Universities' Message to Applicants: "Show, Don't Tell"

While in Philadelphia last week with a group of Model UN students attending ILMUNC, or the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference, I took a day to visit three very different schools in the Philadelphia area. I began at U Penn, then headed to Drexel, and finished the day on the beautiful, snow-covered campus of Bryn Mawr. As I did when I visited the University of Chicago in December, I spent time in the Admissions Office of each of the three schools. I wanted to hear first hand a number of things. Just as I did with the University of Chicago, I asked what the schools are looking for in high school grads, what makes applicants stand out in the applicant pool and what makes an incoming freshman successful over his or her career?

While I won't tackle all three questions and their answers in this post, much of what the three Philadelphia schools told me echoed what I heard in Chicago. A theme that surfaced in all three meetings was the importance of applicants having developed an interest or passion in something and having pursued it. However, the three Philadelphia schools went a step farther and really emphasized the importance of the college essay. Anyone who knows anything about college admissions understands the gravity of the essay. For these three schools, though, the essay must do more than show off an applicant's writing ability. The essay must (not should, but must) demonstrate not only what the applicant's interest or passion is but also how the applicant has pursued and developed it.

The message for the college essay was loud and clear: Show, don't tell. Here's what that looks like:

• Not "I like science," but rather, "I volunteered at the science museum after freshman year, volunteered to save sea turtles after my sophomore year, returned after my junior year to the sea turtle rescue center, took all available science courses in high school, and plan to intern with BP in their environmental department after graduation."
• Not "I'm passionate about service," but rather, "I've spent the last four years working twice a month for Meals on Wheels cooking and cleaning, three weekends each month during the summers cooking and serving food, organized two fundraisers to support the organization, driven the food truck and served from its window more than thirty times, and I will volunteer full-time for two months after graduation."
• Not "I'm interested in the music industry," but rather, "I have taken guitar and voice lessons for ten years, written 200 songs and recorded them with Garage Band on my laptop, uploaded a dozen of my best songs to YouTube,  interned at a local music studio, taught guitar lessons for three years, run the sound board for all the concerts at my church, and currently perform in my church praise band."

Knowing what colleges and universities expect to see from truly distinguished and exceptional applicants, those of us in educational leadership must ask ourselves a few questions. First, what is my school doing to foster creativity and exploration that leads to the development of an interest or passion for each student? Second, what is my school doing to promote and support the pursuit of each student's passion? Finally, what is my school doing to communicate to students and parents the importance of finding, developing and pursuing an interest or passion, not just for college but for life?

With college admissions now such a high-stakes business, shouldn't we ask and answer these questions? Absolutely. However, we should ask and answer these questions anyway because it's what our kids need now more than ever.

An Enlightening Conversation at The University of Chicago

Last week I had the opportunity to visit some schools in the Chicago area while accompanying a group of students to a Model U.N. conference there. Since I had never been to The University of Chicago, I decided to drop by the Office of Admissions and ask a few questions. Anyone in the field of education knows the reputation of The University of Chicago and the level of excellence of its educational program. In order to better prepare my students not only for acceptance to but also for success in such a university, I wanted to find out exactly what the Office of Admissions looks for when culling through the mountains of applications each year.

In my meeting with the two admissions counselors, who gladly shared their time with me, I asked them directly, "What makes those students you accept different from those you do not? What, exactly, do you look for that differentiates top candidates from everyone else? What things in an applicant's background and application prove to be the biggest predictors of success in the University of Chicago program?" Interestingly, the admissions counselors gave the same answer for all three questions.

Here's what they said: "Clearly, academic success in terms of exceptional grades and test scores separate legitimate candidates from all others. From that pool, which always is much too large for our freshman class, we look for students who are exceptional independent learners with an intrinsic drive to learn. What we want to see is that a student has pursued learning independently in some way. It could be that a student has a passion for science and has persuaded his school to rearrange his schedule each year so he can take all science courses offered at his school. Additionally, this same student has found some interesting and unique way outside of school to pursue and explore that passion - perhaps through internships, summer experiential learning opportunities, family vacations centered on this passion, or maybe even through research of his own on his own time. It could be that a student has shown an interest in entrepreneurship and has started his own company. The bottom line is that we want to see that a student has developed a passion for something and has pursued that passion independently in a unique, interesting and innovative way. It goes without saying that all the student's transcripts, essays, recommendation letters and other application information should document not only the student's passion but also how he pursued it independently. These characteristics also are the common denominator for most of the students who are successful at The University of Chicago."

