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Harvard, Princeton, Stanford …
by Bill Gerritz 28 September, 2009
Each year ISB graduates about 150 12th graders. About 60 percent will attend US universities. Of these 90, a small number will apply to the most selective universities, ones with admission rates of about 10 percent. These include Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and MIT. The students seeking admission to these schools have without exception worked very, very hard in class, in extracurricular activities, and in service efforts. I want to be sure that ISB is doing everything possible to support these students in achieving their dreams, both with our overall learning programs and with college counseling.
Recently I took a seven state road trip and met with the Deans or Assistant Deans of Admission at the six schools listed above. Two ISB Board members, Dr. Prathip and Khun Somsook, happened to be in New England at the same time and accompanied me on five of the visits. Two purposes shaped these discussions. I wanted the Deans to know about ISB and our students. I wanted to learn if there were ways we could improve our programs and counseling to make our students even more attractive.
I chose not to meet with the admissions officers themselves because our high school counselors already have close professional and in many cases "friend" relationships with these individuals. I wanted to go to the "top." Each conversation lasted from 1 to 2.5 hours. I am confident I achieved both my aims. Here is some of what I learned.
1. All but one were familiar with international schools in general and ISB in particular, a school they hold in high regard. Several said to say hello to ISB counseling staff by name.
2. All rated IB as the best preparation, especially compared to AP. They were quite familiar with the specifics of the IB, for example, mentioning their minimum, desired, predicted scores and preferences for 6 and 7s.
3. The selection process of going from 20,000+ applicants down to 6,000 is based on grades and test scores mainly, going from 6,000 to the final 1,500 depends mainly on student essays, teacher recommendations and, to some degree, alumni interviews. Students driven by intellectual or activity passion(s) are more likely to be selected than those who just "check the boxes" they think necessary for acceptance. The term intellectual curiosity kept appearing in the discussions.
4. Calls from counselors and heads in the weeks before the 6,000 to 1,500 decisions are made can make a significant difference when the purposes are genuine and callers are trusted.
5. All six thought that an Invention Center would give students with a science/math passion an opportunity to pursue it. They said that very few schools seemed to have such programs in place.
6. All but MIT have been increasing their international student enrollment over the past few years. Internationalism and community service are big improvement themes at these schools. ISB's depth in this area, gives our students many opportunities to demonstrate passion.
7. All emphasized how fierce the competition is and that they are looking for extraordinary young people -- students you never forget, the best student in 5 years, ones with high level social skills, intellectual curiosity, and discipline. All the evidence behind a student (transcripts, test scores, essays, recommendations, and interview) has to build this picture in detail.
8. All but Stanford use alumni interviews. The deans at those schools strongly advised preparing students for these interviews.
By the way, if this topic interests you, I strongly suggest you visit
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1.
There you will find 5 blogs written for the New York Times by Harvard's Dean of Admissions, Dr. Bill Fitzsimmons. By happenstance, Dean Fitzsimmons was just finishing the last blog when we met with him. (The meeting was interrupted by a call from the Times). When I returned to ISB, I downloaded the blogs and found them both fascinating and reinforcing of what I had learning during the visits.
Bill
Read more post from the Head of School's BlogsAbout the Author
Bill received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. He has written over 20 journal articles and has an abiding interest in learning improvement. Prior to ISB, Bill headed schools in Holland and South America. He and his wife Marcia have 3 sons.
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