<p>I got an invite in the mail today titled "Exploring College Options." Did anyone else get it?
Representatives from Harvard, Duke, UPenn, Georgetown, and Stanford are holding information sessions and I got invited to one. It doesn't cost anything.. Does this mean anything or do they send these invites out to everyone? And how did they get my contact info in the first place? I'm thinking through my SAT or Questbridge...but my SAT scores weren't even that stellar [2100] and I haven't even heard back from Questbridge yet which is why I'm a little dubious about the "exclusiveness" of this invite. The only interesting thing about me is that I'm a minority...</p>
<p>Can anyone give me any opinions? Should I go? I am interested in all of the schools but I also wonder if it's just a general info meeting covering everything I already know...</p>
<p>You should go; you may learn interesting stuff about the schools. But don't take it as anything beyond what it is - an informational road show and outreach program aimed at a general audience with perhaps an extra emphasis toward kids they are especially lookng for: athletes, URMs, etc.</p>
<p>It's nice that they invited you, but you will still have to apply and be accepted like everybody else.</p>
<p>I went the last two years and it is a good oppurtunity to meet your regional admission officers. LAst year, the actual DEANS of admissions were the presenters. ( Modesto,CA) I would say go</p>
<p>Anyone can go, so being invited to attend has little admission prediction significance, but it is a worthwhile and informative event. Let's compare notes here after you attend in your town and I attend in mine.</p>
<p>tokenadult - Sounds like a good idea! I've been trying to think of some interesting questions to ask, not questions that have obvious answers or answers that I already know. Any suggestions? Haha it kind of seems like I know "everything" about college admissions (I blame CC for that) so it's a bit difficult.</p>
<p>I see that some of the Exploring</a> College Options for spring 2007 have already happened, and some more will happen next week. I enjoyed the meeting in Bloomington, Minnesota on Thursday 10 May 2007. There were about 200 students in attendance and about the same number of parents. Julia Topalian of Harvard was master of ceremonies at the meeting here. She and her colleagues from Duke, Georgetown, Penn, and Stanford were on their last stop that night of a trip that took them to cities in the Midwest. </p>
<p>Ms. Topalian related a funny story about an applicant who had developed an interest in taxidermy while in high school. The student mailed a stuffed squirrel to the admissions office, but the squirrel was not well packed for mailing, and came loose from its package while still in the mail room. That's not the best way to demonstrate a passion for a particular extracurricular activity. </p>
<p>The question I asked at the meeting is one that is, really, answered reasonably well on Harvard's Web site and even better in the 2006-2007 Official Register of Harvard University, where it says, "You may take tests more than once; we consider only your highest scores." I don't know where the student concerns that prompt many questions about SAT I retakes come from; the people who open threads asking about retakes on CC don't usually cite a specific source when they ask their questions. I took care, well in advance of the Exploring College Options meeting, to write emails to Duke, Harvard, Penn, and Stanford asking about the issue of whether it matters if a student submits more than one SAT I score to their college admission office. In my email, I said I would ask about this at the Exploring College Options meeting in Minnesota, and I quoted quite a few CC threads with student questions and the various answers--in disagreement with one another--that students have received on that question here in the last few months. The response I got from Ms. Topalian representing Harvard can be found in yet another thread where this question came up very recently. </p>
<p>I know better than to think that everyone posting on CC will take Harvard's representative at her word, even after she spoke to a public audience of hundreds of people, but I think onlookers here on CC can rest assured that Harvard means what it says when it says, "You may take tests more than once; we consider only your highest scores." </p>
<p>When you have been to the meeting in your town, I'll look forward to seeing your report. And I'd be happy to hear from anyone else looking on who attended one of the Exploring College Options meetings this spring. </p>
<p>Good luck to the high school class of 2008 applicants to Harvard. The Harvard admission officer noted that next year, with the single-deadline system, it would still be a good idea to submit the personal identification part of the Common Application as early as possible (even if your test scores, recommendations, and essays aren't ready then) so that Harvard can schedule an alumni interview for you well in advance of the interview deadline.</p>
