Hello to those you a zoom in in? We're going to wait just a couple minutes to make sure that most of our audience is able to get in and then we'll get started.
Jace Riggin
03:00:58 PM
Welcome!!
Ben Kaufman
03:01:15 PM
Hello and welcome to Workshop Wednesday! If you experience any connection issues (such as not being able to hear or see the presentation) please refresh your webpage. That should fix most issues. We have about 200 folks on this webinar, so it is likely not everyone will have perfect connections.
Ian
03:01:56 PM
Great! Thank you!
Ben Kaufman
03:02:45 PM
Hello and welcome to Workshop Wednesday! If you experience any connection issues (such as not being able to hear or see the presentation) please refresh your webpage. That should fix most issues. We have about 200 folks on this webinar, so it is likely not everyone will have perfect connections.
Alright, hello everyone and welcome into workshop Wednesday. This is our third workshop 4th workshop. Some like that just in this month of July. Really excited to have you all here. I do want to mention before we get going. For those of you who have not seen the message, I put the chat box. There it is again. We do have uh, about 200 people signed up for this webinar, some of whom will be probably not be able to make it, but due to the overall traffic.
There is a high likelihood that people will have some connection issues if you cannot hear us or CS at any point. Please just refresh your web page and that should do the trick. Sometimes might need refresh a couple times, but such is the nature of virtual learning and info sharing. But we are super excited. Super super, super excited to have you here.
This workshop is decoding the college search, a research workshop for US based high school students. We may have some international students in here as well to get some information as well. Super excited to have you all here to introduce ourselves. My name is Ben Kaufman. I am one of the assistant directors of admissions iMac grad class of 2016 and very excited to have you all here. I'll let my colleague introduce itself.
Hi, my name is Jay's Regen. I am an admission officer here at McAllister. I am not a Mac Brad but I love McAllister and would be happy to tell you more about it as well as other schools here in Minnesota I use he him as well as they them pronouns and I'm just thrilled to be here with you today.
And I should mention I also use he him pronouns in case anyone is looking to refer to me by a program before we get going. We do want to make a quick land acknowledgement. McAllister is located in St Paul, MN which is built upon the historic occupied homelands of the Dakota people. The land was stolen from them a couple 100 years ago and was never given back and we do this land acknowledgement to honor not only the people but also honor the reality of the history of America and the history of the upper Midwest.
And so, making that acknowledgement that we are built on Concessional Dakota Homeland.
And with that we are going to jump right into our presentation, which we hope will be about 30 to 35 minutes or so, leaving plenty of time at the end for questions. For those of you viewing in, there is a question box where you can ask questions along the way, or if you'd like to hold questions till the end, that's OK. We do plan to run through all of our information and then address all the questions at the end as much as possible so we won't be stopping for questions along the way, but we will do them at the end.
Uh, and we're actually going to start by asking you all a question.
Where are you zooming in from? For this workshop? Feel free to answer in the chat box. Let us know where all your coming from today.
Emmett
03:05:28 PM
Colorado!
Jace Riggin
03:05:31 PM
Minneapolis, MN!
Toni
03:05:31 PM
Las Vegas, Nevada
Hân
03:05:33 PM
Kirkland, Washington!
Megan
03:05:35 PM
Minneapolis
Alejandra
03:05:35 PM
florida
Scarlett
03:05:36 PM
atlanta :)
Isla
03:05:37 PM
Austin, TX!!! :)
Annabelle
03:05:37 PM
Cape Cod!
Ike
03:05:38 PM
Massachusetts
David
03:05:38 PM
San Francisco!
Jessie
03:05:39 PM
Mill Valley, CA
Lyra
03:05:39 PM
milwaukee, WI
Zack
03:05:40 PM
southern california
Haruna
03:05:41 PM
New Jersey
Students from all over the place.
Lucia
03:05:42 PM
San Diego, California
Syna
03:05:42 PM
Raleigh, NC
Nicholas
03:05:43 PM
Illinois!
Crystal
03:05:43 PM
Duluth MN
Melissa
03:05:45 PM
Los Angeles
Kaeya
03:05:46 PM
Washington DC
Jacob
03:05:46 PM
Just outside Boston, Massachusetts!
Natasha
03:05:47 PM
Minnesota!
Olivia
03:05:48 PM
Michigan
Sophia
03:05:48 PM
Portland, Oregon!
Shreya
03:05:48 PM
Michigan
Ashley
03:05:49 PM
Los Angeles, California
Logan
03:05:49 PM
Beaverton Oregon
Kalev
03:05:50 PM
D.C. area
Leslie
03:05:50 PM
California
Kevin
03:05:51 PM
Bellevue WA
Abigiya
03:05:51 PM
Maryland!
Hannah
03:05:51 PM
WAashington
Charlie
03:05:52 PM
St. Paul, MN
Jen
03:05:52 PM
West Allis, Wisconsin
Ava
03:05:53 PM
Hot springs, Arkansas
Abby
03:05:53 PM
Chicago, IL
Fatima
03:05:55 PM
Washington
Noticing a lot of Illinois's wells TX I I work with students from Illinois and Texas. Happy to have you here today.
Tinotenda
03:05:56 PM
Zimbabwe
Fatima
03:05:59 PM
Minnesota
Nat
03:06:01 PM
I'm Nat and I'm from Houston
On the same vein, I see a lot of Seattle folks out there. That's part of my territory. I've got the whole Pacific Northwest.
Alina
03:06:03 PM
Houston, TX!
Charlie
03:06:08 PM
Dallas, TX
Mohamed
03:06:09 PM
Egypt. Milwauekee. Dual Citizen.
And others great. Alright, well thank you so much for answering that that we put those in chat box. So as you can see there are students coming from all over all over the place. So we're really excited to have you all here to chat about college search an where you might start, what you might look for things to think about.
Our agenda for the day. As you can see here, uh, decoding the college search, we're going to run through a few different types of higher education institutions. Just an intro to talk about. What are the different types of colleges and universities that you might look into? What are the differences between some of those will talk about where you can start your search as far as the different types of places you can look on the Internet in particular because we're living in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many colleges and universities are not allowing in person visits on campus.
Or if they are, it is on a very very small scale. So because that a lot of your college search alot of your research is going to happen through Internet searches and we'll talk about some of the places that you can look to for. That will also talk about how you can use social media platforms to engage with college search and to think about how to get maybe more of a student perspective through social media platforms when thinking about a college or University and then will finish up by touching a little bit about resources for under represented students and why that might be an important factor.
To consider in your search that you might not have thought about at this point yet and again, we will leave plenty of time for questions at the end. At least 20 minutes, if not a little bit more so. With that I am going to turn this over to judge to talk a little bit about higher Ed institutions.
Awesome, I just want to add that if you have any questions as Ben and I are talking Popham in that question box, they might not appear right away, but we will see them and will get to them love chatting about career options as well as pathways and higher end. It's one of my favorite things to chat about in Bend very graciously. Let me rant about this today. First thing we want to start off with is vocational and trade schools. These are wonderful options for certifications for students. Think Craftsman.
Think building certificates, draftsman certificates, welding can often fall into this category in large Metropolitan area. These trade schools are often a run an paid for by trade unions as well as other business associations in more rural parts of the country. Like where I grew up, I grew up about 70 miles from the Canadian border in North Dakota. These are going to be run through some of your high schools. Vocational technical schools attached to the local high schools.
Or the community colleges. These community colleges are a great place. Whether you're a rural or urban to get a certificate in an area that you really desire or to get a great foundation through a two year degree, these are often very affordable and often or pathways for students to get a two year certification that they need for a desired job. Think things like Dental Tech. Those are two year degrees that many community colleges offer and allow students to affordably get those certifications.
The other really great pieces. This can be a stepping stone 204 year degree. Many community colleges offer liberal arts associates degrees that allow the students to have a lot of 1 on one advising individualized attention and learn at a pace that is really accessible to them. This isn't dissimilar to liberal arts colleges. They are often smaller in size. However, where they do differ as they focus on that four year degree where liberal arts colleges are very specific specific excuse me.
Is that liberal arts means broad based education that is going to span the natural Sciences, the social Sciences, the arts, the humanities as well as.
Wells mathematics I always forget about math because it's the scary topic for me. I I was a liberal arts student. I still had to take math classes that was part of the challenge. That's part of the broad based education that is offered at those liberal Arts and Sciences. College is another particular piece about them is they're often mission driven and have a broad set of values that a company that education that the students need to engage with to graduate universities kind of have this similar focus. In fact, large universities do have colleges of liberal arts and science within them.
The difference is is that universities are often larger in size and our mower narrowed in focus in the degrees that they offer think culinary arts or very specific tailored science programs that you may be learning how to do a specific type of research rather than research within the field of biology. The another part that I want to mention about universities is there maybe admission stipulations for a University you may be admitted into the College of Biological Sciences.
That's the college that you're primarily going to take your courses to graduate, and to get your major in your ethics classes of many of your literature classes will exist within that college, and the ones that you'll be taking for your general education outside of the college will be capped and pre identified for you little bit less choice. An more narrowed and focus is the one piece and I wanted to have a bias here. I think liberal arts is fantastic, but each of these options serves a purpose and that's why it's important to have different ones.
