Commentary, Posts, And Musings On College Life

Organization, Focus, Expert Advice, Relieve College App Angst

The one word we hear most from parents and students alike regarding the college planning process is overwhelmed!

Overwhelmed by college applications and admissions criteria. Trouble getting organized and staying focused. Besieged by the multitude of deadlines. Snowed under by the endless paperwork. Inundated by the overload of information. Weighed down wondering which college is right, and whether that college is the perfect fit, academically, socially, financially. Beleaguered by FAFSA. Beset by the CSS Profile. And then, there’s the dreaded college essay. Yes, overwhelmed!

Stop the madness. End the stress.

Whether the need is comprehensive college planning -- from choosing which colleges to apply to, through filing for financial aid -- or simply an assist tweaking the personal essay (in 500 words or less), we can help!

COLLEGE CONNECTION is the one-stop source for college planning, guidance and support. An invaluable resource and indispensable tool for every prospective college student -- and his or her parents.

Individualized attention specific to achieve the goal of acceptance into the college of choice. No gimmicks. No cookie-cutter counseling. Just the information and advice necessary to successfully navigate the road to college.

Call COLLEGE CONNECTION today at 516-345-8766 for a FREE, no obligation telephone consultation, or e-mail us at info@CollegeConnect.info.

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From Forbes Magazine

In Pictures: Nine College Application Tips And Admission Myths

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From The New York Times

An Applicant’s Perspective on the College Essay

By ANNE PAIK

In this post, I will connect the transformative quality of writing with the searing fearlessness of college essays, or college essays as they should be.

My peers often misread the opportunity of college essays as a one-time chance to glorify their accomplishments and present themselves in the best light possible. This is only true to the extent that students shouldn’t strive to portray themselves in an unfavorable light.

But it’s incorrect to assume that college essays reflect conventional perfection. Since we are not perfect, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with trying to justify our imperfections by excusing them.

I’m not trying to impress upon the public that I’m a fantastic writer or that I have an exclusive knowledge about college essays. My comments are drawn from my experience in struggling to formulate my own essay — in striving to achieve that correct balance between confidence and humility, achievement and growth.

For me, writing is all about discovering myself. I could expound on the revelatory quality of writing for hours and hours, but I can only keep your attention span for so long, so I’ll be as succinct as possible.

The old adage “write what you know” still rings true for many writers out there, and especially for young students who will attempt to craft the perfect college essay.

You can’t write about Keynesian economics or the evolutionary history of the mole rat if you don’t know anything about it, so there’s no use in trying to impress your readers with your nonexistent expertise. You certainly don’t get any redemption points in your favor for attempting to tackle an insurmountable topic, and the readers end up assuming that you are either pretentious or pompous.

In the sensitive and nuanced hands of a well-versed writer, just about any topic can be rife with enticing possibilities and complexities. But since most people don’t have the assiduity required to accomplish such a feat, it’s easier to stick with what you know to be fascinating and compelling.

I have a friend who wrote about the reasons why the Kenmore washer-dryer was his favorite piece of machinery. Another friend humorously poked fun at her first great directorial failure.

I wrote about my Saturdays with my grandfather, teaching him how to wink and losing spectacularly at Mahjong.

You don’t have to comb through your memory bank for the most outrageous and hilarious events that mark the great turning points of your life. Just write about what is important to you, and why it is important. That’s really what colleges look for anyway, past the accolades and accomplishments.

Admissions offices brush away names and grade-point averages to reveal the person beneath, and what that person can personally contribute to the campus as a whole. In this light, college essays become fearless and intrepid: they shine brilliantly and shamelessly, and, combined with the transformative quality of writing, stand to distract the admissions board from your otherwise less-than-perfect aspects.

Writing is an exacting and tireless process for it forces the writer to truly consider the weight of his words, to assure himself that this is what he understands to be true. Writing is about belief and faith, and surprisingly so, for so many people manipulate its rhetoric for malignant purposes.

But, truly and deeply so, writing is an act of faith, a holy and sanctified transaction of thought and emotions. It’s beautiful, it’s revelatory, and it’s darn difficult because it’s so beautiful and revelatory.

This is why college essays remain one of the more challenging obstacles of student life because the actual process demands faith and critical self-introspection, two things that have continually evaded the grasps of many students. But the great college essays grapple with this predicament and incorporate it, creating something that not only illuminates the darkness but reads a bit like poetry.

