Posts filed under 'Advice'
Sometimes I get so frustrated at Simon, Paula, and Randy on “American Idol.” I think the singer sounds great, but the judges say he or she lacks the “it” factor. Or they let singers through who don’t fit with what I think reflects an “American Idol.”
Regardless of your taste in music, you can learn a lot by watching this show if you are applying for college. College admission panels, in a way, are like the “American Idol” judges–they’ve got only a few minutes to learn about you and make a decision that could impact the rest of your life.
College admission expert Shannon Meairs shared with us her “5 Reasons Why Getting Into College is Like ‘American Idol’.”
1. You must be a standout to make it to the next round. You’ve got to stand out in a good way, not by showing up in a costume and singing like a dying animal, Meairs says. Most high schoolers don’t know how to make themselves look like a star. Fewer know how to express it through a written essay, a few short answer questions, and some recommendations, but those that do have the best chance at getting in.
2. If the judges can’t figure you out within two minutes, you’re forgettable. An admission officer has less than two minutes to review an application, which is not a lot of time to convince your dream school to admit you, Meairs says. The best applicants know their story, deliver it efficiently and cohesively, and leave the admission officer wanting more.
3. Know and leverage your strengths. To get into college, follow the successful steps of “American Idol” contestants and create a unique personal brand. Play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses, Meairs says. You all have one – it just takes some soul searching.
4. Forget being humble. We all remember “American Idol” contestants who lacked confidence and stage presence, and they are constantly reminded of their blah performance. Being boring and safe is the kiss of death when applying to college, Meairs says.
5. Don’t take harsh criticism personally. We cringe at the thought of being told we’re the most dreadful thing Simon has seen all year, she says. If you think Simon’s tough, think about those who are part of the admission committee day after day, month after month. Instead of being another random name on paper, give the committee a reason to send you to the top – and straight to their school.
–Lori Johnston
November 12th, 2009
Today is the day that we honor our veterans, but truthfully, those brave men and women deserve our thanks every day of the year. Many of these individuals got their start in their branch of service because of their college’s ROTC program. If you want to serve the U.S., but also want to go to college, read on.
What is the ROTC? The ROTC stands for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. It is a program offered by many colleges and universities across the country that prepares students to become commissioned officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines after graduation. (The Coast Guard has its own academy plus an Officer Candidate School, but no ROTC). For those who are already enlisted, the ROTC offers opportunities to earn a college education and a commission as an officer during active or inactive duty.
Many individuals looking towards careers in the military opt for campuses with an active ROTC, because admission to the program ensures that most or all of their college expenses will be paid, in addition to a modest monthly stipend. In exchange for their scholarships, ROTC students must agree to serve their chosen military branch for a certain number of years, usually at least four.
If you are ready to search for colleges with ROTC programs, The CollegeBound Network can help. Check out our articles and directory of colleges that will help you make the very important decision to serve in the U.S. military.
–Barbara Bellesi
November 11th, 2009
If you took the SAT this past Saturday, you are probably feeling something between a mixture of relief that it’s over and anxiety as you wait for the scores to arrive. As you wait for the moment of truth, you might feel the urge to sign up for the SAT next month, if you haven’t already. But should you go ahead and take it?
College-bound students—and their parents—often feel that more is better when it comes to taking the SAT. “How many times should I take the SAT?” is a question on most high school students’ minds. While it is certainly advisable to take the SAT more than once if you didn’t achieve your score goal the first time, that score won’t miraculously rise on its own unless you study harder in between exams and focus on what needs to be improved. So before you sign up for the SAT for the third, fourth, or tenth time, consider these options instead:
Take the ACT. It is entirely possible that you are caught in an SAT rut and need to try a test with a different format. Enter the ACT. While it is still a standardized test, there are several major differences between the ACT and the SAT, including no penalty for guessing, no surprise experimental section, and no mandatory essay—you only write if the colleges to which you are applying require it. Many students are intimidated by the science section on the ACT, but don’t worry—the section asks you to analyze and make inferences based on given data, not on how well you have memorized the Periodic Table.
Take a subject test. Like its name, the subject test allows you to concentrate on one subject at a time, and for many students, the single focus takes away a lot of the pressure. Let’s say you are an A student in English, but struggle in math. Your stress over the math sections on the SAT may cause your verbal score to suffer, but this won’t happen when you take the English subject test. You’ll be free to concentrate on what you do best, your score will reflect it, and colleges will notice.