In your college, search the next piece that I want to talk about is that public or private dichotomy. There are public liberal arts colleges. They are are very rare cousins. There's only about 17 of them in the country, and then there are private universities and private colleges. How do you distinguish the difference? Every college has a small engine in it, and that engine is called an endowment. And what distinguished this them as private or public is how do they fund that endowment? Does the money come from state?
Tax dollars that the communities have chosen to pool their money together to create that fund that helps fuel the college and University. Or does it come from a collection of private donors and alumni of the college? That's really the big difference. The last piece we want to touch on that we feel is really important for you to be thinking about is for profit versus nonprofit institutions. These institutions are drastically different in how they are structured. The vast majority of.
Ben Kaufman
03:12:37 PM
Helpful link for For Profit vs. Non Profit:
Ben Kaufman
03:12:38 PM
https://www.petersons.com/blog/for-profit-colleges-versus-nonprofit-colleges-what-you-need-to-know/
All colleges and universities in the country are nonprofit institutions, which means that their goal through the collection of tuition, housing, and meal plan fees is to break even at the end of the year is to ensure that you are getting a high quality education at the most affordable cost that it can be. However, for profit institutions function on a model of having profit leftover after providing education, room and meals, that profit is then paid out to either company shareholders.
Or direct leaders within the organization a drastically different motivation for providing you with those services. I haven't opened bias and so does Ben about needing to really focus on some of the challenges of delivering a for profit education model and the harm that it can cause to students. I encourage you to think long and hard about for profit institutions. Some of them serve particular niche and I encourage you were thinking about anything. Talk to your college counselor or a counselor in your high school if you're wanting more information.
Um, less serious note. Uh, Gonna Pass it over to Ben and he is going to help us think about where to start our college search.
Lying I didn't pass it over to bed.
Well, I can ask the question though if you'd like.
Uh, yeah, so so where? Where should you start your college search? We are going to answer this for you and Jason. Run through some digital platforms an places to look. Some of them you might already be familiar with and some of them might be new to you wherever you are in your search process. And so these are good places not only as starting points, but to continue learning about a college or University that you might already be interested in.
The first one I want to talk about is, uh, kind of the biggest one stop shop in terms of college search and you may have heard about them already but didn't know it. This is called the College Board. They allow every institution to be ranked by specific Indica sees such as graduation rates, and I'll talk about more about that later. Thinking about cost of attendance, average AC T average SAT scores, and that's the piece where you may have heard of the College Board.
The College Board runs the essay T the PSAT and the AC T. If you've taken those tests, the College Board has received your information and has put it into a database that all colleges and universities in the country utilized in order to search and to recruit students based apon profile and other factors. I don't want to scare you, but that's just part of taking the test. College Board does make money off of the fees from your individual test takes and that fees that they charge for accessing the data.
How do you get to use their services? It allows for you to think about things like we talked about how many of the students are graduating in four years or less, what percentage of them are continuing onto a Masters or doctoral program. Keep in mind that this is all data that is independently reported to College Board through a variety of sources and in some cases each college gets to control the paragraphs that are shown on each website, and so this is a collaborative database between College Board.
And the college is the next one I want to share a little bit more about is College Navigator. This is more impartial than the College Board. Why? Because it's going to utilize several results oriented surveys. This is going to focus on those pieces that I talked about. Cost of attendance, thinking about the four year graduation rates as well as six year graduation rates. An 8 year graduation rates, most liberal arts colleges are going to publish their four year graduation rates.
Many large universities will publish both their four and their six year. I mentioned that because you're going to need to keep track of that, they'll often be a little dot that you need to hover over, or a question mark next to the statistics. And when you do that with your cursor or you tap on it on your touchscreen, it'll pop up the dialog box and it will tell you this is a four year graduation rate or this is a six year graduation rate. The other big piece that I want to talk about here on this college navigator.
Paige is average student debt load. This is a great way for you to think about average cost of attendance versus average debt load over four years. We like to think we're all average or not I know it's counter Intuitive, but we're not all average. In fact, that's just a sample of the middle 50%. And what was the number of those people in the middle paid? And so I would encourage you to use individual colleges.
Need based calculators as well as cost calculators. After assessing the potential cost by looking at averages, I really encourage you to take those as a starting point for thinking about affordability. Why? Because our average is skewed quite a bit, we meet full need about 23% of all the students at McAllister are eligible, meaning that their families earned less than $60,000 a year. If they were a family of four Ain. Conversely, we have many families who do not.
Need financial assistance at McAllister and so that middle isn't really an accurate number for everybody getting out of all of that context there, you need to go through the financial aid process with each institution and this is a great starting process to see where you might fit into that.
The next piece I want to talk about is how the heck do you start applying for college, and that's the common app. This is going to tell you a lot of that information we were talking about before on both the College Board as well as college navigator. The piece I want to keep you keep at the front of your mind and this is this is all provided by the college. Is this is not data that's been fed in. This is what the college wants to publish, so it's the one you should take as the most murky just in terms of these could be three years old. It could be a certain data that makes them look the best.
A man so don't only use this source in your college search. I really recommend this. You've made your list of about 7. That's the average number of schools that you can that I'm students applying to the Max number on the common app is 20. Both Ben and I don't think that you should apply to 20. You can if that's something you really intentionally planned on doing, but generally it's not something we recommend. 7 is a OK. This will allow for you to make that list and then use one application to apply to all of those schools.
As well as one unified essay to use to all of those schools, then there's the second section of the common app called the supplemental material section, and this will let you know what each of the schools you selected is asking of you in terms of additional materials. You may need. This is where you'll get into the nitty gritty of is there a fee? Are they requiring test scores? Are they test optional? Like McAllister College is? If you want to know about more about test optional, feel free to ask it in the questions.
Then I would love to chat more. This is where you get all into that. The second piece is the college specific essay going to put a plug in next week for the Wednesday workshop is about those essays. I'll be there for that, but this is really important. It's where a lot of colleges think about. Are you a good fit? Are you the type of student who would really thrive on their campus? I'm going to also a great way to assess your quick writing skills and so I encourage you take time. Review those, treat those supplemental materials as if they were the application themselves.
Uh, anything else you dad then about the common app?
Uh, I think the only other precise you cover most of the only other piece I dad is you don't have to create a common app account in order to see the information about colleges. You have to have an account to apply, but you don't need an account to be able to go to the common app and look up McAllister college or the University of Pitts Burg or Stanford or whatever it may be to get some information about them. So most of the general information is free. You don't need an account, so you can still find this information without necessarily committing yourself to a login account.
Nice thank you so much. I'm next one that we are going to chat about is the end all be all. I would say your end stop. This is where I would go. Maybe after you've gotten admission decisions really to think about one return on education. All of those components of what was the average salary of a student after leaving that institution? How many really really graduated? According to the federal government and for years or six years?
This is called the College scorecard. All colleges and universities that receive federal aid those federal loans, as well as Pell Grants family loans have to report their data into this database in order to remain eligible to disperse that financial aid. This is the most reputable. It's the most really reviewed data that Ben and I are aware of. Keep in mind it's always going to be about 2 years old. Why? Because this is all on the prior prior.
Here just how the federal government operates in their relationship with colleges and universities, you'll learn more about that in our financial aid session. Back to the College scorecard. Want to focus in on average cost of attendance? Make sure you hover over that information. It tells you whether or not loan figures are included in that. The other one is the graduation rate. By and large, the four excuse me by and large the six year rate.
Is what the federal government is going to use? Why? Because that's the middle in between for your rates and eight year rates. The other component is salary. After graduating, some schools will tell you the salary after graduating within six months and some schools will tell you a five year. That's what the federal government publishes. It's more of a long longevity. Look at the students who went maybe directly off to Graduate School thinking Holistic Lee about how they are.
Earnings may be skewed within those first few years. All things to think about. The last piece is average debt loads again are going to be reported in this website.
I would just want to leave you with averages right now in the United States, the average debt load of a student going to a public University is about $34,000, and the average debt load of a student going to a private University is about $60,000. McAllister is the 2nd private, nonprofit liberal arts college I've worked at. Both the debt loads of college I worked out before in McAllister are closer to the $34,000 level.
And not at that $60,000 level. So again, it's one of those cautionary tales of averages. When you have your list, you can put them all together in the College scorecard and compare and contrast them students. Your parents will love this website. This is going to be like their favorite thing. Make sure you show it to them when you're making your college decisions and it can be really helpful for if a dream school has a lot of data behind it that's been hard to pick through our share with them. It's helpful, maybe just show them this website so they can see those.
UN tangible components like the graduation rates, the salary after graduation and compare that with cost of attendance. Lastly, I want to talk about some more of the great student perspective resources that we have in our knowledge base and these absolutely aren't the end all. Be all. There's definitely more that have developed in that you might be aware of. We encourage you to share them with us in the comments box, however, just to several of them are Unicco Niche College Confidential.