Accepted To Waiting For Rejected From University of California, Irvine (Honors) Pitzer (offer of waiting list) University of California, Berkeley University of California, Los Angeles Northwestern University of California, San Diego Stanford Pomona Dartmouth Columbia Yale Princeton USC Brown Amherst

“The Envelope, Please” is a series of posts by high school seniors chronicling their experiences during the end-game of this year’s college admissions process.

From Kiplinger Magazine

Cracking the Financial Aid Code

We watched one college hand out money -- and discovered why some families get a larger share.

By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor

Wander Ursinus College and you’d think you had stepped into an Ivy League idyll. Stone-clad buildings overlook a sweeping lawn, which slopes to a picture-perfect small-town Main Street. Winding paths skirt carefully tended gardens. Outdoor statues gaze raptly at midair as students stroll by, chattering on cell phones.

But Ursinus College, in Collegeville, Pa., lacks the wealth and status that allow the real Ivies to choose from among the best students in the country and to cover their full financial need with no-loan financial-aid packages. Like the vast majority of colleges, Ursinus must not only troll for top students but also calibrate exactly how much money it will take to bring them to campus and keep them there.

In college-speak, it’s called enrollment management -- a way of slicing and dicing admissions policies and financial aid to attract a strong and diverse student body while bringing in enough revenue to keep the doors open. Whereas elite colleges take merit as a given and extend financial aid only to those who need it, Ursinus offers sizable scholarships to outstanding applicants from every economic strata, including the wealthiest.

Surprised? Consider your own college search. As a parent, you look for the best academic program for your student at a price you can afford -- the same basic process that colleges use to attract the best students, but in reverse. The better you understand how colleges conduct their deliberations, the better you can go about yours.

Measuring merit

Ursinus’s academic reputation once relied heavily on the sciences, especially its pre-med program. When John Strassburger arrived as president in 1995, he broadened the focus to include liberal arts and boosted academic expectations. Says Strassburger, “We believe outstanding students make other students outstanding.”

About the same time, Richard DiFeliciantonio, who was then admissions director, began reexamining Ursinus’s financial-aid policy, which focused almost entirely on need. “The college was enrolling a lower percentage of low-need students and a high percentage of high-need students. It was laudable but not sustainable over the long haul. We were making the college commitment really lopsided.”

Hoping to attract stronger students who could also pay a higher portion of costs, if not the whole amount, Ursinus moved from a need-only financial-aid policy to one that includes scholarships for top applicants. Other colleges, faced with a similar financial crunch, did the same. “We haven’t thrown need out the window,” says DiFeliciantonio, “but we’ve introduced merit into the equation.”

To define what constitutes merit at Ursinus, DiFeliciantonio (now vice-president for enrollment) devised a system that rates applicants according to their grades, standardized-test scores and accomplishments. Students who score 1300 or more on their math and verbal SATs and rank in the top 10% of their high school class are typically assigned the highest rating, a 1. Those with at least 1100 total on their math and verbal SATs and who rank in the top third of their class rate a 2. Students who fall somewhat below those criteria rate a 3.

But numbers don’t represent the whole picture, says DiFeliciantonio. “We read each application twice and have the latitude to bump a student up or down.” The school recently made reporting SAT scores optional for students in the top 10% of their class, and it considers their other strengths, including the number of Advanced Placement classes on their high school transcript and any leadership roles.

Admissions counselors use the ratings not only to decide which students to admit but also to determine how much merit aid, along with need-based aid, they will receive. Not surprisingly, students who rate a 1 generally elicit the best scholarships -- $13,000 to $20,000 or more. Number 2s might be offered $10,000 to $13,000. The 3s are less likely to get merit scholarships but can still qualify for need-based aid.

Discomfiting as it may be to think that your child is being assigned a number, much less a dollar amount, such calculations go on across the country as colleges build their classes and parcel out their money. “Not everyone is a 1, by definition, and every school has its 2s and 3s -- they are just at different levels,” says DiFeliciantonio. “We’re ultimately trying to match the quality of our programs with the potential of our students.”

Knowing the formula

Once Ursinus decides which students to accept and how much merit money, if any, to offer, the financial-aid office takes over. Like every college, Ursinus uses the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to dole out federal money, such as Pell grants, and to give students access to federal loans, including Staffords. The feds pay the interest on Staffords for students with need while they are in college. Unsubsidized Staffords are available to anyone who applies. (Use the interactive college-aid letter to learn how to distinguish the various types of aid offered to you.)

