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Admissions Blog Round-Up: November 16

Posted by Erin Lewis at 9:16 am

Want to know what’s going on in the admissions blogosphere? We’ve rounded up some recent posts for you to enjoy over your Monday morning coffee:

Everyone knows that researching colleges can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the admissions process.  Guide and Seek’s latest post spotlights InsideCollege, a site that vets colleges and groups them by a particular attribute to help students pare down (or build up) their own college list.  The post gives examples of InsideCollege lists including:  honors programs at a public university, loan-free education to low-income students, and colleges known for their school spirit.   There are over 700 lists to choose from.  The value added is that you may find new reasons to apply to college that you’ve never even considered before!  By the way, the site has a list of colleges with no tuition.

CollegeInSight, currently in beta, is another college search site picked up by the College Admissions Partners Blog.  This site allows for a search by statistics, so you are responsible for doing the actual research.

Allen’s College Admissions Blog highlights the tough competition facing students transferring into California’s state university system from its community colleges.

This morning’s blog post at The Choice is also about community colleges.  This post is about the entire nation’s overburdened community college system as gauged by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement.   You can also leave questions and comments for the director of the center for Community College Student Engagement, Kay McClenney, from the site.

Interested in having your blog featured?  Let us know in the comments!

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: allen's college admissions blog, blogs, college admissions, college admissions partners, college search, collegeinsight, guide and seek, insidecollege, the choice

A Word On College Admissions Blogs

Posted by Erin Lewis at 8:29 am

Today, you have the benefit of free advice on college admissions from all kinds of guides, books and blogs.  But remember, sometimes you get what you pay for.

A couple of days ago, I ran across a post entitled the Top 75 College Admissions Blogs. A day or so later, I read another post entitled the Top 50 Blogs to Help You Apply for College.  I think that some of the recommendations are good ones—Allen’s College Admissions Blog and The Choice for example, but others don’t deserve their “top” designation.  In addition, there are other very helpful resources that don’t even make these lists.  One big oversight is Study Hacks which doesn’t advertise itself as an admissions blog, but offers 13 features on college admissions to date.  He gives great advice about navigating the admissions process and being a successful student—two things that obviously go hand in hand.  Neither of these lists make mention of admissions offices that host their own blogs or blogs that might help you with coursework, organization or college planning.

To get you started, I’d recommend using your feed reader (I like Google Reader and I use NetNewsWire on my mac) to aggregate blogs from the admissions offices of the schools that interest you (and if they don’t have an admissions blog, you can look for student blogs) as well as blogs that you’ll want to read on a regular basis.

For the latter, I’d recommend starting with Allen’s College Admissions Blog, Study Hacks, and The College Solution Blog.  Since you’re reading this post, I hope you’ll subscribe to Ivy Compass, too.

Are there any blogs you’d like to share with our readers that have been particularly helpful to you as you navigate the college admissions admissions process?  Are there any blogs from admissions offices, in particular, that have been helpful to you?

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: allen grove, blogs, college admissions, college solution blog, google reader, netnewswire, study hacks

A Litte Inspiration

Posted by Erin Lewis at 9:00 am

In the selective college admissions world, there is an essential rule: to whom much is given, much is expected.  The bottom line: it’s your job to maximize the opportunities available to you.  Or, create them when they don’t exist.  That being said, it is always inspirational to read essays from students who have overcome serious obstacles or who have transformed their curiosities into something that can impact the lives of others.

For a little inspiration, check out this blog about a young man who created an incredible opportunity for himself and his entire village.  Oh, and there’s a new book about him, too.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: blogs, books

Spotlight: 5 Helpful College Admissions Sites

Posted by Erin Lewis at 9:00 am

There is an unlimited number of online resources that cover various aspects of the college admissions process.  From time to time, our blog will spotlight those you should bookmark (or save to Evernote, one of my favorite online organizational tools).  Today, I’d like to share 5 sites prospective applicants should visit:

1. New York Times, The Choice

The Choice is a relatively new blog that provides context, from a variety of perspectives, for any student preparing to apply to college.  Two weeks ago, The Choice published a series of posts in which readers forwarded questions for William Fitzsimmons, the Harvard College Dean of Admissions.

2. The College Board

The place to register for the SAT and other College Board standardized tests.  The College Board was also one of the first organizations to bring useful information about the college application process online.  You can register for an SAT question of the day in either email or RSS formats, look up all the colleges in your state or conduct an advanced search of schools that fit your criteria, among other things.   I wouldn’t visit this site to get the latest admissions news (visit #1, The Choice, for that), but if you’re interested in college admissions generally, The College Board publishes reports and materials on the topic.

3. U.S. News and World Report

Each year, scores of editorials scrutinize the U.S. News and World Report methodology for ranking colleges and universities.  That being said, the site is the best comprehensive and accessible list of schools I’ve seen on the web.  And if you don’t like their rankings, just click on the A-Z Directory or do your own Advanced Search.

4. The Education Conservancy

I couldn’t in good conscience send you to U.S. News and World Report without recommending The Education Conservancy’s College Unranked also.  While U.S. News and World Report has an incredibly accessible college list that allows you to do a thorough search for schools, The Education Conservancy does a good job of explaining that finding the right college will have little to do with its ranking and everything to do with it being the right fit for you.

5. Colleges That Change Lives

First a book and now a website, Colleges That Change Lives has a focus similar to that of the The College Conservancy.  They both place an emphasis on a student-directed college search and application process.  The site offers facts and figures about colleges that fit their criteria for being standouts.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: blogs, college admissions, college board, college rankings, college search, evernote, harvard, sat