Good character leads to good colleges

By College Advice

I’m biased but think that the batch of high school students I see in Shoreline, CT are among the best of the bunch in terms of character.  I’m from New Jersey so my comparison is likely a tough group!

I delight in college admissions season because I get wonderful notes from parents.  They are happy that things turned out well for their children after all their hard work.  I’m happy too and not just for the result.  Almost invariably, I have noticed that those with good character get into – whatever it is that they considered  – good colleges.

Admittedly, I’m stretching the definition of “good college” to mean something idiosyncratic to the fit of the student.  I am not limiting my such colleges to US News & World Report’s definition of top schools but rather whatever college or colleges the student was targeting.

Good character occasionally shows up on report card comments and can be evidenced in certain activities.   But, unfortunately, good character does not matter as much as GPA and SATs for many colleges.  This is not because the college admissions officers don’t care but simply because it is difficulty to accurately compare good character of college applicants from a few college application pages

So, we have to hope karma works.  And, at least according to my observations for the past 15 years, it does!