Greetings from Philadelphia! Some members of our team are attending the spring conference of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, a great opportunity to learn, to share best practices, learn about colleges, and be together! Professional development is an integral part of our college counseling practice at Galin, and I am excited to share just a few of the little snippets of information we’ve gleaned so far this week!
From Jessie: “I’m looking forward to touring many colleges, including Penn, Drexel, Temple, Swarthmore, Franklin & Marshall, Lehigh U. and Lafayette College. I attended a session on transfer admission with American U., Temple, and McDaniel College, and picked up very specific tips from their admission offices. I’m also looking forward to a session on financial aid and getting new information on online programs for high-school students.”
From Pat: “I had the opportunity to visit University of Delaware. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the campus and the walkability. Both of the student centers were active and lively. The tour guide said hello to several people on the tour. For anyone looking for a mid-sized, division 1 school with a broad set of majors but desiring to figure out how to make a big school feel small, I think the University of Delaware is worth a visit.”
From Ethan: “At the IECA conference, I attended a session on the five year trends related to the Early Decision application option (the binding, early option for applications, referred to as ‘ED’) and learned a few interesting insights. One is that there has been a general trend in more colleges accepting more of their incoming class via their ED pool (including either ED1 or ED2, as some schools have moved to offering two ED options), meaning that fewer students are being admitted in the non-binding, Regular Decision pool. For some of our students, this might mean looking seriously at this ED option as a way of improving chances of being accepted. At the same time, however, of the ~120 schools that were analyzed in the data (out of roughly ~230 schools that offer ED), only 23 filled 50% or more of their class via ED, so for most schools, Regular Decision remains a viable option. So if you are looking at a school that does offer ED, make sure to speak with your college counselor about whether that application strategy would be right for you!”
From Liz: “Attending the college fair, I was struck by how many colleges I heard about that were adding direct-entry nursing and other health sciences programs. For students interested in these career pathways, this means that there will be more exciting opportunities in the coming years. Two examples are DePaul University in Chicago and St. Joseph’s College here in Philadelphia. One thing all the admissions representatives of these colleges mentioned was the importance of the rigor of a student’s science curriculum in admission decisions. For students to be successful applicants to direct-entry nursing programs, they need to excel in their high school science courses and to take rigorous courses, like AP Biology.”
We look forward to sharing more of our newly-acquired knowledge with you when we return!