As the educational leader of a college prep school, I've been asking myself constantly since that meeting, "Is my school doing everything possible to promote and foster that kind of independent learning and curiosity?" I'm still working on the answer.

Defining College Prep - Part 5

In my original post on the topic, I explained that I've been exploring what "college prep" actually means, both in 2011 and in the years to come. After all, I believe its entirely possible we're doing "college prep" in schools across the country based on what college looked like for us years ago rather than based on what college actually looks like now and may look like in the near future. To get a current, accurate snapshot of what's happening on college campuses, my school organized an Alumni Summit, a round-table discussion with current college and university students. In a nut shell, they said the three things most frequently expected by their college professors are:

• Collaboration for the purpose of solving a problem
• Reading, writing, discussion
• Clear, concise, fact-based oral communication

After my last post, Randy commented on a number of things based upon his experiences in high school, in undergrad and in law school, but he pointed to another piece of the college prep puzzle: time management. Randy said, "The students who I saw fail in their endeavors, were the ones who simply could not find an efficient way to manage their time." Randy then asked me to weigh in, so...

In short, I believe time management is a skill kids need if they're going to be successful not only in college but also in life. The good news is that we have four years to work with them on this. However, there are two sides to the time management issue. The first is obvious: there's plenty to do and only 24 hours available every day. With the advent of all sorts of digital calendars, daytimers, alarms, alerts, etc., students today have all the tools they need to manage their time. We must teach them how to use these tools effectively. For example, with the roll out of our 1-to-1 laptop program this year, part of what we'll be doing is teaching kids how to set up and use Google calendars. For those with iPhones, we'll take the teaching a step further and help them sync their laptops and phones. This process will include instruction on how to plan days as well as how to plan weeks, months, semesters, test dates, project timelines, etc. It will be up to the students after that to implement the planning skills we teach them.

Now for the not-so-obvious flip side of the issue... Our alum at the Alumni Summit brought up a really interesting time management issue they face, one that may surprise you. Their rigorous high school experience (Randy, you can identify with this) left them with virtually every waking hour of every day planned, scheduled, prioritized, committed, and more. When they found themselves attending class in college only a few hours a week with no after-school activities like football, choir and clubs, they had no idea what to do with all the unscheduled down-time. They said it actually became harder to plan their project timelines and study sessions because there was too much free time. I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. Being the resourceful kids they are, they've adjusted. However, I believe we ought to consider helping our kids think ahead and be prepared to handle hours upon hours of unstructured downtime.

Thanks, Randy, for bringing up this topic.

Defining College Prep - Part 4

In my original post on the topic, I explained that I've been exploring what "college prep" actually means, both in 2011 and in the years to come. After all, I believe its entirely possible we're doing "college prep" in schools across the country based on what college looked like for us years ago rather than based on what college actually looks like now and may look like in the near future. To get a current, accurate snapshot of what's happening on college campuses, my school organized an Alumni Summit, a round-table discussion with current college and university students. In a nut shell, they said the three things most frequently expected by their college professors are:

• Collaboration for the purpose of solving a problem
• Reading, writing, discussion
• Clear, concise, fact-based oral communication

Let's look next at the third point: clear, concise, fact-based oral communication. The alum were unified in their message on this point. College professors fully expect students to be able to articulate their thoughts, ideas, arguments, beliefs, etc., orally.

This third point certainly flows from the second point. Just as college professors expect students to communicate well through the written word, they also expect students to communicate well via the spoken word. The alum cited numerous examples from their classes in a wide variety of disciplines in which the professors would call on students and expect them to articulate or explain the solution to a problem, an hypothesis based on a reading or observation, an interpretation or analysis of a piece of literature, or something else along those lines. Often the professors would needle the student who had been called upon until the professor was satisfied with the response; the poorer the communication skills, the longer the student would remain on the hot-seat.

