Ivy League Admission
The Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

An article in “The New York Times” points out some interesting things about SAT Writing scoring. Did you know that computers can score essays on standardized tests such as the SAT as well as people can? Does that sound ridiculous to you? While it may sound ridiculous, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. In fact, according to “The New York Times” article on standardized test scoring, “Computer scoring produced ‘virtually identical levels of accuracy, with the software in some cases proving to be more reliable,’ according to a University of Akron news release.” Yes, you read that right: more reliable.

On the SAT Writing, don't start sentences with "and" or "but." The e-rater doesn't like that!

The e-Rater, the robo-reader developed by ETS, can in fact grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. How incredible is that? Quite a bit faster than the average speed of a human being, wouldn’t you say? What’s funny is that what the e-Rater can’t do is measure whether or not the test-taker is writing the truth or not. For instance, if you write that the Civil War preceded the American Revolution, you’re not going to lose credit on the e-Rater’s scan. It seems the e-Rater is no Watson (in reference to IBM’s super computer that can answer questions like a human and even appeared on “Jeopardy”).

And what else? Well, the preceding sentence in this very paragraph would lose marks by the e-rater because the computer doesn’t like when you start a sentence with “and.” Or “or.” The e-rater also doesn’t like short sentences or fragments. What it does like are sentences that start with words like “however” or “moreover.” So, basically, the e-rater isn’t very creative (as you could guess). While English teachers may teach students to never start a sentence with the word “and,” doing so can often be quite powerful and effective. But don’t do it on the SAT Writing section. And don’t start a sentence with “but.” Or “and.” Ahh.

While you’re here, check out this post on SAT Score Choice.

Finding success in applying to MIT might be tough for comedian Stephen Colbert. Not that he’s considering doing so. But if he did apply, let’s just say that Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill would shred his application. Literally. If you didn’t think deans of admission at highly selective universities had a sense of humor, you haven’t met Stuart Schmill. An avid fan of “The Colbert Report,” Mr. Schmill went on high alert when Stephen Colbert deemed MIT “the Harvard of Devrys” and ”a tech school.” He decided to respond to Mr. Colbert’s humor with some humor of his own. If you haven’t yet seen his YouTube video, check it out right here:

Stu Schmill, in Mr. Colbert’s trademarked style, discusses how wrong the television personality is. He says that MIT isn’t just another tech school, that it’s a breeding ground for the great minds of tomorrow. He says that if you combine all of the companies started by MIT folks and you have the eleventh largest economy in the world. How cool is that? Not too many universities can say that. In fact, MIT grads have had a hand in developing Technicolor, GPS, the Human Genome, and so much more. But, as Mr. Schmill points out, MIT isn’t just a school for students passionate about math and science. MIT values the liberal arts education from architecture to English to psychology.

What do you think of Mr. Schmill’s video? It has over 33,000 hits on YouTube already! Do you think Mr. Colbert has had a chance to check it out? Do you think he’ll be applying to MIT anytime soon? In any case, we salute Stuart Schmill for having a great sense of humor in making this fantastic video!

Dartmouth Medical School has been renamed after a former Dartmouth student who went on to become one of the most celebrated children's authors of all time.

A few weeks back, Dartmouth College announced that its medical school, formerly known as Dartmouth Medical School, would be renamed. The new name? The Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. We suppose you don’t think much of the renaming. Big deal — universities rename their buildings, endowed professorships, and graduate schools quite often as new major donations roll in. But this is a renaming that is kind of funny if you happen to know who Theodor Geisel is.

Theodor Geisel attended Dartmouth College as a member of the Class of 1925. At Dartmouth, Geisel was a SigEp and the editor-in-chief of the College’s humor magazine (“The Jack-O-Lantern”). When Geisel got in some trouble with the Dean of the College, his punishment was that he could no longer participate in extracurricular activities — including writing for “The Jack-O-Lantern.” And so Geisel decided to write under a pseudonym so that he could keep writing without getting in more trouble. The pen name he chose? Dr. Seuss.

So, yes, the former Dartmouth Medical School is now essentially the Audrey and Dr. Seuss Medical School. How funny is that? Does it make you think of the Robin Williams movie “Patch Adams”? What do you think of the renaming of Dartmouth Medical School? Is it a little bit ridiculous? Do you like it? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting below. If you’d like, you can even post under a pen name.

And while the Cat in the Hat might be in, the Dartmouth president is out. He’s been confirmed to become the president of the World Bank.

This former vice dean of the graduate school of education at Penn lied about his credentials, according to ABC News (photo from ABC News).

The dean of a graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania has resigned in scandal. What’d he do? He pretended that he had a doctoral degree from Columbia University. In fact, Doug Lynch, the former vice dean of the graduate school of education (ironic, huh?) at Penn, claimed to have received a master’s degree from Columbia in 2005 and a doctoral degree in 2007. As it turns out, Lynch didn’t receive his master’s degree from Columbia until 2010 and he hasn’t yet completed his doctoral degree.

