Many working professional would like to pursue their MBA education but could not find time to attend full-time or part time classes. One of the options available to them now is to pursue an online MBA course. There are many online MBA courses around.
An online MBA course allows you to study at any time or at any place that is convenient to you. There are also some online MBA courses or distance learning MBA that requires minimum residency and face-to-face meeting with other students and faculty.
Online MBA course is not suitable for everyone. There are some students who had enrolled in an online MBA course only to criticise the online MBA university strongly. Others had excelled and given many positive reviews. If you would like to pursue your MBA online, then we suggest that you do a self-assessment to determine if an online MBA course is really suitable for you.
Perhaps, the first question that you should ask yourself is, why pursue an MBA. Different people pursue an MBA for different reason. Some pursue an MBA to be promoted. Others pursue an MBA to advance in their career. There are also those who pursue it just for the sake of getting business knowledge. If you are clear with why you wish to pursue an MBA, then the chances is higher that you will be able to determine if doing an online MBA course is really suitable for you.
No matter what your decision, it is undeniable that technology advancement had totally changed the way we do things. This includes the sphere of MBA education. Many online MBA universities had been able to deliver quality MBA education equivalent to those delivered full-time or part-time. Online MBA graduates get the same privilege and salary compared to other MBA graduates from executive MBA, full-time MBA or part-time MBA programs. If you can pursue an MBA degree online, why would you want to pursue it at part-time or full-time basis?
Benefits of Online MBA Courses
There are many benefits from a MBA degree. It is proven that MBA graduates have the skills to identify, analyse and resolve management and business problems. MBA graduates also have the skills to lead and manage people. In the pursuit of the online MBA course, students also form life-long professional relationship with other student, which is an important business networking.
All online MBA universities have as its fundamental aim, the teaching of analytical skills. Skills developed range from simple problem in human resource to important investment decision involving huge sums of money. Many employer who had employed MBA graduates had given feed-back that the attributes they were most satisfied with the graduates are their analytical skills.
Online MBA courses also trained its student the people skills, which is sorely lacking in many managers nowadays. People skills related to human resource is hard to teach. Hence, if you are looking for an online MBA course, look for one which its curriculum provide detailed training on human resource and people skills development. It is not surprising to find that more and more time of a manager is spent on resolving human-related issues within the working environment.
One of the major benefits of pursuing an MBA is the business networking developed while pursuing their online MBA courses. This is one aspect of online MBA course or distance learning MBA programs sorely lack. Some online MBA university attempted to overcome these weaknesses by having group project or limited residency hours. While attending campus classes may have destroy the purpose of doing an MBA online, it may actually be good to the networking process. This is something that you will have to think about before you jump on board the many who are pursuing their online MBA courses.
How to Choose the Right Online MBA Course
Choosing the right online MBA program is not an easy task. This is all the more true with so many online MBA universities offering online MBA courses. No two MBA programs are exactly the same as the other, and you should carefully scrutinize through the curriculums.
The timing and schedule of the online MBA course is also another important factor to consider. To earn an MBA online is a long-term commitment. Your lifestyle will definitely be affected. Then there is also the aspect of financing your online MBA course.
Accredited Online MBA Courses
You may also want to ask yourself if getting an online MBA that is accredited is important or not. It may not be important to you now, but what about the future? There are many accrediting agency for online MBA program.
If you are residing in the U.K. or Europe, then perhaps getting an AMBA accredited MBA program will be important to you.
The Association of MBAs, or commonly known as AMBA in short, was formed in 1967. Today, AMBA accredits MBA programs not only in the U.K. and Europe, but worldwide. The AMBA accreditation is recognized worldwide as a global standard of a good and quality MBA program.
When you graduate from an AMBA accredited online MBA program, you are entitled to join AMBA membership that has more than 9000 members living in 88 countries. This is a great way to develop you networking.
In accrediting an online MBA course, AMBA looks at the following factors: The college or university offering the online MBA course; the faculty; the students; the assessement, and the curriculum of the online MBA course. There are also other factors such as language, library and computer facilities.
Accreditation of the online MBA course by AMBA is not life-long. The accreditation has to be re-accredited after a maximum period of 5 years.