Take a break. Years ago, the SAT was not offered as many times as it is now, and students benefited from the longer breaks in between tests. Most students only took the test twice, interspersed by a subject test. Now, it seems that students are taking the SAT upwards of five times, simply because they can, and as a result, they are burning themselves out. It’s understandable that a senior who is trying to meet application deadlines wants to squeeze in one last score, but if you are a junior, aim for quality more than quality—take some time to formulate a game plan to improve on your weaknesses rather than taking test after test. Also, keep in mind that the more you progress through school, the more you will learn, which will make the SAT a bit easier—that’s why students take it during both junior and senior year.
On the other hand, if you are a senior, you might even be able to submit a new set of SAT scores after the application deadline has passed, provided that you have already submitted a complete application with at least one set of scores—check with the college admissions office to see if this is acceptable.
You’ve heard it time and again from admissions counselors, but the SAT is indeed just one portion of your entire application. Your GPA, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and your essay all work together to provide a clearer snapshot of you as a future college student, so be sure to focus on the big picture.
–Barbara Bellesi
November 9th, 2009
When I was making my college decision, I visited Athens, Georgia with my dad and knew the University of Georgia was the spot for me.
It wasn’t just about what degrees the school offered or its reputation in academic and athletics; I fell in love with the vibrant, pedestrian downtown that was just across the street from campus. It had trendy shops, small local restaurants, and clubs and music venues that hosted so many popular bands that Rolling Stone called it the #1 college music town.
You’ll find cities with colleges and universities among those of Kiplinger’s Best Cities for 2009, which looks at factors such as job stability and growth. These and other kinds of “best cities” lists are worth looking at as you consider where you’re going to call home during your college career.
Athens, home to the University of Georgia, comes in at #5 on the list and had 34,180 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in fall 2009.
The top city on the list – Huntsville, Alabama–offers students the University of Alabama at Huntsville, a research-intensive institution with 10,000 students.
Washington D.C. – #3 on the list – boasts more than 15 schools surrounding our country’s center of government. They range from Georgetown University to Howard University to American University to theological seminaries and smaller community colleges.
At #8, Austin, Texas, also has a collegiate atmosphere and a happening music scene, as host of the annual South by Southwest music festival. It’s also home to one of the largest public universities in the U.S. – the University of Texas at Austin – which has a staggering amount of students, nearly 50,000.
Madison, Wisconsin, #7 on the list, also boasts another large state university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 42,030 students.
Another school I considered – University of Virginia, with 21,057 students – is in Charlottesville, Virginia, which comes in at #4 in Kiplinger’s list. In Olympia, Washington, The Evergreen State College attracts about 4,600 students annually. #2 on the list, Albuquerque, New Mexico is home to The University of New Mexico, which had a record enrollment of 34,674 students enrolled at its campuses in fall 2009. Flagstaff, Arizona at #9 offers schools such as Northern Arizona University, and North Carolina State University is in Raleigh, N.C., #10 on the list.
For me, the town atmosphere and setting was a plus in making my college decision. It could be for yours, too.
–Lori Johnston
November 3rd, 2009
If you are in the midst of a college search, you’ve probably got about a half million facts and figures running through your head. Some people might be founts of information when it comes to sports stats, but you instead are able to recite on command a host of enrollment figures, average SAT scores, and admission rates.
One figure that you might have come across in your careful research is the student-faculty ratio. A very important figure on any campus and a source of pride for many colleges and universities, the student-faculty ratio is a good indicator of what your academic life will be life at the school of your choice—that is, if you know how to look at it correctly.
The student-faculty ratio should not be confused with class size, but unfortunately, many students do just that. Rather, a student-faculty ratio is an equation of how many students are on campus in relation to how many faculty members there are at a given time. For example, if a college says that they have a 12-1 student-faculty ratio, this means that for every 12 students on campus, there is currently one faculty member. However, this does NOT mean that all of your classes will have 12 students in them. Large universities that boast low student-faculty ratios are particularly confusing, since chances are good that you will walk into a lecture hall for an intro class and be greeted by a hundred other students.
There’s no doubt that a low student-faculty ratio is desirable. A low ratio means that a college or university is working diligently to ensure that there is enough faculty on hand to teach both required courses and higher-level electives in their programs and that class size, particularly as you get further into your major, is kept at a minimum.
But again, the ratio can be misleading. Colleges often count part-time adjuncts into the mix, and at many colleges, adjuncts comprise a large number—if not the majority–of the faculty. This is nothing against part-time faculty, of course, but when you research a college, it’s important to remember to consider how many tenured faculty are on campus. Since adjuncts are often paid meager salaries and are not eligible for tenure, colleges look to them to fill in the gaps for low-level classes, leaving the published and more experienced profs to teach the upper-level curriculum.
However misleading, the student-faculty ratio is still the best figure for quantifying academic life, as average class size can be even more confusing. After all, it is possible to be one of 200 in a lecture hall and then one of only 10 in an advanced seminar; between these two numbers, the average class size is 105, which is not true!
