This presentation is intended to demystify the admissions process by providing an overview, with statistics, charts and studies. The goal is to put students and families at ease at an understandably nerve-wracking. It's also intended to raise awareness of "snake oil salesmen" in the admissions game who may attempt to mislead and take advantage of vulnerable and anxious parents, as well as call attention to the dysfunctional high school guidance system across the country—a system in which 6 in 10 college-going graduates say their high school guidance counselors failed them.

1. +
College Admissions 101
Why getting into college is easier
than you might think.
Presenter:
Jermaine Taylor
Founder, Sponsoring Young People

2. +
College Admission: From Application to Acceptance,
Step by Step by Robin Mamlet and Christina Vandevelde
Robin Mamlet is the former
dean of admission at
Stanford, Swarthmore and
Sarah Lawrence, where she
made more than 100,000
admissions decisions.
Christine VanDeVelde is a
parent and journalist for
such national papers as USA
Today and the San Francisco
Chronicle.
www.collegeadmissionbook.com

3. +
The Big Picture
“More than three-quarters of students are accepted by
their first choice college.”
-
Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA
www.heri.ucla.edu
“What that means is that college-bound teens have an excellent chance of
getting into a school that is right for them if they prepare properly.”
“College-bound students should not be intimidated.”
-
Robin Mamlet & Christine Vandevelde

4. + So what are your chances?
From the Chronicle of Higher Education
Courtesy of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA
The statistics are based on
survey responses of 219,864
first-year, first-time students
a t t e n d i n g 2 9 7 f o u r - ye a r
colleges and universities full
time in the fall of 2009.
Acceptance:
ü
79.2% of students got into
their first choice school
Enrollment:
ü
ü
chronicle.com/article/This-Years-Freshmen-at-4-Year/63672/
95.3% enrolled at one of
their top three schools
4.7% enrolled at a school
outside of their top three

5. +
Need more reason to be confident?
n
There are more than 2,600 four-year
college and universities in the
United States alone.
n
More than 80% of institutions accept
more than half of the students who
apply.**
n
The average acceptance rate at all
colleges nationally is 67%**
n
Nearly eight of ten graduates would
attend the same college if they could
go back and do it all over again,
according to the American Council
on Education.
**2010 State College Admission NACAC, Page. 6

6. +
So where is it difficult getting in?

7. +
Beware of “snake oil salesmen”
“There are snake oil salesman in every field, and they are preying
on vulnerable and anxious people.”
- Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania
http://nyti.ms/1bDGjEp

8. +
Can I get a little advice here?
How an Overstretched High School Guidance System Is Undermining Students’
College Aspirations
• 6 in 10 college-goers
give their high school
guidance counselors
failing marks
• 48 % said they felt like
“just a face in the crowd.”
• “ S t u d e n t s wh o ge t
perfunctory counseling
are more likely to delay
college and make more
questionable higher
education choices.”
www.publicagenda.org/files/can-i-get-a-little-advice-here.pdf

9. +
Quit listening to your guidance counselor!
n
“In focus groups conducted as part of the
project, young people often characterized their
meetings with counselors as dispiriting and
unhelpful, especially if the student happened to
be one who didn’t stand out as “college
material.” – Can I Get a Little Advice Here?
(Public Agenda)
n
“It’s a national scandal. Shame on the schools of
education in this country. There are hundreds
of schools that produce these graduates who
are essentially irrelevant to families seeking
advice.” – Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a nationally
recognized college planning expert and author
of The College Solution
www.publicagenda.org
www.thecollegesolution.com

10. +
Guidance counselors are untrained
The vast majority of schools of education
across the U.S. require NO college counseling
or advisement requirement to graduate with a
Master of Science in School Counseling.
Some schools, like Syracuse, offer courses
such as “School Counseling for College
Access and Retention,” but such courses are
only given as electives and are rarely, if ever, a
staple of the core curriculum.
Currently, about 25% of American high
schools have a staff member dedicated to
college admissions full-time.**
At most high schools, “college counseling” is
seen as an “added duty.”
**Jess Brondo, Admitted.ly: http://tcrn.ch/18rpXx3

11. +
Part-time gig? On the contrary.
While college counseling is generally seen
as an “added duty” at most schools, some of
the most selective (and expensive) schools
across the country take it VERY seriously.
“Most schools just don’t compete,” says
Gwyeth Smith, a nationally recognized
college advisor with over 30 years of
guidance experience and the subject of
Acceptance: A Legendar y Guidance
Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the
Right Colleges—and Find Themselves
Ø Poly Prep Country Day: 4 full-time staff
Ø Illinois Math & Science: 4 full-time staff
Ø Stuyvesant High School: 3 full-time staff
Ø Average U.S. high school: 0
www.gwyethsmith.com

12. + A college admissions hero
She planned for six top students to
secretly visit Holy Cross College,
the competitive, mostly white
college in Worcester, Mass., where
she had developed some contacts.
When All Hallows' new principal,
Sean Sullivan, found out about the
trip, he objected, saying there was
no way they would be accepted to
such a selective college. They went
anyway. A f ew months later,
acceptance letters came back: six
for six.
“After that, I told Kathy, ‘Keep doing
whatever it is you’re doing,’” said
Sullivan.
http://bit.ly/1dFmSuj

13. +
Quotes
“The results are now in,” David Leonhardt, Washington Bureau Chief for the New
Yo r k T i m e s , w r i t e s i n a M a rc h 2 9 , 2 0 1 3 , T i m e s a r t i c l e e n t i t l e d
“A Simple Way to Send Poor Kids to Top Colleges.” “And they suggest that basic
information can substantially increase the number of low-income students who apply
to, attend and graduate from top colleges.”
Says Sam Fullwood III, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress: “As
much as we don’t like to believe it, America’s stark class stratification begins at the
schoolhouse door. It must not be allowed to matriculate further into the nation’s
colleges and universities.”
“College matters a lot for social mobility,” argues Richard V. Reeves, policy
director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution.
“Getting more poor kids into colleges, and getting the brightest into the best
colleges, ought to be a national mission.”

14. +
We can do better. We have to.
Sponsoring Young People
www.sponsoringyoungpeople.org
Let’s create a college-going culture for every young person!
#college