College Board Abandons Adversity Index
September 14, 2019
Dear Friends,
With Labor Day behind us, my team and I are excited to launch into a productive fall for our clients at all stages. A number of our students are on track to submit glowing Early Decision and Early Action applications in under two months, made possible by impressive efforts excavating college essays this summer. We look forward to guiding students at all levels through positioning for competitive admissions—how we’ve helped former students garner acceptances at Harvard, U Chicago, Yale and Cal Tech, among other great places. Meanwhile, fast track business school and law school candidates have already begun to submit applications. This while others are putting the hard work in week by week and month by month in pursuit of huge testing increases, be it on SAT, SSAT, GMAT, LSAT and more. In particular, students coming out of our summer intensives are reflecting with pride at enormous gains they’ve cultivated—as large as 480 SAT points, and counting. This while still other students, at the college and graduate level, are busy recruiting for jobs, including working with our coaches to prepare for investment banking and consulting interviews. And our younger students, including 9th and 10th graders, as always have their eyes peeled for opportunities to add to their genuine character story. Regardless of where a family is in its planning, we are here to help turn desire into ambition, and ambition into success.
We’ve included a special section below with advice for current college students, which applies especially as fall recruiting for full time jobs ramps up. See below for advice on academic coaching to keep one’s GPA a priority, planning for full time recruiting, including such specific skills like consulting case interview prep, and advanced planning for graduate school candidacy (senior year testing that will remain valid for 5 years). In the rare cases of students considering transfers, we offer unique guidance in securing an optimal switch.
In other news, the College Board recently backtracked on its infamous Adversity Index, on which I had written a critical op-ed at foxnews.com and shared my reasons with the New York Times. While the Environmental Context Dashboard will still be presented to colleges, the backtracking by the College Board is a win, as it admits that the index is flawed. This was one of many topics discussed in detail at our panel, An Ethical Path To Success, co-sponsored by Yale Alumni Association of New York last spring.
More nuanced guidance below, including college essay tips, as well as another standardized testing problem of the month. A reminder that we are in our busiest time of year so plan ahead if you’d like to schedule time with myself, our Director of Admissions Coaching, or with one of our college essay or test prep coaches. We’re excited to help even the loftiest academic goals become a reality.
Here’s to a productive fall—
Hafeez Lakhani
Rising Seniors: T-minus 2 Months
Whether you are finalizing SAT, ACT, or Subject Tests, just beginning to excavate college essays, or putting finishing touches on your supplements, we are here to help students make the most of their time remaining until 10/15 or 11/1 deadlines. Many of our clients will be ready for Early Decision or Early Action; in other cases, Regular Decision deadlines near January 1 make more sense to tackle the following responsibilities:
1) Excavating powerful college essays : As Hemingway said, “Every writer should burn his first novel.” We see this to mean that we must scratch at the surface several times before we come upon something deeper. Our college essay coaches are busy helping students excavate gems from their experiences through our pointed free-writing process. From there, as students begin to shape more structured drafts—a vital window to your character story—as well as various school supplements, we have three metrics that we recommend to test a strong essay:
1) Does it serve as an answer to, “(s)he’s the one who…”
2) Does it show an anecdote of "life in the student's shoes"?
3) Does it in some way reflect the student’s most sincere ambition?
Contact us to discuss how we might help shape your strongest college essays.
2) Wrap up Testing: the following test dates remain if you intend to apply early. No time to waste. Contact us to arrange some coaching to add icing to the cake.
SAT or Subject Tests: 10/5, 11/2 (some schools accept November; others don't)
ACT: 9/14 (next weekend), 10/26
3) Finalizing your list: helping families navigate selectivity is a vital part of our jobs. Contact us to discuss potential options for reach schools and best positioning to improve your chances.
4) Setting up Common App, or other application portals : I encourage all students to set up their account if you haven't already, including most importantly:
a) Drafting and editing one’s Activities List, and most crucially the 150 character descriptions of each activity. Focus on being earnest and specific rather than impressive.
b) Drafting and editing one’s Academic Honors, including descriptions.
c) Building your “school list” on Common App and beginning to complete initial school questions, such as which internal program you may apply to (where relevant), and intended areas of study.
i) Once your schools are populated, you’ll be able to assess what supplemental writing questions each school demands. Note: for some schools, supplements are shown under a “Writing Supplement” section to the left, while other schools include them under the main “School Questions”. Answer all questions to be sure relevant supplements have populated.
d) Note: Several great universities are not on Common App, such as UC system schools, MIT and Georgetown. Those require setting up respective application portals.
5) Recommendation requests: If you haven’t already made recommendation requests, the start of the school year is high time. Contact us to discuss potential options for your recommenders, whether you are a good candidate to request a non-academic letter, and ways to aid recommenders in writing the most impactful letter possible.
Resources:
New York Times: How to Write a College Essay
New York Times: Considering College? Maybe You Should Invest in a Coach
Rising Juniors and Underclassmen
SAT/ACT: An integral tool right now for our rising juniors is our customized timeline, in which we map out the short 14 months until you will be submitting your first college applications. Take heed of what your senior friends are juggling! Most important is to know that most high achieving students will take the SAT or ACT roughly 3 times—because colleges are great about considering your personal best from those scores. In many cases, colleges even super score your best sections. It’s important to evaluate then whether you’ll want to take Subject Tests—recommended for the most elite schools—and when you’ll fit them in. In short, every junior should start the year knowing a target for not only her first official SAT/ACT, but a rough sketch of when a 2nd and 3rd sitting may fit in, as well as whether you’ll want to take Subject Tests in spring of junior year.