The followings are some of the universities that have been accredited by AMBA that has also been ranked highly by Financial Times 2008:
MBA at Open University Business School, UK
Global Distance Learning MBA at Henley Management College, UK
MBA at Manchester Business School, UK
The Warwick MBA by Distance Learning at Warwick Business School
MBA in International Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
The Durham MBA, Durham Business School, UK
Distance Learning MBA, Bradford School of Management, UK
Strathclyde Flexible Learning MBA at University of Strathclyde Business School, UK
eMBA and MBA Oil and Gas Management at Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK
The Surrey MBA at University of Surrey, School of Management, US
Euro*MBA at Euro*MBA Consortium in France, Netherlands, Poland, Spain & Germany
MBA (Distance Learning) at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK
If you are residing in U.S. or Canada, then perhaps accreditation from AACSB is more relevant to you. There are many AACSB online MBA course available.
The AACSB International was formed in 1916 and has been accrediting MBA programs since 1919. Upon achieved AACSB accreditation, the business school or institution has to embark on continuous process of accreditation maintenance. This process includes: An annual report of data; An annual summary of strategic management; and a periodic five-year review of strategic progress.
The followings are some top-ranking online MBA courses that is accredited by AACSB:
MBA at Open University Business School, UK
Global Distance Learning MBA at Henley Management College, UK
MBA at Manchester Business School, UK
MBA at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
The Warwick MBA by Distance Learning at Warwick Business School
MBA at Kelly School of Business, Indiana University, US
Global MBA for Latin American Managers at Thunderbird School of Global Management and Tecnologico de Monterrey, US
Fast Track MBA at Babson College, US
Strathclyde Flexible Learning MBA at University of Strathclyde Business School, UK
One-year Internet MBA at University of Florida, Hough Graduate School of Business, US
Northeastern University Online MBA Program at Northeastern University, US
Global On-line MBA Program at University of Texas at Dallas, US
iMBA at Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, US
W.P.Carey MBA ր Online Program at Arizona State University, US
Healthcare MBA at The George Washington University, US
MBA Anywhere at Drexel University ր LeBow College of Business, US
UNL Distance MBA at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US
Global MBA On-Demand at Thunderbird School of Global Management, US
The Surrey MBA at University of Surrey, School of Management, US
Global MBA at IE Business School, Spain
Euro*MBA at Euro*MBA Consortium in France, Netherlands, Poland, Spain & Germany
MBA (Distance Learning) at Aston Business School, Aston University, UK
Thunderbird and Indiana University ր Kelley Direct MBA/M-GM Dual Degree at Thunderbird School of Global Management and Indiana University, US
Rankings of Online MBA Course
One of the most recognised rankings of online MBA courses are those established by the Financial Times. The Financial Times ranked MBA programs, including online MBA courses on yearly basis.
Each year, the criteria used to rank the online MBA courses are different. For example, the Financial Times uses the following indexes for their ranking: weighted salary of MBA graduates; salary increase; value for money; aims achieved; placement success; employed at three months; and a few other indexes.
Salary of Online MBA graduates
The salary of online MBA graduates depend more on just the program that they graduated from. It also depends on other factors such as years of working experience, seniority, economic outlook, geographic location, the industry and others. An online MBA course from a branded MBA schools seem to provide a higher salary compared to others.
The followings are salaries of MBA graduates from the top 20 rank MBA schools:
Indian School of Business USD169355
Stanford University GSB USD167225
University of Pennsylvania: Wharton USD165859
Columbia Business School USD165123
Harvard Business School USD162316
MIT: Sloan U.S.A. USD155160
Ceibs China USD154144
Dartmouth College: Tuck U.S.A. USD151673
IMD Switzerland USD150775
University of Chicago GSB U.S.A. USD148978
University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business South Africa USD148975
Insead France / Singapore USD146878
London Business School U.K. USD144918
UCLA: Anderson U.S.A. USD140058
University of Oxford: Sad U.K. USD139684
New York University: Stern U.S.A. USD137548
Yale School of Management U.S.A. USD136318
Northwestern University: Kellogg USD135646
Cranfield School of Management USD134125
UC Berkeley: Haas U.S.A. USD131830
Financing Your Online MBA Course
To earn an online MBA takes more than just time commitment and a change of lifestyle. It also entails much financial commitment. In the U.K. and U.S., the cost of an online MBA course is more than the average wages. The cost of an Online MBA course may be as cheap as $8,000 and as expensive as $60,000. The average cost of an online MBA course is $40,000.
There may be other cost involved too, such as the course of buying textbooks and course materials. Some online MBA course also requires that you spend some residency at the campus.
