Duke in Pics: Getting College-Ready with ‘Admissions 101’

Sixteen-year-old Precise Smith loves basketball and working with electronics.As he begins to tour colleges, his first choice is to combine both passions at Duke, where he can cheer on the Duke basketball team and study at the Duke Pratt School of Engineering.On Tuesday, Smith and his mother, Elvira, a staff specialist at Duke’s Lyon Park Clinic, attended a free “College Admissions 101” seminar led by Duke Undergraduate Admissions. They learned about the college application process at Duke and other institutions, financial aid opportunities, the Duke Children’s Tuition Grant, standardized testing and more.“We can have a better idea of what to ask when he goes on a college tour,” said Elvira, who wanted to learn how her son can make his college application stand out and how her family can save money on college costs. “This helps him to understand how difficult it is sometimes to be a parent with a child about to go to college.”About 300 people attended “College Admissions 101” sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, held at the McClendon Commons Admissions Visitor Center on campus. The free information session was offered to Duke employees and their children in junior or senior year of high school. Duke Admissions will hold another free college prep information session for Duke employees and their 8th, 9th and 10th graders by early spring 2016. On Tuesday, Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions, and Nikki Baskin, Admissions’ senior assistant director, talked to attendees about how they should pick colleges to which they want to apply.Students should break down an application list into “likely” schools, in which they’re likely to be accepted; “match” schools that match their academic and extracurricular skills; and “reach” schools that have tougher admission rates and criteria, Guttentag and Baskin said. When it comes to students spending time wisely in high school or participating in extracurricular activities to put on an application, the key is for students to find their passions, Guttentag said.“One of the pieces of advice that we give parents all the time is to meet your children where they are, not where you wish they were,” he said. “What comes out in the college application is a student who’s been able to spend the time, spend the energy and spend the thought on things that matter to them.”