Growth in problem solving ability: SAT and ACT measure problem solving ability, a skill like any other. The analogy to a sport or musical instrument never gets old. If I were training to play two or three important piano recitals, certainly I would not “study all night” the night before the first concert. My preparation, rather, would require several months of coaching a few times a week, and most importantly, several months of structured practice. It is by this philosophy that we’ve helped students raise SAT scores by as many as 600 points, and ACT scores by as many as 12 points. Contact us to discuss a customized plan of action for you.
PSAT/NMSQT: While the October PSAT for juniors is technically just for practice, a number of our most prepared juniors will be in position to register a noteworthy score to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. This is a nice accolade for a number of you to grab, especially those whose SAT/ACT skills growth has begun to take off after a summer intensive.
The Long List meeting: We encourage a goal setting meeting at the start of junior year to calibrate two important priorities:
A student’s ongoing efforts to cultivate a fulfilling high school career, including excellence in Lakhani Coaching’s three major paradigms: Academics, Problem Solving ability, and Character.
Cultivating a tentative long list, which allows a student to:
a) Evaluate initial preferences for college: region, size of school, public vs. private, offerings of majors, etc.
b) Consider target GPAs and SAT/ACT ranges for schools of interest—and move oneself in the direction of these goals
c) Begin planning for the most impactful college visits, which by Lakhani Coaching philosophy will be during the school year, during the week. Marking calendars from now for Columbus Day, Veterans Day, the Jewish Holidays (if not observing), and spring break is wise to gauge when you’ll be able to see a campus “in action,” including speak to students, visit classes, maybe even attend a varsity sporting event.
Contact us to book a Long List meeting, including planning on how to cultivate a college visit that goes far beyond the information session and tour.
Resources:
Redbook: How to Help Your Kid Rock the SAT and ACT
Parents: Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Kid into College
Graduate School Candidates: Applications are Open
1) Business school: first round submission deadlines are imminent, ranging from a few days ago (9/3) to mid-October. Second rounds are closer to January 1 for those still finalizing GMAT or GRE. A plan of action needs to be in place from now deciding which round is right for you, including a target date to have testing complete. From there, vital responsibilities include an appropriate school list, recommendation requests, and excavating
intriguing personal statements. Contact us to discuss a plan of action—including the all important consideration of how your work experience will affect your candidacy.
2) Law school: rolling applications are open, with final deadlines just after the new year. If you are thinking about applying this fall, you should be moving toward completion of LSAT or GRE, to leave 1-2 months for work on personal statements and recommendation requests. Remaining 2019 LSAT dates: 9/21, 10/28, 11/25. We encourage submitting applications as early as possible in the rolling period. Contact us for guidance on reaching final testing goals, and to begin mapping out a unique story for personal statements.
3) Medical school: For those candidates receiving interview invitations, our med school coaches are on call to help you prepare.
4) Other graduate Study: As with any admissions goal, it’s wise to get testing out of the way before finalizing a program list, making note of deadlines—which can vary from September to March, but often hover around January 1—and working on personal statements and other components such as recommendation requests. Contact us to create a customized plan to reach your desired program.
College Students: Have a Plan in Place
The breadth of our work with college students is expansive:
Academic coaching : Having a tough time with certain bonds in organic chemistry? Frustrated by B’s on Poly Sci papers? With the powers of Skype we can step into a college student’s busy life and help to affect improvement in these focused tasks. As a result our students are thriving, with one young lady graduating university last spring with a 3.92 GPA.
Employment planning : Want to work after college in consulting, investment banking, biotech, or tech? Landing positions in these coveted fields doesn’t happen overnight. Our students plan ahead, including relevant research and internship roles in earlier summers to build one’s candidacy.
Mock Interview Prep: there is no better way to practice for an interview than by running through mocks and receiving feedback.
Consulting Case interviews: These interviews in particular require refined technique, including practice with mental math, estimation and process driven answers. Contact us to discuss a routine of practice ahead of busy fall recruiting.
Graduate school planning : It’s wise to have a plan in place well ahead of time, including relevant research, a timeline for standardized test preparation, and careful formation of target field types as well as ideal programs.
Early planning for GMAT, GRE and LSAT: a brilliant strategy we’ve seen is 2nd semester seniors who intend to work for a few years using the the last semester of college to tackle GMAT, GRE, or LSAT, the scores for which are valid in most cases for five years. It is much harder while working full time to dedicate effort to testing; why not tackle it while you are still in student mode?
Boarding School and Independent School
Most boarding schools and independent schools require SSAT or ISEE test scores to be submitted with applications. Fall dates for SSAT include 10/19 and 11/16. ISEE dates vary by availability of “appointment” testing. It’s wise to schedule from now, because as with any standardized test, skills growth requires persistence. A number of our students are already in full swing with coaching, nicely separating the task of testing from applications, essays, visits and interviews to come later in the fall. Independent and boarding school applications can be due anywhere from November 1 to February 15. Contact us to discuss test preparation, a school list, visits, and a detailed plan of action.
Resources:
New York Times: Considering College? Maybe You Should Invest in a Coach
Problem of the Month: SAT Writing and Language
The committee of architects, engineers, urban planners. and developers are meeting as we speak to vote on the zoning change proposal.
A) NO CHANGE
B) is
C) was
D) were
Click here to see the answer.