College Rankings
I love to rank things. Favorite books (#1 Their Eyes Were Watching God). Favorite movies (#1 Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood). Best concerts (#1Michael Jackson). Worst concerts (#1 Death Cab for Cutie). Best sports to watch (#1-10 Basketball). Best sports to play (#1-10 Basketball).
Ranking is fun. It orders information, choices, and possibilities and makes them more digestible. If I want to learn about the golden age of rap and hip hop, I’m not just going to dive in -- I’m going to find myself a ranked list of the best songs and artists.
When it comes to colleges, you’re probably most familiar with U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. Best Colleges ranks the best colleges overall; the best regional universities; the best regional colleges; the best colleges for veterans; the best HBCUs; the best undergraduate business programs; the best value schools -- you name it, it ranks it. It’s the place to which prospective college students and their families turn to help guide their college decisions.
Ultimately, though, ranking colleges is a lot like ranking your favorite songs. It’s subjective and it’s influenced by a host of factors, both seen and unseen. In a recent Forbes Magazine article, Susan Paterno explains that U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges is “an advertising and marketing powerhouse” that “manufactures competition to peddle products. Selling pseudoscience as an objective measure of academic quality, it leads worried and confused families to about 100 schools with the nation’s highest academic hurdles and lowest acceptance rates.”
This pseudoscience is the belief that there is an objective set of criteria against which to evaluate the overall quality of a college or university, or its suitability for a given student.
So how does the magazine arrive at these rankings? It’s complicated. And it’s a secret. Malcolm Gladwell’s recent podcasts, “Lord of the Rankings” and “Project Dillard,” attempt to get to the bottom of things, but ultimately, all he reveals is that they rely on colleges’ self-reported data and on the subjective opinions of college presidents and provosts.
In Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions, Jeffrey Selingo explains a bit more about how the rankings have “signaled to students and parents what to emphasize when looking for a college--mostly the quality of incoming students rather than what undergraduates actually learned or what they did after graduation. Over decades, the rankings narrowed the view of seniors to focus on just a handful of schools.”
Scrolling through the U.S. News and World Report rankings is going to lead you to the same set of selective schools over and over again. But consider this:
The top 10 best value schools have an average acceptance rate of 11%.
The schools with the top 10 best 4-year graduation rates have an acceptance rate of 14%.
Top 10 colleges that offer the best return on investment (ROI) have an average acceptance rate of 14.8%.
There are 4,000 colleges in the United States. If U.S. News and World Report is focused on the same 100 mostly elite and difficult to get into colleges over and over again, then what about the other 3900? The truth is, many are doing some really interesting things, offering innovative academic opportunities, and one of them might just be the right price and fit for you.
Just as Esquire’s list of the 100 best movies of all time should be taken with a grain of salt (I mean, Paddington 2 is on it), so too should college rankings. And just like the movies, the right fit will be determined by your own interests, values, and budget.
We’d love to help you sort through and narrow the list of colleges that are best for you. Email us at info@yourmayfirst.com or give us a call (617.851.9975) and let’s chat.
Rethinking Car Stickers
Dad: “How many colleges are in the U.S.?”
Us: “Nearly 4000.”
Unsurprisingly, this dad had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that while there are 4000 different possibilities, he sees the same college stickers on the cars around town: Harvard (sometimes); UMass Amherst (a lot); assorted familiar locals (everywhere)...
So where are the stickers for the rest of those 3,980 schools? Are they less good? Is there something wrong with them?
The short answer: Nope. Not a thing. The real problem is a lack of exposure, and ultimately, a failure of imagination.
Over the last couple of decades, college mania has exploded. Ranking agencies have grown in scope and influence, rewarding colleges that invest in the things the rankings care about. This, in turn, makes colleges more concerned with rankings. Of course this then drives families’ desires to send their kids to schools that generate buzz and promise a future of elite networks and professional success. And all this keeps driving the rankings… it’s a never-ending cycle in which so many schools seem impossible to get into and nearly impossible to afford. It’s more than enough to make your head spin.
But is all this competition among colleges really that important? A lot of smart people are happy to tell you the answer is no.