There are however, many ways how you can finance your online MBA course. Many MBA students had got their employer to finance their online MBA course. Since you are able to apply immediately to work what you have learnt, this may be a factor to persuade your employer to finance your online MBA course.
There are also other financial aid that you can consider. These include: grant/scholarship; loan, and taking up fellowships.
To conclude, the advancement of technology had certainly changed the way how MBA education is being delivered. Furthermore, since doing an online MBA course have the same outcomes and results compared to earning your MBA in a part-time or full-time course, you should give it some serious thoughts on pursuing in on online basis.
There are many universities and colleges that are offering online MBA courses. You should leave your choice open and look at as many options as possible.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Language study - study beyond the geographical barriers
Over the years, the patterns of language teaching have undergone a drastic change. Language study has become imperative in the wake of globalization and amazingly vanishing geographical barriers. Students all across the globe are attending language schools and mugging the language of other nation by heart. Language study is now not merely measured on conventional theoretical yardsticks. Many language schools have stepped up with more comprehensive and practical language study curriculums stimulating not only brains but bodies too. Some of the latest additions to the course include extracurricular arts like pottery, knitting, cloth weaving, dance, cooking etc.
Learning a language is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you can't afford to miss upon. But partial knowledge and lack of resources may land you in a deep trench of confusion resulting in a major slip-up. The major challenge that confronts a student in language study is to choose amid the seemingly attractive schools which appear equally promising. Well, here you own prudence and keen sight can come to the aid. Don't get lured by the striking location or misguiding opinions of other. Follow your muse and inner instinct. You can take advice but mind not to follow others blindly. Do some self analysis and research before finally choosing a school for language study.
Students have their own personal reasons to undergo language study. Some students study language as a career opportunity, for some it's a hobby. Others may learn it for conversing with the host family, so on and so forthŀ Language study not only eliminates geographical differences but also draw together people from the different walks of life. In a language study school a student can interact with people younger or even older to him/her. Majority of students are aged 18-30 yrs.
It is also advisable to consider the fee structure, what all is it inclusive of? Do a comparative analysis between a few language schools. Log onto their websites, check out the course contents, fee periodicity i.e. weekly, monthly or half yearly. You can further personally contact the school by calling or sending an email on the particulars given on website. After observing the abovementioned tips, you can finally arrange for the accommodation, you can either rent a flat or stay with a host family. The choice depends upon your comfort and most importantly budget.
Thus, language study is no more a taboo subject. Anyone can study the language of any country he/she desires to. Language study not only brings people but even nations closer to each other.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Is Free Tuition Really Free?
I know you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth (and surely there's a 21st century version of that around somewhere...), and I support colleges' and universities' using more of their endowments to ease the financial burden on families with low incomes. In fact, I work with first-generation and underserved students, so anything that eases their way to college I support. But I wonder about the implications of a "free" college education: By not asking a student or family to make any financial commitment to a college education, how will that change the dynamic between them and the college or university? And how will it affect the way a student values that education?
I've worked with the Daniel Murphy Foundation here in Chicago for a number of years. They help talented 8th graders from needy families attend private schools here and elsewhere by providing a scholarship and by getting the host schools to kick in most of the resrt of the tuition. But no matter how financially needy the family is, they are asked to contribute something to their child's education. This seems proper to me because it asks the family to back up its generalized support of its son or daughter with hard cold cash, a measure of its commitment. It's a commonplace that we value most what we pay for, and I think that applies here, too.
One might say that disadvantaged families are already in enough of an economic bind but I'm not talking about asking for anything that the family can't handle. The DMSF pegs its request of the family to income and families are able to pay it. It's not about the money; it's about the commitment. Since most of the colleges and universities eliminating loans and so on are in the elite crowd, perhaps their status automatically generates commitment from the families, but I think if someone comes up to you and hands you a diamond for free, you're going to wonder about whether it's stolen or a cubic zirconium. Without a price tag it's hard to gauge the value of the item. And I don't think it's unfair to ask students to shoulder some kind of debt if they really want the kind of education that a college can give. Again, not anything crushing (save that for law school or med school) but enough to keep their eyes on the academic prize.
My other reservation about the rush to give away the store is that it only benefits a handful of students at a time and only at the very point of entry to college. All that money might be better used to strengthen the educational prospects of more students from disadvantaged backgrounds sooner, so there might be a greater number of first generation and underserved students in the application pool. Right now, colleges' and universities' largesse is passive, not active: It rewards those who have made it through the American educational system but hasn't actively affected it. In a sense it validates a Darwinian process of survival of the fittest instead of attacking many of the inequities of the system at their root.