The alum in the liberal arts and humanities, in particular, noted that professors often required students to demonstrate mastery and/or comprehension of a particular passage by taking a position and defending it. Furthermore, as with the expectation that students cite specific lines or quotes in writing assignments, professors frequently expect students to refer back to texts when speaking.

Several alum noted that when they were required to collaborate on problems or projects, they frequently had to give oral presentations in lieu of written presentations. These presentations, they explained, couldn't be canned, rote orations because the professors and other students often interrupted them to ask questions or present opposing viewpoints. The presenters were expected to then get right back on track.

The alum added an interesting footnote to this topic. Almost to a person, they agreed that students who argued and spoke with confidence and authority usually got off the hook sooner than those who floundered.

What does this mean for today's high schools? Well, for starters, the Speech class in your school that's been assigned to the offensive line coach because "it's just Speech class" needs to be taken seriously. Also, teachers in every content area should require students to participate in meaningful discussion in class. The best teachers already do this and they often use a rubric to assess the caliber of students' contributions to the class. Finally, as often as possible, students should be afforded every opportunity to speak in front of large groups of their peers; chapels, pep rallies, town hall meetings, school assemblies and other community meetings are terrific opportunities for this to happen.

Defining College Prep - part 3

In my original post on the topic, I explained that I've been exploring what "college prep" actually means, both in 2011 and in the years to come. After all, I believe its entirely possible we're doing "college prep" in schools across the country based on what college looked like for us years ago rather than based on what college actually looks like now and may look like in the near future. To get a current, accurate snapshot of what's happening on college campuses, my school organized an Alumni Summit, a round-table discussion with current college and university students. In a nut shell, they said the three things most frequently expected by their college professors are:

• Collaboration for the purpose of solving a problem
• Reading, writing, discussion
• Clear, concise, fact-based oral communication

Let's look next at the second point: reading, writing, discussion. The alum were unified on this point. College professors are expecting today's college students to read deeply and come away from a text with a working knowledge of what they read. Often the college professors hold the students accountable upon their return to class in one of two two ways.

First, college professors often hold students accountable with writing assignments that require students to demonstrate, on a high level, their understanding of a text or excerpt from a text. These writing assignments vary in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages. However, one thing all the alum said was that professors expect the students to refer back to the text and cite examples or specific passages to support the point made in their writing. Without these references, the alum said, arguments presented are invalid and worthless to the professors. In grading these assignments, professors look for clear, concise, organized thoughts free of "BS and fluff." Writing is a way that humans unpack their thoughts and ideas and make sense of the jumble of information swirling around in their heads. Thankfully, college professors understand this and they expect their students to practice this often.

Second, college professors often require students to answer questions and take a position based on a specific reading. In college (and this would probably differ greatly from a high school classroom), the professors often do not grade each response or even each day's participation. How do they get students to do the work? They expect the students to be intimidated into being prepared for class. The professors rely on students' fears of being singled out, called on repeatedly and even being tossed out of class to ensure students come to class prepared. Professors also rely on peer pressure to make sure students are prepared. Once students are prepared for participation, professors expect students to be able to clearly articulate their thoughts, ideas and positions using references to the text. As with the writing assignments, the arguments are considered invalid and worthless without these references. Professors often require students to drill down into their own arguments; professors often ask questions such as "Why did you use this or that word?" or "How is this similar or how does this differ from other texts we've read by the same author?" Interestingly, the professors often allow other students in the class to put on the spot the student answering a question.

Is this "reading, writing, discussion" concept revolutionary? Hardly. In fact, it is timeless. I think it's worth noting that with the advent of 1-t0-1 laptop programs, interactive whiteboards, blogs, wikis, blended learning classrooms, and whatever else is just over the horizon, some things in education are and will continue to be timeless and still hold great value in the 21st-century school. Reading, writing, and discussion, done in a rigorous way with high expectations of the students (as described above) must be a significant part of every class, regardless of the discipline.

