College Admissions

In a previous blog post about the Forbes rankings, I explained why I think understanding the methodology of a ranking is the key to determining if and how a particular ranking is helpful in your own college search.  Since US News is the granddaddy of the college rankings (now in their 26^th year), I’m always interested in how they change their methodology each year.

Yes, US News changes their methodology each year.  Why?  Well, according to them, it is because they are ever striving to make the rankings better.  I’m a little more cynical and believe they do it so that the rankings actually change a bit from year to year.  It is a hard to get people to buy an annual ranking publication if the rankings stay the same from year to year.  Why buy the 2011 edition if it has the same list as the 2007 edition?  (If you want proof that these tweaks in methodology do result in variances in the rankings from year to year, check out this chart that compares colleges' US News rankings from 1983-2007.)

Regardless of why US News changes its ranking methodology each year, they do.  So do this year’s changes make the US News rankings more or less helpful?  I’m sorry to say they make them less helpful and below I’ve explained why.  Just to make this more fun to read (as well as more interesting to write), I’ve imagined a point-counterpoint debate between US News and myself about each of the changes in methodology.  The US News quotes come straight from the horse’s mouth.  They can all be found within US News own description of the methodology.   I’ve taken the liberty of following my own rebuttals with explanations so you understand my thinking.

Change #1:  US News has renamed its categories for schools.

US News says, “To make the rankings more understandable and to reduce confusion, for the 2011 Best Colleges we changed many of the ranking category names.”

Alison says:  You failed, US News.  Your category system wasn’t a particularly good one to begin with, but now it is just a hot mess.

***

Before US News decided to change things, they ranked schools within 4 categories based on the degrees conferred by the institution:

1. Universities:  confers bachelors’, masters’ and doctorate degrees
2. Universities-Masters:  confers bachelors ’and masters’ degrees
3. Liberal Arts Colleges:  confers bachelors’ degrees with more than 50% in liberal arts & science majors
4. Baccalaureate Colleges:  confers bachelors’ degrees with less than 50% in liberal arts & science majors

The problem with these categories isn’t one of nomenclature, although US News claims it is.  The problem is that these categories don’t mirror the way students and families think about their college choices.  Students and families think in terms of selectivity.  Just stop and ask your average 11^th grade student or parent of an 11^th grade student: “What kinds of colleges are you considering?”  Do they say, “Well, I’m only considering Ph.D. conferring institutions.”  No, of course not.  They say, “Well I think I’m a pretty good candidate, so I’m shooting for the most selective colleges, places like Harvard and Williams.”  In the US News system, Harvard and Williams are in different categories and can’t be compared to each other, while Harvard and Wright State University are in the same category and can be compared to each other.  Come on.  Not a very helpful category system for real people.  I can say I have never had anyone ask me to compare Harvard and Wright State.  They simply aren't the same kind of institution.

To solve the supposed problem with the nomenclature, US News has renamed the categories, but not changed which schools are in them.  Can anyone say lipstick on a pig?  Worse still, the new names are actually misleading.  Universities-Masters become Regional Universities and Baccalaureate Colleges become Regional Colleges, while Liberal Arts Colleges become National Liberal Arts colleges.  Supposedly the “Regional” moniker reflects that the colleges and universities within these categories “tend to draw heavily from surrounding states.” Really?  Because I’m pretty sure that all the military academies draw from a national pool of students, but the Air Force and Coast Guard academies are labeled as “Regional Colleges” while Westpoint and Annapolis are considered “National Liberal Arts Colleges."

Change #2:  US News has precisely ranked the top 75% of schools in each category, instead of just the top 50%.

US News says:  “In response to a strong interest from readers in knowing precisely where all schools on their list stand, we've opted to display the rank of the top 75 percent of schools in each category, up from 50 percent. This top ranked group will be called the First Tier. The schools in the bottom 25 percent of each group are listed alphabetically as the Second Tier; which was previously called the 4th Tier.”

Alison says:  Be humbler, US News.  You can't possibly believe that you have the ability to distinguish between school #80 and school #81.  Just give us tiers and let us quibble about who is #1, #48, #325.

***

I happen to have been a fan of the US News tier system of rankings because I think they actually tell you something meaningful. In the tier system, schools were grouped by quartiles:  Tier 1 (top 25%), Tier 2 (26-50%), Tier 3 (51-75%), Tier 4 (bottom 25%).  I personally think that this is about as precise as you can be in a rankings system:  ask someone who knows colleges to separate them into the best, the above average, the below average, and the worst and those groupings won’t differ much from person to person or from criteria to criteria.  But ask for precise rankings and you see wide divergences because in order to be that precise, you have to start splitting hairs and deciding which hairs are more important.

US News thinks they have the ability to be precise.  They say that “the data are complete enough to numerically rank more schools given our robust methodology. The quality of the data we collect has improved over the years, so that it is now rich enough to rank more schools numerically.” I challenge that.  Lots of their data is suspect (see more below about reputational surveys and the new graduation rate measure) and the weights they assign to various data are not all that defensible (should reputation be more important that retention and graduation rates or quality and contact with faculty?).

Beyond that, their regular changes in methodology ensure that the rankings move from year to year, so how meaningful can a precise ranking be?  Far more meaningful is that a school consistently shows up in a particular tier.  For example, Brown has been as high as 7 among the national universities (1985) and as low as 17 (1992, 2003, 2004), but has always been in the top 25.  Obviously Brown is consistently in the top tier.  Do you really need to know more than that, and could you really prove to me that Brown is really 7 instead of 11 or 15 or 17?  I don't think you could and I don't think US News can either.  Besides, when you are doing a college search, a tier is enough to give you some basic guidelines.  Then you move on to understanding the nuances that really distinguish colleges and give each college a personality as distinct as a fingerprint.

