NASDAQ #TradeTalks: How College Admissions Rates Relate to Markets
January 23, 2020
Dear friends,
We’re thrilled to be in the last leg of admissions season for a variety of applicants, be they to boarding school, college or graduate school. Congrats to our students who’ve already garnered acceptances to such elite places as Brown, Michigan, Penn, Wake Forest, University of South Carolina, WPI, Drexel, Fordham, GW, Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, Berkeley Haas, UT McCombs, USC Marshall, and UVA Darden, among other superb places. To those still waiting to hear back, rest assured that your hard work will soon pay off!
Of course so many of our students are in no place to be resting just yet. Juniors are in the thick of SATs and ACTs, with spring Subject Tests just around the corner. Sophomores and Freshman are working hard to cultivate their character stories, and to establish rock solid academics. Our current college students are toughing things out in challenging courses, as well as in recruiting cycles for jobs and internships. Graduate school candidates are working hard on GRE, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT requirements. We’ve detailed below relevant advice for students at various stages, including summer planning in all respects, and considerations for students mulling over the difficult choice of whether to transfer. Of course each story is unique—feel free to contact us to schedule a more personalized discussion.
On the philanthropic front, we are thrilled to soon launch applications for the third cycle of Lakhani Scholars, our $10,000 scholarship of coaching services for high achieving low income students. Our inaugural Scholar, Lisa David, was in fact accepted last month to her top choice college, George Washington University, a life-changing opportunity. Bravo, Lisa. You can read about Lisa’s success here. As many of you know, I aspire for Lakhani Coaching to one day serve as many low income students as fee paying students, and I commend those clients who’ve already underwritten scholarships to support this goal. If you’d like to sponsor a Lakhani Scholar, you are welcome to do so here. Individual, corporate and foundation donations are welcome. Meanwhile, we are gearing up to recruit our next class of high achieving low-income sophomores for Lakhani Scholars. Applications are due in April—help us spread the word!
Finally, it was a pleasure to be invited to Nasdaq headquarters on Times Square for a Nasdaq Trade Talks interview with Jill Malandrino. Click here for the video, including conversation about declining international enrollments at US universities.
And a standardized testing problem of the month below. Happy solving!
Hafeez Lakhani
Juniors: 2020 is Your Year
My advice for high school juniors right now is to watch the calendar, working backward from November, about 9 months away. Do you plan to apply Early Decision or Early Action (typically Nov 1 deadlines)? If so, when will you have SAT/ACT complete? Will you need to take Subject Tests? When do you plan to “excavate” the beautiful gems that you’ll shape into your college essays? Have you set out a plan for impactful college visits?
Whew. Rather than let these questions create anxiety, our students are empowered by a customized timeline, to separate responsibilities as much as possible. If you don’t yet have a timeline in place, feel free to contact us to set up a meeting.
SAT/ACT progress: Most of our students take the SAT/ACT three times to reach their goal scores. Skills growth on these tests is not so different than improvement at a musical instrument. If I train for several months in the violin, I’ll value three opportunities to play in concert to hit my personal best. That said, there are only five SAT sittings between now and early applications. If you are not yet finding traction in your improvement, it may be time for more high-powered help. Contact us to learn more.
Summer: If a student has followed our timeline carefully, she’ll likely be done with testing by summer and have time to focus on two important responsibilities:
Investing wholeheartedly in one’s primary character pursuit
Dedicating several weeks to the early drafts of one’s college essays. Hemingway famously said that every writer should burn his first novel. The same applies for first drafts of college essays—that act of “purging” opens doors to amazing second and third drafts. We advise our rising seniors to “excavate” for college essays during summer, before school competes for your attention. Our most ambitious students aspire to get college essays to 90% before school starts, leaving the early fall for seeking feedback, adding finishing touches, and finalizing ED or EA choices.
Resources:
Fox News: Adversity Score for College Admissions Plagued with Problems
CNBC.com: To Get Into a Top College, Your Character Matters, Too
Santa Fe New Mexican: Successful College Campus Visit Requires Preparation
High School Sophomores: This Summer is Crunch Time
A smart split of summer is advisable for rising juniors, too, allocating time for:
Summer intensive SAT/ACT: back to the violin analogy. Will it be easy to pour tons of energy into improvement on the violin while I am juggling 5 AP courses junior year? Our students face this dilemma every year and overwhelmingly benefit from focused groundwork the summer before junior year. Summer Intensive coaching has been a pillar in helping our students achieve SAT improvements as large as 600 points and ACT improvements as large as 12 points. Such gains don’t happen overnight—our most successful students book 50 to 100 hours for summer. Lakhani Coaching Senior and Lead Instructors get fully booked early; contact us to reserve time if you haven’t already.