Public colleges generally rely on the FAFSA to calculate how much families are expected to contribute. Many private schools, however, also have you fill out the CSS Profile, a more-detailed financial-aid application that uses a different calculation -- called the institutional formula -- to determine how much you are expected to pay. Some tailor the Profile to suit their criteria or ask that you submit a third application that bores even further into your finances.

Which formula the college uses can make a huge difference in your potential for financial aid. For instance, the FAFSA considers fewer assets than the Profile; it ignores home equity as well as the assets of family-business owners with 100 or fewer full-time employees. If you have significant wealth in home equity or in a small family business, the institutional formula will penalize you. The federal formula won’t.

But because the Profile gives a fuller picture of your finances and lets you explain special circumstances, it could give the financial-aid officer a reason to bolster your need-based aid. Colleges must follow strict rules in distributing federal funds but can make their own rules for their own money. Private colleges, which set their own tuition and often have endowments, have more freedom than public schools to do as they see fit. “If you have blond hair and blue eyes and they want to give you money for that, they can -- or not,” says Suzanne Sparrow, director of financial services at Ursinus.

Sparrow conducts seminars for the parents of prospective students and encourages them to bring their concerns to the financial-aid office. One family recently did just that, informing Sparrow that sky-high, ongoing medical bills offset their assets, which were significant. She adjusted the financial-aid calculation accordingly.

Assembling the awards

By early February, Sparrow has already put together 500 awards, mostly for applicants who have been accepted through early decision. The software she uses shows how the FAFSA would calculate the expected family contribution, but she uses the institutional formula, with a few tweaks, to come up with Ursinus’s calculation. (Use the interactive college-aid letter to learn how to distinguish the various types of aid offered to you.)

Sparrow pulls up a screen and reviews the application of a student whose parents’ household income exceeds $200,000. Their investments and cash accounts add up to about $150,000. Even before factoring in home equity, they do not qualify for need-based aid.

But the student has been rated a 1 by the admissions office and awarded a merit scholarship of $20,000. Sparrow pulls out a yellow form on which she records the family’s expected contribution and award. To the $20,000 scholarship she adds $5,500 in unsubsidized Stafford loans, which the family can accept or decline. The total award comes to $25,500, about half of Ursinus’s $50,000 sticker price.

The next student, also rated a 1, qualifies for almost $21,000 in need-based aid owing to her family’s modest net worth -- about $60,000 -- and annual income, just over $120,000. Despite her rating, she has not been awarded a scholarship. “Maybe she had good SATs but she didn’t have enough AP classes, or maybe she didn’t visit the campus and didn’t seem interested,” says Sparrow. “It’s not cut and dried.”

According to Ursinus’s guidelines for 1s, she will be awarded a need-based grant of $21,000 -- a good deal but not the best one. “Every year, the student will have to reapply for a grant,” says Sparrow. "A scholarship will never change as long as the student meets the grade-point-average requirements. So for the same amount, it’s better to get the scholarship."

The third application is from a 2-rated student whose family income is $125,000. The family’s biggest asset is home equity, a substantial $172,000. Under the federal formula, which ignores equity, the student would qualify for $25,000 in need-based aid, but the institutional formula qualifies her for only $11,000. Consolation? As a 2, the student receives a merit scholarship of $13,000, and Sparrow adds a $2,000 grant to the mix.

The final application under review for the day is that of a student whose family makes about $26,000 and has no assets to speak of. Rated a 1, this student is the kind colleges fight over, both to fulfill their educational mission and to strengthen their incoming class. In addition to federal grants, Ursinus offers him a $13,000 scholarship, a $19,000 grant and subsidized Staffords, plus a job through the federal work-study program.

But Sparrow cannot come up with a package that meets the family’s full need. Along with most colleges, the school often leaves a gap between award and cost, the better to spread its resources. The award falls short by $8,000. Nonetheless, says Sparrow, “with $32,000 in grants and scholarships, it’s a nice package.”

Sparrow wraps up for the afternoon, having allocated more than $100,000 from Ursinus’s coffers in just a few hours. The college has budgeted $33 million for financial aid for the upcoming academic year, and it will use that money to attract the precise mix of students it wants to enroll. Message to parents? Encourage your kids to study hard. “In almost all schools, the aid package will reflect the strength of the student,” says DiFeliciantonio. “The stronger the students are, the more options they’ll have.”