Change #3:  Graduation Rate Performance (a comparative measure of predicted vs. actual graduation rates) has been given more weight in the ranking.

US News says:   “Graduation rate performance is more heavily weighted. This measure now accounts for 7.5 percent of the final score (compared to 5 percent previously) for National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges. This variable—the difference between a school's actual graduation rate and the one predicted by U.S. News based on the students' test scores and institutional resources—has been well received by many higher education researchers because it's a measure of educational outcomes and also rewards schools for graduating at-risk students, many of whom are receiving federal Pell grants. This means that schools can benefit in the Best Colleges rankings by enrolling and then graduating more of these at-risk students.”

Alison says:  Pay attention to your customers' needs, US News.  You don't belong in the middle of educational debates about how to get more at-risk students enrolled at college.  You are providing a service to students and families who are using your rankings in the college search.  They do care about the outcomes, so give them the best data available about that, not some cooked up prediction you make.  Satisfy them, rather than pandering to critics in higher education in an effort to rehabilitate your own reputation within the higher education community.

***

I have always been skeptical of this so-called “graduate rate performance” measure.  It compares US News calculated predictions to actual college outcomes.  Why do we care about a prediction when we have the outcome?  Predictions are only valuable when you can’t know the outcome, but still need to make a decision.  Once you know the outcome, you should and do use that information in your decision making.  So if you are concerned about a college’s graduation rate (and everyone should be), then you consult their actual graduation rate, not the US News prediction of its graduation rate.

Interestingly, US News reveals why it even uses this measure and it isn’t to help their customers.  Instead, it is a “make nice” gesture to the higher education community who bemoan how the US News rankings (and others like them) discourage schools from all sorts of behaviors that serve loftier goals in higher education, including enrolling more at risk students.  US News is a commercial enterprise and the needs of its customers should come first.

Worse, I think that US News has sacrified its customers' needs for nothing but a token gesture.  Supposedly by including this measure, US News compensates for how its other measures penalize schools for enrolling at-risk students.  But it doesn’t.  This measure accounts for 7.5%; the measures that are negatively affected by enrollment of at-risk students (freshman retention, graduation rates, student selectivity) account for 35%.  7.5% hardly offsets 35% -- you do the math.

Instead of this "make nice" gesture, I wish US News had beefed up its data on college outcomes.  What about adding the percentage of students who graduate in 4 years (not just 6)?  What about adding the percentage of graduates who are gainfully employed or enrolled in graduate school within 6 months?  All that data is readily available, verfiable and helpful.

Change #4:  US News has included the results from a survey of pubic high school counselors in the calculation of a school’s reputation AND published it as a separate ranking.

US News says: For the first time, the opinions of high school counselors—a font of firsthand information about the schools their graduates attend—are factored into the ranking calculations for National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges…  [We surveyed] 1,787 counselors at public high schools from nearly every state plus the District of Columbia that appeared in the 2010 U.S. News Best High Schools rankings… The counselors' response rate was 21 percent.

Alison says:  Get with it, US News.  It is already easy enough to challenge the validity of your rankings because of the inordinate weight given to reputational surveys.  Now you compound the problem by adding in the results of a survey that had a bad sample set and a pathetic response rate.  Hardly first-rate data.  In fact, it appears that your data amounts to the opinions of 375 people.  Not very impressive and certainly not worthy of being published as a separate ranking.

***

Now, US News will get no argument from me that college counselors are a font of wisdom – after all, I am both a college counselor and I'm certainly a font of wisdom.  And if US News is going to persist in using “reputation” as a fundamental criterion for ranking schools (reputation counts for 22.5-25% of a school’s ranking), I suppose college counselors are a pretty good group to survey.  But this survey and its data hardly represent the collective wisdom of college counselors.  First, why would US News limit itself to counselors from public schools that it ranked in another ranking?  No idea, but it is hardly a valid sample set.  What about private school counselors, a lot of whom specialize in college counseling, and what about independent college counselors like myself?  We are easy to identify through professional associations, so it really puzzles me why US News couldn't go to the trouble of selecting a valid sample set.  The only theories I can formulate don't make US News look good, so since they are nothing but theories, I won't offer them.

Second, the response rate was pathetic.  If you combine the limited sample set surveyed with the low response rate, you discover that 375 public school counselors had inordinate power this year.  Really I don't care who they are -- the opinions of the smartest 375 people in the world shouldn't comprise 7.5% of a school's ranking.  One interesting side note/back story here.  There were emails that flew between counselors within professional associations about whether the counselors who did get the survey were going to boycott it.  Many voiced their belief that rankings are more harmful than helpful and indicated they would boycott.  I suspect the response rate reflects this.

Bottom Line?

US News says:  Better than ever.  (Okay that's my summary, but I don't think they would argue.)

Alison says:  Worse on all counts.

Comments or Questions?

Anyone want to defend US News’ changes?  Anyone learn something they didn’t know?  Anyone want to offer a different point of view on the importance of methodology?  We’re interested.  Please post!

Alison Cooper Chisolm is a former admissions officer at three selective universities and used to compile all the institutional data that makes these rankings possible.  She submitted her first response to US News back in the dark ages -- 1991.  At Ivey Consulting, she now heads our college admissions consulting practice and provides one-on-one coaching to students and families about all aspects of the college admissions process.  A core component of that coaching is working with a student to compile his or her "right fit" college list -- a college list tailored to that student's particular interests, talents, and desires.