As a college student, if you lie on your college application and it’s later discovered, you can have your admission revoked. Even if you’re a second, third, or fourth-year student. It’s just not worth it. Not to mention…it just isn’t right. As a college student, if you plagiarize a paper for course credit and get caught, you’ll face sanctions from the university…including expulsion. It just isn’t worth it. Ever.

So you’d think the vice dean of the graduate school of education wouldn’t make this kind of egregious mistake. Just a few years back, the dean of admissions at MIT resigned in scandal for lying about her academic diploma. When will folks realize that lying about their credentials isn’t worth it, that it’s wrong, and it’s likely to come back and haunt you. To students applying to college, learn from the disgraced former vice dean of students at the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania!

Of the top ten colleges where you get the best return on investment, four are Ivy League schools. Stanford, Duke, and Caltech are also in the top ten for ROI.

The Ivy League return on investment is big. Don’t believe us? We’ll give you the data so it’s not a matter of opinion. Every year, PayScale comes out with a ranking of return on investment for colleges around the nation. The 2012 rankings are out and who tops the list? That would be Harvey Mudd College where the 2011 cost for four years of education was $212,900 and the 30-year net ROI was $1,467,000. And what college is the ROI runner-up? That would be the California Institute of Technology where it cost $207,400 over four years as of 2011 and it led to a 30-year net ROI of $1,417,000. A pretty good return on investment, huh?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology placed 3rd with a 30-year net ROI of $1,238,000 at a cost of $208,100. Stanford University was close behind with a 30-year net ROI of $1,194,000 at a cost of $220,200. Right behind Stanford on the list are Princeton University, Harvard, University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Notre Dame rounds out the Top 10.

Notice a trend here? Four of the top ten colleges with the best return on investment are Ivy League colleges. And Caltech, MIT, and Stanford are three of the most highly selective colleges in the nation. So if you don’t think going to a highly selective college like an Ivy League college is worth it in the long run, you just might want to think again. The data presented by PayScale indicates where you go to college matters a whole lot in terms of your career earnings.

What do you think about the Ivy League ROI? See the full data on PayScale and let us know your thoughts by posting below!

The Ivy Coach was quoted in an article in “The Brown Daily Herald” today that focused on how female college applicants have tougher odds than their male counterparts. Last year, as an example, Brown University received 30,944 applications to be members of the Class of 2015. Of those applicants to Brown, 60% of them were females. Of admitted students last year, Brown admitted females at a rate of 7.6%. And males? That figure would be 10.8%. That is a statistically significant difference! And Brown is not the exception among highly selective colleges. Brown is the rule. Females have tougher odds in the game of highly selective college admissions.

Female college applicants have tougher odds than their male counterparts in highly selective college admissions.

And how did admission to Brown stack up for females against admission to Princeton? According to “The Brown Daily Herald,” “Though Princeton admitted a smaller percentage overall of first-year applicants in 2011 — 8.5 percent — 8.6 percent of female applicants were admitted, making admission to Brown for females applying to the class of 2015 more competitive than to Princeton. The difference in admit rates for males and females at Brown has fluctuated between 2.5 percent and 5.2 percent in the past eight years. The gap reached its peak when 11.7 percent of females and 16.9 percent of males were accepted for the class of 2012.”

What do you think about the gender disparity in highly selective college admissions? Do you think it’s unfair that females are discriminated against — much like Chinese and Indian Americans? Why do you think this gender disparity exists? Our founder shares insights in the article on the disparity which you’re welcome to check out, but we’re curious to hear your thoughts on the controversial topic!

And check out our compiled Ivy League Statistics!

In light of the Claremont McKenna admission stats scandal, “US News & World Report,” the publisher of the most important college rankings, has released a statement, as reported by Bob Morse. Writes Morse in his column on Claremont McKenna, “Regarding Claremont McKenna’s current rank, No. 9, as published in the 2012 Best Colleges rankings, U.S. News & World Report Editor and Chief Content Officer Brian Kelly said, ‘Our calculation shows that based on the data now being reported by Claremont McKenna as correct, Claremont McKenna College’s ranking will not change.’”

"US News & World Report" will not be changing Claremont McKenna's #9 rank in this year's "National Liberal Arts Colleges" ranking. What about the rankings for past years of misreported data? That answer is still unclear (photo from "Forbes").

So after all of that — after the vice president of admissions and financial aid violated the ethics of his post and discredited the school’s reputation, their ranking, as we understand it, would be no different than had he reported the true admission stats. “US News & World Report” has made a decision not to change Claremont McKenna’s rank of #9 in the category of “National Liberal Arts Colleges.”

It is our understanding that the rank wouldn’t change because the difference between the true and false data wasn’t significant enough to warrant a drop in rank, but it could be that “US News & World Report” has just decided “on an individual basis” not to change the school’s rank. From Mr. Morse’s article, we’re just not sure without doing the calculations ourselves.