Check out the interactive college-aid letter to learn about the various types of aid offered to you.

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From The Daily Beast

From WalletPop.com

College for free? Yes, free

You might think it is not fiscally possible, but this list of 12 free college and university opportunities in the United States proves otherwise.

1. Alice Lloyd College becomes free after financial aid and grants are applied. Students participate in a 160 hour work-study program for a portion of this money. Candidates come from the 108-county area surrounding the Central Appalachian college.
2. Barclay College offers degrees in various ministries and Christian education. This Haviland, Kan., college has offered free tuition to all on-campus, full-time students since fall 2007.

3. Berea College provides free tuition and laptops in exchange for on-campus jobs. This liberal arts college in Kentucky admits students with high academic achievement such as an ACT score between 20 and 30.

4. City University of New York Teacher Academy awards free tuition and internships to students talented in math and science. Research opportunities and teaching experience local in middle and high schools are part of the program. A teaching position in a NYC school follows graduation.

5. College of the Ozarks, affectionately called 'Hard Work U,' allows students a free education in exchange for hard work so they can graduate without debt, and learn character. Apply only if you are in the top half of your graduating class, and have good ACT and SAT scores. Students should also demonstrate financial need.

6. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City has remained free for 150 years thanks to generous endowments. Of course, you need to get accepted first. Engineering students need a high GPA and SAT score. Art and architecture students must present a portfolio and complete entry projects that test their visual expertise.

7. Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia Penn. offers a free college education for the musically gifted. All accepted graduate and undergrad students receive merit based scholarships that covers tuition. Only 4% of students who audition are accepted.

8. Deep Springs College, in the desert of Inyo County, Ca., on the Nevada border, is a part college, part co-op where men live communally and govern themselves. If you can get into this odd little liberal arts college that admits just 13 young men a year, you won't have to pay a cent for anything. You will, however, need to be a hearty, hands-on, outdoorsy kind of person, as you will take part in running the school's farm. After completing this two-year program, graduates tend to get a free ride from an Ivy League college. The interview process includes ACT or SAT testing, applications, submissions of essays and book lists, transcripts, more essays, and a week-long visit for interviews. The students pick their new classmates.

9. United States Military Academies: Uncle Sam wants you and will pay for 100% of your college expenses if you have what it takes to get into one of its prestigious military academies. These schools include the U.S. Military Academy West Point, U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. In addition to strong academics, students must be nominated by a U.S Senator or Representative, and pass rigorous fitness assessments and medical examinations. The trade off for free college is 5-9 years of service in the military and/or reserves after graduation.

10. University of the People, a new, online, global university only charges modest fees for final exams. Enrolled students access everything online and don't pay for tuition or study materials. They are still working on accreditation for the school, but it looks good. University of the People enjoys steady growth and backing of the United Nations.

11. William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY seeks top students from New York and around the world. High test scores are required to enter this liberal arts college as well as several essays. Students receive a computer, funds for research and internships, and cultural passport to NY entertainment venues.

12. Webb Institute requires all students at this Naval engineering college to complete a double major in Naval architecture and marine engineering. A rigorous high school course of study, high test scores, strength and agility are required for consideration to this program.

While some of these colleges still charge fees and don't cover room and board, you can't  underestimate the value of an education devoid of student loans or hefty tuition bills, even if in exchange for hard work or time in the military.

And if none of these colleges appeals to you, look into state programs for scholarships and grants, and consider going to college overseas where tuition is much cheaper than it would be in the U.S. Just make sure you know the language of the country first.

Or, consider the School of Hard Knocks, which, last time we checked, always provides free admission.
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From The New York Times:

Class Dismissed

According to the unwritten constitution that governs ordinary American life and makes possible a shared pop culture that even new immigrants can jump right into after a few movies and a trip to the mall, the senior year of public high school is less a climactic academic experience than an occasion for oafish goofing off, chronic truancy, random bullying, sloppy dancing in rented formalwear and interludes of moody, wan philosophizing (often at sunrise while still half-drunk and staring off at a misty river or the high-school parking lot) about the looming bummer of adulthood. In films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Dazed and Confused” and “High School Musical 3,” senior year is a do-little sabbatical from what is presented as the long dull labor of acquiring knowledge, honing skills and internalizing social norms. It’s a spree, senior year, that discharges built-up tensions. It’s an adolescent Mardi Gras. And it’s not an indulgence but an entitlement. Remember that line in your yearbook? Seniors rule! And they rule not because they’ve accomplished much, necessarily (aside from surviving to age 18 or so and not dropping out or running away from home), but because it’s tradition, and seniors crave tradition. They crave it because they know, deep down, they’re lost, and tradition helps them hide this fear. From juniors.