Congratulations!

You've arrived at the 52d week and college is officially in session (or about to be).  You've made it.  Take a bow!

As you finish this year and begin your first year of college, I can't resist giving you 3 final tips.

1. Manage your own expectations. College is a transformative experience and transformative experiences aren't always fun; in fact, they are work and they have as many miserable moments as joyful ones.  Expect lows as well as highs.  Expect homesickness along with the giddy delight that comes from your freedom.  Expect to hate it and to love it all at once.
2. Take academics seriously, especially at first. You are in a new environment where it is likely to be more academically challenging.  Don't assume that you can approach a freshman year the way you approached your senior year.  You're a beginner again.  So do yourself a favor and act like one.  Go to classes, do the reading, set up study groups.  And just like it did actually matter what your grades were in 9th grade when it was time to apply to college, it will actually matter what your freshman grades are when it comes time to apply to grad school or get the first job.  Don't blow it because you are simply too full of yourself (or worse partying so much you forget that the point of college is education).
3. Explore, explore, explore.  There are people to meet, new activities to try, once in a lifetime experiences to be had.  Don't limit yourself to things you've done before.  College is a brief four years.  Take full advantage.

Wisdom?

Before you turn your attention fully to college, I'd like to invite you to share some of your wisdom with those coming after you.  Post your best tips for those that are just about to begin the 52 Weeks to College journey! And if you have any questions you'd like us to tackle in future blog postings, please send them our way!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

As you read this blog, you should be in the last hectic days before leaving for college.  You are so very close to starting this new chapter of your life!!!!  Since you are probably dizzy from excitement, not to mention a little dazed from all the end of summer social activities, I'm going to make your final checklist for you.

Ah, yes, there is a final checklist – you don't think I'd send you off to college without a final checklist, did you?  If you did, you have not been a faithful reader of this blog over the last 50 weeks.   Good news for those of you who have been faithful readers (and doers) – this checklist references back to lots of activities I have suggested you take care of earlier in the summer, so you'll be sitting pretty in these final days, while less faithful readers (and doers) have A LOT to take care of!

This checklist is organized into what I call the Core Four – the four areas of your life that you need to have in order when you are in the process of leaving home for college.

1)     Housing and Meal Plans (aka Food and Shelter)

• Do you know where you going to be living?  You should and you should have a hard paper copy of your housing assignment.
• Do you know what your dining plan is?  Again, make sure you do and you have documentation that you've paid for it.
• When can you move into your residence hall?  You don't want to be sitting on the curb with your stuff because you missed your window and can't get a key.
• Where is the dining hall?  What are the hours?  What will be the first FREE (aka prepaid dining plan) meal that you get?  Again, you need to know these things before your parents leave you.  If they go before you can start eating on your dining plan, you've missed some great opportunities for the parents to pay.  And believe me, all college students try to maximize the things that their parents pay for – it is a basic college survival skill.

2)     Essential Stuff (Clothes, Bedding, etc.)

• What is the essential stuff that you need for college?  See Week 44 for my list.
• Have you purchased it all or have a plan to purchase it right after you get to college?
• Is what you have packed and either shipped or ready to be loaded into the train, plane or automobile with you?  Also, if you are traveling by public transport, is there anything you are taking that is problematic, e.g. cleaning supplies that are explosive?  If so, figure it out before you are having to leave it behind with some kindly TSA officer who will pass it on to his kid.

3)     Money, Money, Money

• Are your tuition, housing and fees all paid for the first term? Do you have documentation of that?
• If you have financial aid, do you have all the documentation for that?  If your financial aid has not yet arrived, has the bursar/finance officer agreed to wait until it gets there or do you have to pay until it arrives?
• Do you have a budget and the cash to fund it for everything besides school, housing, and fees?  Understand that you'll need a fair amount of cash or credit in the early weeks of the term – why?  Books.  They are expensive and you've gotta have 'em.

4)    Relationships with the Family and Friends

• Have you done a proper goodbye and renegotiation with your family?  Week 49 gave you the directions.  If you haven't done these things yet, do them now.  You simply must.
• Have you had one last hurrah with the friends and thought/talked about how you are going to sustain your friendships across distance?  Week 50 is all about that.  Get going.

Comments or Questions?

Honestly, you really don't have time to post this week.  But if you have a burning question or comment, go ahead and post it.  We're always happy to respond and we've already been to college, so we have time right now.

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

The countdown continues.  You are almost on your way to college.  But you are still in the middle of ending the chapter of your life called high school.  This week is about one of the trickiest parts of this ending:  what to do about your high school friends.  So hang on and hang in – managing this well will make starting college easier and will give you practice for the rest of your life.  Because, after all, you do have lots more chapters ahead of you!

I propose you handle your impending departure for college in different ways depending upon the type of friendship.

Friendship Type 1:  Situational Friendships

If you are like most people, a lot of the people you call friends (and at least 95% of the friends you have on social networking sites) are situational friends.   Your friendships arise from particular situations – they are the friendship you have with the other members of your hockey team, with your classmates in 1st Period English, with the kind-of weird neighbor kids that have been with you in school and at church every year since you were like 5.  You really don't have a deep connection with these people; the friendships are not sustainable over time and space.

