An update to College Kickstart 2015 has just been posted! 

In addition to Class of 2019 admission rate updates to our database, this release features an enhanced Plan Highlights page to help Plus Edition subscribers get organized and track admission requirements for the schools on their list.  If you're a Plus Edition subscriber, you'll now be able to see application requirements at a glance for all of the schools on your list, including testing, recommendations, interviews and most importantly, essay counts! 

Click on Continue Reading for the details. 

Here's an article from Kevin Carey of the New York Times about the latest college "return on investment" figures released by the U.S. Department of Education.

The new data tracks the cost of an education and average reported earnings ten years out.  What's important about the data is that it is not "self-reported" based on surveys, as is the approach used by PayScale.  Instead, the government was able to match data from the student financial aid system to federal tax returns, so an accurate picture of earnings across a far larger sample is in place.

What's interesting about the data isn't that elite institutions report higher earnings. What's interesting is that there are a significant number of institutions that the payoff is far less evident, including some well-known universities and liberal arts colleges.  

Click here for the article.

Here's an interesting article by Frank Bruni of the New York Times about how to measure the value of a college education.  Everyone knows which schools are the hardest to get into, but what are the factors about a college education that really impact "fulfillment?"

Bruni previews several interesting findings from the latest Gallup-Purdue study entitled Great Jobs, Great Lives.  60,000 college graduates were surveyed along five dimensions of satisfaction—relationships, health, community, economic situation and sense of purpose—with the goal of identifying whether or not where students attended school made a difference.

Long story short, the advantages for attending elite national universities and liberal arts colleges aren't that material.  Four factors that do make a difference include mentorship, job experience/internships, deep involvement in an campus organization/activity, and the amount of debt you incur post graduation.

Click here for the article.

University of California counselor conferences have commenced, and there are lots of useful insights to be gleaned—including the latest freshman admission profiles from this past year (Class of 2019).

We've tabulated the findings for you in this post. Two things to keep in mind:

• The profiles are for California residents only
• The profiles are for admitted students, so they're likely to appear more selective than the profile for the class that actually enrolls

Click Continue Reading for the list.

With your college list more or less finalized, give some consideration to early admission—many schools offer it and can be a terrific way to boost odds and minimize wasted motion.  All you need to do is apply 45-60 days earlier than you normally would. 

Here's a list of competitive 4-year institutions offering early admission to applicants.  Depending on the school, these options range from Early Decision (binding) to Early Action (non-binding) and Restrictive Early Action (non-binding with restrictions on where else you can apply).  

The first wave of deadlines is coming up in November, so take a quick look to see if any of your schools offer something worth considering. Or click here to find out how College Kickstart can help you fully capitalize on it.

Last night we received some clarification on letters of recommendation for UC Berkeley applicants.  Here is their statement:

Update on letters of recommendation

In April 2015, UC Berkeley adopted a new freshman admission policy. Starting with students applying to Berkeley this fall, some applicants will be invited to submit two letters of recommendation. This will be optional and not required.

To clarify, no campus of the University of California requires letters of recommendation when the admission application is submitted. However, it has long been University practice that campuses may request additional information from applicants at a later time, including letters of recommendation. If additional information is needed, applicants will be notified individually.

Click here for the specifics from UC Berkeley.

The Fall 2016 application is now available for University of California applicants.  You can begin filling out the application now, but as always, you'll need to wait until November to submit it.

Click here to access the UC application website.

Here's an op-ed from Frank Bruni of the New York Times about the emergence of honors colleges/programs across public universities.  Designed for academically gifted students, these programs attempt to provide more of a private college experience for the price of a public one.

It's an interesting alternative for academically gifted students to consider, especially for those concerned with affordability or those in search of target or safety schools to add to their college lists.

Here's the link to the article.

Princeton Review has released its list of top ranked colleges for 2016. 

380 public and private institutions are covered and ranked across several categories based on student survey results.  Here are some of our favorites:

• Quality of Life (Rice University #1)
• Happiest Students (Vanderbilt)
• Best Classroom (Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering)
• Best Run Schools (Claremont McKenna)
• Best Food (Bowdoin)
• Best Dorms (Bennington)
• Best Career Services (Clemson)

Click here for the press release.

In search of colleges and universities with strong undergraduate international relations programs?

Courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine and the College of William & Mary, we've compiled their list of top 25 programs in the United States, along with admit rate and test score data to help you locate safety, target and reach schools to add to your list.  As always, we've also included a link to each school's websites to help you explore further.

The report also calls out Chinese and Arabic as the two most important languages for aspiring international relations majors to learn, and global climate change as the most important topic to contend with over the next ten years.

Click on Continue Reading for the list, or here for the Foreign Policy article. 

Forbes released its list of top ranked colleges for 2015. 

The Forbes ranking methodology is driven by student satisfaction (25%), post-graduate success (32.5%), student debt (25%), graduation rate (7.5%) and academic success (10%).  

At the top of this year's list are:

1. Pomona College
2. Williams College
3. Stanford University
4. Princeton University
5. Yale University
6. Harvard University
7. Swarthmore College
8. Brown University
9. Amherst College
10. MIT

Click here for the full list.

We've designed College Kickstart for ease of use, but there's plenty more under the covers for those looking for it.  In this blog post, we'll take you through five "hidden" features that can improve both your productivity and understanding of how College Kickstart does its thing:

1. Bulk loading schools to your list
2. Improving your list grade with MixFixer
3. Finding additional school ideas with MixFixer
4. Using popups for greater clarity
5. Using the Plan Highlight page to get organized

Money Magazine just released its college rankings for 2015-16. Over 1,500 schools were evaluated based on 21 factors along three dimensions: educational quality, affordability and post-graduation earnings. The result: 736 schools that deliver a great education at an affordable price, with good outcomes post graduation.

The top of the list:

• Stanford University
• Babson
• MIT
• Princeton
• Caltech
• Harvey Mudd
• Harvard
• Maine Maritime Academy
• Amherst
• Cooper Union
• University of California at Berkeley

Click here for the rankings or here for the methodology.