This year of licensed irresponsibility, this two-semester recurring national holiday, was threatened recently in Utah by a Republican legislator’s proposal to do away with 12th grade entirely. The idea was advanced as a budget-cutting measure — a way to shave millions from the cash-strapped state’s expense sheet — and it called forth the sort of instant, intense hostility that often signals that an inspired notion, truly innovative, truly new, has, by some miracle, entered politics. The proposal drew scorn from teachers and students alike (another tribute to its possible genius) and swiftly spread across the news wires, eliciting such hostility and controversy that its sponsor flinched. Aware, perhaps, that his offbeat plan was drawing unwelcome attention to a state that has spent the modern era in a permanent defensive crouch thanks to a Mormon religious culture that many view as joyless and eccentric, the lawmaker suggested that 12th grade — that ritual time out from the march of time itself — be made optional rather than nonexistent.

But did he compromise too readily? For many American high-school seniors, especially the soberest and most studious, senior year is a holding pattern, a redundancy, a way of running out the clock on a game that has already been won. When winter vacation rolls around, many of them, thanks to college early-admissions programs, know all they need to about their futures and have no more reason to hang around the schoolhouse than prehistoric fish had need for water once they grew limbs and could crawl out of the oceans. As for students who aren’t headed to four-year colleges but two-year community colleges or vocational schools, why not just get started early and read “Moby Dick” for pleasure, if they wish, rather than to earn a grade that they don’t need? Kids who plan to move right into the labor force are in the same position. They may as well spend the whole year in detention — which some of them, bored and restless, end up doing. Twelfth grade, for the sorts of students I’ve just described, amounts to a fidgety waiting period that practically begs for descents into debauchery and concludes in a big dumb party under a mirror ball that spins in place like the minds of those beneath it.

It’s not just one Utah lawmaker who has noticed this. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has, too, it seems. In the interest of speeding students on their way to productive, satisfying careers, the foundation intends to give a $1.5 million grant to a project organized by the nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy. The goal is to help certain students leapfrog the keg party and go directly from 10th grade to community colleges after passing a battery of tests. The goal is not to save money but precious time, and the program is modeled on systems now in place in Denmark, Finland, France and Singapore — countries whose young folk, in many cases, speak English more grammatically than a lot of American high-school seniors do. One of the fledgling program’s backers, Terry Holliday, Kentucky’s commissioner of education, calls the program’s approach “move on when ready.” Compared with the prevailing current system, which might be termed “move on when all your friends do” or “move on when stir-crazy” or just “move on,” it seems both more pragmatic and humane, not to mention more likely to raise the G.D.P.

If senior year were to vanish from our high schools, either completely or in part, would its infamous excesses, feats of sloth, dances and stretches of absenteeism shift to junior year? To some degree. But what also might happen is that the education process, if it was shortened and compressed some, might help kids think more clearly about their paths in life and set out on them on the right foot instead of waiting to shape up later on. And what would they miss, really, under such a system? As someone who left high school a year early thanks to an offer from a progressive college that I didn’t seek but hungrily accepted (anything to escape those hours of “study hall” that we passed by folding sheets of paper until they couldn’t be folded any tighter, at which point we flicked them at one another’s heads), I guess I wouldn’t know. But I did learn from my visits home that my former classmates’ senior years did them few favors maturationwise, other than to make one an unwed mother and a couple of them into victims of major car collisions. That’s why, to my mind, Utah should feel free to ax senior year, bank the savings and see what happens. My hunch is that nothing will happen. Nothing much. Just the loss of a year when nothing much happens anyhow.

Walter Kirn, a frequent contributor, is the author of “Lost in the Meritocracy” and the novel “Up in the Air.”