Here is how you handle these friendships:  LET THEM GO.  Sure you can stay friends on Facebook or be pleasant when you see each other at reunions in the future, but other than that, these friendships are done and you need to let them go so you can make space for the new friendships, like these, that you will have in college: friendships with your new teammates on your intramural hockey team, with your new study buddies you have in the 8a Econ class, and with the kind of weird but still nice enough people who live on your hall or quad.

Friendship Type 2:  True Blue Lasting Friendships

True blue lasting friendships are the friendships you can and should protect.  These friendships are with people with whom you share a deep and profound connection – you know who they are.  They are the people who always laugh at the same things you do, no matter how wrong it is.  They are the people who seem to just know without you having to tell them much.  They are the people whom you can count on; no matter what, they have your back.

The good news here is that you can SUSTAIN THESE FRIENDSHIPS over time and space.  But you do have to be intentional about keeping and feeding these friendships.  Here are my three tips for how to keep and feed friendships over time and space:

1. Make sure to say goodbye and set the plan for your next hello.  Don't get so caught up in the frenzy of leaving for college that you don't set aside some time for a proper goodbye with your true blue friends.  And before you go, compare school calendars and make a date for when you're both back in town on the first break.  Just knowing when you are going to see each other next makes the goodbye easier.
2. Stay in touch, but don't try to re-create what you have now.  The stay in touch is really easy now thanks to technology.  But, the temptation is to try and substitute ridiculous amounts of communication for the day-to-day closeness you have now.  Not possible.  You are going to be leading different lives in different places.  Accept that.  There is of course a silver lining in that bit of breathing space – you probably won't have many spats, and your true blue friends can offer a bit of perspective for you if they aren't embroiled in the same drama.
3. Stretch your friendship muscle and hold these friends close EVEN AS you are making new friends.  Really truly, you can make new friends and keep the old.  You are ready.  One important thing to remember, though: friendships wither when comparisons are offered.  Each friend is special and unique to you.  So don't blow it and blurt out "you're just like my friend at home" to a new friend you really like, or worse still, confide to your old friend, "I can't believe I've found a new best friend so quickly."  Just savor each of them and be grateful.

Friendship Type #3:  Romantic Friendships

I'm not going to bother describing romantic friendships.  You know what they are, so I'm just going to jump to the advice giving portion of this post.  Unfortunately, you probably aren't going to like what I have to say here, but it is the wisdom of the ages.  First love probably isn't true love.  The majority of romantic friendships last through the first semester of freshman year, because at first it is comforting and supportive to have a boyfriend/girlfriend but it quickly becomes limiting and frustrating.  I encourage you to just LET IT TAKE ITS COURSE.  That means not fighting with it, clutching it, keeping it alive on life support.  Date through the end of the summer.  Have a great last date.  Feel sad to leave your boyfriend/girlfriend behind, but don't make promises about the future in some last grand gesture.  Go to college and stay in touch but don't organize your weekend plans around visits.  Don't communicate all the time about how much you miss each other – you'll get stuck in a loop.  Wait until Christmas break to evaluate where you are.  If the relationship is still growing and deepening in spite of the separation, hang in.  But don't regress.  Stay engaged with your new life at college.  Summer break will come.  If the romantic friendship is one that is, in fact, true love, then it won't die just because of separation during the school year.

Comments or Questions?

Want to offer a shout out to your situational friends thanking them for the memories?  Post here.  Want to make a pledge of undying friendship that counts?  Post it.  Want to say why your first love will or won't be your true love?  Post it, we'd love to hear!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

Forbes has just released its annual ranking of America’s Best Colleges for 2010 (online at www.forbes.com/colleges and in hard copy in the August 30, 2010 issue of Forbes now on newstands).  I admit that I got it hot off the presses and spent way too much time online today playing around with the interactive tools.  Of course, I am a college counseling professional and a bit of a data nerd.  So I love college rankings of all kinds and I feel like I can make good use of them.  But here’s my warning to all you prospective applicants out there:  you’ve got to read the fine print and do some ranking of your own if you are going to compile a list of colleges that are right for you.

What’s the fine print?  The methodology and the data sets used to compile the rankings.  All the rankings publish them, so read them and think critically about them.  You can get the description of the Forbes methodology and data online by clicking here.

What does the fine print tell me about the Forbes list of so-called “Best Colleges?”

In terms of basic methodology, I’m intrigued by and generally agree that four of the criteria they use to compile their rankings are important to consider:  student satisfaction, postgraduate success, student debt, 4 year graduation rate.  But I’m baffled by the fifth criterion they use:  what are they thinking by including national competitive awards given to students and making it almost 1/10^th of the weighted score given to a college?  That just seems wacky and irrelevant to me.

In terms of data, I think Forbes falls down on the job here.  The Student Satisfaction data is particularly suspect because of the reliance on data from RateMyProfessors.com and MyPlan.com.  This data is a completely uncontrolled sample set and will be skewed by the differing participation rates at the different colleges.   For a college with a low participation rate, a few disgruntled students active on one of these sites could ruin a college’s ranking.  The Postgraduate Success data is also flawed.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Forbes has considered data relevant only to one type of success – namely business/corporate success.  In the Forbes ranking, success is measured by your pay grade, whether you bothered to fill out a Who’s Who listing, and if you have risen to the level of corporate officer.  Come on.  Success is much broader than that.  At a bare minimum, I think Forbes would bother to include the some data that measures whether a college has done its job of preparing you to get a job or get into graduate or professional school.  Data about the number of graduates who are employed following graduation and/or enrolled in graduate or professional degree programs is readily available and could have been incorporated.

