It seems one minute you are sending out birth announcements, and seconds later that time has come – the dreaded college-selection process. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford...But it’s a big country out there, and if students would only broaden their search, their prospects for success in getting into a great college may increase significantly.
Ivy League universities as well as institutions such as Brown, Stanford, and Duke are usually among the choices of students who have the best grades, SAT scores, and athletic or other skills and experiences. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, there are more than 2,400 four-year institutions and 1,700 two-year institutions in the United States, but based on conversations with guidance counselors, there is a sea of sameness in college applications.
For students willing to navigate some uncharted waters, and parents willing to foot the bill for a "first-class cabin," there are the services of Stacy Einhorn, the Westchester/Fairfield county representative for College Coach, a service that promises to "take the mystery out of the college admissions process." Einhorn works with students to identify who they are as a person – at least long enough to help get them into college, writing the all-important college entrance essay, and, of course, helping them come up with a comprehensive list of colleges at which to apply. She helps students be realistic about where to apply but will never discourage them from applying to the college of their dreams, even if they don’t stand a chance to get in. "Twenty years from now, I don’t want their biggest regret in life to be not applying to Harvard," Einhorn says. But this service is not for the family on a restricted college budget. It can cost as much as $5,000 or more for a student who she begins coaching as early as sophomore year in high school.
Since high schools boast about Ivy League-bound seniors, we wondered about some of the lesser known alternatives.
"Because of the Internet, there are no best-kept secret colleges. Students have such easy access to their peers, not only in this county but around the country, there’s much more comparing notes than there used to be. If anything, it helps them," notes Dennis Cuddy, director of guidance at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua.
Virtual tours of colleges and universities are very appealing to parents and students and help narrow their choices, but higher learning institutions know that getting themselves on the radar screen among high school students is the goal.
Bob Sweeney, a counselor at Mamaroneck High School for most of his 20-year career and the president-elect of the Westchester Rockland Putnam Counseling Association, says about 95 percent of Mamaroneck’s 2006 graduating class attend college, 50 of whom will attend local colleges. On Sweeney’s short list of less popular college destinations is Earlham College, a small liberal arts school in Richmond, IN. "If I can convince a student to go to the Midwest and they want a small school, I recommend it," he says.
At Rye Country Day, all 92 members of the class of 2007 are expected to go to college. "After being in such a small school, many of these students want something larger," says Penny Oberg, who will retire in June, ending a 30-year career as a guidance counselor. "Our kids tend to go to household-name universities. As much as we say ‘Have you thought about Whitman (Wala Wala, WA) or Carleton (Northfield, MN),’ they’ll say ‘Yes’ but generally, they don’t go." Few head to SUNY although one who went to Purchase a few years ago for theater "transferred" to the Broadway stage after his freshman year. "Distance from home and moms are deciding factors for our high school seniors," sums up Oberg.