COLLEGE CONNECTION Responds:

Class Dismissed?                                                                                                                 

Senior Year As Time Well Spent

As a college planning counselor on Long Island, I beg to differ with Walter Kirn’s conclusion that the senior year of high school is a “do-little sabbatical” or an “adolescent Mardis Gras.”

Indeed, far from the “year when nothing much happens anyhow” (presumptuous, perhaps, coming from Mr. Kirn, who admittedly skipped his senior year), the vast majority of high school seniors with whom I work – toward admission in some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges – spend that “descent into debauchery” earning college credits through honors programs and AP courses, ardently preparing for the rigors of college life.

Rather than to “run out the clock,” they are intent at padding their lead, bolstering their college prospects in a most competitive market, polishing skills, and nurturing mature mindsets that will serve them well, in college and beyond.

While some exceptional students will thrive in early-admission to college after their junior year in high school, most encountered by this writer flourish during their senior year, neither slacking off nor “party(ing) under a mirror ball” (though there is certain merit to the occasional celebratory tome), gaining necessary momentum and invaluable insight in preparation for what may be the most challenging years of their academic lives.

Even assuming that Mr. Kirn is correct in defining the senior year as little more than a “holding pattern,” in these times of economic uncertainty, when jobs are scarce, and staying in school is preferable to standing on the unemployment line, what’s the hurry?

Seth D. Bykofsky    

Counselor, College Connection     

Long Island, NY

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Going to College While You’re Still in High School

By WINNIE HU

During my senior year at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School in New Jersey in 1985, I drove to Princeton University twice a week to take a multivariable calculus course. It was exciting, but also hard work, and it taught me that I did not love math enough to major in it. But back then, college courses were typically open only to students who had exhausted their high school’s courses in a particular subject, like math or a foreign language.

Now 25 years later, high school students have many more options for taking college courses, often without having to leave their own building.

For an article I wrote for the Metropolitan section on Sunday, I recently visited Jericho High School in Long Island, where students are taking a total of 16 college courses in everything from engineering to creative writing through partnerships with St. John’s University and other colleges. Students can earn college credits for these courses, which are taught by high school faculty.

Many top suburban high schools are embracing such college courses as a way to challenge their brightest students and ward off senioritis once college applications are done.

They say the college courses offer an alternative to the high pressure AP program, in which students receive credit based solely on their performance on a year-end exam, and are a bargain in tough economic times because students receiving credit typically pay a reduced tuition fee to the sponsoring colleges.

But in some suburban circles, parents worry that the rapidly expanding college courses could lower their high school’s ranking in surveys of the best schools, many of which factor A.P. enrollment numbers into their calculations. Students in elite high schools like Jericho also say that they can be looked down upon by their peers for taking a course from a local or community college, and that the credits may not be accepted at elite private colleges like the Ivy League.

To find out more about dual-enrollment courses, read my article in the Metropolitan section. If you are currently taking a college course in high school, or have in the past, tell us about the experience. What are the advantages and disadvantages? And would you like to see more college courses in high school?

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Earful Over Cheeky University Essay

By TAMAR LEWIN

With the Jan. 2 deadline for applications fast approaching, the dean of admissions at the University of Chicago sent out a sample essay last week to thousands of high school seniors in hopes “that it lightens your mood, reduces any end-of-the-year stress and inspires your creative juices in completing your applications.” But the essay, comparing the college to an elusive lover, has had a very different effect.

“Dear University of Chicago, It fills me up with that gooey sap you feel late at night when I think about things that are really special to me about you,” the essay began. “Tell me, was I just one in a line of many? Was I just another supple ‘applicant’ to you, looking for a place to live, looking for someone to teach me the ways of the world?”

In the 10 days since the dean’s e-mail message went out, more than 100 postings appeared on College Confidential, a popular Web site for those applying to college, some questioning his decision to send out the essay.

The reactions posted ran the gamut, with many students and parents delighted, but others criticizing the essay as sexually provocative. And several students said that far from reducing their stress, it had them agonizing over whether to rewrite their own essays on why they wanted to attend Chicago.

One, beginning, “I’m going to cry now,” told of having written a similar “Why Chicago” essay, “more as a vignette than a letter, but it has me on one knee, saying, ‘Accept me.’ ” Another, titled, “Why, dean, why?!” wrote: “My Why Chicago is in exactly the same format. And somehow, covers a lot of the same ideas. Should I change mine?”

