Higher education is one of the only businesses in which customers have to sell themselves to the shopkeeper. Letters of recommendation can be one of your most potent sales pitches if you know your audience and get your spokespersons to tailor their message accordingly. A 2001 survey of college admissions officers by the National Association for College Admission Counseling showed that nearly 60 percent considered recommendations from teachers and guidance counselors to be of moderate or considerable importance. Read the rest of this entry »

Worried about the new writing section of the SATs? Anecdotal evidence suggests that there’s considerable angst among the collegebound crowd over the new, longer test’s requirement to produce a fully crafted argument in 25 minutes flat. But before you get too frazzled, check to see how the colleges that interest you will use the writing section. At least for now, many won’t. Read the rest of this entry »

By Alex Kingsbury; Julian E. Barnes

Having nearly lost his life in Iraq, the 1st Infantry Division soldier became lost to the Army payroll system because of a paperwork snafu as he lay comatose in a veterans hospital near Chicago. As a result, an Army bureaucrat classified him as absent without leave and cut off his pay, as is sometimes done when the system loses track of a soldier. The theory is that a GI wrongly listed as AWOL will start shouting and then the issue can be resolved. “That may work for an able-bodied soldier,” says Michael Hurst, a former Army finance officer, “but it doesn’t work so well for a guy in a coma in Chicago.” Read the rest of this entry »

Seniors, now is the time to sit down with your parents and have a long heart-to-heart about how many benjamins the next four years will cost, and how many Mom and Dad can afford to put in. If money will be a factor in where you can go, it’s best to deal with the realities up front–and not after you’ve been accepted at your budget-busting first-choice pick. On the other hand, don’t automatically limit your list of schools to the places you can afford out of pocket. Often, the most expensive offer the most generous aid packages. The colleges and universities that top the U.S. News list of best values, Great Schools, Great Prices,” (

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/bvrankindex_brief.php

) include Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Williams, Amherst, and Wellesley. Read the rest of this entry »

A reader asks: Our school is pushing some seniors to take college classes, especially online courses. What do college admissions people think of this?
Our reply: Read the rest of this entry »