Greenwich Education Group

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The Perks of Early Decision II

Jul 2

Posted by GreenwichEdGrp in College | 6 Comments

For some high school seniors the only thing they are certain of is of what they don’t know. Nicole Niblo was one of those students. She didn’t know what she wanted to do or even where she wanted to apply to college. Her attempts at looking through college review books were futile. She would say, “All these schools look the same. How do I really know which one is right for me from looking at a few paragraphs in a guidebook or even looking on the websites?” Point taken.

The summer before her senior year Nicole traveled throughout the Northeast touring dozens of colleges and universities. Schools that Nicole thought she’d love, she ended up rejecting. Through a process of trial and error Nicole was able to figure out what qualities she liked or disliked in a school. She wanted a small, liberal arts college, in a rural area. She wanted to go to St. Lawrence University in upstate New York.

But, Nicole has commitment phobia. She knew that St. Lawrence was the right school, but she couldn’t bring herself to sign the early decision agreement. The deadline passed and Nicole thought she was doomed. She thought, “Early Decision was my best chance of getting in and I missed it.”

Fortunately Nicole wasn’t as doomed as she thought she was. St. Lawrence is one of many schools across the nation that offers Early Decision II. Early Decision II is basically identical to Early Decision I; both programs are binding. The only difference is that you get an extra two months to look at schools. If students are deferred or rejected from a school they applied to Early Decision I, they can quickly regroup and apply to their second choice Early Decision II.

Nicole was nervous. She wondered whether it was a mistake to apply Early Decision II, not Early Decision I. She was convinced that she was going to be rejected. But Nicole got in! Even though deciding whether to apply Early Decision was the most stressful part of her college process, Nicole was glad that she took the time to make sure that she loved St. Lawrence and applied Early Decision II.

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Getting In For Musical Theater

Jun 25

Posted by GreenwichEdGrp in College | 303 Comments

A recent Greenwich High School graduate, Adrienne, who is planning to attend NYU Tisch next year with a concentration in theater. Adrienne was set on a life in musical theater. But Adrienne quickly discovered that applying to college for musical theater is a completely different process than that of her peers.

The tricky thing for Adrienne was finding a school that was equally challenging academically as it is musical theater wise. She knew NYU was the right choice for her. Although Tisch is ranked as one of best musical theater program in the country, Adrienne was also attracted to its great academics. Another major attraction to NYU was the fact that it was located in the capital city of theater. She knew early on that NYU was the school for her. That was the easy part.

If the application process wasn’t stressful enough, a complex audition process would surely turn up the heat. Because the audition process varies from school to school, Adrienne had to prepare a slew of monologues, songs, and dances for her many auditions. A couple of schools even required an interview and a music theory test.

Adrienne was overwhelmed. She hired a coach to direct her to colleges in order to organize the different components of her applications. The hardest thing about the process was the aspect of randomness. What if a girl just as good as her went before her but she made them laugh a little more? What if NYU already had a brunette mezzo soprano?

Adrienne decided to apply early decision to NYU. In Tisch’s early decision program, if students do not make the cut in the early decision round, then they are flat out rejected. Fortunately, Adrienne was accepted.

Looking back on her college application process, Adrienne thought that she handled the whole application process well. Instead of looking at college rankings provided in books, she was guided by playbills and her own needs.

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