Uh, these are all going to be student oriented survey, either anonymously or with names, to give ratings and and grades to specific things like campus life professors, campus Accessibility.
Diversity, equity, inclusion work on the campus, all of those components. Take it with a grain of salt is this could be really angry people or this could be people who are rah rah rah really excited about their University. So both are good things. But just keep that in mind. If you're seeing a really extreme comment.
Read a little bit more. It might be a really extreme comment mixed in with those Petersons guide is a mix of both counselor and students assessment and I believe there's parents assessment in with Peterson guide. The second one is college green light capex. These again are those students oriented. They also help a little bit more with scholarships so that's their Mo. The last component I want to make sure you're aware of is this functions just like College Board there taking your information.
And sharing that with colleges in the scheme of things to be deeply concerned about, I'd say it shouldn't be terribly high on your radar, but it should be something to be aware of as you're putting information into those fields. Just be conscious of do I want to be actively sharing this information, or do I not?
Then that those are the big things about reputable sources that you should be looking at. Um again, College Board is an Huey College Board linked to the US news report are for that search process really good in those student focused websites. And then when you're making your decision, I'd flip over to that fed roll website to start thinking on return on your education.
Awesome, um now to talk about social media in a little bit more of the student centered approach, Ben.
Great thanks, Chase and I do wanna acknowledge we have fielded a few questions in the chat box. Thank you for sending those in again. Will try and address as many questions at the very end as we can, but for now we are going to ask you another question.
Have you used any of the resources that Jace mentioned already? Are there other ones that you've used that we didn't talk about? What kinds of things might that be and will try and move those into the chat box from the question box? So go ahead and feel free to answer. An will send some of those over.
Will keep the questions on our end for now.
Hannah
03:27:22 PM
parchment
Claire
03:27:25 PM
yes niche and college board
Gotta and each a nice there, uh.
Ryan
03:27:29 PM
Naviance but i dont remember if you talked about it
Emmett
03:27:30 PM
Common App, College Kickstart, and College Board
Parchment. That's a. That's a good service to use. Parchment is like the common app a bit.
Ashley
03:27:31 PM
College Board
Zoe
03:27:32 PM
I've used big future before
Kevin
03:27:33 PM
NIche & Cappex
Crystal
03:27:34 PM
Yes, multiple of these.
Big Future College Board.
Nat
03:27:36 PM
The College Board has been really helpful to me. There are also good books I've liked like the Fiske book
Lucia
03:27:38 PM
Niche, College Board
Wes
03:27:38 PM
niche and college board
Aarushi
03:27:39 PM
Naviance
Ike
03:27:42 PM
naviance mostly
Alejandra
03:27:43 PM
yes! I used Niche, college board, and cappex
Crystal
03:27:46 PM
Princeton Review
Maria
03:27:50 PM
naviance and us news college
Ian
03:27:51 PM
Princeton Review
Nieces, I just would put in a plug to furnish. I think that they do a good job perusing and trying to keep a high level of validity to their scoring system. From what I've found is as a college search helper, they're pretty accurate in terms of talking about campus life as well as around diversity equity inclusion issues. If that's important to you.
Annabelle
03:28:09 PM
Naviance
Syna
03:28:10 PM
Princeton Review
Abby
03:28:10 PM
Naviance, Fiske
Toni
03:28:23 PM
Wall Street Journal/Times 2020 ranking list
Right, so we got a lot of answers coming. Looks like a lot of you folks have used niche, which is great. Niche is definitely a preferred resource. Lots of Princeton Review naviance is a great resource and especially if your school district uses naviance as their school database. They have a ton of information available there. Got a couple other questions that have come through that will get to at the end. Wall Street Journal. New York Times ranking lists. Those are helpful as well.
Great yeah, certainly got a lot of resources available and now we're going to talk about some other one so you may have noticed that the resources Jason mentioned were largely data driven.
Size of the school, cost of the school average salary. Uh, you know?
Number, mostly number numerical data based.
Jace Riggin
03:29:18 PM
https://www.instagram.com/macalestercollege/?hl=en
But something that you also should consider when thinking about college is is what is the student experience going to be like? Not just am I academically ready? am I going to get a good job with a good salary afterwards? But is this going to be inside the place where I can actually be happy and confident and passionate for the next few years? And that's where social media can really come into play, and we certainly encourage you to use social media in your college search now. There are obviously different platforms that we can talk about and will go through a few of them here. The first one and probably the most popular for the audience here is Instagram.
Jace Riggin
03:29:41 PM
https://www.instagram.com/blmatmac/?hl=en
Every institution most institutions will have an Instagram page where you can look at photos, videos. Instagram stories are incredibly useful to get a sense of what is A day in the life of a average student at this school. How are they spending their time? What kinds of spaces are they spending their time in? Where they studying? Where they hang out with friends? What kind of activities are they doing on the weekends? Instagram is a great place to see all this because the college will put together events like a guest speaker to campus and someone will be there taking photos of the people that are there. The type of event and then they'll post that on social media accounts like Instagram.
Jace Riggin
03:29:59 PM
https://www.instagram.com/mac_athletics/?hl=en
Set to show you. Here are the kinds of things that we do on our campus. Is this something you're interested in doing yourself? If so, great, think about what that might mean when it comes to social media account. Like Instagram, there is something to pay attention to and that is what do the people in the photos look like.
And does that accurately reflect the student body of an institution? If a college or University is doing a good job with their social media account, they'll be putting up a series of photos that accurately represent what their student body looks like as far as racial and ethnic demographic, religious, demographic, switch, economic, demographic. What are the students do? How are they spending their time? How are they spending their money? Do they have money to spend on their own things like this to keep in mind are do the photos look like they reflect what the student body is actually like?
And then the other piece of that is based on what you're seeing based on who you are seen in these photos.
Are there people that make you think? Yeah, those are my kind of people. That's my kind of community. That's a place where I can see myself being successful and thriving in college. These are the kinds of things to pay attention to on social media, but also it's really get a sense of again.
What are the students doing with our time and is that something I can see myself doing as well?
Twitter, of course is a great example as well. In particular, Twitter is a great forum for universities and colleges to post about upcoming events about.
Jace Riggin
03:31:27 PM
https://twitter.com/Macalester?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Issues that are popular on campus. If there's a student organization that really is trying to push a more of a narrative of sustainability at their institution, that might be something that ends up trending on Twitter. You know, things like that to really think about again, what do the students care about? What are they taking into their own hands? What kind of actions are the students at these colleges and universities thinking about, and how does that come through on a Twitter account on Twitter? Handle McAllister has one. If you go to Twitter and you search.
Jace Riggin
03:31:52 PM
https://twitter.com/sustainable_mac
Jace Riggin
03:32:16 PM
https://twitter.com/hashtag/HeyMac?src=hashtag_click
You're going to come up with all sorts of posts for McAllister students, alumni, community members to talk about here, something that's happening at McAllister right now. Let's talk about. Let's think about it, let's bring it to the surface of our conversations, and most institutions have something like that where they'll post something on Twitter and it will be re tweeted and retweeted by community members who might be current students. Might be former students. Might be future students, so helping you to get a sense of again. What kind of community am I looking at when I'm looking at this particular college or University?
Facebook is something that a lot of colleges and universities use. I know for many of you jensi people out there, you zoomers that Facebook might not be something that you use, and that's OK. You don't have to use all these social media accounts, but I will say that Facebook comes in incredibly helpful, especially once you've been admitted to a college or University. Most institutions will have admitted student web pages.
As part of their Facebook community, so the McAllister class of 2024 Facebook group is thriving is active. That's something jasons. Been monitoring this summer actively, and that's where students are meeting each other. They're posting about where they're from, what their interests are there. They're trying to figure out, hey, what kind of person are you? Is that the kind of person I want for my roommate? Awesome, let's see if we can be roommates together. Things along those lines to be able to have communities. Once you've been admitted and think about, OK, you've been admitted and you've already committed to McAllister. Maybe I haven't decided yet. Well, what can I learn from these other students in this Facebook group about?
Why they chose Mac and then? How's that help me think about if I want to choose Mac or not or another college for that matter? So Facebook certainly is a great resource down the road. You can use it to look up college web pages right now if you'd like to, but I'd say the Facebook groups once you're admitted are certainly very useful as a resource for you.
Jace Riggin
03:34:01 PM
https://www.campusreel.org/colleges/macalester-college
Never gonna talk about talk about videos as well. Institutions are putting together all sorts of videos for students to watch to talk about student life events on campus. Guest speakers. There's a website called campus real where you can actually go if you go to campus. Real look up McAllister, you can see basically our entire video database of all the videos that we've made over the past few years and put onto campus. Real. That talk about diversity, equity and inclusion work on mcallister's campus that talk about.
Uh, how are students are engaging with our urban location in the Twin Cities of Minnesota? You might go to another institution an their campus. Real videos might talk about what it's like to be in a school in a rural environment or at a school in Southern California or Massachusetts. To really get a sense of again.
How are students engaging with their location? How are students engaging with their experience?
Jace Riggin
03:34:36 PM
I loved videos during my college search! Watching the students on campus was very helpful in feeling like I understood the school!
