Posts Tagged ‘dartmouth college’

Why You Won’t Receive an Instant Admissions Response

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Wondering why you don’t receive an instant response from your dream school? This great YouTube video from Dartmouth College relays a few impressive facts regarding the admission process from actual college admission professionals!

Here’s a few of the highlights from last year’s process (and we’re guessing that this year will be even bigger!): Dartmouth Admissions read 40,000 teacher recommendation, received college applications from 138 countries, and looked over 187 applications from people named John. You know My College Guide loves when colleges get personal and this inside look at the Dartmouth College admissions process is certainly insightful and worth a look! Watch Dartmouth College Class of 2014 on YouTube or below.

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Posted in Choosing a College, College Admissions, College Applications, College Campus | 1 Comment »

Legacy Student Status and College Admissions: Where Do You Fit In?

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Does your family have a history of attending the same college? Maybe you’ve been wondering how this so-called “legacy status” affects your college admission status! Grandpa or grandma, mom or dad, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, if members of your family graduated from your dream school, see what kind of impact (if any) that could make on helping you get “in!”

Dartmouth College hopeful? They might just take a peek at your legacy status.

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What is a Legacy Student?
A legacy student is a college bound student with parents or even grandparents that are college alumni of the very same college where a prospective student submits an admissions application. Some colleges also have grants or scholarships just for legacy students!

College Admissions and Legacy Status
Some colleges may have different legacy student policies regarding the type of degree an alumnus earned, like if the degree is an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree. They may favor an undergraduate degree and not count a graduate degree towards legacy status.

Other colleges will count any children or grandchildren as legacy students if the degree was earned at their institution – no matter if it was earned as an undergraduate or a graduate. Depending on your family history, that could be very good news for you!

Resources for Legacy Students
You can often easily judge if legacy status has any weight based on information found on the college  website. Many will let students know if legacy status is something that they even consider as a positive factor towards college admission. A simple search on the college website should provide the information you are looking for!

Some colleges possess more legacy resources than others. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, possesses Legacy Advising Sessions so legacy students and their parents can find out more about their selective status with regards to UPenn admissions procedures.

Another UPenn program, Linking Legacies, is something that prospective legacy students should take advantage of! Linking Legacies connects current legacy students with prospective legacy students so they can ask their questions and get actual legacy student responses via mail.

Saint Joseph’s College and Michigan State University have a legacy program for current, prospective, and past graduates to easily network and keep in touch. Bucknell University is another college that lets not only children and grandchildren of college alumni claim legacy status, but also stepchildren, great grandchildren, and even great grandchildren — with special programs for prospective legacy students and then some!

Hintz Family Alumni Center at Penn State University.

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Some colleges prefer to make their take on legacy status a bit more secret. Yale University is one college thought to put a bit of emphasis on legacy status – and have often admitted more legacy students than not! Dartmouth College, on the other hand, openly shares its legacy admission rates.

If you discover a high rate of legacy students then it’s probably safe to assume that it might just have a bit to do with a student’s offer of college admission!

Final Thought
If your school puts particular emphasis on legacy status, it doesn’t mean that you should stop studying and start slacking! Legacy student or not, any college is still going to prefer a hard-working, valuable member of society to one that doesn’t even meet the standard admission requirements.

On the other hand, should you get accepted into your dream school, your legacy status should never make you feel as though you didn’t make it “in” because of your hard work! Your legacy status is only part of the (rather large) college admissions puzzle: your GPA, class rank, standardized test scores, community service, letters of recommendation, college interview, and then some, make up the remaining pieces.

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Posted in College Admissions, College Life, Fun Stuff, Legacy Status | 1 Comment »

The SAT Reasoning Test and You

Friday, April 9th, 2010

You are no stranger to tests – you’ve taken all sorts of tests your whole life: tying your shoes, basic addition, shapes – and then the high school stuff like Geometry, Chemistry, and Biology.  Think of the SAT Reasoning Test as just one more, but for this one?  You’ve got to prepare!  So – what is the SAT?

How are you preparing for the SAT Reasoning Test?

herzogbr/Brian Herzog

We know you have plenty of adjectives to describe it – but here are the facts!  What you know as the SAT Reasoning Test has also been called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test and is administered by The College Board.  A rose by any other name, right?  We’re only kidding.

The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test which means that the test you take and the conditions you take it in – the timing, the scoring, etc. – will be the same for you as it is for a student taking the test four states away.

Most students take the test in the Spring of their Junior year of high school and then again in the Fall of their Senior year to (hopefully!) improve on the previous score – honestly, just knowing what to expect can give your score a boost.

There are three sections to the almost four hour test – Writing, Math, and Critical Reading, where you can score 200 — 800 points.  You will also see subscores, like the essay, which ranges from 2-12 points, and multiple choice, which is graded on a 20 – 80 point scale.  These subscores contribute to the writing segment of the test.

Your total score will span from 600 – 2400, after your points are combined.  The higher the score – the better you did!  Anything above a 1500 is considered good, though to get accepted at some of the more selective colleges, like Harvard University or Dartmouth College — you need to shoot higher!

Thanks to Score Choice, you may get to pick out which test date score you want your schools of choice to see – though not every college affords that option.  If your college doesn’t — don’t despair!  Many colleges take your better score into consideration, anyway.

The majority of colleges and universities will, however, want to see your SAT score because it is a factor of admittance — but it isn’t the only factor.  Don’t forget: they also have your high school transcripts, personal statement or essay, your involvement in your school and (hopefully!) the community, and perhaps even a couple strong letters of recommendation.

Break out those Number 2's! It's SAT Reasoning Test time!

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Some of the more competitive colleges and universities also require the SAT Subject Test, once known as the SAT II.  The SAT Subject Test is an hour long test on a specific subject like literature, Latin, Italian, World History – there’s 20 different subjects total!  Colleges may require you to take one specific subject test (or even three) or they may let you choose your own, which gives you a chance to play to your strengths!

No matter what test you have to take – it’s a good idea to prepare ahead of time!  Consider subscribing to My College Guide via RSS or email so you can be sure to see what test prep providers, like Kaplan, Knewton, and The Princeton Review, have to say about the SAT Reasoning Test in an upcoming post – and their secrets for success!

Have more questions about the SAT?  Check out our Guru!  Browse the archives and if that doesn’t help – ask our Admissions Guru a question yourself!  It’s free and anonymous.

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Posted in College Admissions, College Applications, Preparing for College, SAT/ACT Test | 2 Comments »