Sincere investigation of character pursuits: Among your character interests, how will you shift from breadth to depth this summer? This can be in the form of a summer program, or even better, an independent project. Are you interested in policy? Why not find a way to contribute over summer to the 2020 national elections? Interested in programming? Code something wildly useful for society and get it out into the world. Not sure which interests are worth furthering or how to craft something independent? Contact us for customized guidance.
Resources:
Seventeen: Here's Exactly How to Slay the SAT and ACT
Parents.com: Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Kid Into College
Graduate School Planning
2020 admission: There are still two months before final deadlines for selected programs—a way to start graduate school relatively soon—but such a tight application timeline is never easy. Testing, be it GRE, GMAT, or LSAT, winds up needing careful focus. Once that is complete, personal statements, procuring recommendations, and other requirements become priorities. If you are still considering an application to begin graduate school in 2020, contact us to get moving immediately.
2021 admission: Planning is well underway for 2021 admissions candidates, with AMCAS opening in May 2020 for medical school applicants, Round 1 MBA applications due as early as late August, and law school applications opening in September. If you haven’t already done so, form a timeline: Is there an early round where chances of acceptance are higher? How close are you to goal scores on your GMAT, MCAT, LSAT or GRE, which often require 3+ months of work? Do you have time set aside to “excavate” personal statements, procure recommendations, and complete other application requirements? With some of those deadlines in just seven months, it is wise to get moving now. Contact us to discuss your plans in more detail.
Current College Students
Some obvious advice for you: your GPA matters. While it may be some time before you decide your after-college plans, be mindful that your GPA will almost certainly be a factor in seeking out your aspirations, including selective internships, graduate school, and career recruiting—so be sure to put that extra effort in. In cases where you are stuck, feel free to contact us for specialized coaching. We’ve guided students in Econometrics, Organic Chemistry, Studio Art, and Comparative Politics to name a few subjects. Tough problem sets? We have MD/PhD candidates to help you reach clarity. Editing a 30-page paper? We have former Stanford Law students to help you identify improvement areas. Building your portfolio toward graduate Art School? Meet with our Senior Art Advisor, a Yale MFA, to take your work to the next level.
Transfers: Thinking about transferring? Let’s talk and make sure it’s the right route for you. If indeed it is, deadlines are fast approaching, ranging from 2/1 to 3/15. Schedule a meeting with our Director of Admissions Coaching to set out a plan.
Lakhani Scholars
Lisa David (left): After emigrating from Liberia and being enrolled in ESOL classes just five years ago, our inaugural Lakhani Scholar, Lisa David, is now headed to her top choice college, George Washington University. We are thrilled for what the future holds for her! Read more about Lisa’s success here.
Fernanda Padilla Colin (right): The second Lakhani Scholar, announced in June 2019, is Fernanda Padilla Colin of Berkeley, CA, who hopes to one day become an immigration lawyer, starting her own firm to help lower-income people and then possibly becoming a member of Congress. She has her eyes set on applying to Harvard or Stanford this fall. Read more about Fernanda here.
Lakhani Scholars: Lakhani Scholars is an annually awarded, highly selective scholarship providing $10,000 of our services—including intensive SAT/ACT, high school career, and admissions coaching—to high-achieving, low-income students.
Help us spread the word: low income high school sophomores are eligible to apply. If you know great candidates, or educators who would be interested in learning more, feel free to direct them to our website.
Applications for Lakhani Scholars will be open on February 1st. Contact Caitlin Donohue directly with questions.
Resources:
Wall Street Journal: College Coaching Doesn't Hurt the Poor
First Lakhani Scholar Accepted to GW Early Decision
Lakhani Coaching Announces Second Scholarship Recipient
Problem of the Month: SAT Math (with calculator)
Question:
f(x) = 2 x ³ + 6 x ² + 4 x
g(x) = x ² + 3 x + 2
The polynomials f(x) and g(x) are defined above. Which of the following polynomials is divisible by 2x + 3?
A) h(x) = f(x) + g(x)
B) p(x) = f(x) + 3 g(x)
C) r(x) = 2 f(x) + 3 g(x)
D) s(x) = 3 f(x) + 2 g(x)
Source: collegeboard.org
Click here to see the answer.