A growing body of evidence shows that ultimately, it’s not where you go but what you do there that matters. (Frank Bruni’s book Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania is a great place to read more about this.) It’s why we talk so much about best-fit in our work with clients and families. A top-ranked school may be your best-fit but don’t be seduced into thinking it’s because of its ranking.
If a college is your best-fit, it will be because it offers small classes that are taught by professors who are rewarded for teaching and who engage students in lively discussions that inspire and excite them. Or it will be a medium-sized school a little farther away from home with internships that encourage students to explore which career paths feel right. Or it will be a school where 90% of its students participate in study abroad and bring their globe-spanning experiences to enrich the experiences of everyone on campus.
If you limit your ideas of what college should be to the experiences being offered by a handful of schools, you will miss out on innovation and creativity and the opportunity for personal growth.
But we get it: it’s easy for us to encourage you to explore exciting and lesser-known options; it’s a little harder to be the car in the parking lot with a sticker from a college no one’s ever heard of.
Our advice is to embrace a healthy perspective: focus on what’s best for your kid and on the process-- it should be exciting and exploratory, not panicky and ulcer-inducing. Start by asking the right questions. Read about LOTS of different schools, not just the ten or twenty you’ve heard of. Learn more about the rankings and what they actually measure (hint: it’s really a measure of a college’s power, not the quality of education or the experience it provides).
In our work with students and families, we ask lots of questions. We work really hard to get to know our students and to think about what their experiences might be in different environments. We create best-fit lists of schools to explore that include variety. Sometimes we even throw in a few schools that we know aren’t going to be best-fits but will be really helpful for comparison. And we don’t worry about car stickers. They can be fun. But they shouldn’t get a vote in such an important --and potentially life-changing-- decision.
If you’d like to talk about how we look at schools and build our best-fit lists, give us a call (617.447.0186) or email us at info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat. We’d love to help.
Should I visit over the summer?
Back in pre-pandemic days, most college counselors and consultants had a pretty firm rule: don’t visit campuses when classes aren’t in session. The thinking went that a prospective student wouldn’t get a sense of what the school was actually like -- she needed to see real students, observe real time classes, and smell real food in the dining hall.
A few consultants and parents took a different approach, believing that seeing a campus in person mattered most and that sometimes summer travel was the only option. But for the majority of prospective students, the recommendation was to visit as many campuses as possible during the spring of junior year of high school. And if that wasn’t possible, to visit after admissions decisions were released.
Then the pandemic hit and everything we thought we knew flew out the window. Students waiting to visit colleges until accepted could no longer travel. How could they commit to a school 2500 miles from home when they’d never seen its campus? In most cases they didn’t, choosing the schools they’d been able to see in person whether those schools were their best fits… or not.
Virtual Visits
In the year since, colleges have invested a lot in creating virtual visits. High school students in Massachusetts can join campus tours in Minnesota-- seeing inside dorms, classrooms, gyms, and dining halls-- narrated by entertaining students giving the inside scoop about life at their schools.
In our post-pandemic world, sometimes the only thing missing is the actual smell of food in the dining hall.
Boots on the ground
Our advice is pretty simple— start by exploring the great online content schools created: go on a virtual tour of a campus, watch a few student videos, attend a virtual information session, and use those tools to take some schools off your list that don’t seem like a great fit, and maybe add some unexpected ones that check a lot of your boxes. Then, think about the reality of travel and what’s possible.
Does your family have the time and financial ability to visit some schools (we’re big fans of incorporating campus visits into regular vacations!)? Are you considering schools that involve at least one flight every time you go back and forth to school? Will visiting that school, and maybe taking a flight to get there, help you decide how comfortable you’d be making that trek for four years? Will seeing the campus help you decide if it’s the best fit?
In many cases, the answer is yes.
While we agree that visiting a campus over the summer isn’t an ideal way to see a school, we also think that the reality of busy family life (not to mention the last year plus of not being able to travel) makes it necessary. You’ll still get to walk around the campus, take a tour, and see the dining hall. You’ll see a typical dorm room and be able to imagine if you can fit your vintage t-shirt collection in the dresser.
Another reason we encourage visits whenever families can make them work is simple exposure and motivation. High school is hard. There’s a lot being asked of our kids these days. Getting to see some beautiful and exciting campuses can be great inspiration during that all important junior year and when it’s time to sit down and put those killer applications together in the fall of senior year.
