Category: Hampshire College

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to Guilford College

“So You Don’t Have To”: A Visit to Guilford College

In mid-January I was passing through North Carolina and decided to pay a visit to Guilford College, in Greensboro. I’m so glad that I did! I think that I’ve previously mentioned in this space that I am an alumn of Hampshire College, and so it’s understandable that I have a soft spot for small, liberal […]

If I Can’t Understand The Score, What’s The Point Of The Test?

  2016 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the field of standardized tests for college admissions. The list of “test optional” colleges and universities is bound to grow, President Obama has joined the clamor deriding “test prep” in schools, and both national admissions testing organizations–the ACT and the SAT— have instituted changes […]

My Thoughts on Three New College Admissions Methods

At age 17,  I decided to limit my college search to tiny Marlboro College in Vermont (which eschewed traditional classes for one-on-one tutorials) and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts (whose professors give detailed narrative evaluations instead of grades). There were other reasons–I wanted a college where I could watch Red Sox games on local television, for […]

Things Are More Complicated Than “Don’t Send Your Kid To The Ivy League”

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a history teacher and college counselor at Wyoming Seminary,  a highly regarded prep school with an international reputation for preparing its graduates for higher education. By nearly any measurement, Wyoming Seminary students are successful in the college admissions process and generally speaking most parents (who after all pay the […]