Do you think Claremont McKenna should have been disqualified from the rankings? When it was discovered that the University of Michigan made recruiting violations with the Fab Five, they had to vacate Final Four appearances. Does that change your opinion on Claremont McKenna and the “US News & World Report” rankings?

There’s an article up on “The Huffington Post” today by David Macaray who is, according to his bio, “a playwright, labor columnist and author.” In the post on Ivy Leaguers entitled “Remind Me Again Why We Should Trust The Ivy League,” Mr. Macaray chronicles how “virtually every civilian mistake in Iraq — every false assumption, unforced error, miscalculation, and public relations fiasco — can be traced back to an Ivy League graduate.”

In the article, Mr. Macaray argues that former President George W. Bush (who, by the way, as Commander-In-Chief is no civilian), a Yale grad with a Harvard MBA, is the most to blame. He claims that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, a Princeton graduate, “ruled the Department of Defense as his own personal fiefdom.” Mr. Macaray then goes on to say that former Vice President Dick Cheney, “a Yale grad,” “‘was a saber-rattling toy soldier who bullied aides, misrepresented the facts,’ and ‘compromised the CIA.’” Mr. Macaray, Vice President Cheney flunked out of Yale. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming which is actually not a member institution of the Ivy League. But we suppose this didn’t fit your argument so you left this tidbit out.

We've got a little bit to say in response to an article that blames every "civilian" mistake in Iraq on Ivy Leaguers. Oh and, by the way, Dick Cheney isn't in fact a Yale grad. He also was no civilian as the Vice President of the United States.

We could go on and on about Mr. Macaray’s list, but what we found most interesting was that he left out folks in the previous administration who made key decisions who in fact did not graduate from Ivy League schools. Like who? How about former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice? She was kind of important, no? She graduated from the University of Denver. How about former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates? He’s a graduate of the College of William & Mary. Last we checked, William & Mary wasn’t in the Ivy League either. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell? City College of New York.

Our point, Mr. Macaray, is that if you’re going to try to present an argument, don’t leave out the facts that don’t suit your argument. In social psychology, this is termed the confirmation bias. You’re only citing evidence that confirms your theory.

If you’re one of the many waitlisted college applicants, know that you’re not alone. Also know that there are things that you can do to improve your odds of getting off the waitlist and into the college of your dreams. Read our article in “The Huffington Post” to find out more about what you can do to achieve this goal. But, while you’re here, we’d also like to highlight some points in a “Chicago Tribune” article published today on waitlisted college applicants.

There are a number of students waiting on waitlists. How do you get off the lists? Show interest among other things. And money helps, too. You read that right.

“Call the admissions office.” Let your regional admissions officer know that you’re still interested in attending should you be admitted off of the waitlist. That doesn’t mean call every day. Or every hour. It means call and connect once. Don’t harass them. Don’t make them cringe at the mere mention of your name. That would only hurt you. It’s a fine line!

“Do not overwhelm admissions with new material.” One update can be sent that includes your significant accomplishments since you applied. These accomplishments thus should not have been on your application. If that were the case, this would indeed not be new material. And, as we’ve written before, significant means significant. Taking a bath, while hygienic, is not significant. You’d be amazed with the updates some students send in to admissions offices. Ok, maybe not bath updates, but you get the idea.

“Money matters.” It absolutely does. No matter what you’re told, colleges pull students off the waitlist who are full-pays. They’re unlikely to be pulling off financial aid cases. Their financial aid budget, at this point, is severely depleted if not nonexistent. So, yes, the rich stand a better chance of getting off the waitlist than the poor. It is what it is. We don’t make the rules. We just give you insider tips on the secrets of highly selective college admission.

We’re often asked around this time every year why our students who were admitted via Early Decision aren’t invited to their school’s admitted students weekend. After all, they committed to attend their future alma mater over every other college. They sent in applications back in the fall, so sure that this was the college for them. So why don’t they get invites to admitted students weekend? That’s an easy one! Because the college doesn’t have to convince them to matriculate! They only have to convince Regular Decision admits to attend.

Yale, like many highly selective colleges, hosts students admitted via Regular Decision every spring (photo from the "Yale Daily News").

The point of admitted students weekend is for the college to boost their yield. They roll out the red carpet. They assign prospective students a current student who will house them. They serve prospectives lobster dinners and sing and dance. This weekend is, in no uncertain terms, the best marketing tool the college has — its own students. No flyer will have the energy of current students. No email will make you feel like this is the college that you must attend over all others.

So if you’re a student (like many of ours) who was admitted early and didn’t get the invite to admitted students weekend, don’t worry too much. Maybe you can ask the admissions office if you can attend. The answer is likely no, though, as they quite often simply don’t have the room to put you up with all of the other prospective students on campus. During this weekend, you’re just not the priority. They already have a binding commitment from you! One last thing — don’t forget to be on your best behavior during this weekend if you do end up going as the last thing you want to happen is get your admission rescinded. It happens each and every year.

Check out our Ivy League Admissions Statistics.