Choosing colleges and drafting a path to future employment or graduate school with your son or daughter need not be a mysterious process.  In truth, there is a formula for evaluating your child, as well as prospective colleges, study paths, and career options.  Yet, the formula operates in a counter-intuitive way.  Do not waste your time with the wrong data at the wrong time.  Instead, follow our time-tested recipe and find the right colleges and study plan for your child.

Three major components are worthy of clarification.  First define the student’s needs and abilities from an academic, social, and cultural perspective.  Next, review the curriculum of each college.  Quantify both the 4-year major(s) plan(s) for options A, B, and C and the general education requirements. Finally, your task is to understand the college and its offerings.  What does the college do well? What are the weak spots or potential drawbacks if your child attends this college? Below, we present our formula for planning for the future and choosing colleges.  Follow our script in the exact order given.  If you change the order of steps, you change the outcome and may lead your child astray. Regarding two associated and important concerns: how to judge the likelihood of acceptance at any particular school and how to create a balanced list of colleges to apply to; we will cover those topics in an upcoming report.

STEP ONE

Who is your child?

• Academic strengths and weaknesses: analytical, reading comprehension, writing, computation, vocabulary, abstract reasoning, creative or artistic abilities
• Fit with major academic disciplines: STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) majors, social sciences (psychology, economics, sociology, etc), arts and humanities (English, visual and performing arts, history,  philosophy, etc.), or pre-professional (graphic design, film and TV, nursing, agriculture, etc.)
• Learning style: aural, visual-spatial, hands-on?
• Primary learning concerns: ability to quickly synthesize large amounts of material; working memory; need for discussion; need for clarification from teachers; ability to be a self-directed learner
• Caliber of executive function skills: planning and reviewing; ability to break down projects into small steps; organization of materials, assignments, papers; turning in assignments on-time
• Learning or attention disorders: need for accommodations, learning support programs, tutors, academic coaching, extra assistance from teachers
• Resolve: ability to self-advocate, emotional stability, self-care abilities
• High school performance: achieved at abilities, underachiever, overachiever?
• Study and work habits: most majors require 10-15 hours of study each week outside of class for B grades; 20-30 hours or more for mathematics, engineering, computer science. Can student meet that standard?
• Sociability: makes friends easy, shy; entertains self or lone wolf; comfort with diverse groups, unfamiliar peers?
• Partying: student comfort with presence of alcohol, drugs; ability to handle temptations; preference for more studious peers and cultures
• Politics: fiery and activist, apolitical, conservative, liberal; student tolerance for political correctness
• Religion: need for religious services; tolerance for anti-religious attitudes; willingness to attend religious college with theology requirement

STEP TWO

What is your child’s plan for study?

• Student curiosities: subjects, interests, majors
• Graduate school?
• First, second, and third choice major
• Research: visit school website and academic departments. Review four-year
major plan for first, second, and third choice major
• Coursework: four-year plan and course descriptions; do courses look
interesting to student? Availability of courses in student’s specific curiosity
(i.e. if daughter is prospective major in economics, are courses available in
particular interest in international trade and commerce?)
• If course descriptions are sparse on academic department website, seek out
course catalog
• Challenge of Coursework: Intellectual challenge; level of workload. Ability
of child to acquire 3.3 GPA? Refer back to step one, “who is your child?” and ability to handle distractions; high school work habits.
• General education requirements: at public research universities, can take up
50% of student’s total course-load over four years. How many courses? General
ed. courses typically boring, though not difficult. Student performance is poor
because of dull material.
• First and second year coursework: Most important, as these are years of transition and vulnerability
• Professional skill development: required internships, practicums? Senior project or thesis?
• Study abroad: specific options for student’s major, quality of study abroad
coursework. Culture and language only or serious academic work?

STEP THREE

What does this college offer my child?