<p>I didn't go. But for my area, the chief of the local Harvard alumni association usually attends. You probably won't see your interviewer they assign to you there, but it's a fun chance to learn about Harvard and ask smart questions-you hear alot of these (What classes should I take, When I graduate I will have an associates degree from City Community College, will that transfer?). I did meet the lady (rep) in charge of Harvard admissions for my state when she visited my school. That was a fun session.</p>
<p>Yeah so I just got back from the meeting. They basically gave an overview of all 5 colleges first, then a period of general questions and then questions for individual schools.</p>
<p>The Harvard guy went over what life was like in freshman year, how everyone lived and ate together etc. And then how it changed into the house system for the 2nd year.</p>
<p>Then he talked about how much financial aid Harvard gives each year, and then he talked about the study abroad program. He also mentioned the vast resources at Harvard like the money and the library. </p>
<p>During the question session, Harvard said something about taking a gap year to smell the roses. Then Stanford mentioned how there were many roses to smell at Stanford, and everyone laughed. </p>
<p>Harvard also said that if you are going to send in some music or art to admissions, make sure its good or else it will probably hurt you a bit. He said "yes we like passion, but we like talent a lot more" </p>
<p>He also mentioned a list they make every year of the top 100 hits and misses of the applications. And how most of the kids that end up on the misses list have no social skills. </p>
<p>That's basically everything that has to do with Harvard from the meeting. I thought it was really useful. </p>
<p>He also told me what FAS stands for in the Harvard email, but I forgot, can anyone refresh my memory?</p>
<p>Token, everything answered was basically ordinary, except Penn's admission officer said that if a school doesn't offer a course you should take to get into their college then don't sweat it and take the most rigorous course possible.</p>
<p>See my school canceled the BC class, she said they can't penalize me because the course isn't offered so I'm just gonna take AB AP.</p>
<p>I went to something similar last year, and my opinion was that it was pretty useless unless you have a very unique question to ask. The presentations, though amusing sometimes depending on the presentor, were very run-of-the-mill things you could find on the website. They passed out promotional propaganda, people asked generic questions, and overall, I felt like it was a waste of an evening. If you really know nothing about the school, it might help to get acquainted I guess, but other than that, not so useful.</p>
<p>I'll agree with post #18 that a person who reads a lot of college Web sites, college publications, and--of course--College Confidential will not gain a lot of new information by attending a regional college information organized by a college consortium. I like somewhat better regional information sessions organized by just one college, because those have more time to get more deeply into details of that college's culture. </p>
<p>That said, I like going to the local meetings not to learn about the colleges, so much, as to learn about the concerns of other families. This is interesting to me because I am on the board of directors of a statewide organization for parents, and many of the parents in the organization are curious about out-of-state selective colleges and know little about them. One really common question here in Minnesota, which I think is adequately answered on Harvard's Web site but that people ask about at every local meeting about Harvard, is what Harvard does with high school transcripts that include college-for-high-school dual enrollment courses. (Quite a few Minnesota students take advantage of a state program to take up to two years of university credit on the state's dime in lieu of eleventh and twelfth grade of high school.) Harvard's answer, of course, is that such courses do not result in credit toward an undergraduate degree from Harvard--those are high school courses, and Harvard doesn't grant transfer credit for them. Harvard will, of course, place each new freshman appropriately and serve up an advanced course for any freshman ready for an advanced course. I find it interesting that this question keeps coming up--doubtless many local parents think the advantage of a dual enrollment program for high school is getting a head start on gaining college credits. To my mind, dual enrollment is still HIGH SCHOOL, and it is just a vehicle for finding a challenging high school program without having to go off to boarding school or something like that. </p>
<p>Also in this part of the country, many high school students seem very unfamiliar with SAT II tests. I was glad that the Harvard representative spoke up about Harvard's requirement of submitting three SAT II scores with an application.</p>
<p>Since I last posted I had a chance to have a phone conversation with a parent who saw one of the Exploring College Options programs in Texas. He doesn't hang out here on CC, so much of the information was new to him. Did anyone else get a chance to meet a Harvard representative during the recent spring travel?</p>