The economic might of the Harvards, Yales, Amhersts, and so on might be better used to inject life and hope into needy schools starting at 9th grade or even earlier, helping them build strong foundations for their students as they prepare for college. By taking a more active role in education, by considering themselves part of a K-16 educational continuum rather than the beneficiaries of the results of "educational selection," colleges and universities might have a much greater and more significant effect on the education of America's least served but not undertalented students. So two cheers for spending more of their endowments, but a third cheer in reserve for when colleges and universities really take up the task of improving American education where it needs it the most.
I've worked with the Daniel Murphy Foundation here in Chicago for a number of years. They help talented 8th graders from needy families attend private schools here and elsewhere by providing a scholarship and by getting the host schools to kick in most of the resrt of the tuition. But no matter how financially needy the family is, they are asked to contribute something to their child's education. This seems proper to me because it asks the family to back up its generalized support of its son or daughter with hard cold cash, a measure of its commitment. It's a commonplace that we value most what we pay for, and I think that applies here, too.
One might say that disadvantaged families are already in enough of an economic bind but I'm not talking about asking for anything that the family can't handle. The DMSF pegs its request of the family to income and families are able to pay it. It's not about the money; it's about the commitment. Since most of the colleges and universities eliminating loans and so on are in the elite crowd, perhaps their status automatically generates commitment from the families, but I think if someone comes up to you and hands you a diamond for free, you're going to wonder about whether it's stolen or a cubic zirconium. Without a price tag it's hard to gauge the value of the item. And I don't think it's unfair to ask students to shoulder some kind of debt if they really want the kind of education that a college can give. Again, not anything crushing (save that for law school or med school) but enough to keep their eyes on the academic prize.
My other reservation about the rush to give away the store is that it only benefits a handful of students at a time and only at the very point of entry to college. All that money might be better used to strengthen the educational prospects of more students from disadvantaged backgrounds sooner, so there might be a greater number of first generation and underserved students in the application pool. Right now, colleges' and universities' largesse is passive, not active: It rewards those who have made it through the American educational system but hasn't actively affected it. In a sense it validates a Darwinian process of survival of the fittest instead of attacking many of the inequities of the system at their root.
The economic might of the Harvards, Yales, Amhersts, and so on might be better used to inject life and hope into needy schools starting at 9th grade or even earlier, helping them build strong foundations for their students as they prepare for college. By taking a more active role in education, by considering themselves part of a K-16 educational continuum rather than the beneficiaries of the results of "educational selection," colleges and universities might have a much greater and more significant effect on the education of America's least served but not undertalented students. So two cheers for spending more of their endowments, but a third cheer in reserve for when colleges and universities really take up the task of improving American education where it needs it the most.
One Good Book
I've just finished a very low-key, well-adjusted book concerning the college process that is a wonderful antidote to the frantic "win-at-any-cost" college books out there. It's called College Admission Together: It Takes a Family, by Steven Roy Goodman & Andrea Leiman. Unlike nearly every other book out there, it focuses on the family dynamic as students and parents approach the college years. I think if more parents read this book they'd get what we counselors are trying to tell them when we say "Take it easy."
The authors make a point of combining college process information with observations about what's happening in teens' lives as college looms. They ask parents to take stock of their children's changes and look into their own attitudes in order to make the fact of eventual separation as smooth and productive as possible. Within the many stressors of high school and pre-college life, the authors find ways to create positive moments when parents and their children can communicate better and learn more about each other.
If you're a college counselor, you know the frustration of working with parents who seem to have no idea about what their children really want or who they are. These parents insist on particular colleges for their children, or insist that you have to "chase after" Johnny to complete his applications or evern meet with you. You'll see these parents in this book but not as caricatures or objects of derision, simply as people for whom the process can be as stressful as it is for their children. It's an understanding and even compassionate book for that.
As I read the book I heard many things I've suggested to parents over the years--take a breath, listen more than talk to you child, step back and see him/her as a developing adult, and so on. Often these suggestions fell on deaf ears. Seeing it all in print can often be helpful and this book could be a great tool to get parents to look at themselves without a counselor's being the one to deliver the sometimes unwelcome news.
