The dean of admissions of St. Lawrence University discusses what admission officers look for while reviewing a student's transcript and whether it's better to have an A in an honors class or a B in an Advanced Placement class.

Stephen Burd, a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation, argues that colleges are taking federal aid for poor families and redirecting it to attract wealthy, high-scoring students.

To help you decide if this is a good option for your family, take a look at the following tips on applying for and managing your Parent PLUS Loan.

Be careful. Senioritis, that intensifying disinterest in maintaining high academic standards, is real — and it is dangerous, as regular readers of The Choice are aware.

Leobardo Espinoza Jr., a high school senior in Kansas, will never have a final decision from Stanford or Brown Universities, and he's "perfectly fine with that."

Anyone considering attending a private college in Minnesota should be aware of Minnesota Private College Week.

From June 24 to June 28, 2013, twice daily sessions will be held at each of Minnesota’s 17 private colleges and universities. The morning session will run from 9:30 to 11:45 am while the afternoon sessions run from 2:00 to 4:15 PM.  College visits get busy during this time so you should register for the visit before attending whichever colleges you have an interest in.

While there are certainly other times to visit these colleges, this is a great opportunity to see a number of colleges in one week. The great thing about visiting different colleges during this week is that you get to see the different personalities that each college has.

Wondering which colleges will have sessions? Here is a list of the colleges participating:

• Augsburg College
• Bethany Lutheran College
• Bethel University
• Carleton College
• College of Saint Benedict
• College of St. Scholastica
• Concordia College, Moorhead
• Concordia University, St. Paul
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Hamline University
• Macalester College
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design
• Saint John’s University
• Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
• St. Catherine University
• St. Olaf College
• University of St. Thomas

If your college interests lie outside Minnesota check out your local colleges. Visiting colleges is one of the best ways to figure out what you are looking for in a college.

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Minnesota Private College Week

Universities are working to diversify their student bodies in states like California, which has eliminated race-conscious admissions.

This year's high school freshmen may be among the first students to sit for the digital version of the exam, if they take the test during the spring of their junior year.

A college counselor advises high school juniors to schedule college visits and meetings this summer, plan for a rigorous senior year and to start thinking about their college essays.

A college counselor offers final steps for high school seniors as they wrap up their high school career, finalize their college plans and prepare for their final summer before college.

More than 99 percent of the schools still have housing, and all of them are still offering financial aid, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling has just released their list of colleges that still are accepting applications for Fall 2013.  There are currently 210 colleges around the country with openings for freshman and/or transfer students.

If you are a senior and still have not found a college to attend for Fall 2013 head on over to the list. It provides not just the name of the college and what state they are located in but also whether they have openings for transfer students, have housing available and states if they have financial aid available. However, get over there quickly because as colleges fill up, your options will be much more limited.

 

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Colleges Still Accepting Applications

When choosing between Yale and Amherst, Leobardo Espinoza Jr. resorted to the "old-school method of deciding where I felt the most comfortable."

In the past 10 months since my free BS/MD newsletter began more than 600 people have subscribed.  But I suspect that some of you that have an interest in BS/MD admissions still haven’t subscribed to the newsletter. So I thought I would give you a little glimpse into what you have missed.

• A case study of an applicant who successfully applied to Northwestern HPME.
• A case study of another student, academically stronger, who was not accepted into HPME. And a discussion of why this student was not accepted.
• Detailed information on where you should be volunteering.
• Information on what the BS/MD program at UMKC is looking for in applicants from an assistant director of admissions.
• And much more…

Want to read some of this inside information?  And get a FREE ebook on BS/MD admissions?  Just click on the BS/MD button on the navigation bar and sign up for the newsletter.

I’ll see you on the inside.

 

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What Have You Missed in the BS/MD Newsletter

The National Candidates Reply Date is here. Share how you made your college admission decision on The Choice.

Students who were denied admission to their top-choice college should remember that achievement comes at many points in life, college admissions being only a small part of adult living.

Understanding a college decision and celebrating it are two different things, a distinction that can elude even the most enthusiastic supporters.

It has been another good year at College Admissions Partners. For the third year in a row more than 75% of my students applying to BS/MD programs were admitted to at least one program and many were accepted into more than one program. If there is a number after a college it reflects the number of my students admitted to that program.

Congratulations to all of my students on all of the hard work you have done to get to this point.

Here is a partial list of the 2013 college acceptances:

1. Northwestern HPME (2)
2. Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars Program
3. UC San Diego Medical Scholars Program
4. University of Miami Honors Program in Medicine
5. Boston University Seven Year Program of Liberal Arts and Medicine
6. UT Dallas UT-PACT BS/MD Program
7. Union/Albany Leadership in Medicine-Health Management Program (4)
8. Virginia Commonwealth University Guaranteed Admission Program (Medicine) (2)
9. Penn State’s Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program
10. Florida Atlantic University Wilkes Medical Scholars Program
11. TCNJ/NJMS Combined BS/MD 7-Year Program (2)
12. Rutgers-Newark/NJMS BA/MD Program
13. University of Toledo Baccalaureate/MD Program
14. University of Nevada Reno BS-MD Accelerated Early Admission Program
15. Northeast Ohio Medical University B.S/M.D. Program
16. University of Kentucky B.S./M.D. Accelerated Course of Study Program
17. University of Missouri Kansas City Six Year B.A./M.D. Program (2)
18. St. Louis University Medical Scholars Program with 20,000 scholarship (4)
19. Yale University
20. Brown University
21. University of Pennsylvania (2)
22. Columbia University (2)
23. Dartmouth University
24. Cornell University (2)
25. Stanford University
26. Duke University (3)
27. Caltech (2)
28. Vanderbilt University
29. Washington University in St. Louis (3)
30. Emory University
31. Georgetown University
32. University of Pittsburgh Full Ride
33. University of Miami Full Ride
34. Case Western Reserve University (3)
35. University of Rochester (2)
36. Rice University
37. Carleton College
38. University of Southern California
39. UCLA (2)
40. UC Berkeley (3)
41. Hamilton College (2)
42. Colgate University
43. Colby College
44. St. Olaf College (3)
45. Lawrence University (2)
46. Whitman College
47. Bryn Mawr College
48. Scripps College
49. Rose Hulman Institute of Technology
50. Birmingham Southern College
51. Knox College 2 20,000 scholarship
52. Ohio Wesleyan University 22,500 scholarship
53. University of Wisconsin Madison
54. University of Colorado Boulder
55. University of Vermont
56. University of Arizona
57. University of Illinois Engineering

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Senior Acceptances 2013

Will Walker, who was accepted to Williams College under a binding early decision application, felt like he "made a mistake" just before a recent campus visit.

Rather than recommend majors of the future, here are four activities to help develop the skills necessary to succeed in the work force of tomorrow. If you focus on these activities, the majors won’t matter as much.