In the end, we believe in flexibility. If visiting campuses is easiest for your family over the summer, we think that’s great and encourage you to make it happen. If you’d like to talk about putting together a list of potential schools to visit virtually or in person, send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com or give us a call (617.447.0186) and let’s chat.
College Athletics: Where do I fit?
Nearly 8 million high school students in the U.S. participate in athletics, and many of them hope to compete at the college level. You may be one of them, putting in the hard work every day to beat your personal record in the mile or nail the upper 90 on a direct kick.
I was one of them too. In truth, I spent way more time perfecting my jump shot than understanding Algebra. And I was lucky to earn an athletic scholarship to a Division II college that offered me opportunities I might otherwise not have had.
But as you might have guessed, I’m not giving A’ja Wilson any competition for MVP of the WNBA. So, what’s the benefit of participating in competitive athletics as high school kids if under 7% of those students will play in college? And even fewer will earn scholarships to do it?
Leadership, commitment, teamwork
These are skills that aren’t easily learned in a classroom. Sports teach us humility, confidence, dedication, and perhaps most important, the ability to fail and recover from those failures. While I may have the occasional nightmare about losing the 1991 Connecticut Girls Basketball State Championship (no, that never goes away), I still sleep pretty well at night and am content to spend my adult life complaining about the Celtics.
Even if you weren’t the best player on your lacrosse team, the skills you learned and practiced as a dedicated member of a team will make you an attractive prospect for college admissions officers -- as much as they are looking at applicants’ GPAs and AP classes, they are looking to find students who will be good roommates, classmates, and members of the college community. They’re looking for good teammates.
College Athletics: Cutthroat Intramurals
One spring, after my basketball season had officially ended, kids in my dorm asked me to join their coed intramural softball team. I thought it would be a low-pressure, fun way to get outside and hang with friends in the off-season.
I was mistaken.
My team captain had us practicing twice a week, where I was directed to devote more time to fielding ground balls and improving my swing. It was...intense. But it was also really fun. I met new friends, kept in shape, and didn’t have to lift weights or wake up for practice at 5:30am.
College intramural or club sports can be a great way to continue playing the sport you love at a competitive level. When thinking about colleges, investigate their club programs. You’re likely to find traditional options like basketball, soccer, and flag football, but you might find other activities to try out like ultimate frisbee or squash.
Being a part of a team doesn’t have to end with high school.
NCAA Athletics
Division I and II athletes likely have a good sense of what they’re getting into when it comes to playing college sports. There will be 6am practices, long bus rides, weight training, film-watching, games, oh right, and classes. In addition to in-season work, these students can expect pre-, post-, and off-season work as well.
In other words, being a Division I or II college athlete is a job, and it’s a difficult one. Students should talk with current and former Division I and II athletes to help ease the transition from high school to college and to prepare themselves for the responsibility that comes with this opportunity.
And don’t get me wrong, Division III athletics can be highly competitive and time consuming as well. The difference is that Division III programs don’t have athletic scholarships to give, though most Division III athletes receive some need- or merit-based aid. And at some colleges, admissions officers will take recruitment status into consideration when evaluating applicants. However, this generally means that student athletes must meet the college’s admissions standards and submit a strong application, so that work still needs to be done.
What Division III athletes must consider seriously is their commitment to the hard work of being on a team in an environment that puts less emphasis on athletics than their Division I and II counterparts.
Whether you’re wrapping up your athletic career or looking for a best-fit school where you can keep playing, let us help you develop an application that makes the most of your high school athletic experiences. Give us a call (617.851.9975) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat. We would love to help you find your place.
https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/probability-competing-beyond-high-school
https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/play-division-iii-sports
Why Visit Campuses?
As a kid, my summer vacations included big family reunions held in rented houses often on big lakes. We kayaked and canoed, roasted marshmallows, and hiked up mountains that felt like they took days when it was probably a few hours.
Unlike most kids, I always spent some part of those summer vacations wandering around the nearest college campus. When we rented a house in New York’s Finger Lakes, it was Cornell University. During our reunion at Lake Winnipesaukee, we spent an afternoon at Dartmouth. My grandfather was a professor of education at Cornell College in Iowa (interestingly, the first Cornell), and trips there included lots of rounds of frisbee golf across its golden campus. Later, reunions in North Carolina and South Carolina included afternoons at UNC and College of Charleston. By the time I started high school, I’d probably seen two dozen schools.