Whereas a lot of things Jason was talking about was what are the numbers were, the fax social media really can help you understand is that the type of experience I'm looking for is that the type of social environment I'm looking for are those the type of people that I can see myself having conversations with, eating meals with, sleeping in the same room as a roommate. These are types of things to think about, and of course also for videos. YouTube is a readily accessible resource that also colleges and universities will post all sorts of things on.
Again, what is the student experience at McAllister? We have an initiative called A day in the life where we have current students film various aspects of a day in their life and then we put together a video of their day. It's usually five at 5 to 7 minute videos of them going to class and being in class and meeting with friends and going to student organization mediums and engaging with the Fine Arts and engaging with athletic practices.
And thinking about again, what is the student experience? Just as much as colleges on our end, we are choosing you to come to our campuses.
Jace Riggin
03:35:59 PM
Youtube is great for getting to know a College/University in a very authentic way. Very useful in the era of social distancing.
Jace Riggin
03:35:59 PM
https://www.youtube.com/user/macalester
As the applicant, you also are choosing us and you should think about the fact that we're both choosing each other. This is a match. This is not us picking. You were trying to match with one another. So think about what's going to be a good match for you. Where are you going to find a strong sense of belonging given the types of student experiences that you can find through social media? Whatever form that may be?
So with that, do you wanna ask you all another question? Have you used social media platforms in your college search? If So what ones have been helpful? If you haven't been using them yet, which ones do you think you might start with will give you a minute or two to answer.
Nat
03:36:26 PM
Yes--Instagram
Claire
03:36:28 PM
yes! instagram and youtube
Temisan
03:36:29 PM
Instagram and Youtube
Emmett
03:36:31 PM
Instagram and Youtube
Toni
03:36:34 PM
Youtube to see dorm life
YouTube is definitely definitely a popular one.
Annabelle
03:36:38 PM
I would like to sign up and try using Instagram as well as Campus Reel!
YouTube for dorm life, absolutely.
Christine
03:36:40 PM
Youtube
Aarushi
03:36:41 PM
youtube vlogs
Ava
03:36:42 PM
YouTube and Instagram
Crystal
03:36:43 PM
youtube
Patricia
03:36:43 PM
Yes YouTube and Facebook
Isla
03:36:43 PM
Probably Twitter
Mandeq
03:36:44 PM
Instagram
Sophia
03:36:45 PM
Youtube
Ashley
03:36:45 PM
I've used Instagram and Youtube
Luka
03:36:47 PM
no instragram
That's the other thing about the video. Social media platforms in particular is. You're not just seeing a photo of a residence Hall room of a dorm room.
Tinotenda
03:36:49 PM
YouTube
Hân
03:36:54 PM
I've watched Youtube videos of students going on fly in programs to get the vibe of the campus?? Since we can't be there in person.
Raina
03:37:09 PM
Yes! Instagram as well as individual college websites
You're actually seeing here is the student in their room hears them at their desk, hears them exploring the space. You can actually see what people are using their spaces for, whether they're putting up decorative lights around around the room, or you know, I know some kids who have like a treadmill in their dorm room and there's not much space for it, but they've got it. There are things like that that are certainly available to think about.
Yeah, watch YouTube videos of students going on flying programs. Yep, that's also great opportunity. So McAllister has flying programs in a normal year, not necessarily in the pandemic. Here where if you look at videos from our flying program from last fall, you'll be able to see some students talk about. Here's here's what this experience is like, so that's definitely a great opportunity as well.
Um, so we're going to move on from social media now and talk about a very important piece. What services are available for under represented students? And we of course will answer this for you, just to give a quick definition. Underrepresented students that might be a slightly different definition from one institution to another. But generally it's groups of students.
From certain demographic backgrounds that are not as represented on a college campus, whether that's students who identify as the first generation in their family to go to college, or students who identify students of color, you might even be more specific than that. It might even be students from particular cultural, racial, or ethnic backgrounds. Students from particular religious beliefs, or particular geographic locations. These are all things that might classify student as someone who is not overly represented on campus who may need an additional support system.
From the college to help them be as successful as they can be, and these are the types of things to think about. If you identify as a student, have a piece of your identity that you think might be under represented on a college campus. It's really important for you to do your research and find out is there a place on a college campus where I can think about and talk about this piece of identity and what this means to me and how this helps me or challenges me in my college experience. So identity based student organizations? An affinity groups? Are there student clubs?
To think about and talk about pieces of identity.
Jace Riggin
03:39:03 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/currentstudents/resources/
Jace Riggin
03:39:13 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/#/0
Jace Riggin
03:39:19 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/lealtadsuzuki/#/0
Jace Riggin
03:39:26 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/gsrc/
Are there leadership or service programs to think and talk about pieces of identity and think and talk about what it means to be first Gen? What it means to be a student of color? What it means to be low income, what it means to be combinations of various pieces of identity at McAllister. We have an orientation orientation program, called the Bonner Scholars program, specifically catered towards first generation students where it's a pre orientation program. You get to meet a cohort of other first Gen students at Mac all first year students all from first Gen backgrounds you get to.
Jace Riggin
03:39:51 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/cec/civicleadershipprograms/bonnerscholars/#/0
Go on a outing trip for about a week together. Sort of a community bonding trip. And then you're stationed at a volunteer site in the Twin Cities for multiple years. During your time of McAllister to be a first Gen mentor to other first Gen students were in high school or middle school who might be thinking about becoming the first in their family to go to college for orientation. Programs are a great thing to look into. In addition to the leadership and service programs and then the other piece. And this really is the key piece here is are there resources on a college campus for me?
To explore my identity but also to help me think about how my identity is a part of my journey.
Jace Riggin
03:40:41 PM
More about QuestBridge
Jace Riggin
03:40:42 PM
https://www.questbridge.org/
Are there resource Centers for me to talk about my race and my ethnicity to talk about being 1st Gen to talk about being a questbridge scholar? For those of you who are unfamiliar with questbridge, it's a scholarship match program for students from low income backgrounds. To get to high achieving high caliber colleges and universities. Definitely worth a look if that's something you're interested in doing. And schools were partner schools for quest, bridge will have a quest for scholar network on their campus. Is there a Resource Center for me to talk about being undocumented or being a dreamer?
Or or being the child of immigrants, or being an immigrant myself, is there a Resource Center for me to talk about my gender in my sexuality? Is there a Resource Center for me to talk about my religious values and practices at McAllister? We have a place called the Center for religious and spiritual life. We have a gender and sexuality Resource Center spaces where we want our students to feel comfortable and to feel open exploring their identity and exploring what that means as part of their college journey. If you, if you any of you in the audience have a piece of your identity that you think is something that is.
Under represented that is not, you know.
The dominant identity on a campus. Is there a place on that campus where you can go and talk about what that means to you? That's something that that, if you haven't been thinking about, that might be important for you to think about as you think about this whole college search process.
I notice a lot of information we do have one more question for you all. Before we answer your questions and that would be how do you all feel about your college search right now?
Toni
03:41:55 PM
Overwhelming
Isla
03:41:56 PM
Overwhelmed...
Ashley
03:42:03 PM
Feeling a bit stressed about all of this
Uh, some of you are rising, senior, summarizing, junior, something you might be rising, sophomores rising freshman might be even in middle school, who knows? So how do you feel? No emotion is is unwelcome. Whatever you're feeling that is valid, and that is OK, and it's good to feel the things that you're feeling because this is part of going through your experience.
Crystal
03:42:05 PM
nervous and excited
Nat
03:42:05 PM
Coming along slowly. It is harder to do everything onlline.
Scarlett
03:42:06 PM
its a lottttt
Sophia
03:42:07 PM
Overwhelmed
Emmett
03:42:08 PM
Pretty good but I am concerned about how this pandemic will really effect everything
Temisan
03:42:08 PM
Nervous
So we got Stressful Overwhelming. Yep.
David
03:42:10 PM
Worried, honestly all colleges look the same virtually.
Lucia
03:42:11 PM
Excited and overwhelmed
Rishi
03:42:12 PM
I'm stressed about writing my essay
Kevin
03:42:13 PM
Nervous, but also exciting
Sami
03:42:14 PM
Honestly I've just started my college search and I'm super stressed I'm going to be a senior this year
Lyra
03:42:15 PM
stressed hah
Nicholas
03:42:15 PM
Better than before thanks to this, definitely.
Leslie
03:42:16 PM
overwhelming and stressful
Ava
03:42:17 PM
Overwhelmed but very excited
Melissa
03:42:17 PM
I am very nervous, scared and overwhelmed
Zoe
03:42:18 PM
I'm a rising senior and I'm really nervous
Stressing overwhelming nervous excited's, you know it's a lot harder to do everything online. That is true, you know it.
