Very last chance to register for June SAT

The last SAT of the year is Saturday, June 7. Official registration ended May 6, but you still have four days till the drop-dead late registration deadline, May 15. Just click here.

List of colleges with promising financial-aid policies

The website finaid.org offers a list, with details, of college financial aid policies, focusing on colleges that are enhancing their policies, largely to replace loans with grants for lower-income students.

There's always the nagging question of whether colleges that increase their financial aid packages will offset that by accepting fewer students who need financial aid. But high-end colleges are under pressure from Congress to stop hoarding so much of their wealth, and this may be a meaningful response.

Admissions secrets of the rich and ambitious

The new San Francisco Magazine features a profile of a Bay Area woman who has been coaching — really too gentle a word — the anxious offspring of the wealthy and ambitious through the college admissions process for years, using her own distinctive program.

The admissions whisperer
When it comes to applying for college, some well-connected Bay Area kids have a secret edge: a coach named Mary Clarke.

By Natasha Sarkisian, Photography by Julia Galdo
You follow a lot of rules if you’re one of Mary Clarke’s kids. You leave your shoes outside, you complete your work on time, and—no matter how many AP classes, student government meetings, varsity practices, riding lessons, and volunteer gigs you’ve crammed into your busier-than-a-hedge-fund-manager schedule—you’re never, ever late.

This piece is worth reading — both for whatever useful tips applicants might glean and also for a look at the entire values system around the admissions process.

Writer Natasha Sarkisian wins my admiration for addressing the questions that immediately sprang to my cynical mind:

Her critics — and over the years, Clarke has accumulated many of them, especially in the prestigious private schools that nearly two-thirds of her students attend — complain that she’s just adding to the insanity of an out-of-control process that values brand names over a quality education or the good of a child.

Sarkisian addresses the issue that Clarke's work is essentially about helping the rich get richer — she is definitely not into mentoring "First in the Family" college applicants. The article quotes Jon Reider, college counselor at San Francisco's University High School (and a helpful source of information for this blog on occasion), making the same point that immediately struck me:

Reider seriously doubts that most outside counselors give students much of an edge, anyway — especially if they work only with smart, well-educated, highly motivated teenagers: “Those kids are going to get into Stan­ford regardless.”

Good story, in any case.

*Top 10 Facts* about the admissions process

The New England Association for College Admission Counseling posts a list, "Top Ten Facts Students Should Know About the College Admission Process."

http://www.neacac.org/docs/top_ten_facts.pdf


By the way, I'm embedding links and posting them separately in case anyone wants to copy/paste these items and repost or send anywhere else, since the embedded links won't work in some formats. Feel free to do so.

ACT deadline; more on SAT subject tests

As previously noted, the deadline to register for the June 7 SAT (last SAT date of this school year) is next Tuesday, May 6. To register, go to www.collegeboard.com. Gordon Chalmers, college counselor at San Francisco School of the Arts, issues a reminder that the last ACT of the school year is June 14, and the deadline is Wednesday, May 7. To register, go to www.actstudent.org /.

Gordon offers further advice on the June SAT: "Juniors who have already taken the SAT I before or will take it in May should now take the SAT II Subject tests in June, especially if planning to apply to a UC. One of the three tests taken in June should be U.S. [History], and the other could be Literature. The 3rd test, if you decide to take a 3rd test, could be Biology, chem, a language or world history. Do not take Math 1, as UCs will not accept it and don't take Math 2 unless you have completed Trig."

Deadline looms for last SAT of this school year

Signup deadline is May 6 for the June SAT date, which is Saturday, June 7 — both the SAT I and subject SATs. (The SAT is given all over the world on the same day.) go to the College Board website to sign up and get more information:
http://www.collegeboard.com/splash/

Presentations by Northwestern University

Northwestern University (which despite its name is in the Chicago area — it's all relative) comes to the Bay Area for two information sessions May 18 and 19.

San Francisco
Sunday, May 18, 7:30 p.m.
Hyatt Regency, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco

San Jose area
Monday, May 19, 7:30 p.m.
Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel, 1100 N. Mathilda Ave., Sunnyvale

Registration is urged. Go to the tour web page to register:

http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/counsel/session.cgi?region=WEST

Thanks to Terry Abad for this info!

*8 of the Best Colleges* fair is next to arrive

Another in the series of group college events comes our way May 20 and 21. "8 of the Best Colleges" (I like the rather modest name) comprises: Claremont McKenna in Claremont, east of Los Angeles; Colorado College in Colorado Springs; Connecticut College in New London; Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; Haverford College in Haverford, Pa.; Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.; and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y.

Their tour comes (close) to San Francisco on Tuesday, May 20; registration 6:30 p.m. and program 7 p.m.: Crowne Plaza Hotel near SFO, 1177 Airport Blvd., Burlingame. (There's a Crowne Plaza nearby in Foster City too, so don't get confused.)

The tour is in Berkeley on Wednesday, May 21, registration 6:30 p.m., program 7 p.m.:
Doubletree Hotel Berkeley Marina, 200 Marina Blvd.

Advance registration is requested:
http://tinyurl.com/6fwq3u

Another elite college presentation

Thanks to blog reader Belle for alerting us to another of these tours put on jointly by several elite colleges and not publicized super-widely. Pass it on!

This time it's Brown University, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University and Rice University, teaming up as Exploring Educational Excellence. They'll be here soon — in Berkeley and San Jose, though not San Francisco itself.

Santa Clara:
Tuesday, April 29, 7:30 p.m.
Santa Clara Convention Center
5001 Great America Pkwy
Santa Clara

Berkeley:
Wednesday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center Berkeley Marina
200 Marina Boulevard
Berkeley

Here's what the website says:

You must register to attend and bring a copy of your registration confirmation e-mail to each event.

Click here to find out how to register: http://www.exploringeducationalexcellence.org/student.html

For college applicants with learning disabilities

Here are some resources that I have not vetted, but which look worth checking out:

An online list of colleges with programs for learning-disabled students:

http://www.college-scholarships.com/learning_disabilities.htm

The college page of the website LDonline, which provides further resources:

http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/college

A Princeton Review book, "K & W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities, 9th Edition"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375766332/ldonlinelearningA

(I'm posting the links as well as embedding them, for anyone who may want to copy this and pass it along to others.)

Fair for high-end colleges coming our way

For ambitious super-achievers, five of the colleges that want your application in their inboxes are teaming up to offer a college presentation that looks rather exclusive. Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Penn (University of Pennsylvania) and Stanford have formed a project, if that's what you call it, called Exploring College Options, www.exploringcollegeoptions.org

Presentations in the Bay Area and Sacramento:

San Jose/Santa Clara
Monday, May 12, 7:30 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
5101 Great America Parkway
415/200-1234

Oakland/East Bay
Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.
Oakland Scottish Rite Center
1547 Lakeside Drive
510/451-1902

San Francisco
Wednesday, May 14, 7:30 p.m.
Hilton San Francisco
333 O'Farrell St.
415/771-1400

Sacramento
Thursday, May 15, 7:30 p.m.'
Doubletree Hotel Sacramento
2001 Point West Way
916/929-8855

The publicity material sounds like reservations are seriously required. Go to the website for more information and to RSVP.

Even for non-rankings fans, a tip from U.S. News

U.S. News & World Report is increasingly unpopular and controversial in the college admissions world for its influential annual college rankings, which have spawned a growing rebellion.

But the magazine's college coverage is still useful. Here's a helpful article on what to do — beyond languishing helplessly — if you're on a college's wait list.