My bottom line review of the Forbes rankings?  Pretty good methodology, pretty bad data, so not very helpful or illuminating in really revealing the "best colleges."  But if one of your primary criteria for a "best college" is the cost of education, including typical student debt, then you can get some good comparative data here.  The hard copy includes this information on the chart listing the rankings and it is available online only through the interactive tool called “Screener” found as a button about two-thirds of the way down the middle column on the landing page for the rankings article.

Comments?

What do you think? Post your thoughts on the Forbes ranking!

Alison Cooper Chisolm is a former admissions officer at three selective universities and used to compile all the institutional data that makes these rankings possible!  At Ivey Consulting, she now heads our college admissions consulting practice and provides one-on-one coaching to students and families about all aspects of the college admissions process.  A core component of that coaching is working with a student to compile his or her "right fit" college list -- a college list tailored to that student's particular interests, talents, and desires.

You are so close now.  Weeks away from starting college!  How does it feel?  For most of you, it is a bit of a mixed bag of extreme emotions -- excitement, fear, happiness, sadness, stress, calm, blah, blah, blah.  The emphasis here is less on the particular emotion as on the EXTREME nature of it.  So welcome to the roller coaster of beginnings and endings.  How do you ride it without throwing up?  My theory is that you lean into it and throw yourself into experiencing it all with full enthusiasm.

An important way of "leaning into" the roller coaster of beginnings and endings is actually experiencing the endings.  Full stop.  So for the next three weeks I'm going to be giving you advice on how to do the ending part right.  Ready, buckle your seat belts, let's go!

Coming up immediately, a huge loop de loop.  It is the ending with your family.  No, leaving for college doesn't END your relationship with your family.  But it does end a chapter of your family's story.  First thing to remember about this section of the ride is that it isn't just happening to you.  Your whole family is buckled in this ride with you.  So each of them – Mom, Dad, Stepparent, Sister, Brother, Grandparent, Cat, Dog, Fish – the whole family signed up for this part of the ride.  So prepare yourself.  It is going to be wacky.  That's why it is a loop de loop.  You are definitely defying gravity here.  Here are my tips for getting all the fun possible out of this loop de loop and surviving to the next section of the ride.

1. Just agree and let them do whatever, however weird, however annoying, however embarrassing. Suddenly your Mom is going to want to sew your name in your underwear just like when you went to camp at age 8 or your Dad is going decide it is time for you to enjoy whiskey together like "grown-ups" or your little brother is going to dog your heels and want to go on every errand with you.  All of the odd things that they are doing are their way of handling your departure.  Don't fight it; you won't win.  You are, in fact, leaving for college and they do, in fact, have to deal with that.  So if you fight the name in your underwear, your Mom will just find some other way to "Mom" you and it will probably be worse.  Why?  Frustrated emotions just get bigger and their expression more bizarre and grander in scale.  Agree because you understand this fundamental truth.

2. Think practically and make sure everyone knows how to make the day-to-day work. You have been operating as a part of a family, which means you rely on each other for day-to-day things.  That is now disrupted and everyone has to learn new things.  Never, ever done your laundry?  Have your Mom show you how.  Are you the one that drives your little sister to ballet?  Figure out who is going to do it now and give some hints about how to do it right, e.g. be sure and stop at the smoothie store en route.

3. Figure out a communication and visit schedule for the first 6 weeks of the term. When are you going to talk/text/see each other?  You've got to deal with a dynamic tension here.  The beginning of your freshman year is a time of big transition, so you'll probably be talking/texting/seeing more frequently than you will later on.  But remember this is actually supposed to be an ending, so you shouldn't be talking/texting/seeing each other at the same pace you do now.

4. Get the finances straight. Has your tuition been paid?  If not, do you know how it is going to be paid?  What is your budget for living?  If you are going to get money regularly from home, how is that going to happen?  What are the rules for using the EMERGENCY credit card – you may stunned to learn that your parents don't consider it an emergency if you don't have enough money to buy pizza at the end of the month, so you just charged it.  They'll probably say that an emergency is something like your needing to get some medicine that isn't on your health plan at school, not a pizza when they've already paid for a perfectly good meal plan at the dining hall.  Who knew?  And most importantly, what calling/texting/data plan on your cell phone are they willing to pay for?  Make sure that all those texts you and your sister exchange are not running up a bill that will give your father a heart attack and result in you having to withdraw early.

5. Make some good memories right now. Take time for a special good-bye with your family.  I personally like the habit of toasting at these gatherings.  Have each of them make a toast to you and you make a toast to each of them.  Video the toasts.  But if toasting isn't your thing, do something else.  Just do it and record it – both in your heart and in some medium like video or pictures.  These become the memories that sustain and connect all of you over time and space.

If you do all this, you'll fly through this loop de loop laughing and crying and shouting at the sheer fun of it.  Even if it does make you and your family a little sad.  Promise.

Comments or Questions?

Post your own experience of this loop de loop on the roller coaster ride of life.  These stories are made for sharing!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

Last week I demanded that you think about academics NOW!  This week I pleasantly suggest you think about fun NOW!  Why would I even suggest such a thing?  I mean really.  Fun happens; you don't have to think about it.  Or do you?  I would argue that you do.  At least a little bit.  Want to see the Kings of Leon in concert?  You've got to think about it and get the tickets well in advance.  Want to travel to Japan on spring break?  You'll need a passport and some shots.  Want to do something as mundane as hang out with friends?  You'll need to at least text to see if they are available.