Patricia
03:42:20 PM
Stressful
Toni
03:42:21 PM
So bummed we can't visit schools
Hannah
03:42:22 PM
anxious but excited
Aarushi
03:42:22 PM
nervous
Ike
03:42:23 PM
its so strange with the pandemic
Claire
03:42:24 PM
stressful (as a rising senior)
Christine
03:42:35 PM
Nervous
Alejandra
03:42:36 PM
a little stressed but excited
Ryan
03:42:40 PM
Stressed out -rising senior
Used to be able to just go to school and spend an hour and a half there and get a lot of information and now I have to figure out how to do that yourself, so hopefully some of the tips we've given you and some of the resources we've pointed you to helps that a little bit. Obviously it's still going to be a challenge to do this research all on your own, but that's where you can ask. You know if you have older siblings or if you have friends who have already gone through the college search process or relatives. Ask them what kinds of resources did you use that helped you out when you were doing your college search and how might that help you then in turn?
Yeah, I would just also had I'm seeing a lot of nervous and and overwhelmed. That's OK. Ben and I were nervous and overwhelmed for the first four months of this year and just wanted to share with you were here to be resources to and at any of the colleges. You're becoming curious about. Don't hesitate to reach out to friends like Ben and I are. Job is to answer questions, and if we don't know the answer to the question to tell you, hey, I don't know that answer and I'll find someone who does.
So never feel like there are silly questions just because every school does things just a wee bit differently.
And the bottom line is, there are no silly questions, even if your question is.
Melissa
03:43:38 PM
i am first gen
Where is your school located? Like please please ask the questions because that's what we are here for. In the admission side of things.
Leslie
03:44:06 PM
i coudlnt hear what you said about for-profit institutions. If possible couodl you expalin it again later during the Q&A session?
And Speaking of questions, here's our contact info if you want to reach out to Jason myself, individually, independently with any private questions that you have. We have received a few over the hour here or the 45 minutes it will try and answer as much as we can judge to start off with you. Would you be able to do a quick synopsis again about for profit institutions?
Leslie
03:44:33 PM
instagram and youtube to see the type of peopel there. youtube also helps get real student experiences and what they think of it and how certain types of students are treated and are able to do at schools
Yeah, so um, for profit institutions how they are essentially different is when they collect your tuition as well as your meal fees and your housing fees. Their goal is not to break even, they are there to make money. Their goal is to make a profit off of the model of Education provided in that setting. And so their goal is to really have a number of dollars leftover to either share amongst the company stakeholders.
Or, uh, in some cases, executives at the top of the company, and so these are businesses, their goal is to make a profit to have a percentage margin on the cost of delivering you, your education. Other nonprofit colleges are the exact opposite. They by law cannot make a profit off of your education and all of the costs they calculate when McAllister calculates its tuition. That number is set off of. How much does it cost to keep the lights on?
To pay all of the people at the college and to provide you with the highest quality of Education without having money leftover at the end of the year. And in fact, most years, McAllister and all colleges like it have to withdraw from their little engine. Have to rely on the money that gets taken out of that engine and what it spits out. That's the difference there, whereas like we don't have any profit at the end of the year. In fact, we might have a little bit of a deficit, and we have to ask our donors to say, hey.
Um, we're forecasting a small budget shortfall come October. Please fund raise some money. This doesn't ever mean at the colleges are in risk of running broke. They always have reserves. Again, that comes from the donors, but their goal is to never make money off of you. It's to deliver the highest quality of Education they can at the lowest cost. I hope that's helpful. This is a confusing issue. It's also very controversial. It's in the public conversation right now.
Ben Kaufman
03:46:26 PM
https://www.petersons.com/blog/for-profit-colleges-versus-nonprofit-colleges-what-you-need-to-know/
And it's an intellectual conversation around is education of public good, meaning it should not be profited off of, or is it a good to be sold.
I strongly believe it is not to be profited off of, but there is obviously conversation around that happening in our society.
Ari
03:47:06 PM
Can each of you talk about your journey to deciding Mac? How was your search process with types of education?
Great thank you chase and I did not know I did just put in the chat box again, which I did earlier but here it is again. A link to a Petersons guide very brief article. Just talk about the differences between 4 profit and nonprofit institutions so hopefully that's helpful as well. We are going to get through all the questions as we can hear the next one. Can we each talk about our journey of deciding on Mac? I chose Mac. JC can talk about deciding where you went and how was the search process with types of education. So for me that's great question I.
New that I was looking for a liberal arts college. Both of my parents went to liberal arts colleges themselves for their Bachelor degrees and talked about the importance of going to a school where I would learn how to think creatively, think outside the box and more importantly where I would be able to think for myself and the way that my parents describe that to me that I will describe to you as well, is had I gone to a big institution.
And gone into a program for what I majored in geography to a specific geography program where I would learn about geography and I would study geography. My assignments would be about geography and then I'd go into a career path for geography.
Well, what if I don't like that career path?
I don't have much other knowledge to turn to.
What if geography is a field is irrelevant in 10 years.
And that's where my parents really convinced me that the liberal arts is a great fit for anybody. That the liberal arts prepares you to be able to pivot and navigate new career paths that have not even been created right now. 20 years ago. The idea of being a software engineer was like out of this world. Like what is that?
Now, computer science software engineering, huge field, but that didn't exist 20 years ago. So as a liberal arts student, I feel more prepared to be able to vouch for myself and advocate for myself to get a job in a new field because I have the creative thinking skills, the communication skills to be able to do that. and I have the broad liberal arts education background to be able to go into a variety of different fields instead of just being set in one track.
And that's why I was looking at liberal arts colleges.
Nice, I did not know what a liberal arts college was until I was a senior in high school and my stepfather was ardently against me, going to a liberal arts College in his mind, the purpose of a college degree was to get a set of skills that clearly fit in with a job, and both of my parents. My mom was a social worker, her her degree was in social work. She went to the College of Social Science at the University of North Dakota.
And my stepfather had a draftsman certificates and and was a sheet metal fabricator and so their their idea of a degree was you get the certification to say that you can do these skills for this job. Honest, that was very much so my outlook around what I needed a college degree to do. And then I was.
Buy a McAllister ulom um to the liberal arts model. It's because I asked a lot of questions about why it became very clear to me that I wanted to know a bit more about the ethics behind things. I wanted to talk in conversations with friends. In addition to getting those skills and so just to be honest with what the last kind of two cents, I would have to add is the way I began to understand the big difference between a liberal arts colleges.
Uhm, I could choose to be a computer science major at at a large University. In my education would focus on computer science.
Or I could be a mathematics and computer science major at a liberal arts college and be exposed to the entire broad discipline of both mathematics, the parent discipline of computer science as well as computer science based writing skills, multiple languages, Python, SQL, those types of things, and then have the exposure of being asked to define my values to have to discuss literature with people who ardently disagreed with me. I'm a Liberal. I went to college with very conservative friends.
And that was really important to me that I discarded to figure out and I wasn't sure I'd be provided with that type of approach to my education at other places again, many large universities do offer this. It's not a guarantee, just like not all liberal arts colleges for students to engage in their values and have these conversations, but as a form of like a general rule they do because of their approach being on the classical styles of Education. Being in those parent disciplines. And then the focus on broad.
Education, so that's why I wound up here. I really saw it as the big picture of why do I want to do my job? Where do I fit into society? In addition to the nuts and bolts of how am I going to support myself for the rest of my life?
Oh, never mind, I think you got it so.
Nicholas
03:52:09 PM
Does Macalester offer application fee waivers for 1st-year undergraduate freshmen?
Yeah, so moving right along, uh, there's a couple quick questions. The first one, does McAllister offer application fee waivers for first year undergraduate freshman? Well, we don't have an application fee anymore. We used to have waivers to get the fee waived, but we have no application fee whatsoever for any of our applications moving forward. So you need to worry about that. Most schools who have an application fee do have fee waivers. It's good to ask about that as early as you are ready because they might not have.
Maria
03:52:34 PM
what does a graduation rate say about a school?
Unlimited number of Lakers next question. What does a graduation rate say about a school? I'll take a stab at it. Just feel free to add in. It can say a few different things. Mcallister's graduation rate for your graduation rate is about 8586%. Six year grad rate is 91%. What does that tell me? That tells me that most of our students who start at McAllister graduate from McAllister, meaning they like the school they like the community enough to stick around for four to six years an get their degrees done.
A school like a large state institution might have a graduation rate of 60%.
Now what might that mean? In contrast, maybe that means a lot of students who start at that school transfer to a different school to finish their studies. Maybe it means that students who started that's cool don't have enough resources to support them, and therefore they just drop out and they never finish their schooling, their college education, lower graduation rate doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad school.
But it just means maybe there are some realities about the overall student experience that make it less conducive for everyone to be successful at McAllister. We want all of our students to be successful and our graduation rate shows that, but maybe that's not the case at other places. Anything I messaged.
Uh, no spot on the two things. I would just add is graduation rates are tide to retention rates and you kind of mentioned that they tell you the two really big things that I always tell students is when a student comes to call. It is what they thought they were getting getting themselves into actually ended up being the case. That's what a graduation rate helps tell you is where their surprises for the student was. The college miss marketing itself and the second piece really about those resources.