While schools large and small like to flaunt their low student-faculty ratios, beware of the schools that don’t make this info readily available—it could mean a high ratio. While a high student-faculty ratio isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, it is something that should weigh in on your decision, since this could mean a shortage of classes each semester or, worst-case scenario, a possible termination of smaller, less popular academic programs.
Learning about a school’s facts and figures are a great way to get a snapshot of what campus life is like, but—and we know you’ve heard this before—there’s nothing better than seeing it for yourself. When you call to schedule a campus visit, ask about sitting in on a freshmen class to see what it’s like for yourself before you make your final college decision.
–Barbara Bellesi
October 26th, 2009
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former University of Tennessee president, is bringing the idea of three-year degrees back into the news with this week’s column in Newsweek.
As a parent of a 3-year-old, I’m already dreading how much it’s going to cost to send my son to college and applaud any plan to cut those expenses, which will continue to escalate. From a financial standpoint, the idea of three-year degrees, which a College Bound previously pointed out is already offered by some schools, has some merit.
But one benefit of the four-year degree is that it benefits self-starters and highly focused students as well as those who are lacking direction during their first couple of years in college.
Some students are able to gain duel degrees or even start working on post-graduate work with the four-year scenario, allowing them to squeeze every drop out of their college career. Others arrive from high school unsure of a career focus and it takes time for them to determine their major or to develop a passion in a particular area.
Packing a college education into three years also could hinder opportunities to study abroad, and some schools have significantly increased those programs in the past decade. I’ve seen students travel around the world, to destinations as varied as England, China, Italy, and Antarctica, and come back not only with new relationships, but also a more worldly view that aids them in their studies and career paths.
Most students I know already don’t pursue internships until between their junior and senior years, and the possibility of losing out on those opportunities could be harmful upon graduation in the form of closed job doors. Those experiences are crucial, I believe, to getting hired and being competent to handle the first year in a career.
Alexander advocates steps such as making summer classes mandatory as ways that would enable students to graduate earlier. As I see college students stress about their weekly load of tests and projects, I fear that being forced to go to school year-round could lead to burnout. They need those breaks, even though as a working professional, I’m envious about those long naps and the possibility of even just a week of nothing to do but watch movies or read.
The three-year degree’s financial benefits are obvious, but to reach to that point, more would need to be done, starting as early as the middle school and high school level. The main question is how to get students focused on their careers earlier so that they enjoy a fun but knowledge-filled college education that sets them on a professional path earlier than their parents, siblings and bosses.
–Lori Johnston
October 22nd, 2009
Car companies slash prices. Clothing designers offer discounts. Restaurants offer two-for-one deals. It seems that when it comes to spending your hard-earned money, there are a lot of deals out there to help you save more.
Except, of course, when it comes to college.
Here’s something you’ll never see: Bachelor’s Degree ½ off! Or: Buy A Degree and Get a Master’s for Free! In fact, colleges are doing the exact opposite of slashing prices—they keep on raising them. And because students recognize the value of a college education, they’ll pay the price—however high it might go.
The Washington Post reported today that public universities raised their fees by 6.5 percent and private schools upped theirs by 4.4 percent. Granted, colleges are allowed to accommodate for inflation, and a degree from a public college is still a great bargain at twice the price, but that doesn’t do anything to eliminate the sting of these increases.
Unless you’ve got the cash in the bank to cover your whole college bill in the first place, students rarely pay tuition in its entirety. Scholarships, grants, and other financial awards do their part to chip away at the monstrous debt, but most students have resigned themselves to the fact that they will have monthly loan payments for years after graduation.
Aside from winning the lottery or being adopted by Madonna, there’s not much else you can do to avoid the cost of higher ed. Some schools are taking pity on their students and are introducing three-year degree options, but others, like Harvard, will always have a mile-long wait list no matter how high the price goes—and it will continue to go higher.
Has the rising price of college made you rethink your academic goals? Let us know.
–Barbara Bellesi
October 20th, 2009
Good news for those of you looking to become a teacher in the next few years: the Department of Education will be looking to hire an estimated 1.7 million new educators by the year 2017.
It’s nice to see encouraging employment numbers in the midst of a recession, isn’t it?
What is less encouraging is the reason for the teacher shortage. Not only are baby boomers retiring from the classroom in droves, but new teachers are also being driven away from the profession by low salaries. There’s no doubt that when it come to professional careers, teachers are at the lower end of the payscale, but ask any veteran teacher why they continue, and they’ll tell you that their interaction with the students is what keeps them coming back year after year despite a paltry paycheck.