Okay you concede.  So you have to think about fun a little bit.  But surely, you don't have to think about fun NOW!  You aren't even leaving for college for another month or so.  You can think about college fun once you get there.  You're partly right.  You can and will and should think about college fun once you get there.  In fact, I encourage people to think about fun pretty much all the time; I even suggest people think about how to find the fun in their academics and in their work.  But, if you think about college fun NOW, you are more likely to have some of the BIG fun (the stuff that takes some lead time), you are more likely to build your excitement about college and counter some of the melancholy you are probably starting to feel, and you are more likely to structure your freshman year so that everyday fun is part of the plan.  So why not think about fun NOW?

Put on your thinking caps and answer these questions to develop your own plan for fun in college.  Be sure and write these things down somewhere and tuck them in your "take with to college" pile so you don't lose track of your great thinking!

1. How much time will I have for fun in college? As little as 34 hours per week if you think of fun as a distinct category and as much as 168 hours per week if you can pack fun into every minute.  Refer back to Week 43 for the formula I give for time management and see where I got those numbers.  For obvious reasons, it might be good to think about fun more broadly -- see if you can find the fun in every one of your 168 hours!
2. What kind of things are fun for me? Like a new adventure?  Like the outdoors?  Like seeing movies?  Like chatting people up over coffee?  You know the kinds of things that are fun for you.  Sure you will discover new fun things in college, but that doesn't mean you won't still have fun doing the things that have always been fun for you.  Remind yourself what you like to do already.  Nothing cures a bout of homesickness or rainy day blues like doing something that has been fun for you all your life.
3. Who can always make me laugh? Laughing is fun.  It is good to have at least 2 or 3 people that you can call or text when you need an immediate shot of fun.
4. Do I need to build my fun muscle? If you have always depended on others to organize the fun or find the fun, it is time to build your fun muscle.  Everyone should be able to make some fun in his/her life; it is as necessary as breathing.
5. Am I a fun every day or fun on the weekends sort? You need to know this so you can shop your days accordingly.  If you are a fun every day sort, you need a dose of fun every day at a minimum.  That means, you are better off to stop studying at 9p Sunday through Thursday and go play darts and hit the books for a couple of hours on Saturday.  If you are a fun on the weekends sort, you prefer to work, work, work Sunday night through Friday afternoon and then play, play, play Friday night through Sunday afternoon.  Either is fine, but you can't do both, without flunking out – not fun, I assure you.

Enough thinking.  Go out there and have some fun, confident that by thinking just a little bit about the fun to come you've earned the break!

Comments or Questions?

Are you the one for whom debating is fun?  Take me on and post your argument for why I have fun wrong!  Are you the one that is known for being the best at fun?  Share your secrets for those of us building our fun muscles!  Or just post a good joke!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

News alert:  you need to re-engage your brain and think about your academic career at college BEFORE you get to college.  Why?  Because you are large and in charge at college.  You are going to make the decisions.  You aren't used to making decisions about your academic career; they have been made for you up to this point.  So you need information and processing time to make good decisions.  You won't have either if you wait to "think about all that" until you arrive at college.

So ready, set, engage.  Do these 5 things before you arrive on campus and you'll be ready to be Master/Mistress of Your Fate!

• Figure out the requirements at your college.  You can find these requirements in the college's on-line bulletin or catalog – don't just read the marketing blurbs in the admissions section (requirements are all about the fine print) and please, please, please don't take the word of another student (remember you are in charge, not the other student and so often the advice/wisdom you get is wrong).  There are 3 sets of requirements that matter and you need to know them all.
  • General Education/Core/Distribution Requirements:  What classes does every student, no matter what major, have to take to graduate?  Some colleges will require specific classes, but most will specify that you need a certain number of classes in a particular subject area or with a particular skill focus (e.g. everyone has to complete 2 years of a foreign language or everyone has to have a writing intensive class).  Complete these requirements early so you don't face having an extra semester just because you can't get a spot in the math class you should have taken as a freshman or so you mess up your chances for study abroad or a cool internship.  Note that many colleges have you take placement exams or use your high school grades or test scores to determine which level of a particular subject area you should take, while others use the same placements exams, grades, test scores as evidence of proficiency and deem your requirements fulfilled.  Understand the difference?  In the first instance, your 5 on AP Calc means you get to take the most advanced math to fulfill your requirement (lucky you); in the second instance, your 5 on AP Calc means you have fulfilled the math requirement and can now take Pottery if you so choose.  See why the fine print matters?
  • Major Requirements:  What classes do students in your desired major have to take and in what sequence?  Now, I know most of you aren't exactly sure of your major yet and that is fine.  But read up on the 2 or 3 majors you are currently thinking about and see if they have any classes that need to be taken in the freshman year in order to be "on track" for the major classes in following years.  If you know the requirements, you can take the classes and preserve your options.  That is good, very good.  As an added bonus, actually reading the requirements for a major may convince you it is absolutely the major for you or it is without a doubt not the major for you.  Who knew that at many colleges Economics is really Applied Math in disguise?
  • Degree Requirements:  How many credits do you need to graduate?  How many can you get for your stellar performance on AP or IB tests?  How many can you transfer if you decide to do summer school somewhere else?  How many do you have to get "in residence" (if you want to go on a study abroad program, this matters)?  Remember the goal is to graduate in four years.  Map a plan that gets that done.  Really truly, your parents can't afford for you to be in college for 6 years and you do actually want to progress to the next chapter of your life after 4 years.
• Get a handle on the registration process and know the deadlines for adding and dropping courses.  You need to know what has to be done before you can register.  Usually that involves money.  Have you paid tuition or arranged for financial aid?  You need to know how you register.  Most do it on-line, but that means you need your online ID.  Do you have it?  You need to know when registration starts and then act as if registering for classes is as important as getting concert tickets.  Log on or line up promptly.  Do you need any sign-offs from an advisor or professor in order to finalize your registration?  If so, get it done.  Advisors and professors are busy, busy this time of year and expect you to find them during their office hours.  You also need to know that there is usually a grace period – a time when you can add or drop courses before it becomes completely final.  Want into a particular class?  Talk to the professor and see if you can add it if others drop it.  Attended the first week of classes and know that Art History 101 was a HUGE mistake?  Drop it and add something else in the grace period.  But the grace period ends and that deadline is final, so make sure you know when it is.
• Think about your optimum schedule for courses. What days of the week and what times of day are going to be BEST for you?  Remember you are large and in charge, so set yourself up for success.  If you like a break between classes, see if you can make that happen.  If you intend to play a sport, be sure and schedule your lab class or seminar in the morning.  You get it -- put together your optimum schedule and see if you can get close to it.
• Reread Week 43 where I give you tips for how to be successful in your first year.  Many of the tips relate to academics, so make sure you are thinking about your schedule with these tips in mind.
• Do the summer reading recommended by the college!  Don't start behind.  Enough said.