Every student will hit struggles. Every student will be challenged in college. That's part of the design. The question really is, were there the resources and the individualized attention to you there to support you through that moment of challenge and struggle. I want to normalize that I want to speak that into existence. Minnesota average graduation rate at a Minnesota State schools about 25% average graduation rate at a Minnesota private liberal arts institution is right around 63%.
This is talking a lot about student to faculty ratio. The number of faculty per our students per faculty and the number of faculty total at a college, as well as how much financial resources does that institution have to support its students. Again, there are institutions that have low financial resources, an really low student are really high students. Faculty ratios that completely.
Nail it, just do really well with for your graduation rates. In retention. It doesn't always say I'm really cautious about using wealth as an indicator of quality of Education. 'cause it's not so I just I love graduation rates. They're very helpful.
Great next question. If nothing else, what is your most important advice for understanding college search data? Is there anything you wish you knew from your college time? Just want to go ahead and take SAP.
Ari
03:55:45 PM
If nothing else, what is your most important advices from understanding college search data? Is there anything you wish you knew from your college time?
Ignore standardized test scores. I just completely ignore them.
Yep Yep, uhm the way that they should be used is a middle 50%. Thank you for helping me clarify that Ben, um, those averages. I was scared to apply to a place with a 27 average because that was my AC T on the notes. I thought I wouldn't be admitted. Now understanding I am completely competitive at an institution and I may be overly admissible at that institution. Use the middle 50% to understand where your fitting into all of the students who are considered.
If you're falling below their middle 50%, still apply. Most schools practice holistic admission, which means that that a CTR that S80 is one of many factors there thinking about. So that's my biggest advice is I know the AC T or they asked feels like.
This code, this number that was assigned to that determines where you get to go.
That's not how it works all the time, and people like Ben and I are working really hard to see you as more than just an AC TRS 80 number.
Alice
03:57:09 PM
I heard that a website called RaiseMe will give you scholarships after you enter the college. Is RaiseMe legit/credible?
Great, thanks Jay's next question. I heard that a website called raise me will give you scholarships after you enter the college is razmi legit or kredible?
This is really your question isn't silly. If we get this all the time and my laughter is, I think raised me kind of misrepresents itself. A little bit is there telling you what the average number of scholarship dollars a person in your profile has received from that institution. Each college will interpret that number. That raised me is telling you a little bit differently. McAllister, I've understand. Our rules are as we don't guarantee a match to that number from raise me. We allow raise me to utilize that number as giving you kind of like our cost Calculator.
A rough estimate of what your scholarship amount or your cost at McAllister could be. How do they determine that every student who's been a raised me a member is asked after their time of admission, what they received as a scholarship from all of the institutions they applied to, and so this is crowdsourced data. What raise me is helping you do is by using crowdsourced data tell you about how much money you might receive from that school where I worked before guaranteed a match for the dollars that showed up on the raised me account.
Each school will treat this differently, so treat, raise, raise me as a general number there giving and to check in on that number with each school individually. Every school have their own policy in regards to raise me.
I hope that's helpful. Again, not a silly question at all. Not not silly at all. It's just one of our more complex questions to answer.
But just to add in, I mean part of part of our laughter is that a site like that is is not necessarily upfront about where their information comes from and what they actually will provide you. And that is a trick to be aware that there are websites out there that are not being honest with you and they are intentionally not being honest with you and these are types of questions you should if you find another site and you're like, is this legit or not? Please send us an email and ask because because we will be happy to answer.
Or do some research on it and get back to you because we don't want you to get stuck.
Thinking your gonna get scholarship from a place and then you don't.
And so the reason why they they operate this way is they do sell your information to colleges and universities. That's why they're collecting all of that information.
Great Jason next question I see here. There's a question here from RE that I don't know if.
I'm not at Liberty to answer the question, but I didn't know if you wanted to go for it.
Ari
03:59:46 PM
If either of you have an underrepresented indentity and would like to share, how was Mac welcoming to you / do you have experience to compare with other colleges?
Um, if either of you have an underrepresented identity.
Would you be willing to talk about your experience where you went?
Where you are going Mac. I know you weren't student Mac, but probably could still talk a little bit about it.
So I'll start with Mac. I'm part of the LG BT Q Plus Community. I same-sex partnered and identify with male gender identity and non binary gender identity.
My non binary gender identity has been something I have been able to understand more about myself. Actually in my professional karere where I worked previously and then has been very much so embraced in a culture just part of the culture at McAllister, embracing gender identity as part of the diverse tapestry that is our community.
Character is an incredibly welcoming place. We do have challenging dialogue and I don't want to say that it's challenging dialogue that in any way marginalizes or just respects my identity. It asked serious questions about how to include my identity and how I would like to be treated in our community. It's not broad based assumptions around how do we treat those different people, so I would say that's something very unique to mcalisters approach, and you need to engage with the community members to learn that.
With where I went to college? Uh, in my journey I was just coming out of the closet as a member of the LG BT Q Plus community. I had identified that I wanted a queer friendly and LG BT Q Friendly College to attend where I went was considered an LG BT Q Friendly College but they had a lot of work to do and that became apparent when I got on campus you will find.
The nooks and crannies of challenge anywhere you go and that's part of I feel being a part of a marginalized group.
Don't be silent about it. Speak up about your experience and I think really the measure of how much you're welcomed is how willing people are to listen and respond to your concerns. So that's my 2 cents. Mac is wonderful. Ask the students those questions. Ask the professionals these questions. You'll learn a lot about how comfortable that school is. My sisters Native American, I come from a multiracial family one school we attended. She asked about Native American representation and we were immediately scheduled a sit down meeting.
With the Native American Department studies chair at the other institution we visited, they whispered their percentage of Native American students to us. It was a whisper. It was very awkward. It was uncomfortable an my very shy kind sister noticed that, and so I just. These things are real. Thank you for asking that question, and I think it speaks a lot to where you're at in your college search process as well. So I'm excited about that.
Maria
04:02:48 PM
you said you guys don't recommend applying to 20 schools, why?
Thank you for sharing Jace. I know we're at 4:00 o'clock, so if those of you who are there, if you need to check out, go for it. Jason, I'm assuming you're happy to keep answering questions along with me. Awesome, next one we said we do not recommend applying to 20 schools Y.
Your overall mental health capacity for the fall of your senior year.
A lot happens in the fall of senior year just for your high schools.
And then you lump all your college applications onto them. When it comes to applying to schools, the thing that I try to tell people I say.
You know 2020. It feels like a lot to me. 8 to 10 seems great, and the reason I say that is because.
You we encourage people to really put together a list that you really are passionate about and put together a list of schools that no matter which of those schools you get into, you would be happy at any of them.
If that's 20 schools, OK, great good for you.
Chances are you would. There are ways for you to narrow that list of 20 down to even just 12 or 14 an that for your own capacity of understanding the differences between the schools and understanding what each school can do for you.
You have more bandwidth to understand a deeper level of 10 schools than you do of 20 schools in most cases. And again, we're not saying Don't apply to 20 schools, but we would discourage it generally because we are hoping that you as a student understand that not every school is perfect for you.
And we want you to find that list that that small, medium sized list of schools that are going to be not perfect for you, but are going to be really really great matches for you where you can find a sense of belonging.
Just editorialize little bit one of my college roommates at Mac. He applied to 18 schools and he was admitted to 17 of the 18.
And then he had a really, really tough time.
Not, not academically, but had a tough time.
Emotionally thinking about how on Earth do I decide which of these schools to go to?
And especially in a virtual world where you're not able to visit these schools, you're not able to picture yourself on these campuses in person.
How are you going to understand the difference between?
One school in the other 19. A man. So that's my 2 cents of generally recommending if you really want to get a sense of a school.
That's much easier to do with eight then with 20.
My only yeah, my only two cents to throw in would be.
I know many students consider schools because of maybe their prestige, and that's OK, but if you're considering a school for its prestige, it better align with your values.
Because there's no point applying to procedures. Place where you'll be miserable.
Um and and I say that is just like knowing that there were very prestigious places where I would have been miserable. I would have been academically challenged, no doubt, and I would have received a high quality education but would have fit in with the things that I'm passionate about with the conversations I want to have that's in question and so have three reach schools, three really prestigious schools that you identify deeply with their values. Have three schools that you are.
Very admissible to that you identify with their values and then have three safe schools where you know you're going to get a great financial aid award and you'd have a blast there.
Just my $0.10 I. I know it's different for every student, uhm, but that's just kind of how I navigate thinking about it.
Alice
04:06:43 PM
What is the difference between attending large universities and small LACs? What are the pros/cons for both?
My next question Angasi touch down a little bit, but feel free to add anything new. What is the difference between attending large University versus a small liberal arts college?
Yeah, I'd say the big one is going to be the intentional focus on mission and values. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, I'll just I'll be really almost a caricature in my description is you're going to have a lot more student sports spirit the at a large University. The identity might be around the mascot of the Athletics team, and that's what everybody Roz about and the common Remembrance of going to that University was. We were all Tigers, however.
