Eureka! The Epiphany Moment

My biggest leap into the current trends in social media and technology is the creation of CollegeApp, which by now, you may know, if the college search application I developed for Iphone and Ipod Touch and soon IPad. It was an astounding process to conceive of an idea, and through the utilization of current technology, have it spring to life as a useful interactive tool for students, parents and counselors alike!

I remember doing a search for "college" on the App Store and (true story) an app that came up was "College Boobs". I thought, "Not only is there nothing out there in app world for the college search, when people look for a tool, they get soft porn. Unacceptable." So, I set about creating a tool and getting into the hot hands of the world's Iphone-toting teens.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/collegeapp/id358556245?mt=8

It is remarkable how it is taking off. It just released this week and already I am blown away by the number of downloads and ratings. There has even been talk of translating it into Mandarin!!!

CollegeApp Incendiary with "Matches"

CollegeApp® is the cutting-edge, interactive college search tool available on the App Store for Iphone and Ipod Touch.

Create by Oxford, Yale and Boston College graduate, Erin Avery, CollegeApp® incorporates a fun and interactive student-centered approach to attaining the best fit and match for each student. CollegeApp® contains 600 of the most selective colleges in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Users build a version of their ideal college characteristics using an avatar with rotating body parts that correspond to attributes such as size, location, cost, Greek life and selectivity. After the selections have been made, a list of colleges appears that match these chosen characteristics. The results page includes the most updated specifics self-reported by each college so that the information is accurate, current and pertinent. A map appears to show location with a direct link to each college website! Users can explore myriad possibilities and use CollegeApp® again and again using different combinations of college attributes.

Not interested in the playful element? Get right to work!

CollegeApp® also offers a search feature geared toward guidance counselors, educational consultants and parents alike! In a moment, users can isolate every college with Greek life, or every college located in a small town or city, or every college in a hot climate, or any number of combinations of the above. CollegeApp® helps to narrow from hundreds of great colleges to a manageable number and encourages all to focus on best-fit decisions.

Created by IECA Professional Member and member of HECA, NACAC, and NJACAC, Erin Avery of Avery Educational Resources, LLC, Fair Haven, New Jersey, CollegeApp® will be available to the public March 1.

Getting "Engaged"

According to self-reported data from America’s colleges, more than 60% of students that matriculate at a college do not graduate from that college. Translation: well over half of American college students either transfer or drop out.

After the family home, college education is the largest monetary investment a family will make. If the vast majority of college-bound students are transferring or dropping out, what’s wrong?

1. NACAC recommends a caseload of no more than 250 students per guidance counselor annually. 250! The national average is 450! Many guidance counselors are over burdened and struggle to find the time and energy to meet students’ needs.

2. We have been brain-washed by “Animal House”, “Road Trip” and other Hollywood movies that tout the “college experience” over higher education.

3. We have “prestige-itus”. I want to get into the BEST college or as Groucho Marx put it, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” We all want the “best” and the most sought-after schools must be the best, right? The best for whom?

4. Fit and Match should be the first words when embarking on the college search and application process and the last words when choosing from one’s acceptances.

5. Students must become experts in the colleges to which they apply. Effort must go into the narrowing process.

6. Characteristics such as size, location, presence or absence of Greek life, cost, and weather should be preliminary and followed by a deeper exploration of what NSSE recommends as keys to ascertaining student engagement:

(1) “A campus should support both academic and social opportunities for students;

(2) A college should provide a rich complement to academic offerings like international study, service learning, internships;

(3) Faculty should be student-focused and allow for interaction;

(4) Learning should be collaborative and active (NSSE explores, for example, whether students memorize facts or engage in analysis); and

(5) Coursework should be intellectually challenging and foster creativity."

The more engaged students are, studies prove, the more edifying their education. Engagement is a critical measure in the efficaciousness of a college education.

Start early. Visit widely. Concentrate on Fit Decisions. Express Interest in Those Colleges. Happy Ending.

