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CNN Live Today

Getting into College

Aired August 25, 2003 - 10:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Campus visits, admissions applications, calculating tuition costs, just thinking about college is enough to give teens and most parents a migraine. Well, there are some ways to make the process a bit easier, getting into the right college less worrisome.
Seppy Basili is an expert on college planning. He's with Kaplan, an educational services company in New York and he joins us from our New York bureau.

Good to see you this morning, Seppy.

Let's talk about this. This is a very interesting little list of advice you've got for parents and students alike who are trying to get into the college of their choice. Let's talk about them and go through these things.

First of all, you say go do the ACT test as sort of as a trial run. What do you mean by that?

SEPPY BASILI, KAPLAN: The ACT and the SAT are now accepted by virtually every college in the country. And here's the nice part of the ACT: You only have to send in the score that you do best on. So there's really no risk at all. So we're really encouraging students to do that.

HARRIS: And that's different from the SAT.

BASILI: That's right, on the SAT, every score gets sent. So if you don't do as well the first time, it could penalize you. So we encourage students to give a first try on the ACT.

HARRIS: OK, now what do you mean by tell tale little essays? What do you mean by -- students writing essays to the school, or what?

BASILI: Well, in terms of your essays, think of your essays as a story. You know, most colleges now don't interview kids. So it's your one time to I think tell a story about yourself, and what you want that story to show is commitment, interest, energy. You want it to be really about you.

HARRIS: Now, but the thing is though, sometimes -- can you get someone else to write the essay for you if you don't happen to be very good at doing that?

BASILI: No.

HARRIS: Is there any way to get tipped off if that does happen?

BASILI: Yes it, does happen all the time, Leon. But what you really need to be aware of, Leon, is you can have people proof it, you can have people read it, but you know, don't look for a spin doctor. Write your own essay, just work hard on it. We're still in the month of August. You've got plenty of time. Start now.

HARRIS: What about for schools that have long wait lists, and that's typically going to be the most desirable schools. You say there's a way to finesse the waiting lists.

BASILI: Yes, there is in the Kaplan "Newsweek" guide, "How to Get into College," that's just out this week, we cover the fact that you can be very aggressive about that wait list. Let schools know that you're No. 1, manage that process, and get information about how often they get those people off the wait list. If you know your odds, you can really work it even harder.

HARRIS: Well, do bribes work at all?

BASILI: Not quite, although I will tell you, if there's a building on campus with your name on it, it never hurts.

HARRIS: I've seen that happen before.

There are also a couple of things you talk about in this article here that we culled from "Newsweek" that really struck us as very interesting. These are tactics that the universities and colleges are actually doing to basically get the better students. You say that, for instance, colleges now are sharing more information with each other about themselves?

BASILI: They are. Another magazine, whose name I won't mention, does a rankings guide, and about 25 percent of the vote comes from college president's view of a reputation. So they're actually sharing information both about their campuses and just sort of the whole profile of their students. Colleges are doing other things, too. They're really trying to woo students with all kinds of amenities.

HARRIS: I know one thing that definitely works about a personal touch. How big are schools -- I'm guessing that smaller schools that are actually doing this sort of thing, but you say that administrators or students on campuses might actually have an outreach to new students coming in.

BASILI: You better believe it. You get phone calls starting the minute you get accepted. And for students who they really want, they'll get the department head, they'll get chairmans of departments, they'll let graduate faculty let you know you have undergraduate research options. They are getting very, very aggressive.

HARRIS: OK, we'll see how this plays out. Thanks for the advice. Seppy Basili, good luck to you.

BASILI: Thank you, Leon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 25, 2003 - 10:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Campus visits, admissions applications, calculating tuition costs, just thinking about college is enough to give teens and most parents a migraine. Well, there are some ways to make the process a bit easier, getting into the right college less worrisome.
Seppy Basili is an expert on college planning. He's with Kaplan, an educational services company in New York and he joins us from our New York bureau.

Good to see you this morning, Seppy.

Let's talk about this. This is a very interesting little list of advice you've got for parents and students alike who are trying to get into the college of their choice. Let's talk about them and go through these things.

First of all, you say go do the ACT test as sort of as a trial run. What do you mean by that?

SEPPY BASILI, KAPLAN: The ACT and the SAT are now accepted by virtually every college in the country. And here's the nice part of the ACT: You only have to send in the score that you do best on. So there's really no risk at all. So we're really encouraging students to do that.

HARRIS: And that's different from the SAT.

BASILI: That's right, on the SAT, every score gets sent. So if you don't do as well the first time, it could penalize you. So we encourage students to give a first try on the ACT.

HARRIS: OK, now what do you mean by tell tale little essays? What do you mean by -- students writing essays to the school, or what?

BASILI: Well, in terms of your essays, think of your essays as a story. You know, most colleges now don't interview kids. So it's your one time to I think tell a story about yourself, and what you want that story to show is commitment, interest, energy. You want it to be really about you.

HARRIS: Now, but the thing is though, sometimes -- can you get someone else to write the essay for you if you don't happen to be very good at doing that?

BASILI: No.

HARRIS: Is there any way to get tipped off if that does happen?

BASILI: Yes it, does happen all the time, Leon. But what you really need to be aware of, Leon, is you can have people proof it, you can have people read it, but you know, don't look for a spin doctor. Write your own essay, just work hard on it. We're still in the month of August. You've got plenty of time. Start now.

HARRIS: What about for schools that have long wait lists, and that's typically going to be the most desirable schools. You say there's a way to finesse the waiting lists.

BASILI: Yes, there is in the Kaplan "Newsweek" guide, "How to Get into College," that's just out this week, we cover the fact that you can be very aggressive about that wait list. Let schools know that you're No. 1, manage that process, and get information about how often they get those people off the wait list. If you know your odds, you can really work it even harder.

HARRIS: Well, do bribes work at all?

BASILI: Not quite, although I will tell you, if there's a building on campus with your name on it, it never hurts.

HARRIS: I've seen that happen before.

There are also a couple of things you talk about in this article here that we culled from "Newsweek" that really struck us as very interesting. These are tactics that the universities and colleges are actually doing to basically get the better students. You say that, for instance, colleges now are sharing more information with each other about themselves?

BASILI: They are. Another magazine, whose name I won't mention, does a rankings guide, and about 25 percent of the vote comes from college president's view of a reputation. So they're actually sharing information both about their campuses and just sort of the whole profile of their students. Colleges are doing other things, too. They're really trying to woo students with all kinds of amenities.

HARRIS: I know one thing that definitely works about a personal touch. How big are schools -- I'm guessing that smaller schools that are actually doing this sort of thing, but you say that administrators or students on campuses might actually have an outreach to new students coming in.

BASILI: You better believe it. You get phone calls starting the minute you get accepted. And for students who they really want, they'll get the department head, they'll get chairmans of departments, they'll let graduate faculty let you know you have undergraduate research options. They are getting very, very aggressive.

HARRIS: OK, we'll see how this plays out. Thanks for the advice. Seppy Basili, good luck to you.

BASILI: Thank you, Leon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com