The book is mercifully free of simplistic remedies for things like procrastination although abundant with simple methods for dealing with them. If putting things off is a problem with your teen, review the coming week's calendar every Sunday evening; not only can college tasks be outlined, but you and your child can think ahead about other things as well at a time that's not full of anxiety and that, perhaps, comes on the heels of a day relaxing.
It's nice to read a book that doesn't have an undercurrent of frantic striving to it. College Admissions Together takes a broad view of a turbulent time in a family's life and lets you see it's possible to ride the wave and come out nicely on the far side. I recommend it highly.
The authors make a point of combining college process information with observations about what's happening in teens' lives as college looms. They ask parents to take stock of their children's changes and look into their own attitudes in order to make the fact of eventual separation as smooth and productive as possible. Within the many stressors of high school and pre-college life, the authors find ways to create positive moments when parents and their children can communicate better and learn more about each other.
If you're a college counselor, you know the frustration of working with parents who seem to have no idea about what their children really want or who they are. These parents insist on particular colleges for their children, or insist that you have to "chase after" Johnny to complete his applications or evern meet with you. You'll see these parents in this book but not as caricatures or objects of derision, simply as people for whom the process can be as stressful as it is for their children. It's an understanding and even compassionate book for that.
As I read the book I heard many things I've suggested to parents over the years--take a breath, listen more than talk to you child, step back and see him/her as a developing adult, and so on. Often these suggestions fell on deaf ears. Seeing it all in print can often be helpful and this book could be a great tool to get parents to look at themselves without a counselor's being the one to deliver the sometimes unwelcome news.
The book is mercifully free of simplistic remedies for things like procrastination although abundant with simple methods for dealing with them. If putting things off is a problem with your teen, review the coming week's calendar every Sunday evening; not only can college tasks be outlined, but you and your child can think ahead about other things as well at a time that's not full of anxiety and that, perhaps, comes on the heels of a day relaxing.
It's nice to read a book that doesn't have an undercurrent of frantic striving to it. College Admissions Together takes a broad view of a turbulent time in a family's life and lets you see it's possible to ride the wave and come out nicely on the far side. I recommend it highly.
Friday, April 11, 2008
The More Things Change...
Acceptance and rejection letters are out for this year and the usual articles about how it's never been harder to get into college and so on have been coming out like crocuses at the first sign of spring. As I've noted before, this isn't really news, it's just a repeat of articles from the last 10 years with different numbers, and of course we always have the details of rejected or waitlisted students being astonished that they didn't get into their "dream" schools, how much the pressure is getting to them, and so on. Focusing on colleges and universities whose acceptance rates seem to be approaching zero, the ultimate exclusivity (not may idea--see Doonesbury from a few years ago), media make it seem as though legions of rejected students will soon be roaming the streets in their ragged cardigans, homeless shades doomed to walk the earth without any cozy campus to call their own.
Of course, this is nowhere near the real picture. Just about everyone who applies to college will get in somewhere; quite a few colleges even (mid-April 2008) now are still accepting applications. The whole thing is only a problem if you care very deeply about where you attend and think that if you don't go there your life is somehow ruined, destroyed, or otherwise diverted from its true course and flowering, all of which is nonsense.
A colleague and I were talking the other evening about our own college research and application processes, laughing at our callow approach to the whole thing. She and I are contemporaries, so we're talking about the early 70s, before the whole thing got really out of hand. We were both clueless, to be honest, even though we were both good students. I was head of my class at a large public high school in Chester, NJ, which offered honors but no AP classes that I can recall (not a big thing then), and I did well in the honors track, although to this day I consider calculus my mortal enemy. I had what today would be considered so-so SAT scores (no I'm not telling, although to my chagrin I still know them), and a decent although not spectacular career in the chorus and the theater group. I also worked part-time at the local pharmacy, working the counter and making deliveries all over the area.
When college came on the horizon late in my junior year (although my family always told me I could go anywhere I wanted when the time came), we had no special seminars, no offers of essay help, no test prep, no piles of glossy viewbooks, no "college counselor." I figured I'd apply to Harvard and Yale simply because my uncle, whom I greatly admired, had attended the former and taught at the latter; I briefly considered Tufts, my father's alma mater, but since he was an engineer I thought it was a school for engineers, so I dismissed it. There was no "strategizing" to it; I was just going with what I knew.
