College Wait Lists Provide Life Lessons
Not getting into the college of one’s dreams is rough. Sometimes just as rough is being told “maybe.” More and more students are ending up in wait list limbo. Here’s a look at why, and what they should do about it.
by Bethany Young Hardy
For Cassandra Glass-Royal, the college admission process has been filled with more twists and turns than an episode of Gossip Girl.
After applying to four schools, the high school senior from Darnestown, Maryland, was notified last December that she’d been deferred at Elon University, one of her top choices. Two months later, the school told her she had been wait-listed. Finally, in late April, she was offered admission. Although she’s planning to accept, she still calls the process “bittersweet.”
“When I found out that I had been accepted, I was thrilled,” Glass-Royal says. “The process did pay off overall, but it was a long path to get there.”
Glass-Royal’s experience is not uncommon, especially as college wait lists have recently swelled due to a host of factors.
Admissions offices are flooded
Citing economic concerns, the massive University of California system resorted to wait lists for the first time in fall 2010, reported National Public Radio’s Tovia Smith.
Growing interest in high-demand fields has also contributed to the backlog. “We have benefited from an increased interest in environmental fields of study and students interested in experiential education,” says Alisa Johnson, dean for enrollment management at Unity College, an environmental college in Unity, Maine. “We simply cannot fit all the students that want to be here. The demand and resulting wait list have allowed us to focus on [the] academic quality and diversity of an incoming class.”
Technology is another culprit, says Don Dunbar, an educational consultant and author of What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out of College. “Candidates are applying to more colleges than in the past because the process is streamlined by applications online.”
He adds that students themselves contribute to the problem. “Students tend to tell each college that it's their first choice, which makes it difficult for colleges to know the degree of interest in them. Duke [North Carolina] and Northwestern [Illinois], for instance, both lack confidence in strong applications from the northeast when [those] students appear strong enough for an Ivy.”
So what’s a worried wait-listed student to do?
Staying sane and (maybe) getting in
U.S. News & World Report’s Zach Miners offers these tips and more to help applicants keep their wits while waiting to see what their academic future holds:
- Pen a letter to the admissions committee explaining why your attendance would benefit not only you but the campus community. State unequivocally that the college is your first choice and you will attend if you are accepted.
- Let the college know if you have new accomplishments since you applied—academics like strong third-quarter grades or SAT subject test results, achievements like a debating championship.
- Ask if you can have an interview, especially if you haven't been interviewed already.
- Embrace your backup college. Only about 30 percent of wait-listed students are eventually admitted. Some colleges, like Johns Hopkins University, didn’t take anyone from their wait list in 2009.
Playing admissions games
Then again, applicants can always try to game the system. Ryan Smith, an interior designer in New York City, recalls how he got into his top school. A high school junior in 1994, he applied to Ohio University, intent on joining the school’s famous marching band. However, by December of that year, Smith learned that he had been wait-listed. “Needless to say I was devastated,” he recalls.
But at his high school band director’s urging, Smith decided to audition for the University’s School of Music. “[My director] said that usually if you are accepted into the music school, you will be accepted into the University even if your grades aren't the best,” Smith says. He auditioned the following spring, scored high enough to be admitted to the music school, and “the University in turn accepted my application.”
While it’s hard to say how many students have benefited from admissions loopholes like these, one thing is certain: being waitlisted can be a life lesson. Even though the experience is a distant memory to Smith, “it scared me into working harder.”
“I sort of skated through high school, and just assumed I would be accepted to wherever I wanted to go,” he says. “The wait list was a reality check and showed me if you really want something, you have to work for it.”
Bethany Young Hardy is a mom, writer, and public relations consultant. Her experience includes political, nonprofit, and healthcare communications. Follow Bethany on Twitter.
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Inspire Your Kids to Cook
by Christina DiMartino
Your kids—boys and girls alike—express a desire to cook from a very early age, likely without your even realizing it. They make mud pies in the sandbox, play with child-sized cooking sets, and organize kitchens in doll houses or play areas, and they probably inquire about what you’re cooking from the time they begin to communicate.
Kids Cooking Activities offers up reasons why you should encourage cooking activities with your kids. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com)
* Cooking with your children helps them to learn about nutrition and healthy eating.
* Cooking in the kitchen will give children a boost of self confidence. They are accomplishing a task, learning something important, and contributing to the family.
* Taking time to cook with your kids will give them lasting memories. They will pass the traditions on when they are grown and have their own families.
* In the enthusiasm of creating something themselves, your children will be more likely to eat what they had a hand in making.
* Kids learn real lessons in science, language, math, and creativity in the kitchen. Cooking will help reinforce all these subjects.
* Cooking is a great way to learn life skills. This is especially helpful when children are older and more independent. They won't have to rely on fast food and junk food to sustain them.
* Working together in the kitchen teaches your child teamwork.
* Cooking teaches children planning and making choices skills.
* Kids practice creativity and imagination in the kitchen. Cooking activities are a great way for kids to express themselves and enjoy their creations.
It may take longer to get the meal or snack done, but the moments with your children will be priceless. Remember to have patience. Don't worry about flour on the floor or spilled milk.
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A role model for cooking with kids
Cooking With Kids, a series of 90-second videos, is hosted by James Beard Award-winning chef John Sarich. Development of the program was inspired by the reality of childhood obesity, anorexia and other eating disorders, Type II Diabetes, and low bone density, which have all become national issues. Cooking With Kids encourages parents and children to spend time in the kitchen together preparing healthy meals in ways that improve communication and help children develop healthy nutritional habits. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.cookingwithkids.org/fact.html)
The program shows how easy it is for kids to prepare snacks and meals that taste good and that are good for them. It uses the five food groups as a platform for nutrition messages. You can watch the videos with your children through the website, then print out the recipe and go try it yourselves.
The recipes that Sarich prepares with kids on the segments teach them which categories on the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Pyramid are included in the recipe. He explains how vegetable burritos, for example, include foods that have protein, fiber and dairy, and that the burritos are low in fat.
Good cooking habits
Spatulatta provides 350 step-by-step videos that teach kids good cooking habits, and offers advice for moms, dads and kids on numerous issues related to cooking with kids. It emphasizes topics like teaching kids to wash their hands properly before handling food. (Set up link at underlining to http://www.spatulatta.com)
When it comes to working in the kitchen, you know your children. You know what abilities they have and how fine their motor skills are. Some children are ready to handle a certain kitchen utensil or work at the stove earlier than others. It’s up to you to make that determination.
You set the rules in your kitchen, such as you will always light the burners and oven for your children.
Go over the workings of every electrical appliance with your child. Explain that the beaters, for example, should be inserted into a hand mixer before the mixer is plugged in.
Safety and courtesy are behaviors that need to be re-enforced and modeled.
Once you've explained how to handle an item safely, try asking your child to tell you how to do it the next time the task is required when making a recipe. We all learn best when we try to teach.
CREDIT:
Christina DiMartino has been a freelance and assignment writer since 1985. She is a researcher, interviewer, writer, editor, and manuscript collaborator with a repertoire of clients from around the world.
PHOTO / ILLUSTRATION RECOMMENDATIONS:
Go to http://www.cookingwithkids.org
TEASER:
Cooking with your kids does much more than produce tasty treats! It teaches teamwork, safety, courtesy, math, science, and more, and encourages creativity and imagination. And there are some terrific online videos that will help you get started.
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