Comments or Questions?

Don't understand your college's fine print?  Unsure how many classes to take?  Post your question here and we'll help you figure it out!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

Ask anyone to tell you stories about his/her first year of college and you'll inevitably hear at least one roommate story.  That's because living in close quarters with a stranger during one of the biggest years of your life just breeds stories.  Good, funny, ugly, memorable stories.  Want to take control of the situation now and write your own story – The Tale of Two Great Roommates?  Then, take these suggestions for how to be and have a great roommate:

• Strive to be great roommates, not great friends. Sure, you might develop a friendship, but it is not necessary.  Great roommates GET ALONG with each other and LIVE WELL side by side, even if they don't share interests, viewpoints on the world, or want to hang out together on weekends.  Great roommates RESPECT each other; liking each other has nothing to do with it.  BTW, this means that it shouldn't be a problem for you to have someone who is a different race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation from you.  But don't be embarrassed that your encounter with your roommate is your first up-close and personal encounter with someone like that, whatever that is.  After all, admissions officers spent months structuring this class, precisely so that it was diverse!  That is the beauty of college – it brings people together that otherwise wouldn't have met.  Some great roommate conversations can happen when you open yourself to respecting and learning about people who are wildly different from you, your family or anyone you've ever known.
• Set some ground rules up front.  It is much easier to decide whether it is okay for someone's boyfriend/girlfriend to spend the night BEFORE said boyfriend/girflfriend is on the doorstep.  Your ground rules don' t have to be elaborate, but they should cover the top 5 sources of roommate conflict:
  • Rules about Guests – Romantic and Otherwise.
  • Rules about Stuff – Borrowing, Using, Breaking/Replacements, etc.
  • Rules about Noise – Quiet Study Times, Bedtimes, Headphones etc.
  • Rules about Cleanliness – Who Cleans What, What is the Standard, etc.
  • Rules about Smoking, Drinking, and Other Vices – Okay or Not in the Room
• Recognize that you both are going to have to compromise and when it should be you that compromises and when it should be your roommate.  It doesn't get to be your way or the highway.  In fact, much of the compromise each of you has to make is simply accepting that.  Once you accept that you can do a rational analysis of when compromises are necessary.  Here's the trick:  adopt a live and let live attitude whenever possible, but negotiate a compromise when either of your behavior actually intrudes on the other.  Hate the fact that your roommate never makes a bed and sleeps on top of her dirty clothes instead of putting them in a hamper?  Deal with it – it doesn't really impinge on you.  But hate the loud music your roommate blasts from the sound system at 1a while working on econ homework?  Say something and negotiate a compromise from him.  Noise after hours does impinge on you.  See the distinction?  Be gracious if your roommate points out things you do that are problematic and be the example for how great roommates compromise!
• Expect conflict and have a strategy for handling it.  You can't spend 9 months living in a 10 x 15 double and not have some conflict.  But there are good and bad ways of handling conflict.  So devise a strategy that works for both of you about how you are going to handle the inevitable conflicts.  Here's where respect for yourself and your roommate is really critical.  Respect yourself enough to insist on resolving whatever is bothering you, but respect your roommate enough to do that in a way that works for both of you and without any personal, mean-spirited jibes.   What method works for both of you?  Conflict avoidant/shy folks often prefer doing it via notes, so that there is no direct confrontation involved.  Folks who handle conflict better in face-to-face conversation often like to just schedule a coffee date when a conflict arises.  Folks who are anxious that conflict may damage a relationship sometimes prefer a regular roommate check-in where you talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly all together.  And when the conflict is really sensitive, it is sometimes good to bring in a 3rd party, like your RA, to facilitate a conversation and resolution.  All of these are viable methods of conflict resolution, but you need to decide up front what strategy you are going to have, so that both of you can address issues promptly.  Prompt resolution keeps the conflict from building and turning into a major blowout.  One important note:  DO NOT attempt to resolve conflict when either of you is exhausted, sick, drunk, high or otherwise incapable of being rational and respectful.
• Don't seclude yourself by hanging out only with your roommate or holing up in your room. You didn't spend 24/7 with your sibs and parents in your room at home, did you?  Of course not.  So why would you do that at college?  Inertia that's why.  Lots of students who report difficulties with their roommates or their residential life are really just reporting that their lives are WAY TOO SMALL.  You've come to college to have a full, big life.  Your roommate and your room are a little piece of that life.  So get out and mix it up.  If you meet people besides your roommate and you live your life outside your room, it will take a lot of pressure off you and your roommate.  A strategy I often suggest to students who have the roommate/residence life blues is this:  see if you can't go three days where you limit yourself to one meal a day with the roommate and to being in your room only to sleep.  How?  Hang out in the common room, ask someone to coffee or lunch after class, join a club or a sport and hang out with those folks, study in the library, go to weekend events on a different side of campus or in town.  I bet if you do it, you'll discover that everything with your roommate and residential life is just fine.  You just needed a bit of a break.