One day, going by my guidance counselor's office, I heard him call to me and ask what I was thinking about college. I told him, and he said that was fine, but had I ever considered a small liberal arts college? I asked what that was and he said a good place to get an education but smaller than a university. That seemed fine to me so I asked him to name a few. "Well, Amherst, for example," he replied. I'd never heard of it, but I was willing to check it out.
I don't remember what I knew about Amherst (it wasn't much) before I got on the Peter Pan bus in New York for the four hour ride to Amherst, MA later in the summer, but when I got off in the town center, I swooned at the New England charm and the compact yet spacious Amherst College campus. I thought, "This is what college should look like!" I walked around by myself, coming without warning on the spectacular view of the Pioneer Valley from Memorial Hill, after which I was completely overcome with desire. I dropped in on the admission office, which at the time was tucked away in the main administration building. I was smitten without having seen a student, professor, or admission office person. I asked about interviews. I didn't need one, I was told; by the time I returned to New Jersey, I was ready to apply.
The time came and I applied to Harvard, Yale, and, at random, Ithaca College in upstate New York. I applied to Amherst early decision, still intoxicated with the thought of lounging on that hill, or simply being there, reading, surrounded by nature. Hell, even the trees seemed intelligent. I wanted to ingest it all. But once the applications were in I went on with the rest of my high school life. (I don't remember what I wrote my essays on, but I do remember that I didn't get any help that I recall. My mother may have given them a quick read, but not much else--no English teacher or counselor help.)
Ithaca accepted me almost immediately, it seems to me. Harvard and Yale turned me down, which was OK by me, especially when I recalled my "group interview" at a Yale's alum's home. A group of applicants sat around a table and an admission person spoke with us after we had each had a chance to speak with one of the Yale alums who had gathered for the occasion. The home was elegantly appointed, perhaps even lavish; it seemed like a mansion to me and it made me uncomfortable. But what I really remember is the girl who said, "I understand Yale has a burgeoning film department." I made a face, probably, groaning inside at her pretentious use of a big word to impress the dean. It was then I decided I didn't want to go to Yale, although I learned a new word that day.
Amherst deferred me, making my guidance counselor, David Boelhouwer, crazy. He couldn't understand it and called to see what had happened. Turns out, you did need an interview if you applied ED and lived within 250 miles of campus. He managed to wrangle an interview for me over the Christmas break with the Dean himself, the legendary Ed Wall. I went back to campus, courtesy of my aunt, who drove me out from Acton MA in a snowfall and waited while I had my session. I remember being disappointed that Dean Wall didn't ask me anything about my grades or accomplishments; instead he asked what I was reading and I told him The Wheel of Love, a story collection by Joyce Carol Oates. We talked about that. What was even more frustrating was that I didn't even like the book, and during the whole interview I could see the snow coming down harder and harder and the light fading and it was a long way back to Boston.
Afterwards, Dean Wall took my puny hand in his massive bear grasp and told me it was nice to meet me. Despite my disappointment, I stopped at Hastings in town and bought an Amherst sweatshirt, which I resolved not to wear unless I got in. My aunt picked me up and we drove back to the Boston suburbs.
The day I got into Amherst was the only day in my school life that I cut a class. My mother, who had been in a terrible auto accident over New Year's 1973, had needed a nurse during the day, and I would take over when I got home. Consequently I was able to have a car at school. When the letter arrived, she called the school and I got called to the office. She wanted to open it. At first I said yes, then changed my mind. I rushed out of school, hopped into our VW Bug and zoomed home, where I found the acceptance letter. I celebrated a bit with my mother, ran upstairs and put on the sweatshirt, and raced back to school, in time to catch the end of my German class. Mrs. Kerekes, a stern but fair Hungarian, started to scold me, but when she saw the sweatshirt, she started beaming, and all was forgiven.
So I got to Amherst, but here's the punchline--to this day I don't think I even knew that Amherst was all male until I actually got to campus. (It went co-end in 1976, one of the last schools of its kind to do so.) My whole experience of college search and application was a fluke arising from a casual comment by my counselor. I'm sure that if he'd said "Williams" or "Union" or "Hamilton" or "Calcutta" I'd be one of their alums today. Total chance. And I'm also convinced that I owe Joyce Carol Oates credit for my admission. Even today I feel guilty about not reading everything she writes (which would, of course, be impossible for a mortal with only 24 hours a day to read...)