• Academic Quality: foremost concern! Quality of education in specific major and generally across university. Reputation, U.S. News Rankings are of no use. Must do hands-on research
• How to determine quality: review syllabi, assess typical mode of instruction and examination; typical class size for introductory courses; number of essays required per course-load
• Assigned textbooks: visit bookstore or look online. Large format synthesized texts with bolded words and summaries? Original academic works?
• Talk with current students: With lower division students: size, level of challenge, and quantity of workload in introductory classes; professor availability for assistance. Upper division students: research opportunities, internships, mentoring, study abroad, and faculty guidance with regard to careers and graduate school applications.
• Extra-curricular experiences: participative or competitive? Can any student join theater ensemble, radio station, newspaper or are they restricted to majors only? Who can join investment club, other business and career groups?
• Learning support staff for attention and learning disorders: availability of one-to-one advising, tutoring, academic coaching for study skill and time-management. Learning specialists on staff? Walk-in appointments or need for big lead times? Formal and comprehensive learning support program? Professors willingness to accommodate special needs, extra time, etc.?
• Career services: gauge quality and availability of staff. One to one help with internships, resumes, interviews, alumni connections? Investigate top employers and industries for recent grads. How frequent are graduates hired by alumni?
• Child’s comfort on campus: high, medium, low
• Observe campus social habits: lots of activity on weekends or emptying out? Socializing in groups, alone, friendly and inviting? Stress level: high, medium, low
• Housing: number on campus, in surrounding blocks, and far away from campus. How many years of on-campus living required?
• Neighboring shops & services: coffee houses, restaurants, bars, shops within
walking distance
• Greek life: percentage of students participating, volume of partying
With thorough investigation, a robust plan for the future can be created. If you have difficulty answering the above prompts and questions, then your family has more work to do. Safe passage to success in college and career is not guaranteed; please do not misjudge the current conditions.

College admission success is not measured at acceptance time. Rather, it is measured at college graduation. If you and your child have chosen the right school and study path, then he or she will be on the way to fruitful employment or acceptance from a top graduate school program. If your family has chosen incorrectly, then your child will join the crowd of recent college graduates who are on the fringe. Nearly 50% of 22-27 year olds with bachelor’s degrees are working in jobs that do not require a college diploma according to the latest update (January 2016) from the Department of Labor. They are earning underwhelming salaries and not likely experiencing the satisfaction of meaningful work. Your family cannot operate without a career plan.

There are three primary factors that stand in the way of a successful match of college and study path. First, most students do not understand themselves with enough depth. They do not have a clear and honest picture of their interests, skills, habits, weaknesses, and personal traits. Grades and extra-curricular activities are a small part of the variables to be measured. Students must know their curiosities, their ability to manage their time, plan, and make decisions. A student who knows how she handles distractions and temptations, how long it takes her to read a chapter in a college textbook or complete a five-page essay assignment, how her college major connects to her career plan, and what it takes to keep herself feeling good and productive can say that she has a good understanding of herself.

Second, students do not have appropriate understanding of major options, study paths, and career plans. Most children today are familiar with just a small sliver of the hundreds of careers that might suit their interests and skills. Rare is the college applicant who has looked intently at the four-year major plans and general education requirements at their prospective colleges. Students need not commit to a career in their first year of college, but they must have an understanding of career options and major plans A, B, and C.

Most students do not know the difference between the major disciplines on offer at colleges and universities. There is tremendous variety in both the educational style and curriculum in the social sciences, STEM fields, arts and humanities, and pre-professional tracks. How might your child fit in each of these major blocks of study, given each curriculum and associated set of needed skills?

Can your child say with certainty that he or she has clarity about exactly what is required to achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or better in college? That is the minimum performance level expected if he or she wants to get into top graduate school programs. Does your son or daughter know what is expected by hiring managers in his or her prospective career, when applying for a first real job?

Finally, most students are uninformed about the character of the offerings at the colleges they are applying to or how each of the 4 major pools of colleges (public research, private research, teaching university, pre-professional or arts school) are different. The learning, social, and extra-curricular experience at a public research university like UT-Austin, UCLA, or Texas Tech is exceedingly different in character than the experience on offer at a teaching university like Trinity (TX), Oberlin, or Claremont McKenna. SMU, Rice, and NYU and other private research universities have very little in common with professional and arts schools like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical and Savannah College of Arts and Design.

How will your child respond to classrooms with 500 fellow students in introductory and general education courses at a school like Texas A&M? Will your child prefer the intimacy of knowing the vast majority of his or her fellow classmates and professors, as would happen at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX? Will your child fall through the cracks of a large private research university of 15,000 or more students like Syracuse or USC? Can your child deal with the fast pace of an urban campus like Boston University or George Washington?

Some parents will throw up their hands at the prospect of completing this kind of research and having direct and honest conversations with their child about the student’s habits, talents, and personality. Parents are too busy with the work of managing their daily lives and those of their children.

Most adolescents will shrug off your questions and concerns as parent nagging or unnecessary work and worry. If this is true in your household, then you require expert and compassionate outside assistance.