A new website, MyTeacherMyHero, has been launched to honor teachers for a job tremendously well done and to educate those who are thinking of becoming teachers. The site features videos of individuals expressing their thanks for a special teacher who has been an inspiration in their lives. MyTeacherMyHero is sponsored by MAT@USC, the very first Master of Arts in Teaching program that is solely online and is offered through the prestigious University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.
Anyone can upload a video, but the first round of videos features some pretty big names from various industries. Craig Newmark, the brains behind Craigslist, is one video to check out, as well as the ones starring musician Sean Paul, HBO President Sue Naegle, and Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford.
I’m thinking of posting a video message for my all-time favorite English teacher, Eileen Finn. While she couldn’t possibly predict when she taught me in 7th grade that I’d be a blogger, she did encourage my writing, and for that, I’m very thankful.
–Barbara Bellesi
October 19th, 2009
Students could be getting the shaft in health care reform.
The bill approved earlier this week by the Senate Finance Committee has some people, including the American College Health Association, worried that it leaves out college-sponsored student health insurance plans. The ACHA says the bill’s language is unclear and ambiguous about how the college-sponsored plans should be treated.
The group has asked Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the committee’s chairman, to make clear that nothing in the proposed legislation is intended to preclude or inhibit the continuance of those student health insurance plans and that colleges will retain the ability to mandate comprehensive coverage levels for their students.
If not, it says 9 million college students could be impacted.
Some college students I know are dealing with the swine flu, seasonal flu, or other illnesses that threaten to keep them away from classes or add to the stress of writing papers and studying for exams. Some experiencing sickness at school for the first time have the extra frustration of figuring out if they have insurance, what it covers, and where they can seek treatment.
While we wait to see what happens with health care reform and the impact on students, go ahead and investigate what your insurance situation is like now, or what you may need to do if entering college next year.
• Check if your school offers insurance plans for students at subsidized rates. Data shows that 71 percent of four-year private schools and 82 percent of four-year public institutions offer student insurance plans, according to a March 2008 Government Accountability Office report. You may already be paying for insurance, but take a look at the plan before you seek treatment from a doctor that may not be covered and incur a big expense. Those plans typically cover treatment at a university health center.
• Ask if you are covered as a dependent under your parents’ health plan.
You may have certain requirements to fulfill, in terms of credit hours. And the plan may not cover certain physicians in the town in which you are attending school.
• See if your employer offers health insurance. This could depend on the number of hours you work or your time on the job, but it could be a smart option to get affordable coverage.
College and university students comprise about 10-12 percent of the nation’s 45.7 million uninsured U.S. residents, according to a report by Aetna Student Health using GAO data. About 37 percent of uninsured young adults were carrying medical debt, as of 2007 data.
There’s enough financial pressure during college to have to worry about mammoth doctor’s and hospital bills as well. We’ll have to see what changes health care reform brings about, but there are ways to pursue getting coverage until then.
–Lori Johnston
October 15th, 2009
The traditional college freshman is 18 years old. But here at The CollegeBound Network, we are declaring shenanigans on the idea of what is “traditional.” In fact, I am going to pretend this blog is a mountaintop, and I’m going to shout out this message:
YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO GO TO COLLEGE.
Maybe you decided to work a few years before heading off to college. Perhaps you have a child who is in college. You might even have a grandchild who is in college. Age is a state of mind, 
and when it comes to enriching your mind, you are simply never too old to study for your college degree.
Colleges have enough tradition as it is. From fight songs to crazy mascots to secret fraternity and sorority handshakes, rest assured that a college’s long and illustrious history will not be tarnished when a non-traditional student arrives on campus. Many of the oldest colleges and universities pride themselves on having vibrant and diverse campus populations, which means that they will be more than happy to welcome older students. (And by older I mean wiser, more mature individuals who are focused on college and are eager to grow personally and professionally).
While it may seem hard to return to school after an absence from the classroom, non-traditional students actually have the upper hand on campus. Whether you’ve been away from school for two years or 22, the hiatus has allowed you to reflect on what you want out of life and how college can get you there. And since you are most likely financing your own education, chances are you’ll want to benefit from every dollar you spend by showing up at every class, ready to squeeze every drop of wisdom possible from your professors and fellow classmates.
Consider Nola Ochs, the 90-something woman who earned her degree after taking one class at a time for years. Or Ken Mink, the 73-year-old who not only returned to college, but also to the college basketball court. These students made headlines, but there are many more non-traditional students who are forging a new tradition of their own by breaking down the age barriers in the classroom.
Think you might be ready to stage your own comeback? In the upcoming weeks, check out our sister blog, CollegeSurfing, for some inspiring stories of adults returning to college.
–Barbara Bellesi
October 13th, 2009
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