A Case Study in "Prestige-itus"

Hilary is a bright, young Caucasian senior at the local public high school ranked in the top 100 high schools in the state of NJ and from an affluent family. She is ranked among the top 3 in her graduating class. Her SAT scores are in the upper 600s for all three areas and she has a proclivity toward the theatre having acted in school plays and attained a SAG card at a young age after a prolific modeling and commercial acting career. Kind and generous, she had given of her time and talents in many ways, notably dressing up as an elf annually for Holiday Express, a local charity that brings holiday cheer through music to many elderly and disenfranchised populations in the area. The list of her activities, leadership and philanthropy goes on.

Hilary applied to Columbia Early Decision, Georgetown, BC, Tufts, and NYU. The rejections began and kept coming. NYU was all too happy to accept this talented full-fee honors student in one of the biggest blood-bath years in college admissions history. Crestfallen, Hilary shook hands with her new NYU roommate as they were seated on their beds in their Greenwich Village matchbox dorm room.

One year later, Hilary begins her sophomore year at Northwestern University and is thrilled. Engaged in undergraduate research projects, and smaller class sizes, attending football games in the fall, while monopolizing on all of the culture Chicago has to offer, Hilary is content and gleefully working toward completing her Pre-Med requirements. What changed? “What mattered to me at the outset was the school name. I felt I had worked hard and deserved to have access to the type of school only the top kids get into. But now I realize my priorities were skewed. All I knew was name. I wasn’t focused on what would hasten me toward my goals and suit me socially and intellectually. If I could whisper in my 17 year-old ear, I would say, “Do your own thing. Explore all options. Concentrate on what matters.” I would spend more time on the search process and less time on the application process. The search is the courting period, the applications are just the seating chart.”

Hilary, like the majority of college-bound students, didn’t get it right the first time around. A variety of factors impacted her outcomes such as attending a public high school, a peak in the population bubble, and a healthy case of prestige-itus. Hilary’s can be a cautionary tale for much of entitled America who feels that name trumps match. Focusing on “Fit Decisions” minimizes split decisions.

Pause and Consider

Why has Avery Educational Resources considered to have single-handedly redefined the high-stakes college search and application process by shifting the focus from the outcome to the journey? This frenzy-fraught time in a teenager’s life is fueled by the empty promises of prestige and selectivity. The opportunity lay in the attention and energy traditional high school students place on reflecting on their unique gifts, talents, perspectives and life experiences. How will I differentiate myself from the pool of candidates? What is quintessentially me? This is an ideal window to edify self-esteem, to strengthen critical reflection skills, to celebrate uniqueness and diversity of worldview, to build confidence and to foster autonomy and ownership in a culture that prolongs adolescence and touts irresponsibility. Our work also involves managing expectations and focusing on “fit”. Many teenagers fall prey to “I have my heart set on x college” or what I call the “dream school” mentality. The nature of competition emphasizes the reality of winners and losers. But there are no losers in higher education. It is a match to be made, not a prize to be won. With approximately 3000 undergraduate colleges in the US, over 90% of which accept 80% or more of applicants, the general population has been duped into believing that more selective must mean better. There are too few experts who truly know the plethora of colleges and their idiosyncrasies. But those of us who do offer perspective, professional guidance and vision. Everyone wants to be part of an exclusive club, but that should not be the focus of the experience. If a teenager is not accepted, this emphasis can damage a teenager’s self-esteem and feeling of worth. Are acceptances and options important? Clearly they are critical! Yet, the shift of emphasis from outcomes to journey allows students to explore their gifts, talents and interests free from the judgment that looms and the vulnerability that accompanies this judgment. Shifting the emphasis of the college process to the journey emphasizing the proper match transforms the experience into a self-exploration, a self-valuing and validating challenge and adventure.

College Insider Notes

Today, at the IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) Conference in Charlotte, NC, I learned that my own alma mater, Boston College, stopped assigning email accounts to incoming freshmen. Why? Email is now passe for Generation Y. I saw this coming. When I would ask a student to list their email address on their common application for college, radio silence would immediately follow. Students began to text me to schedule appointments. Immediate gratification rules. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn. You my now find Avery Educational Resources on each of these. Search averyeducation and stay in touch on college admissions trends and boarding school news.