Archive for September, 2007

Before you write your name on an application have you ever wondered “Really, what are my chances that this will work? What are my chances of actually getting in?”

Cappex now has the answer. A beta version of a great new college fit tool hits the Cappex site today, and we need your feedback. We call it:

The “What Are My Chances?” Calculator™.

Here’s how it works:

1. Put in your college admissions info into the Cappex profile
2. Enter the name of any school into the “What Are My Chances?” Calculator.
3. Instantly find out your chances of getting in.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The Chances Calculator gives you two scores. You get your chances, from very low to very high. And you get a reliability rating, also from very low to very high. So if you don’t enter a GPA, don’t expect to get very reliable information. If your info is correct, then the Calculator is very accurate. (We’ve got stuff like algorithms at work here). The results look like this:

If you like the results you see simply click yes to send your contact information to the school.

The beta version is up now. You need to be a registered Cappex student to try the Calculator. If you are a Cappex student, check it out on your home tab. If not, you can sign up for a free Cappex account.

Enter as many schools as you like, play around, test it out, and speak to your guidance counselor about the results. Let us know what you think — good, bad or ugly — in the comments below.

Cappex is proud to announce the first winners for the Cappex College Tour Travel Scholarships. These are the August winners, and they will each get a $250 travel voucher so they can visit a potential college. It’s one more way Cappex helps you find the right college fit.

The winners:

Lauren G., a senior from Elk Grove, Calif.

Kristin H., a senior from Naperville, Ill.

Congratulations! We’ll be awarding two College Tour Travel Scholarships each month from now through January. There is still time to apply for the September scholarships. Also, Sept. 30 is the deadline to apply for our nursing, computer science and psychology scholarships.

Crain’s Chicago Business has a look at the big money some people are paying for private guidance counselors. Advocates claim these counselors not only help students get into college, but serve as life coaches. They should do plenty, because they charge several thousands of dollars for their services ($550 per hour in some cases).

The piece also quotes a Cappex user Caroline Hudson, a senior at a high school just outside Chicago. Her words are reassuring to the majority of students that won’t be getting a private counselor. From the piece:

“‘It’s sometimes scary knowing that I’m on the same level as students who are hiring personal advisers to help their essays,’ she says. She settled for help from her attorney father, an older sister who had gone through the process, and Cappex.com, a free college matchmaking service of sorts based in Highland Park.

“The result? She’s been accepted to Duke, Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern and the University of Illinois.”

There’s no shortage of surveys out there for you to take. All the time companies are out there soliciting your input. Every time you buy a gallon of milk, it seems, there’s an invitation on your receipt to take a survey of one sort or another.

Cappex isn’t any different – after all, satisfied customers are the lifeblood of any business. But we here at Cappex are ultimately just interested in one question: On a scale of 0-10, how likely would it be that you would recommend Cappex to a friend or colleague?

The way we see it, the best measure of how satisfied you are with Cappex is how likely you’ll share the good stuff we’re doing here with a friend. Think about it: How many times have you bought something or had an experience – good or bad – and couldn’t wait to tell someone else? So if you love us, give us a 10. If you’d never speak word of us even to your worst enemy, give us a 0. Then, we’ll know we have lots of work to do to make you a satisfied customer.

So how do you tell us? We made it very easy. Just log in to your account and look for the “Tell Us What You Think” box. And if you haven’t yet signed up to see what we have to offer, now’s a great time to start your college search.

Some campuses are huge – boasting tens of thousands of students – while many others are much more intimate, perhaps with just a couple thousand. The size of the college can have a huge impact on the campus vibe, your interaction with professors and other students, and the activities and amenities available to you. So, we know campus size has a huge bearing on your ultimate fit.

That’s why we allow you to specify a size preference in your profile. And many of you have, so we know it’s important to you too.

And now, Cappex will use your size preference when we show you certain colleges we think you’d be a good fit for. Because hey, if you wear a size 2, why should you be trying on size 6 clothes and vice versa.

It’s just another way we here at Cappex are continually working to make sure that you get into the right college for you.

P.S. Even if you didn’t specify a size preference when you signed up, you can edit your profile at any time. Log in and edit your profile, or if you haven’t created one yet, now’s a great time to get started on your college search.