It's a bit different at small liberal arts colleges at McAllister. People are going to remember that you all really valued environmental sustainability and that the campus was engaged in deep conversations around how to equitably align the endowment of the college for the four years, the skewer at the campus and I would say that's what Benz memories of McAllister probably dominated by. I didn't go when I read about it in the news about the students protesting and doing citizens, and I was inspired by that and so.
That's another big difference, because it's informed often by the values that attracted the students to that College in the first place. The second one is your ability to have help if you need it. Why? Because these institutions are going to be smaller in design. Most small liberal arts colleges have about a 12 to one student to faculty ratio. That means if everybody lined up at once with the question, the the lines would only be 12 students deep. At large universities, these can be 50 to one to 101.
Um, if you want to blend in there a great fit, but if you're the person who knows that calculus is challenging and you need to ask a few questions, it's going to be hard at a large University. You are going to have those resources available to you through a teacher.
Uhm, excuse me, a tutor or a professor at a small liberal arts college. Those are the two big things I can think of.
The last one is. I will just be biased on it. I think liberal arts students by design have to investigate their values. An have to practice higher order thinking of what happens when my financial priorities conflict with my values. That's something we're all seeing play out in the real world.
I feel that the questions I was forced to have to engage with in my education and talking with my mom and how her education was different than mine, even as a social worker, she goes. Oh my gosh, I wish I could have talked about structural poverty in my social work education. I can't believe that wasn't part of my curriculum, just I'll stop there. But again, this is all different and that's part of understanding. What are the values of that institution. It can have defined values at a large University, but you need to be more intentional to get that.
Nicholas
04:09:52 PM
Do students with mental conditions (i.e. bipolar, aspergers, adhd, etc.) count as underrepresented students?
Great, thanks Chase next question and relatively quick answer. Do students with mental health conditions and things along those lines learning differences count is underrepresented students so to clarify underrepresented students generally are.
A demographic based generally on race, ethnicity, religion, social, economic status.
A diversity things like that. So people with mental health conditions or learning differences are not necessarily considered under represented, but there are absolutely still resources on college campuses for students with learning differences and with mental health concerns and challenges. And absolutely you should be looking if you're looking at McAllister, absolutely go to our disability services page and see what all they do. Go to our health and Wellness Center Web page and see what they can do, what they can offer you, what they can accommodate.
For you, so there's absolutely things to be thinking about as well. That colleges should be providing those resources for you, and if it looks like they're not, maybe that tells you something about whether or not you should apply there.
Sahiti
04:10:49 PM
any advice for 1st gen students?
Um, any advice for 1st Gen students chase?
Yeah, um, starting off with don't see being 1st Gen as a deficit? Uh, it's really not. You have a number of strengths at your disposal through your family as well as your lived experience. Yes there are going to be barriers that are going to be knowledge gaps that a family that is multi generational with college has that you don't however.
Our society is built to privilege individuals with college degrees and educations and individuals who are first Gen have skills that individuals who have multi generational educational attainment just don't. And so I would encourage you rely on your family. They're going to ask you about deadlines. They're going to be invested in this process with you. Ask questions of us. Again, this goes back to. There are no silly questions, especially if your first Gen. I think the third one would be.
Search the college website for first generation. Go to that search box, type it in on each and every college website and that will pull down all of the special programs. All of the resources and all of the contact people. You should maybe know about at that specific college. I hope that's helpful. I really, really, personally do believe that as someone who comes from a marginalized LG BT Q Plus background, I try to think about my identity in a similar way as this gives me super powers or abilities that I need to lean into.
A man not always see as a deficit. And so I would just really encourage you as a first Gen student. You have the skills to succeed. You have the support structure to navigate the process. It looks different, but it's there.
Megan
04:12:57 PM
Are there any resources you know of for researching international colleges?
I do wanna acknowledge real quick. We're nearing 4:15. We probably have to do a hard stop at 4:30. Will try and get there as many questions as we can. For those of you whose questions don't get answered. Jason, I are planning to do outreach to all of you at the end of this or or over the next several days and would be happy to answer any questions via email communication there as well. Again, our emails are there if you want to send this questions right away. Two, are there any resources you know for researching international colleges? Yes, just this morning we had a workshop Wednesday.
Leslie
04:13:21 PM
Why would people aspire to apply to a for-profit school?
By a couple of other colleagues, Adam and Sarah talking about international college search, I'd highly recommend going back to the workshop Wednesday sign up page and some point in the next 24 hours that recording will be available and you can look at that recording and see some of the resources for looking at schools outside of the US. Why would people aspire to apply for a apply to a for profit school?
The sense I have is I don't know anybody who actually aspires to apply to a for profit school I know people who have.
Gotten more or less tricked into applying to a for profit school without realizing what they were applying to.
And that's part of the challenge of the for profit versus nonprofit discussion. Uhm, I don't know anyone personally who has aspired to apply to a for profit school, largely because for profit means not necessarily for students.
Yeah, um, that's a hard question I think.
If it, I'll answer it as honestly as I can without a bias. Is maybe the student finds a nursing program.
Yeah, close to home in their community and it appears very affordable. That would be a reason. However it appears affordable because the price is set low to make it look affordable, whereas a lot of colleges, even though McAllister has a $75,000 price tag. Low income families do not pay that to come to McAllister. In fact they often pay about $10,000 or less if a family of four is making $60,000 or less a year.
Um, the Mo of a for profit college. I love that you all want to get in the nitty gritty of this. I'm gonna do this really quickly. Is 2 recruit low income students? Why? Because they can set their price at about $16,000.
Knowing that about $14,000 in federal aid and loans will come in for that student and they can make money off of all of the federal aid and forced that student to pay about 2 to $3000 in and out of pocket cost.
That is about the same cost. Uhm, as it would be at McAllister on many other nonprofit institutions. Because of that, students need and those nonprofit institutions likely have higher graduation rates then the nonprofit, or then the for profit. Excuse me. And so.
What the recruitment tactics look like it. I'll just finish it out is often these for profit colleges get a student information and then within a day they are repeatedly calling the student and telling them that there's a 5 minute application they can fill out. They fill out the application. Next thing you know, they're admitted and they're going through the financial aid process and the admission counselors are working to enroll them as quickly as possible. And so it's this model of getting students and fast getting them aided getting their money and then getting them out.
Haruna
04:16:12 PM
how important of a role would you say student body size should play in our college search?
Uh, how important of role would do you say student body size should play in college search? That really does depend on you. Individually. I think we touched on some of the reasons why a smaller College in general would be more beneficial for more personal interactions with professors closer relationships with other faculty and staff and classmates. For me personally, I'm an introverted person. The idea of going to a school with 30,000 people terrified me. I did not want to do that. I don't like meeting new people that much.
But going to a small school where I would meet new people and then really get to know those people over 4 years. I really wanted that type of community community was the biggest thing I was looking for in my colleges and I didn't think I was going to find that at a big school with that many students.
Isla
04:17:06 PM
Could you share the presentation with me?
Can we share the presentation after this presentation within the next 24 hours? The recording to this presentation, including the slide through should be available where you signed up for this, so it will be shared with with all of you as we go through. Can you explain the different degrees you can get if you decide to pursue higher education, bachelors associates, etc. What is the difference between them? JC want to take that one.
Alice
04:17:17 PM
Can you explain the different degrees you can get if you decide to pursue a higher education? (ex. bachelors, associates, etc) what the difference is between them?
Yeah yeah, uhm. So two parts to the answer one is it really depends on the job that you're looking for or the job field. Some jobs are going to simply require a certificate summer going to require an associates. Some will require a bachelors, some require a Masters and some will require doctorate level education. And so it goes in that order.
A certificate associates, bachelors, Masters doctrine. You can't get a doctorate if you don't have any of those. You can't get a Masters if you don't have any of those, and so forth, and so you don't need to get an associates to get a bachelors. I should be very clear, most like how I did my education as I achieve my associates degree during my sophomore year, I didn't actually get a piece of paper that says you have an associates. I just knew I'd met the requirements of I've gotten two years into my degree. I've completed the general education requirements.
Um, a bachelors generally earns you more money and gives you more ability to apply to more jobs than and Associates. A bachelors is that starting point. I would say for most individuals Ben and I are. I know that we both just have Masters. Degrees are back burners? Right now we're still trying to understand what's the most versatile Masters degree for us in our continued career field. I have a couple on the back burner that I'm thinking about law.
Masters in education. To continue doing this type of work or going off to seminary that because I would need a Masters to do by a job within those fields. And so it just is really particular to your career path after a bachelors degree.
I hope that's helpful and not confusing.
Toni
04:19:05 PM
I love the idea of a liberal arts college. Is the size ever an issue? Does it ever feel too small? Like a high school feel?
It's Chase Next One. I love the idea of a liberal arts colleges the size ever an issue. Does it ever feel too small like a high school field? AH therein lies going to toot our own horn here. The benefit of McAllister.
If our school of 2100 students ever feels too small because maybe it's smaller than your high school.
We're in the Metro area of 3 1/2 million people.