To calm the waters, a Chicago admissions representative on Tuesday posted a response telling students not to worry if their essays were similar. “We sent out the essay to lighten the mood, but it seems that it might have backfired a bit,” the posting said, adding that the dean, James G. Nondorf, had asked to “pass on a sincere apology if it did not hit the mark.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Dean Nondorf, who is in his first year at Chicago, said in an e-mail message that the reaction his office received had been overwhelmingly positive and that he thought the essay reflected “the sort of clever, creative spirit that tends to thrive at UChicago.”

“Our general message in sharing it with prospective students,” he wrote, “was that they shouldn’t stress out about essay writing.”

The student who wrote the essay, identified only as Rohan, gave permission for his essay to be distributed, the admissions office said. And although the early action program under which he was admitted is nonbinding, he has indicated that he plans to attend Chicago in the fall.

The University of Chicago has long prided itself on the unusual essays it requires from applicants, and for many years, it resisted the trend to join the Common Application, which handles online applications for hundreds of colleges and universities. Until the current freshman class, applicants used what Chicago called the Uncommon Application, which included an array of quirky and thoughtful essay prompts, many of which came from current students.

Applicants are still required to write an essay responding to one of five unusual prompts. The first one this year is “How did you get caught? Or not caught, as the case may be.” Applicants also must do the standard Common Application essay and the “Why Chicago” essay that elicited Rohan’s essay: how Chicago would “satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community and future?”

In his essay, Rohan objected to the “why.”

“Your cup overfloweth with academic genius, pour a little on me,” he wrote. “You’re legendary for it, they all told me it would never work out between us, but I had hope. I had so much hope; I replied to your adorable letters and put up with your puns.

“I knew going into it that you would be an expensive one to keep around, I accounted for all that; I understand someone of your caliber and taste. And now you inquire as to my wishes? They’re simple, accept me for who I am! Why can’t you just love and not ask why? Not ask about my assets or my past?”

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Accepted, Rejected or Deferred? Keep the Answer Off Facebook

By REBECCA REDDICLIFFE

By Jack Kadden

During my freshman year in college, an English professor encouraged the students in one of my classes to spend some time in the library each week reading newspapers and magazines — not for any particular scholarly purpose, but to gain a broader understanding of the world at large and events of the day.

So I was pleased to see similar advice offered by James MacGregor Burns, a professor emeritus of government at Williams College, in the Sunday Opinion section of The Times as part of a series of brief essays headlined “College Advice, From People Who Have Been There Awhile.”

Try to read a good newspaper every day — at bedtime or at breakfast or when you take a break in the afternoon. If you are interested in art, literature or music, widen your horizons by poring over the science section. In the mood for spicy scandals? Read the business pages. Want to impress your poli sci prof? Read columnists.

Professor Burns goes on to say that “a great newspaper will teach you how to write: most articles are models of clarity and substance — with no academic jargon!” And he adds: “A great newspaper will help you in the classroom — and it will be your conduit to the real world outside the classroom. Become addicted.”

As a journalist, I have an obvious bias here, but I think that is great advice. Others offer practical suggestions, like Carol Berkin, a professor of history at Baruch College.

During class, do not: a) beat out a cadence on your desk while the teacher is lecturing; b) sigh audibly more than three or four times during a class period; c) check your watch more than twice during the hour. Do: a) practice a look of genuine interest in the lecture or discussion; b) nod in agreement frequently; c) laugh at all (or at least most) of the professor’s jokes.

Gary Wills, a professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University, offers five sound suggestions, like “learn to write well” and “read, read, read.” He also suggests seeking out “the most intellectually adventurous of your fellow students.” And he concludes with this advice:

Do not fear political activism. I was once at an event where a student asked Jimmy Carter how he, formerly the guardian of American law, felt years earlier when his freshman daughter was arrested at a protest against apartheid. He answered: “I cannot tell you how proud I was. If you young people cannot express your conscience now, when will you? Later you will have duties, jobs, families that make that harder. You will never be freer than now.” Also, among the activists, you are more likely to meet the intellectually adventurous people mentioned in the last item.

The other contributors are Stanley Fish, a professor of law at Florida International University; Harold Bloom, a professor of English at Yale; Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois, Chicago; Martha Nussbaum, a professor of philosophy, law and divinity at the University of Chicago; Nancy Hopkins, a professor of biology at M.I.T.; and Steven Weinberg; a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin.

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