In November 2013, my husband and I took our two young daughters for their first trip to our alma mater, Bates College. Walking across its beautiful quad, we told them stories of the Ice Storm of 1998 (it was definitely a capitalized Ice Storm) and omelets in the dining hall by candlelight until power was restored. My husband showed them the music department in Ladd Library where he had his work study job, I pointed out the Office of College Relations where I had mine. It was fun and silly and special. And they listened raptly, trying to imagine this other existence of their parents.
Just before the pandemic took hold, I took a close friend and her daughter for a tour of Bates and nearby Bowdoin. We explored both campuses talking about being a student at a small liberal arts college-- developing close relationships with professors and mentors, exploring classes in different disciplines to broaden minds and try out different futures, having so many campus events and activities to choose from that a weekend spent away felt like a hard choice, and being part of a devoted Alumni community with access to amazing internships and networks in cities across the globe.
Centered in all of these visits was always the idea of exploration. It was never about selling a particular college or an experience. As a kid, I loved visiting colleges because my parents and my grandfathers and my aunts and uncles loved visiting colleges. When I started to look for my own school, it was with that spirit of seeing what’s out there and finding my best-fit.
Exposure and exploration are the fun parts of the college search, a chance to see what feels right. Maybe it’s that small liberal arts college where the community and the campus are thriving and where most students study abroad. Maybe it’s that large urban university where the campus is the entire city and no two weekends are alike. Maybe it’s an honors program at a big state school where classes are small and personal, but social events include football games with tens of thousands of cheering fans.
I still love visiting campuses. And now that we’ve begun to emerge from the pandemic, it’s likely that colleges will once again throw open their doors and their classrooms to visits from prospective students, whether those prospective students are 7 or 17.
If you’d like help building a list of schools to visit, give us a call (617.447.0186) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat. We would love to help you find your place.
Asking the right questions.
Who am I and where do I belong?!
If you’re a high school student and questions like these are keeping you up at night, take a long, deep breath. These are big ones. In fact, you’ll be asking them your whole life, so they’re not prerequisites for selecting the right college.
We get it, though. When you’re beginning the college search process, it’s hard not to consider the big questions. But whether you’re a person who’s wanted to be a marine biologist since your first trip to an aquarium or one who hasn’t quite nailed down your passion yet, we believe you should swap out the overwhelming existential questions for ones you really can answer:
What do I love, what am I good at, and what’s out there for me?
These questions can help you begin building a list of best-fit colleges, ones that are ready to support the amazing person you already are, and that will help you realize the person you want to be.
What do I love?
The best way for you to begin thinking about your best-fit college is to consider your interests. These can often lead you to fields of study or careers you hadn’t thought of. Do you love sports? Love the idea of being a member of a school community that rallies around its athletic teams? You don’t have to be a college athlete for this to be part of your college selection criteria or to pursue a career related to athletics.
The same goes for music, film, hiking, reading, singing, video games, skateboarding, and so much more. The things you love can hold the key to a successful college experience as well as a future career.
What am I good at?
Math? Field hockey? Drums?
Sometimes this can be a hard question to answer and so we sell ourselves short. At May First, our students fill out several surveys from which we begin to build a complex student profile. We want to know if actively contributing in the classroom is your thing, or if you’re the kind of learner who prefers to absorb and reflect before speaking. We want to know if you’re a great team leader or a steady, reliable team member. If you work well under pressure, or if you prefer to start early and work slowly.
The skills you’ve developed in the classroom, at work, at practice, in your community, and in your home can be the foundation for life-long success and help you to build that best-fit college list.
What’s out there for me?
Identifying what you love and the sometimes subtle ways in which you excel both in and out of the classroom can be just as important as your GPA in determining the right college for you. It can mean the difference between applying to schools with 80 students to a class or 15, or to schools focused on coop or study abroad. It might be as mundane as applying to schools in a big city or a rural town.
We think the best part -- the most fun part -- is finding the answer to what’s out there for me? Because the answer is, something great. Something that is your best-fit.
Give us a call (617.851.9975) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat.