as possible. And don’t think that your career is the ultimate show of what your passion is. College is another great time to see more and experience more. You will get greater exposure to what life has to offer, and your interests will evolve.

The Next Phase in Life – class of 2017

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For all you high school seniors out there, you are ready to embark on a new stage in your life. For the first time, you will be in full control of your destiny and your day-to-day life.

While you may just want to jump into the college experience and see what it brings, I challenge you to do the opposite. Go in prepared. Know what you want to get out of it. Think about how you want to live your life five, 10 and 15 years from now.

Yes, life is messy and the path to success that seems like a straight arrow now will get twisted and turned around. You will have doubts and failures. You will be pushed out of your comfort zone; embrace that as an avenue for change and learning. But you must have a goal, something to aspire to, or you will just run around in circles.

College will fly by. Four or five years may seem like a lifetime now, but one day when you sit down at your college graduation, you will wonder where the time went!

It is not enough to savor each moment; you must take advantage of it and do more with it than you imagined possible. Your college will present you with limitless opportunities to learn, to meet people, to find your purpose in life.

During the summer, or even now, start looking through the course catalog — think about which courses you will need to take each year to fulfill your requirements. Think about the elective courses that most excite you as well. Look at the list of faculty and whom you would most like to meet. When you are there, ask them to lunch or to a coffee; at the very least go to their office hours.

Additionally, most colleges provide ample opportunities to hear speakers on campus or go to community events. Take advantage of these, as they will give you more exposure to different fields or ways of thinking.

Plan to get involved in college. Life is not about building a resume that runs many pages long, but rather about having experiences that are meaningful. And if you only go to college to study or to party, you will graduate unfulfilled. Get involved in leadership, sports, journalism, art society, a musical group, dance troupe, or the ultimate Frisbee club. There is not a predefined list that you must match. Rather, look for activities that interest you or will teach you something new. But do try to get involved in at least one community organization. It is always important to give back, but it is more important to stay grounded.

In college, you will be overwhelmed by opportunities that are not available to everyone. Find an organization close to your heart. If it is somehow connected to your future career, great, but it does not have to be. Even the best doctor, lawyer, teacher or engineer has interests outside his or her profession.

Do not let this phase of your life pass you by. Take charge of your life, and for the time being that means your college experience. Do savor every moment, but do it with purpose.

Three Trends Driving the Drop in Acceptances at Top Universities

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It’s no secret that getting into an elite university is tougher than ever, but few of us are aware of just how rapidly the admissions landscape has shifted in recent years. Universities across the U.S. have not only seen dramatic shifts in who applies, but also in when students apply and where students apply. Knowing more about these trends can help us make sense of this convoluted system, understand why applying to college is so different than just a few years ago and better predict how students will fare in the future.

Trend #1: Top U.S. Colleges are Going Global

Colleges across the country are attracting a greater number of international students than ever, with foreign students at around five percent of the more than 20 million students enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions from community colleges to top universities.

This trend is especially prevalent within the Ivy League. While the eight elite Ivy League schools made efforts to increase the size of their admitted freshman classes by 5 percent from 2004 to 2014, the number of freshman seats going to international students also grew 46 percent over this same period.

International students are also increasingly choosing competitive Californian schools like UCLA and USC. At UC Berkeley around 13% of the freshman student body were international students in 2014, a figure four times higher than in 2004. In the one-year period from 2014 to 2015, the number of international students admitted across California’s colleges increased by 10.5%.

While the increase in applicants from abroad does mean getting admitted has gotten somewhat more difficult, it also means that American students are increasingly able to learn from international peers. A Duke study found that as international students become a greater part of U.S. university life, their American classmates not only learn more about foreign cultures, but also are more likely to learn a foreign language and think critically about their own political or religious viewpoints, and eventually use these cosmopolitan experiences as the next generation business and government leaders.

Trend #2: Students Applying to More Schools than Ever

While nationally rising seniors apply to only a few schools each, for students seeking admittance to top schools, the numbers of applications can rise rapidly. Admissions officers and school counselors are increasingly seeing an arms-race in college applications, with students falsely believing that if applying to eight schools is beneficial, then applying to 16 schools will give them double the benefit.

More than one-third of students are applying to at least seven schools and according to Naviance, an online platform that many high school students and counselors use to organize applications, 16.5 percent of seniors using the system said they intended to apply to 11 to 20 colleges. A spokesperson for Naviance reported the record number of colleges listed by a student as 86 colleges last year.

This means that while most universities are still accessible for students, top schools are seeing higher and higher applicant volumes for a fixed number of seats. This is forcing schools to be more selective, and also causing some to take steps to protect their yield, or the percent of admitted students who accept their offers.

Yield is not only seen as a measure of prestige among colleges (which college wouldn’t want to have an 80% yield rate like Harvard?) but also allows universities increased financial security and certainty for the year ahead. Because of this, some universities are placing more importance on applicants that indicate a high likelihood to attend or those that demonstrate interest, whether through factors such as having toured the school or signed up for the newsletter. This desire for certainty in which students will accept an admission’s offer is also driving the next major trend in college admissions: the rise in Early Decision.

Trend #3: More Early Acceptances

Rather than wait to submit applications in December and January, more and more students are submitting applications early to gain an edge on getting in. Although early admissions have existed for many years, in recent decades these programs have become widespread. Now over two-thirds of elite colleges have some kind of early admissions and many accept a large portion of their class from the early pool.

Applying early happens one of two ways: Early Decision and Early Action. Early Decision, is when a student submits an application early and enters into a binding agreement that if admitted, they will attend. This is not to be confused with applying Early Action, which allows a student to find out if they have been accepted by roughly mid-December (rather than March or April), but provides students with a significantly smaller advantage in admissions rates.

Nationwide, US News reported that in 2015 from the top 245 colleges and universities providing data, the average early acceptance rate was 63 percent versus just 50 percent of regular applicants, or a difference of 13 percent. However, at some elite schools, this difference between early and regular can be even more stark.

Duke and Northwestern historically take just under half their class from early applicants. Many universities give an admissions boost to students who apply early, since this allows them greater financial stability and since historically students who apply early are more likely to attend. According to experts, students who apply early gain a 20 to 30 percent bump to their odds of getting in, or roughly the same as scoring an extra 100 points on the SAT.

However, applying Early Decision is not for everyone. Those who apply early and are accepted will not find out their admissions decisions for other schools, will not be able to compare differing financial aid offers, and many will receive less aid than if they had applied Regular Decision. So while families who chose to apply E.D. often increase their chances at one school, they also lose the flexibility of different offers.

Shrinking acceptance rates are no doubt discouraging, however understanding these push and pull factors lets applicants better understand what it takes to get admitted. As the global middle class rises, American colleges will become more international, just as students will keep hedging their bets for acceptance by applying to a wide range of schools and doing so early. This landscape underscores the importance of applying strategically as admission to top schools becomes highly unpredictable. This means applying early if able, repeatedly demonstrating their interest, building a balanced college list with backup options, and crafting compelling applications that show exactly how the university will meet their needs. And of course, your Insight Education Counselor and team are here to walk with you side by side through the whole journey. 

All the best,

The Insight Team 

Admit Rate Graph for Select Universities

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