The paperback of the book, out now, has practical pointers for college applicants.
It also has Smitty's list of "40 Overlooked Gems" - colleges that more students should consider.
Here's Smitty's comment on one of those colleges:
p...
SAMPLE QUESTIONS for MEDIA INTERVIEWSSUGGESTED QUESTIONS for an interview with Dave Marcus Note to producers, hosts and reporters: Dave Marcus is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who spent three years shadowing a guidance counselor in order to write this non-fiction book. It's Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges – and Find Themselves (Penguin Press). More information at www.DaveMarcus.com
In Acceptance, you take us through one year with Gwyeth Smith, or Smitty, a college guidance counselor at Oyster Bay (New York) High School. Clearly this guy is not your average counselor. After seeing him use such ingenuity and take such pains for his students, do you see the college admissions process differently? How? You write, “The best counselors understand their job isn’t just knowing the world of financial aid or the difference between the filmmaking programs at N.Y.U. and U.S.C.” What, then is their job? This book revolves around Smitty's seven "special cases." What about his other twenty-or-so students? Did they get the attention they deserved? If someone were to accuse Smitty of playing favorites, what would you say? What if your child's school lacks a passionate counselor-advocate? Given the challenging economy, and the very real chance that jobs will still be tight in four years, shouldn't school counselors and parents be steering students to college and majors that will help them find employment after graduation? You wrote a series of stories for Newsday about students applying for college. While that obviously took a great deal of research, what more did you do for the book? How much time did you spend at the high school learning about the application process, and how did you learn inside information about the admissions side? Your work as a higher-education reporter for U.S. News & World Report took you to many little-known colleges. What do these colleges offer students that brand-name schools might not? Why is “fit” so much more important than “brand?” You volunteer as an alum interviewer for Brown University. What do YOU look for in an applicant? In the Long Island village of Jericho, you once asked a mother when the college admission frenzy starts. What did she say? One of Smitty’s students applied to 34 colleges. Many would encourage this, saying, "you can't be too careful." Smitty disagrees. So what's so bad about being extra cautious? How much does the typical high school senior spend on applications? What is the difference between Smitty's process and the "interest inventory" that some guidance counselors fill out with students? Why is Smitty so insistent on "connecting naturally" with his students? How important are extracurricular activities in admissions decisions? Why do you urge students to keep their list of activities short? Can admissions officers really tell if a student is loading up an application with activities? Smitty's universal rule is "less is more." How can this help students in their college hunt? What does this have to do with the application essay? Why should students choose any major except psychology or biology? Tell us about the “GPA Game.” So, Smitty lines up a bunch of volunteers and has each hold up a sign with a GPA on it. 4.0, 3.7, etc. Then what happens? What takes you out of the game altogether? And what takes you to the front of the line, with absolutely no effort on your part? How does Smitty handle the infamous helicopter parents? What advice does he give for parents who are too involved in the applications game? Before hitting “send” on an electronic application, what must a student absolutely, certainly, for sure do? [answer: change their immature reply email address to something appropriate.] Every year, college admission counselors attend a national conference, which typically fills an enormous convention center. Smitty spends his time mingling with hundreds of college admissions officers, many of whom have known him for years. How important it is that your kid’s counselor be well connected? Smitty is part of a growing movement against the SATs. Besides the conventional argument, that it doesn't measure intelligence, why does Smitty criticize it? Why do some colleges continue to put emphasis on SAT scores? How important are letters of recommendation? Who should students ask for recommendations? What is a “brag sheet” and what should it contain? By the time seniors start applying to colleges, it is too late for them to improve most factors that admissions officers will evaluate. What is one piece of the admission packet that is completely within the students’ control, even at that late date? How can admissions officers tell if parents or others wrote personal essays? High school students are often in flux or even crisis. Smitty often encourages using the crises as a powerful essay topic, but he knows that essays about personal problems can end up forced and sappy. Can you give us an example of both? Answering the question, "who am I?" is an enormous part of the college application process. Many students’ answers put them on track to be glossed over by admissions officers. What are some quirky and creative ways that colleges have come up with to help their applicants describe themselves? Though the story may be apocryphal, how did one student respond to the question, “What’s the most daring thing you have ever done?” You tell of a couple of kids who, needing a break from their constant college-essay-writing, set out to find the strangest scholarships out there. What did they find? Under what circumstances is applying for “Early Decision” a bad idea? What kind of students should take a “gap” year between high school and college? How has the financial aid picture changed in recent years? How are colleges responding to the recession? How should parents involve their kids in financial decisions about college educations? Why has transferring become more difficult as college costs have risen? Why do Smitty and his colleague, Oyster Bay English teacher Kathi Reilly, assign their college-bound students the task of cleaning their rooms and cooking dinner for their families? How have wait lists changed over the years? What does this tell us about the admissions game? When is a college rejection really a blessing? Why did you stop regretting your own rejection by Yale? Why do you say that the night class you took at a community college was as valuable as any you took as an undergraduate at Brown University or a fellow at Harvard? Are you serious? After spending so many years helping working- and middle-class students at Oyster Bay High reach the same level as the upper-class, Smitty retired and started his own private practice, charging $500 per session. For someone like Smitty who advocates an even playing field, is there is any hypocrisy in this career choice? END – Details at www.DaveMarcus.com == KEY DATES FOR HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS AND SENIORS* Keep these in mind when scheduling TV and radio TV interviews with Dave Marcus, author of ACCEPTANCE: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges – and Find Themselves October 1 October Mid-October November 1 and November 15 Mid-November December 1 Early December Mid-December Mid-December December 15 December 1-15 January 1 and January 15 Early January Late January Mid-February March-April June-July-August -- Based on information in ACCEPTANCE: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids find the Right Colleges – and Find Themselves, by David L. Marcus (Penguin Press) More information at www.DaveMarcus.com |
The paperback of the book, out now, has practical pointers for college applicants.
It also has Smitty's list of "40 Overlooked Gems" - colleges that more students should consider.
Here's Smitty's comment on one of those colleges:
p...Some readers asked about my piece on the quadruplets from Long Island's Mele family. Here's my Newsday follow-up about the decision by the two girls and two boys to attend the same college:
a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/...
Here’ an unusual look at the admissions process of a state university. It ran on Sunday March 6 in Newsday.
(Access for most of our stories is limited to subscribers and Cablevision customers, but here’s the URL:
a href="http://www....