Defining College Prep - part 2

In my last post, I explained that I've been exploring what "college prep" actually means, both in 2011 and in the years to come. After all, I believe its entirely possible we're doing "college prep" in schools across the country based on what college looked like for us years ago rather than based on what college actually looks like now and may look like in the near future. To get a current, accurate snapshot of what's happening on college campuses, my school organized an Alumni Summit, a round-table discussion with current college and university students. In a nut shell, they said the three things most frequently expected by their college professors are:

• Collaboration for the purpose of solving a problem
• Reading, writing, discussion
• Clear, concise, fact-based oral communication

Let's begin with the first bullet point: collaboration for the purpose of solving problems. The vast majority of our alum in attendance agreed that the group project model, or collaboration, is used in more classes than not (again, in their collective experience). Here's the important thing to note, though, for those of you who see group projects all the time in your school: in college, collaboration is required for solving a problem. In other words, collaboration is not for creating a poster project or even a flashy presentation. Collaboration is for the purpose of problem solving. There is a huge difference.

An alum attending an excellent business school gave examples of groups that were required to create a business from scratch: brainstorm the idea, make a pitch for the startup capital, create a business plan, create a marketing strategy and and ad campaign, create accounting ledgers with profits and losses, etc. An alum attending an excellent engineering school described a group project in which his group was given the blueprints, schematics, energy consumption data, and other data for the university's cooling plant. Their task was to identify the weak links and inefficiencies in the system based on the data then design a solution for the problems. These should be textbook examples of collaboration for the purpose of solving a problem.

What did they learn in the process of collaborating? To name just a few things, these college kids learned to coordinate several busy schedules, to lock in deadlines and checkpoints on their calendars, to assign tasks and work based on group members' strengths, to light a fire under those who weren't meeting and exceeding expectations, to look into the future to predict possible conflicts or problems, and the list goes on. If that doesn't sound to you like a list of real-world, practical skills these kids will use in the workplace very, then I can't imagine what you do every day in your job.

Defining College Prep - Part 1

Over the last several months I've been giving considerable thought to the term "college prep." Those of us in this particular area of education often throw the phrase around without really thinking about what "college prep" even means. As I pondered this phrase, I realized that perhaps the college experience for which we (collective "we," not just my school "we") have been prepping our kids may be the experience we had in college and not actually what our students will facing in the next few years. You can see the conundrum already... How do we prepare our students for a college experience which has not yet arrived, especially considering the speed at which the world is changing? After all, how can we be "college prep" if we don't have a clear understanding of what "college" looks like now (as opposed to what it looked like five, ten, fifteen years ago)? Rather than try only to predict the future of college education, I decided to gather some data about the current college experience.

When trying to look ahead to what the college experience would be like in the next several years, I figured the best place to start would be to look at what's happening right now in college classrooms. Therefore, I summoned our alumni coordinator and set out to organize our first-ever Alumni Summit. The goal of the Alumni Summit would be to get an accurate snapshot of some college classrooms in 2011. As she sent out invitations I went to work on questions. Fast forward several weeks to the week after most colleges and universities dismissed for the summer and we were ready for the Summit.

For the Summit two dozen alum came to campus to join me for a round table discussion of what college looks like right now based on their experiences in the 2010-11 school year. The group represented colleges and universities from across the nation including Baylor University, West Point, Wheaton College, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Stanford, Middlebury College, and more. The alum represented disciplines including business, marketing, chemistry, engineering, philosophy, education, journalism and economics, to name a few.

After almost two hours of round-table Q&A with plenty of back and forth conversation, something became very clear. Regardless of the school, regardless of the course of study, the alum presented three themes, three points of emphasis, three common threads that seemed to run through all institutions and disciplines represented. What are they seeing right now, over and over, in college classrooms? Professors and instructors are expecting and requiring:

• Collaboration for the purpose of solving problems
• Reading, writing, discussion
• Clear, concise, fact-based oral communication

In my next few posts I'll break each of these down and share the details, based on the testimonials of our alum, that support these points.