uSphere Suggests You Relax Just a Little When Searching for Colleges

Editor's Note: We originally posted this item in September of 2006. When revisiting it, the words still ring true, so here it is in its entirety.

Choosing a College? Relax.
It’s open season on the rankings again. Parents of high school seniors know the ones: the books, put out by large magazines or SAT test-prep companies. The ones that tell you that this college or university is better than that school because of some such reason – like better alumni or a better reputation.

Or more selective enrollment; or higher yield: those are two stats that any high-performing high-schooler knows well.

We’ve got an estimated 1.5 million high school seniors who will apply to a college or university in America this year. And, for a lot of them, the rankings serve their purpose. It’s nice to know that the school you thought you wanted to go to really is highly ranked in business, or engineering, or animal husbandry. It’s great to get into a top program at a top school.

I’m not going to suggest doing away with these rankings, as I am delighted to see people talking about choosing a college or university to spend the next four years. And if these rankings make your kid feel better, or more organized, or whatever, great. (I know, though, that the rankings are all about the Joneses being able to surpass each other with better window stickers.)

From my own experience (running a company that’s shaking up this college admissions process), I would say it’s tough for students to really fumble this selection thing as long as they trust their gut and remember these three words: Just go somewhere.

Sorry, Mom and Dad, if you think I’m trivializing what is probably a high-stress time. But I’m actually doing this for your benefit.

I can give you a couple real-world examples, from my own pre-entrepreneurial life as a Fortune 500 PR guy. My last boss had a degree from the University of Southern California. He took over for a guy who went to Virginia Commonwealth. Before that, I reported into a Holy Cross grad (the one in Worcester), and before him a Purdue-Calumet grad (the school’s satellite campus in Northwest Indiana).

They all worked at a company that is now headed up by a guy who did his undergrad in Manhattan. The other Manhattan: Kansas State University.

I’ve got a brother who’s doing fine work in IT, after getting a degree in business from Tri-State University (Angola, Indiana). I married into a family with three graduates of Illinois State University – fine women who got a great education and didn’t break the bank in the process.

I’ve worked for grads of Western Illinois and Mizzou. I’ve been at companies headed by people who went to Arkansas State, where my Mom was once offered a tiny scholarship.

Are you seeing a pattern here? No? Neither am I.

I’m not at all dismissing Ivies. Or selective liberal arts schools. And heck, I went to a school for three reasons – it is the cradle of sportscasters, it had a good basketball team, and I wanted to be Bob Costas. (For the uninitiated, the school is Syracuse, and I highly recommend it for the right kind of kid.)

I’m also not dismissing the rankings: I love the guidebooks, I love the books that dismiss the guidebooks. I love seeing where Montana-Western is (literally, it’s in Dillon, MT; figuratively, it’s a small liberal arts campus that’s a hidden gem and it’s really good in animal husbandry). I love this whole early decision vs. early action vs. open admission vs. wait list vs. double deposit discussion.

I just don’t like where it’s taking our highly stressed-out kids.

Instead, I’d offer a collective chill pill, in the form of this three-step plan:

1. Test-drive, early and often, all types of campuses and a bunch of different experiences. This means that you should (borrowing from my own experience again) attend Shakespeare plays at Notre Dame and spend three weeks out of your summer at Indiana State, even if you’re doing it to prove that you wouldn’t fit in there.

2. Ignore all that advice about having x number of reach schools and making sure that your safeties are still safe. One of the ranking books talks about some girl who filled out 31 applications. She’s my hero, but that’s probably overkill. You should pick whatever number of schools and apply to them for all the reasons that make sense for you. (I applied early, went one-for-one, and called it a day.) Is five or six too many? Too few? Who cares? Do what makes sense.

3. Negotiate. With your parents. For a car, or a trip, or something. Dad offered me a car if I got a full ride somewhere. I didn’t, and it wasn’t until after I got out of school that I realized that HE would have gotten the better end of the deal.

This is a time for Seniors to assert themselves. That could mean getting into a school that only admits 10% of its applicants and has a yield of above 80%, if that’s what’s important. Or it could mean loading up the brand-new Toyota and heading for State U, knowing that, 4 years later, the car will still be running, and there’s more money in the bank.

You’ll of course need that money to buy my book on the Top Graduate Schools for You. (To be published in the fall of 2010.)

uSphere and Twitter and Ning used in the same sentence...

We've had an interesting week here at uSphere headquarters. Some of it is subtle (uSphere vs. U Sphere), and some of it a lot more blatant. All in the name of helping kids and colleges connect.

And, on Saturday, we had a really interesting exchange that can actually justify our using uSphere and Twitter and Ning in the same sentence. Here goes:

Our nascent (SAT word) social network, which you can join by clicking here, is hosted by a company called Ning. Theirs is the DIY social network tool and we're big fans.

Yesterday, though, we ran into a minor blip -- what turns out to have been less than 20 minutes of downtime. And what helped fix it? Twitter.

I sent a note to Ning's customer service team and, while I was getting impatient, posted on Twitter (you can follow me here) that I wasn't happy. Within minutes, MINUTES, I was twittered back and told that all was fixed -- there were a few networks with the same issues, the tech team was on the case, and downtime was minimized.

And I have a new friend, http://twitter.com/lauraoatning.

We've seen schools have similar success with twitter (Butler's admissions team, for instance), and, in this instant gratification society, well, it's another way to connect and get answers, like, now.

Reporting live from the U Sphere social network

It's high time that our own social network gets rolling. If you want to get involved, here's the link to the invite.

Note that we're trying to keep this simple -- students, admissions people, counselors. Parents? NO.

Current college students? Maybe, but the point is sharing info about schools with each other...

Thanks to the folks at Ning for the back office behind this. Great resource.

Meet "The Carnival of College Admissions"

We've bumped into a resource recently that we think will be of big help to the entire U Sphere community. It's called the "Carnival of College Admissions" and there's a TON of information there.

Here's a link to the Carnival.

You can learn a lot here, including:

How to position yourself if you're trying to get into an Art School;

Another take on going SAT/ACT Optional;

And...Are there college experiences that are designed for kids with autism?

Great resource, and our thanks to our buddy Mark Montgomery, an independent educational consultant in Denver, for getting this rolling!

Fresh New Going to College Content - for the test-takers

Now that we have your attention, let's point out some of the stuff that you should already know about...but may not know about because, well, stuff changes so quickly.

1 - SATs and ACTs are increasingly less important. Want proof. 775 schools, per the folks at FairTest.org are now "test optional."

2 - Does this mean you should blow off the tests? Not necessarily. But you should take a look at whether your hit list of schools is covered here.

3 - Test optional means, well, just what it sounds like. Sure if you get high scores and think that'll help you stand out, by all means have them sent. If not, don't.

It's been widely reported that George W. Bush got an 1160 under the old scoring system. You can decide whether that's a predictor of success or impacted his ability to get into Yale.

YES, you will still be able to get a student loan if you need one

Scary financial times, including a reporter telling CNN's Glenn Beck "no way" you can get a student loan if you need one.

Huh?

IF you're going to be in the market for a student loan -- or a parent loan -- you'll want to take a look at the widget on the front of our site.

Click here for loan info.

Hang in there!