Comments or Questions?

Do you have a giant concern about having a roommate?  Have you already learned something about your first year roommate that gives you pause?  Post your dilemma here and we'll help you find your way out of it.

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

Starting college is a rite of passage for you AND for everyone else in your family.  It is like your first step or your bar mitzvah or getting a driver's license.  You are embarking on yet another adventure in the larger world which brings you still closer to adulthood and independence.

You AND everyone else in your family are going to have mixed feelings about this rite of passage.  Excitement, fear, curiosity, happiness, pride and sadness are the most common, but regardless the mix, it is an emotional time.  And what happens during emotional times?  Conflicts, arguments, bickering, that's what.  And when are they most likely to erupt in this particular situation?  While you are making plans for how you are going to get to college and while you are actually on the road to college (not the metaphorical road, but the real live road or train track or airway).

I could regale you with all the psycho-social reasons for this reality, but the whys are really not that important.  More important is understanding the reality and doing what you can to make your trip to college as stress-free as possible.  You want your first week at college to be about your new life as a college student, not about apologizing and repairing relationships with your family.  So here they are – my top 5 tips for traveling to college stress-free!

1. Make a detailed plan NOW and communicate it to everyone involved.  Managing expectations is the first and best way to reduce stress.  So talk your travel arrangements over with your parents and siblings.  How are you going to get to college?  What is the budget for the trip?  Who is going with you?  When will you actually say goodbye? These last two questions are particularly important to address.  Almost everyone has an opinion about who should travel with you to college – including you.  Step gently into this conversation, particularly if you have complicating factors like divorced parents, step-parents, etc.  Try and negotiate it so you are traveling with the family members that make you the most comfortable.  Throw a bone to the other family members by offering that they can be the ones to visit for Parents Weekend or some other activity in the early fall.  In terms of when to say goodbye, I strongly encourage you to say good-bye once they have dropped you at your residence hall and helped you carry in your things.  There is lots going on once you officially arrive and I encourage you to jump into it.  If you are dividing your time between your family and college, you'll miss some of the first experiences that can help you anchor in your new surroundings.  But, if you want it to be a different way, that's cool.  Just decide and stick to your plan.  Because it is going to be hard to say good-bye and if you haven't made a decision before-hand, it can be even harder.
2. Build "oops" time into your travel schedule. Cars break down.  People miss flights and trains.  These kind of "oops" events seem to happen more frequently when the stakes are high.  You don't want to be late to the college party – after all, that means you'll have the worst bed in the room for the WHOLE year.  So give yourself a margin for error.  Plan to arrive a day or two early.  You can shop the bookstore, open a bank account, check out the local nightlife.  Whatever.  Just don't take the "just in time" approach here.  It is guaranteed to add stress.
3. Make sure you have a handle on the logistics of actually moving into your residence hall. Where are you assigned?  Make sure you know where you are going to live.  I know, duh!  But I can't tell you the number of students over the years that haven't actually known the details themselves (counting on Mom, really).  Where can you park while unloading?  You need to know that even if you are arriving by taxi.  Woe be to you if you think you can drive right up to the door only to discover you have to trek half-way across campus with your stuff from a remote parking/drop-off site.  When can you get in?  You don't want to be on the curb with all your stuff having to wait for a few hours or a day.  How is stuff moved into the residence halls?  If you are in a high rise, they might have carts that go on the elevator so you can pack in big boxes.  But if you are going up 3 flights of stairs, you might want smaller, lighter loads.  What comes in the room and what is allowed in the rooms?  Don't bring a microwave if they are already there or aren't allowed.  See more about packing in Week 44.
4. Draw on family rituals or create some family rituals for the college send-off. What do I mean by "ritual"?  I mean a family tradition, a habit of doing something every time a particular event occurs.  Rituals help.  They are ways that families "hold the connection" even as members of the family go out into the world.  If your family already has a ritual, be sure and observe it.  If your family doesn't have a ritual, it is time to make one up!  It doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does need to have the quality of "something special."  Playful rituals seem to work for most families.  Here are some ideas borrowed from families I have known:  send an object that has special meaning in the family with the person going off (e.g. a goofy light that has been on the porch); have a special goodbye dinner with all your favorite foods;  have a send-off party with gag gifts and/or a "roast"; get a family T-shirt made and the person has to send a picture of him/her wearing it on the college campus.
5. Get cards or write notes to each of your family members that you will deliver to them as you say good-bye. Tell them how much you love them, how much you appreciate their support, and how much you are going to miss them.  If you prepare and write all these things down now, you'll be sure and say good-bye on a positive note.  You'll leave a little of yourself there with them and reassure them that you are leaving, but that you are taking them with you in your heart.  (Okay, totally sappy, but true.)

Enough advice, off you go!

Comments or Questions?

Think you have the perfect plan for traveling to college?  Post it and share the wisdom!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.