And we are right in the middle of doubt between downtown Saint Paul in downtown Minneapolis. So that's a benefit of McAllister just to wave our flag real quick. In general, that's something to think about is is a liberal arts college going to be too small for you there? Liberal arts colleges that are closer to 5006 thousand students. Maybe that's a little more attainable of a size for you if you're not looking for something like Mac or even smaller. Similar arts colleges have 1000 students.
But think about that location, peace. Are they located in a place where if it feels too small, you can go off campus and expand your community to something greater like at McAllister or a similar institution. Those are something to think about. A lot depends on you as the individual. I never felt it was too small, but I'm very introverted. One of my college roommates felt it was too small from day one. He's very extroverted an because of our location. He was able to expand that community outwards. So think about a lot of this is reflecting on what are you looking for? Would it be too small for you?
Well then how? How do you think about, uh? What opportunities are there to expand that community beyond just the college campus?
Emmett
04:20:37 PM
Do you have any advice for us with the pandemic and how that might affect our college search?
Our next question, any advice for the students with the pandemic and how that might affect the college search?
Keep doing workshops like these. Keep doing webinars like these. Uhm, ask questions. Even if this was a normal year, we would certainly encourage you to ask questions. That's definitely something to keep doing. Jason anything to add.
Reach out, I would just say reach out to us a lot more. Rely on your admission officers and counselors during this time.
Ari
04:21:10 PM
what are the responsibilities of admissions?
Yeah, great next. What are the responsibilities of admissions? Great question. We are effectively helping to mold the future of our institutions of our colleges by putting together incoming classes of students that identify with the values at McAllister talks about, or if they don't quite identify with them. Hopefully students that are going to be willing to embrace those values role is to also help inform you as students on.
What is a smaller birds college? What is for profit non-profit? What does it mean to be in an urban area versus a rural area or a suburban area? We are bearers of information.
To share with you to share with our alumni to share with our current community members about what future students might be thinking about what future students might be asking. And we also are the ones who are trying to find that sense of belonging. Are we a good match for you? Are you could match for us? What does that look like? The phrase that's used a lot of admissions is that we are gatekeepers, that we're essentially.
The ones who guard the gates and we only opened the gates for certain people.
And unfortunately, that is a perception that of admissions, when in reality we are not gatekeepers. We are simply diffusers of information, trying to understand what information are we seeing an applicant?
And is that information that we think will help our institution to become a better place? So we're not, we're not. We're not closing the gates on anybody, but we are constantly trying to think about we're almost the facilitators of how do we improve our institution?
An which students are going to help us improve that institution?
No, I just think at a place like McAllister it also comes with being your advocate.
Better nice job with every student who applies to McAllister in our territory is to make sure their file is prepared in the best way and their application is prepared in the best way to represent themselves as possible. And none of us make decisions alone. It's part of an 18 person committee group and we're all here to think really hard about protecting you to make sure the student is ready to succeed really at the end of the day, our responsibilities to help the institution be the best place that can be an then also.
Never to put a student in a situation that would be harmful to them.
Next question, to be honest, I still feel like I can't grasp the difference between liberal arts, an non liberal arts. Let's say you're going to major in biology at Mac versus at another University. For our sake let's just take the University of Minnesota.
Mohamed
04:24:00 PM
To be honest, I still feel like I can't gasp the difference between liberal art colleges and "normal" universities? Let's say you're gonna major in Biology at Macalester and another university, how is the experience gonna be different between the two?
How is experience going to be different between the two? That's a great question. I can add in a little bit and then Jason if you want to add in.
The main difference, I'd say is at Mac you major in biology, but you also take courses in Economics and political science and religious studies, and philosophy and art and theater and dance to say yes, I'm a bio major, but maybe also add in a music minor and maybe also study abroad because of the by Biology Department. Liberal arts college allows me to study abroad and maybe I also engaged in acapella group on campus and improv group on campus and maybe I do intramural sports.
As opposed to maybe go to the University of Minnesota, you major in biology, 80% of your coursework is in biology and or chemistry. The other 20% is just filling out your required classes because you have to take calculus and you have to take freshmen writing.
And there's your journey, so the difference being if you go to a bio program at a big University.
Chances are the students there are going to be studying almost exclusively biology, and if that's what you're looking for, that's OK.
The liberal arts experiences you major in biology.
But all biology students are also taking classes in various different places on campus, so you might be in your biology class and the person next to you is also bio major, but they bring in a piece to the conversation from their sociology class. They were just in.
And then that for you that Sparks? Oh oh, that's interesting. I didn't think about biology in that way. And then maybe someone across the room says, well, as a biology major who took a class in, you know, let's say geology.
Oh well, now let me think about how that ties into this. Really trying to create a more dynamic conversation than just I'm a bio major. Here's my biology experience. I'm a bio major. Here's my biology experience. That's sort of how I think about that.
Yeah, I I would only add the values component is at the University of Minnesota. Biology majors are not taking coursework that it forces them to engage with issues of multiculturalism within biology. Liberal arts colleges are going to encourage, if not force, their natural science majors to engage in topics of social science.
The ethics courses at the University of Minnesota are going to be in the Biological College of Biological Sciences, and they're going to be a special topics ethics course. If you are a biologist at McAllister, you can have a lens of gender, women and sexuality studies, and you can particularly take courses outside of biology class to discuss how women have not been included. Included in longitudinal medical studies in this country, and in fact, if you are a woman, most of the medicine approved by the FDA has never been tested on your body. Huge issue.
Like real and students in the liberal arts have to engage in topics across those disciplines and have to think about that. I'm not saying that the University of Minnesota might not have a class that engages in that topic. What I'm saying is, is that you as a biology major at the University of Minnesota do not have Open Access to the gender. Women, sexuality Studies Department. You would need to apply for special permission to take those courses. The second component is because of each colleges, values and mission. They often have courses with.
In their general education framework that you need to take to graduate, that will make you competitive for Graduate School. So let's say you're being a biology major to be pre Med, you are going to be competitive for medical school because at McAllister, your premed and you need to take two courses, one requiring you to either study away or engage in issues of international cooperation. Thinking about the policy, the language and the culture via geography as well as the foreign policy of the United States, how that's impacted a particular space.
The second component at a liberal arts college, particularly mcalisters. We require all of our students to discuss the history of who's benefited at whose expense within the American experiment, the idea is, no matter what you studied, biology, economics, political science, art, or music, you have to talk about that with each other. You have to form consensus around that. I'm going to steal one of the questions, 'cause it's a perfect segue for engineering. Somebody asked many people find it absurd to be an engineering major at a liberal arts college. What do you have to say about that?
Fatima
04:28:21 PM
Many people find it absurd to be an engineering major at a liberal arts college. What do you have to say about that?
This is one of my favorite topics and I love to rant about it. Um, liberal arts college is a perfect place to be an engineering major. Why? Because most universities are going to offer you a bachelors of engineering. They might not offer you a certificate in engineering that's often going to be a 50 year program to get that certificate. There are very few jobs that you can have in this country or in the world that require a bachelors of engineering. The vast majority requires some type of Masters with a certification.
And So what is engineering? It comes from the parent disciplines of mathematics and physics. That's what engineering is. Every liberal arts college has the parent disciplines of mathematics and physics, and in fact, where I worked before coming to McAllister and McAllister are frequently top five in the country for the number of PhD students they produce. An engineering that pursued an undergraduate degree in physics at their colleges. So liberal arts colleges are a great place to be an engineer. Why? Because you get to have the.
Classic parent discipline of physics as your base education. All of the preparation with a pre engineering track which is the few courses you need to be competitive towards a Graduate School at the college as well as you're going to be asked to explore all of those additional pieces. Of course work to think about is the building I'm designing. Ethical are the components that I'm sourcing in line with the values of the organization. Maybe I'm building it for it. Allows you to dig in depth in that next level that maybe you wouldn't get if you just had.
This is the formula. This is the technique. This is the approach. Uhm, so I'm biased. I think that we're a great choice if you want to be an engineer where universities would be a really great attraction to you for pre Med in pre engineering. Let's say you're admitted into a direct track to a Masters or doctoral program. Take the University slot. Take that direct admittance into Med school or a Masters of engineering program. Those are rare and that's when I do see a difference of benefit.
Ben Kaufman
04:30:32 PM
https://www.macalester.edu/admissions/connect/meet-the-staff/
So we are at 4:30 and unfortunately there about 25 questions we have not yet gotten too. We really, really appreciate all your questions. I am going to put in the chat box here for everyone's reference.
Uh, this is a link to our meet the staff admission staff web page. Please please, please find your admissions Rep. Feel free to send them questions. These are all really, really important questions and hopefully this been informative for you. Please also continue to attend the Future Workshop Wednesdays throughout the rest of this month and August. There are lots of really cool ones coming up writing a college essay how to ask for a letter of rec. Financial aid. Of course, being a big one so you're welcome to send those emails. Ask questions.
Keep asking the questions that that's the big takeaway here. Hopefully this has been helpful and informative, and again, thank you all so much for your time. It's been great Jason. I have loved spending time with you.
No, take care. This is supposed to be fun on and we're here for you. If you need us.
Great thank you all. Have a wonderful evening or morning or night wherever you are.