Nevertheless, it is important for every parent to know what is to be done to properly evaluate your child and his or her plan for study and a future career. Thus we have enclosed our recipe for doing such work in this month’s newsletter. If you want to ensure that your child will have rewarding and meaningful work or a solid shot at top graduate school programs upon college graduation, then you will complete the arduous task ahead. If you should run into roadblocks or have questions about where to go from here, then feel free to reach out to our office. We do this kind of work everyday.

To be competitive in the 21st century job and graduate school markets, 8 essential skill sets are needed. Fruitful job opportunities upon graduation come forth when an applicant can bring obvious value to the employer on day one. Employers and graduate admissions committees are overwhelmed by applicants, many of whom may have graduated from top 150 colleges but lack the necessary skills to be productive and efficient. In a marketplace where networking and insider connections have less weight than in years past, a college bound student must be aware of the areas to master in the undergraduate years.

Research– the ability to gather, observe, analyze, synthesize, and apply information to solve concrete problems.

Communication– to share ideas succinctly and clearly in oral and written form. Active listening is likely the most important component of communication skill. Voicing an opinion not connected to the immediately preceding discourse is the most common mistake new college graduates make.

Autonomy– how to turn ideas and plans into action and how to initiate this process without prodding.

Social Intelligence– understanding social cues in groups and one-to-one situations. Quickly comprehending cultural meaning and customs in unfamiliar situations.

Adaptability– adjusting rapidly to novelty, uncertainty and continuous change.

Cooperation– solving problems in small groups. Offering constructive criticism without alienating others. Receiving criticism non-defensively. Solving a task collectively via impartial compromise.

Identity– positively standing out for attitude and actions. Maintaining personal boundaries without offending others. Speaking forthrightly about values, ethics and preferences with the goal of inclusion rather than exclusion.

Productivity– completing a project in the manner and time you committed to. Focusing on the task at hand and working quickly without sacrifice of accuracy. Meeting deadlines, fulfilling expectations, and giving your best effort.

Deerfield
Choate-Rosemary Hall
Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Exeter Academy
St. Paul’s
St. George’s
Thatcher
Stevenson
Cantebury
Cheshire
The Gunnery
Hotchkiss
Kent
Loomis Chaffee
Pomfret
The Rectory
Suffield Academy
Taft
Hebron
Hyde School
Berkshire
Concord Academy
Cushing
Eagle Hill
Groton
Northfield Mount Hermon
Brewster
Holderness
New Hampton
Proctor
Tilton
Lawrenceville
Peddie
Storm King
Trinity-Pawling
Asheville School
Perkiomen
Putney
Rock Point
Vermont Academy
Episcopal (VA)
St. Anne’s-Bellfield

Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Dartmouth
Brown
Penn
Cornell
Stanford
MIT
University of Chicago
UC-Berkeley
UCLA
USC
Santa Clara
Pomona
Claremont Mckenna
University of San Diego
UC-San Diego
UC-Santa Barbara
University of Washington
UT-Austin
Texas A&M
Rice
Trinity (TX)
SMU
TCU
Tulane
Emory
University of Miami (FL)
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Virginia
University of North Carolina
Boston College
Boston University
Washington University-St. Louis
Tufts
Vanderbilt
Georgetown
Wesleyan
Vassar
Cooper Union
NYU
American University
George Washington
Penn State
University of Michigan
University of Illinois
Purdue
University of Indiana
Northwestern
DePaul
University of Denver
University of Colorado-Boulder
Bowdoin
Bates
Colby
Connecticut College
Macalester College
Carleton College
Case Western Reserve
Oberlin
Bucknell
Lehigh
Brandeis

In our latest newsletter, Dr. Shumsky advises families on the important questions to ask before choosing colleges. In addition, we cover the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor on employer demand for college educated labor (it’s way up) and outcomes for recent college graduates across selected majors. In short, underemployment for recent college graduates, defined by the Department of Labor as working in a job that does not require college education, is still widespread some eight years after The Great Recession. Underemployment for recent college graduates is hovering around 50%. Finally, we cover the poor performance of local universities in terms of 4-year and 6-year graduation rates. Popular local choices like Texas Tech, LSU, and Ole Miss are failing to graduate students in a timely fashion. All of the aforementioned graduate less than 66% of students after 6 years of enrollment.

Click the link below to download .pdf

March 2016 College Admissions Clinic News