Starting today, I'll be creating a weekly highlight of an interesting school that is off many people's radar. I won't be featuring the likes of Harvard and Amherst here, but less well-known schools that are worth a look. These are colleges that are up-and-coming or have quirky or creative approaches to education.

I begin with the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. Never heard of it? That may be because the school didn't exist until 2002. But in its first few years of existence, it has drawn a caliber of student that rivals those going to MIT and Caltech. Olin's instant success stems from a great location just outside of Boston, an innovative hands-on curriculum with a true undergraduate focus, and, perhaps the biggest draw of all, free tuition for all students. That's right, no one, regardless of finances, will pay tuition to attend Olin. To learn more about the school, visit the college profile. If you're a student, parent, or employee connected with Olin, please share your experiences in the College Admissions Forum.

photo: Michael Maloney / Wikimedia Commons

In most cases, a waitlisted student's chances of getting off the waitlist are relatively slim. As I wrote earlier, the math is generally not on the side of the waitlisted student. This year, however, there is a little room for encouragement. As The New York Times recently reported, many top colleges are going deeper into their waitlists than usual.

Waitlists tend to have a cascade effect. For example, if Harvard admits 150 students from its waitlist, many of those students may sacrifice their deposits at other schools in order to attend Harvard. Suddenly those other schools have vacancies they need to fill, so they turn to their waitlists.

The reasons for the current waitlist activity are connected to the record number of college applicants this year. Nearly all the elite schools saw unprecedented numbers of applicants in 2007 - 08, so they had a harder time predicting the yield from their accepted student pool. When a school misses its target for the incoming class size, it turns to the waitlist to fill out the class.

As millions of students get ready for the big move from high school to college, the recent drug bust at San Diego State University comes as unsettling news. As the L.A. Times reported, 96 people were arrested on drug-related charges, 75 of them students. Parents and students alike are most likely wondering if the college experience is going to be poisoned by an out-of-control drug scene.

The bottom line, of course, is that drugs have always been available on college campuses and they probably always will be. It’s also true, however, that colleges are tolerating drug use less today than in decades past -- for both legal and social reasons. While San Diego State University got a black eye from the recent drug busts, it was their own president Stephen Weber who encouraged undercover agents to investigate the drug problems on campus.

It’s also true that some campuses have greater drug troubles than others. San Diego State has been in the news recently, but few schools in the country do not have a history of arrests for sale or possession of drugs. This information is reported publicly and available from the Office of Postsecondary Education. Type in a school name, then click on "arrests." You’ll be able to see the number of arrests and disciplinary actions related to drug law violations.

It's been a tough year for college seniors applying to colleges--many schools reported more applicants and lower acceptance rates than ever before. Some students, in fact, have found themselves rejected from schools they thought were a sure thing. In email and on the College Admissions Forum, I’ve received heart-breaking messages from parents and students who have found themselves with a pile of rejection letters and no acceptances.

Here's the good news: the National Association for College Admission Counseling reported this week that 295 colleges and universities still have spaces available for qualified applicants. Check out the NACAC website and search for schools by state. You’ll find that some quality colleges haven’t yet shut their doors. Equally important, financial aid is still available from most schools.

photo by Jimmy Joe / Flickr

High school juniors who want an edge on the college admissions process should consider taking the SAT exam this June. The deadline for registration is almost here--May 6th for regular registration and May 15th with a late fee. The exam is administered on June 7th.

The advantages of taking the exam now can be significant. If your scores don't turn out in the range needed to get into your top choice schools, you'll have a few months to take a prep course, study with peers, or prepare independently. You can then take the exam again in October. Colleges will not penalize you for taking the exam twice--they will count only your highest scores.

For the college admissions process, May Day is about much more than spring flowers and maypoles. Most colleges around the country set May 1st as the deadline for students to accept an offer of admission. The past few weeks have witnessed frantic visits to campuses, negotiations with financial aid offices, and some agonizing soul searching.

But the admissions process doesn't end on May 1st. Now that admissions offices have a good sense of the yield from their accepted applicant pools, they will turn to their wait lists to fill any vacancies. There may be more action on the wait list front than in years past because of the difficulty schools have had predicting their yields. This exceptionally competitive admissions year meant that students were hedging their bets by applying to more schools, and the rising popularity of "gap years" means that more students might defer admission for a year.

photo of tulips at University of Michigan by merriehaskell / Flickr

Thanks to the subprime lending mess, many students are finding it hard to secure loans to pay for college. And for those who do succeed in getting loans, the repayment picture is often ugly. It's not unusual for recent college graduates to have student loan payments that are larger than their rent or mortgage payments.

A few colleges have stepped forward to address this problem by using their endowment dollars to guarantee that all their students will graduate debt free. Starting in 2008, if you attend one of these schools, all your student loans will be replaced with institutional grant dollars: Amherst, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Colby, Columbia, Dartmouth, Davidson, Harvard, Haverford, Pomona, Princeton, Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams or Yale.

photo by Brave Sir Robin / Flickr

The title of a recent article in The New York Times was an eye catcher: "The (Yes) Low Cost of Higher Ed." The title is, of course, misleading. For most students going to most schools, college is anything but inexpensive. But a few elite schools are making college more affordable for students whose families have modest incomes. In fact, a few schools promise that parents will pay nothing if the family income is under $60,000. These schools include:

• Brown (plus grants replace loans for families earning under $100,000)
• Columbia (plus grants replace loans for all students)
• Duke
• Harvard (plus grants replace loans for all students)
• Stanford (plus grants replace loans for all students)
• Yale (plus grants replace loans for all students)

The great challenge, of course, is getting into these extremely competitive schools (only about 7% of applicants were admitted to Harvard this spring). Also, a student may need to contribute some money to his or her education through work study or summer employment.

As gaining admission to the Ivy League gets more and more difficult, many students go to extreme measures to beat the odds. Prospective students with the financial means may take exam prep courses, employ essay editing services or even hire private consultants. But Yale transfer student Akash Maharaj showed just how far some students are willing to go to make it to the top. Based on his stellar record from Columbia University, Maharaj was offered admission to Yale and a $32,000 scholarship.

But life in the ivy tower came tumbling down for Maharaj last year when his application was found to be fraudulent, including an official-looking Columbia transcript complete with crest and seal. A recent article in the New York Times reports that Maharaj has been dismissed from Yale and charged with forgery and larceny. Maharaj's hearing is now set for May 28th.

While the Maharaj case has received a lot of media attention, the extremely competitive college admissions climate has made forgery and fraud all too common in the appliction process. Still, we can hope that the Maharaj case highlights the foolishness of application fraud: he may find himself gaining admission to an institution with metal bars on the windows and a rather lousy meal plan.

Photo by o2ma / Flickr

A lot of high school students don't think about the SAT and ACT until fall of senior year. However, high school juniors can increase their chances of admission by taking the June exams. The strategy is simple: if you take the exam in June and you don't get good scores, you'll have a couple months to study, take a prep course, and retake the exam in the fall. Colleges count only your highest scores.

Be sure to keep track of the deadlines. The ACT registration deadline is May 9th. For the SAT, you need to register by May 6th.