By Margaret Andrews. Last week I wrote about advice I give to students applying to college or graduate school. My advice to students is simple, but risky: Be yourself, let your true colors fly, and tell the story that only you can tell.  If students try to package themselves to be what they believe a school is looking for, they will sound like at least one thousand other applicants and there will be no reason for an admissions officer to pull them out of the pile for the ‘admit’ list. Read more...

By Margaret Andrews. I’ve done a lot of admissions work in my life, including managing the admissions team for a top-tier business school, being on the admissions committee for one of the most selective schools on the planet, and overseeing admissions for less selective programs.  While I now run much larger operations, I’ve always kept my hand in admissions and still coach a lot of neighborhood kids and sons and daughters of friends on how to stand out from the crowd. Read more...

By Matt Reed. That isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds, especially in the early stages.  Assuming that some folks have been burned before, you’ll have to overcome some initial skepticism.  You’ll need to be willing to focus the venue on solvable issues, and to set a goal of providing solutions, rather than blame.  That may involve disappointing some of the more ardent True Believers.  But if you’re able to set a constructive tone, you’ll quickly gain credibility. Read more...

By Matt Reed. I’ve written before about my distrust of the “undermatching” thesis. (Quick review: “undermatching” refers to talented, low-income students choosing colleges that are easier to get into than they could have.) Defining “undermatching” as a significant problem writes the academic prestige hierarchy into nature, ratifies resource inequality among institutions in the name of “meritocracy,” writes off the institutions that most people attend as irredeemable, and assumes an independent effect of selectivity that empirical social science suggests doesn’t exist. It assumes that the solution to mass drowning is a few life preservers. Read more...