So back to my colleague and me sitting in an Irish pub in downtown Chicago. Her story, in its similar lack of focus on "getting into" a particular college, is very similar to mine. And yet, here we were, laughing at our ignorance and marveling at the fact that we managed pretty well in spite of it, having survived and even prospered. Our lives are good, our work fulfills us, and we have good memories of our alma maters. Yet they were accidents! When I see today's high school students sweating, and planning, and conniving, and arranging their lives so they'll "stand out" starting even before high school, I have to wonder what it is they're really doing. It's not a bad thing to want to go to a particular place, but, let's be honest, it doesn't really matter where you go to college. The important thing is what you do once you're there.
I can already hear you saying, "Well, but what about the contacts, the smart kids who attend, the best professors, and so on?" I still say, it makes no difference, and to fret about it is a stress that's totally unnecessary. The contacts you make in one place are different but the same as in another--you find the people you need to find no matter where you are. You attend classes or not, you party or not, you start becoming an adult or not, no matter where you are. And with acceptance rates below 10 percent, those big deal colleges are doing other schools a favor by making sure they have a good supply of smart kids who end up fanning out all over the country. So do yourselves a favor and think that you could probably do just as well applying to colleges randomly as you could trying to predict and insure every element.
In the long run, we can't control what will happen no matter what we do or how much we'd like to. Why should applying to college be any different? The students with the least stress were the ones who came to my office and said, "You know, I think I'll be happy wherever I go." As the Chinese say, "Be careful how you travel or you may end up where you expected to." That's the spirit!
Of course, this is nowhere near the real picture. Just about everyone who applies to college will get in somewhere; quite a few colleges even (mid-April 2008) now are still accepting applications. The whole thing is only a problem if you care very deeply about where you attend and think that if you don't go there your life is somehow ruined, destroyed, or otherwise diverted from its true course and flowering, all of which is nonsense.
A colleague and I were talking the other evening about our own college research and application processes, laughing at our callow approach to the whole thing. She and I are contemporaries, so we're talking about the early 70s, before the whole thing got really out of hand. We were both clueless, to be honest, even though we were both good students. I was head of my class at a large public high school in Chester, NJ, which offered honors but no AP classes that I can recall (not a big thing then), and I did well in the honors track, although to this day I consider calculus my mortal enemy. I had what today would be considered so-so SAT scores (no I'm not telling, although to my chagrin I still know them), and a decent although not spectacular career in the chorus and the theater group. I also worked part-time at the local pharmacy, working the counter and making deliveries all over the area.
When college came on the horizon late in my junior year (although my family always told me I could go anywhere I wanted when the time came), we had no special seminars, no offers of essay help, no test prep, no piles of glossy viewbooks, no "college counselor." I figured I'd apply to Harvard and Yale simply because my uncle, whom I greatly admired, had attended the former and taught at the latter; I briefly considered Tufts, my father's alma mater, but since he was an engineer I thought it was a school for engineers, so I dismissed it. There was no "strategizing" to it; I was just going with what I knew.
One day, going by my guidance counselor's office, I heard him call to me and ask what I was thinking about college. I told him, and he said that was fine, but had I ever considered a small liberal arts college? I asked what that was and he said a good place to get an education but smaller than a university. That seemed fine to me so I asked him to name a few. "Well, Amherst, for example," he replied. I'd never heard of it, but I was willing to check it out.
I don't remember what I knew about Amherst (it wasn't much) before I got on the Peter Pan bus in New York for the four hour ride to Amherst, MA later in the summer, but when I got off in the town center, I swooned at the New England charm and the compact yet spacious Amherst College campus. I thought, "This is what college should look like!" I walked around by myself, coming without warning on the spectacular view of the Pioneer Valley from Memorial Hill, after which I was completely overcome with desire. I dropped in on the admission office, which at the time was tucked away in the main administration building. I was smitten without having seen a student, professor, or admission office person. I asked about interviews. I didn't need one, I was told; by the time I returned to New Jersey, I was ready to apply.
The time came and I applied to Harvard, Yale, and, at random, Ithaca College in upstate New York. I applied to Amherst early decision, still intoxicated with the thought of lounging on that hill, or simply being there, reading, surrounded by nature. Hell, even the trees seemed intelligent. I wanted to ingest it all. But once the applications were in I went on with the rest of my high school life. (I don't remember what I wrote my essays on, but I do remember that I didn't get any help that I recall. My mother may have given them a quick read, but not much else--no English teacher or counselor help.)
