Maria Laskaris, the director of admissions states, “I think it’s important that we build a community here that includes a strong cross-section of international students to bring the world to Dartmouth. The perspective international students have in the classroom and in the dorms and the extracurricular activities, I think, enriches the experience for everybody.”

Given Dartmouth’s numerous off campus study programs and international outlook, increasing the number of international students makes sense, but where do you draw the line? Sure, many would argue that international students give a lot of bang for the buck on real diversity and I would agree. But for every international student who comes to Dartmouth, the admissions odds go down for American students and with the current admissions scene, that can be discouraging to aspiring Dartmouth applicants.

For the class of 2011, international students comprise a record 9 percent of the class. Most Ivies cap the number of international students at 7-15%, no more and the odds for international applicants are generally lower than the odds for American students given how many students apply from so many different foreign countries. What percentage of international students is ideal? Hard to say given so many other priorities. Is it fair that international students compose only a tenth of the class while recruited athletes compose nearly 20% of the entering class? How much diversity do recruited athletes bring to campus versus a brilliant student from Norway? Or a minority student from Harlem? None of these are easy questions – what do you think?

In a previous tip, we talked about early decision, early action and single action early action. No matter which program you apply under, it is a good idea to follow up around November 12th or so to make sure ALL your materials were received. In order for your file to be complete, the high school must send in their forms, you of course must send in your forms (and the check) and your recommendations must be in as well. Early decision has a very compressed time schedule, so take the time to follow up.

Not to horrify anyone, but in Michele’s own case, she called Dartmouth in mid-November to check and it turned out that her high school had not checked early decision even she had in her application, so Dartmouth had put her in the regular pool. It always pays to follow up. This is the time of year where students need to finish up early applications and get them posted soon.

Don’t forget about the schools that have a second round of early decision—those programs can still increase your admissions chances dramatically from the regular pool and you can wait to hear from your early decision program before committing. Wesleyan has a second round ED program to give one example.

Some schools, however, will accept the ACT in lieu of SAT Subject Tests.

We think that taking the ACT benefits the majority of applicants. Since the colleges will take your highest scores on either the SAT I or the ACT, you can let them choose your best score. Also, it can offset a weaker writing SAT I score if you take the writing section of the ACT. Since the ACT is a bit less aptitude-oriented, some students do better on it than on the SAT I. Plus, it’s shorter than the SAT I so those who have trouble concentrating for four hours have an alternative. Science students tend to like the ACT as it has a science section.

There are two noticeable advantages to the ACT: 1) they have complete score choice so you can take the test ten times and report one score, no scores, two scores, etc… to colleges. The SAT I has recently changed their scoring policies to remain competitive with the ACT and after 2009 they too will go back to scores choice. 2)There is no guessing penalty, which means you can fill in every answer instead of figuring out which ones to leave blank.

Some colleges (you have to check each one individually) will accept the ACT in lieu of SAT Subject tests, so that is often a convenient option. In short, you have little to lose, but could have a lot to gain by taking the ACT.

To sign up visit: http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html