Yes, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other large, prestigious universities do contain top-of-the-line student bodies and, for the most part, do provide excellent undergraduate educations; but so do places like Swarthmore, Carleton, Pomona, and other small, liberal arts institutions.   While their names may not inspire as much awe around the dinner table or look as good on the back of a car, liberal arts colleges offer several academic and extracurricular advantages that students at larger, more research-oriented schools would be hard-pressed to find.

For one, the faculty at small, liberal arts colleges put undergraduates first.  Without a graduate student cohort and less bound to research than their university counterparts, liberal arts faculty have more opportunities to interact with and advise their undergraduate students. As such, students at liberal arts institutions often find their professors more accessible than do students at universities.  Second, liberal arts colleges tend to have, on average, smaller class sizes.  At universities, it is not uncommon for freshmen to enroll in courses containing 300+ students or go through an entire semester without uttering a single word inside the classroom.  This isn’t the case at a liberal arts school. If you enjoy class discussion and the opportunity to forge close relationships with your fellow classmates, a liberal arts institution may be your best bet.  Finally, students at liberal arts colleges have access to certain extracurricular activities that would otherwise be unavailable to them at large universities, such as joining the college football team or assisting their favorite professor in a research project.  At a liberal arts college, you do not have to compete with a PhD student or NFL prospect to represent your college and reap the personal and social benefits that come from deep involvement in an extracurricular activity.

So, yes, liberal arts colleges do offer a variety of benefits to students during their undergraduate years.  But maybe you’re not as concerned about what liberal arts schools do for students during college as you are with what these institutions do for students after they have graduated.  After all, isn’t college a means to an end?  What about job prospects and prospects for admission into graduate school? Well, the following are just a few facts confirming that liberal arts schools do indeed prepare their students for life after college:

• Liberal arts colleges constitute seven of the ten postsecondary institutions that graduate the highest percentage of eventual PhDs.
• Approximately forty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have graduated from a liberal arts college and/or obtained a degree in the liberal arts.
• Institutions represented among the Class of 2011 at Yale Law School, the highest-ranked law school in the country, include Colorado College, Gettysburg College, Harvey Mudd College, Millsaps College, Sarah Lawrence College, Whitman College, and about a dozen other excellent, albeit lesser known liberal arts institutions.

As evident from the above, bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to choosing a college.  So, if you’re the kind of student who desires a tight-knit community, intimate learning environment, and a chance to participate in all aspects of campus life, consider sacrificing the big name decal for the opportunity to enjoy a substantive and very meaningful four years. Consider a liberal arts college.

I have always enjoyed the thrill of competition. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of facing an opponent and giving everything I have until I accomplish victory. As any competitor knows, the competition begins well before game day; it begins months in advance. So much goes into preparing for game day – analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of my opponent, mapping out a practice plan, spending countless hours practicing, and then, once I have mastered the skills and prepared a solid strategy, I have the confidence to take on my competition and achieve victory. As with so many things in life, the more work I put into preparing for the competition the better I will do. This is how I look at Standardized tests – as a competition for which one can prepare and achieve the results they desire! It is also what fascinates about Standardized Tests – the thrill of competing against the Test-maker to achieve my highest score!

As a student, I enjoyed beating the Test and helping others to do the same. I have always enjoyed working with others to help them achieve their goals which is why after graduating from Princeton, I began my career as a high school educator. As an educator, I was saddened by how many of my students struggled to understand the PSAT, SAT, and/or ACT.  I was also shocked by the stress associated with preparing for each Test. After seeing this, I made it my personal mission to learn about each Test and help as many students as possible accomplish their score goals! In order to do this, I sought out the best Test Prep company in the industry and began teaching for Kaplan.

After 5 years of teaching for Kaplan and hundreds of student success stories later, I joined the Kaplan Pre-College Team as the Director of Pre-College Product Development and Operations. I now have the opportunity to help tens of thousands of students accomplish their goal to achieve their Top score so they, too, can get into the college of their dreams!

When I was presented with the opportunity to write this blog, I was thrilled. What better way to help students and parents to navigate this sometimes confusing and stressful time, than by blogging about it? Plus, if teaching the PSAT, SAT or ACT with a class of 20 students is fun, then discussing them with a group of thousands will be great!

Through this blog, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned (and continue to learn) about the PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests, and AP exams. I’ll focus on different aspects of preparation as well as discussing trends in Pre-College Standardized testing, the content covered in each exam, the test-taking strategies that will help you to beat the Test-maker and I will share my personal experiences to help you achieve you Top score! If there is a particular topic that you’d like me to cover, don’t hesitate to email me at Devon.Keefe@Kaplan.com.

For many rising seniors, summer is seen as the last opportunity to relax and unwind before what is often characterized as a tremendously stressful and overwhelming college admissions season.  Weary and worn-out from months of standardized tests, final exams, and end-of-the-year projects, most college-bound youth choose to check out during the months of July and August.  It is important to realize, however, that students can begin tackling the application process without sacrificing their summer reprieve.  In the upcoming months, spend a few hours per week on the following four tasks and you’ll get ahead in the college admissions game, while avoiding the anxiety that many other college-bound seniors are likely to experience this fall:

1. Visit prospective schools. College guides, school websites, and ranking systems are useful to one’s college research, but nothing proves as revelatory as the college visit. Setting foot on campus and experiencing first-hand the school’s academic and social climate allows you to confirm whether a particular college is truly a right fit.  When visiting each school, make sure to schedule both a campus tour and an admissions interview, if possible.
2. Prepare for standardized tests (for real this time). Were you too bogged down with school work to study for the SAT? Are you not pleased with your current ACT score?  Summer presents the perfect opportunity to really focus on preparing for those all-important standardized tests.  Like it or not, standardized tests are a crucial component of the college application process and a higher score can often times constitute the difference between an admissions acceptance and denial.  Visit www.kaptest.com to learn more about standardized test prep options.
3. Write the essay. Ahh, the college essay.  Although frequently perceived as the most agonizing part of the application process, writing the college essay can actually prove enlightening and enjoyable, provided you follow a few simple rules. First, be yourself!  Admissions officers don’t want the extraordinary; they simply want to learn something about you that they cannot glean from the collection of grades and scores in your application file. As such, choose a topic or experience that reveals who you are, how you think, what you believe, or who you want to become.  Second: show, don’t tell.  Every strong essay writer uses anecdotes and strong verbs to make a point or vivify a story.  Make sure you do the same.  Finally, be concise.  Longer isn’t necessarily better, especially when it comes to the college essay.  At the height of the application season, admissions officers may be reading up to 100 essays per day.  An unnecessarily long essay may cause your reader to tune out, or worse yet, neglect other parts of your application file.
4. Complete the Common Application. Nearly 350 selective college and universities are now members of the Common Application, which means that students interested in attending competitive schools will likely be applying to at least one or more institutions that use the Common Application. Students should visit www.commonapp.org to preview and practice completing the Common Application, including the personal essay. Please note that the 2009-2010 Common Application (online and paper version) will become available on July 1, 2009.

Yes, summer is the time to sit back and relax.  But, relaxation and productivity can go hand in hand, especially during break.  Complete these few tasks and you will reap the benefits come fall.