Ithaca accepted me almost immediately, it seems to me. Harvard and Yale turned me down, which was OK by me, especially when I recalled my "group interview" at a Yale's alum's home. A group of applicants sat around a table and an admission person spoke with us after we had each had a chance to speak with one of the Yale alums who had gathered for the occasion. The home was elegantly appointed, perhaps even lavish; it seemed like a mansion to me and it made me uncomfortable. But what I really remember is the girl who said, "I understand Yale has a burgeoning film department." I made a face, probably, groaning inside at her pretentious use of a big word to impress the dean. It was then I decided I didn't want to go to Yale, although I learned a new word that day.
Amherst deferred me, making my guidance counselor, David Boelhouwer, crazy. He couldn't understand it and called to see what had happened. Turns out, you did need an interview if you applied ED and lived within 250 miles of campus. He managed to wrangle an interview for me over the Christmas break with the Dean himself, the legendary Ed Wall. I went back to campus, courtesy of my aunt, who drove me out from Acton MA in a snowfall and waited while I had my session. I remember being disappointed that Dean Wall didn't ask me anything about my grades or accomplishments; instead he asked what I was reading and I told him The Wheel of Love, a story collection by Joyce Carol Oates. We talked about that. What was even more frustrating was that I didn't even like the book, and during the whole interview I could see the snow coming down harder and harder and the light fading and it was a long way back to Boston.
Afterwards, Dean Wall took my puny hand in his massive bear grasp and told me it was nice to meet me. Despite my disappointment, I stopped at Hastings in town and bought an Amherst sweatshirt, which I resolved not to wear unless I got in. My aunt picked me up and we drove back to the Boston suburbs.
The day I got into Amherst was the only day in my school life that I cut a class. My mother, who had been in a terrible auto accident over New Year's 1973, had needed a nurse during the day, and I would take over when I got home. Consequently I was able to have a car at school. When the letter arrived, she called the school and I got called to the office. She wanted to open it. At first I said yes, then changed my mind. I rushed out of school, hopped into our VW Bug and zoomed home, where I found the acceptance letter. I celebrated a bit with my mother, ran upstairs and put on the sweatshirt, and raced back to school, in time to catch the end of my German class. Mrs. Kerekes, a stern but fair Hungarian, started to scold me, but when she saw the sweatshirt, she started beaming, and all was forgiven.
So I got to Amherst, but here's the punchline--to this day I don't think I even knew that Amherst was all male until I actually got to campus. (It went co-end in 1976, one of the last schools of its kind to do so.) My whole experience of college search and application was a fluke arising from a casual comment by my counselor. I'm sure that if he'd said "Williams" or "Union" or "Hamilton" or "Calcutta" I'd be one of their alums today. Total chance. And I'm also convinced that I owe Joyce Carol Oates credit for my admission. Even today I feel guilty about not reading everything she writes (which would, of course, be impossible for a mortal with only 24 hours a day to read...)
So back to my colleague and me sitting in an Irish pub in downtown Chicago. Her story, in its similar lack of focus on "getting into" a particular college, is very similar to mine. And yet, here we were, laughing at our ignorance and marveling at the fact that we managed pretty well in spite of it, having survived and even prospered. Our lives are good, our work fulfills us, and we have good memories of our alma maters. Yet they were accidents! When I see today's high school students sweating, and planning, and conniving, and arranging their lives so they'll "stand out" starting even before high school, I have to wonder what it is they're really doing. It's not a bad thing to want to go to a particular place, but, let's be honest, it doesn't really matter where you go to college. The important thing is what you do once you're there.
I can already hear you saying, "Well, but what about the contacts, the smart kids who attend, the best professors, and so on?" I still say, it makes no difference, and to fret about it is a stress that's totally unnecessary. The contacts you make in one place are different but the same as in another--you find the people you need to find no matter where you are. You attend classes or not, you party or not, you start becoming an adult or not, no matter where you are. And with acceptance rates below 10 percent, those big deal colleges are doing other schools a favor by making sure they have a good supply of smart kids who end up fanning out all over the country. So do yourselves a favor and think that you could probably do just as well applying to colleges randomly as you could trying to predict and insure every element.
In the long run, we can't control what will happen no matter what we do or how much we'd like to. Why should applying to college be any different? The students with the least stress were the ones who came to my office and said, "You know, I think I'll be happy wherever I go." As the Chinese say, "Be careful how you travel or you may end up where you expected to." That's the spirit!
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