Chloe and Joey Are Juniors

Welcome back to what will, hopefully, be a very rewarding school year.  I want to begin with a post that focuses on juniors who are planning to attend college after graduation.  Two great kids whom I'm lucky to have as neighbors, Chloe and Joey, are juniors this year and in June I gave them this timeline to help them navigate all that the college bound student needs to accomplish junior year.

Recommended Junior Year Timeline

June - September 

- If you haven't taken an interest inventory through your school, I suggest you visit 

http://www.college.gov and use it to get information on careers by scrolling down and clicking "Explore Careers".  This will help you find careers that relate to different areas of interest.  This site also has a lot of financial aid information or you can go directly to http://www.careeronestop.org.

- Once you get some career ideas, you can go to http://www.bls.gov.  Scroll down the "Publications" tab to "Career Guides" and click onto the Occupational Outlook Handbook.  Another good site to use to investigate careers, especially in the math and science areas, is www.careercornerstone.org.

- Go to collegeboard.org and do a college match which will give you an idea of which specific colleges/programs you may want to consider.

-Download a college visit checklist to use when you visit colleges.  A good one is available at bigfuture.collegeboard.org.  

October - November

- Take the PSAT.

- Investigate summer programs open to juniors such as the Prudential Prestigious Awards.  Recipients receive scholarship money and attend a week long conference in Washington, D.C. in the early spring.  More info can be found at spirit.prudential.com.

- Zinch.com also has a scholarship finder.

- Notify your counselor that you are interested in summer programs such as Governor's School - www.nj.gov/govschool and New Jersey Boys State/New Jersey Girls State www.boysandgirlsstate.org.

December

- You will receive your PSAT results and should use them to continue with your SAT prep.  I say "continue" because your schoolwork, study and even general reading is all "SAT prep".  Use them to see where your strengths and weaknesses are.  There are many SAT prep books you can use and even online test prep at sites like www.grockit.com and unigo.com.

January - June

- Schedule your SAT in the spring along with Subject Tests, if necessary.

- Continue investigating/visiting colleges and programs and applying to summer programs of interest.  Virtual tours can be found on many college websites and also at www.campustour.com.

- Go to www.neighborhoodscout.com to check out the safety of the areas in which your schools of interest are located.

- Also go to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education website, theFIRE.org, to see your chosen schools' current policies "restricting individual rights, as well as that campus' advertised commitments to freedom of expression."

- Download a copy of the Common Application at www.commonapp.org. Even if your colleges of interest don't use or require it (over 400 do!), it will give you a good idea of what information will be included on most college applications.  You can begin the activity sheet portion now, if you haven't begun one already.  You can also see what the general application essay topics look like.  If you begin one now, you can most likely edit it to use senior year.  Go to www.englishclub.com to get some great tips on writing the college application essay.

There are numerous college ratings lists and guides.  A recent one I particularly like can be found in the August 12, 2013 edition of Forbes magazine.  They take the Top 300 Colleges, "rankings compiled exclusively for Forbes by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity" and give them grades based on their fiscal soundness.  They created the Forbes College Financial Grades and analyzed the balance sheets and operational strength of more than 900 four-year, private, not for profit schools with more than 500 students.  Public schools are included in the rankings but not graded.  "Combining Forbes'  Top College rating with its new Financial Grades can help you home in on not just the best schools for the buck but also those that are likely to be around for many years to come."

"Lucie Laponsky, former V.P. of finance at Baltimore's Goucher College and a higher-ed financial consultant, cautions against ignoring the financial health of the colleges you choose: 'Visible signs of financial stress can include fewer classes offered less frequently, more classes taught by adjunct professors, less money for clubs and cutbacks in the upkeep of campus facilities.'"

The next post will appear on October 23 and will include a discussion of a recently published book, 

300 Best Jobs Without a Four Year Degree in addition to a summary of a July Daily Caller post, "As College Costs Increase, Alternatives Arise".  I will also comment on another article about alternatives to college entitled, "Thinking Outside the Education Box".

Unigo Revisited

In a blog way back on December 1, 2010, I raved about a website, www.unigo.com, founded by Jordan Goldman who partnered with The Wall Street Journal to provide a free service where over 30,000 "college students tell you what colleges won't". If you aren't familiar with the site, it's definitely worth your time to explore it.

In the previous post I wrote about the interesting videos of panel discussions featuring college admissions personnel and administrators that are available on the site. They also provide rankings as to which schools, according to their findings, are the safest, most political, most intellectual etc. As part of the discussion on choosing a college, I'd like to revisit Unigo to discuss its college match and college search features. If you search a specific college by name, you will see an updated college profile containing information about size, cost, etc. and student reviews.

The college match feature is especially interesting. In less than thirty questions, the search seems to cover all the bases regarding cost, size, entrance difficulty, location, etc. but also addresses safety and social issues such as drugs and drinking. Questions are written in a very conversational style. A portion of one such question follows:

-Looking for a fresh start someplace new? Which of these fake communities seems to be calling your name?
o Carbon Copytown. Everyone here is very much alike. Blending in will be easy.
o Eclectic Falls. This quaint village is as diverse as it is fun and exciting.

Your results are updated as you answer each question. You're given a percentage of how well you match specific colleges which meet the criterion the question addressed. To keep your interest, the questions are sprinkled with little "factoids" like, "More women graduate from high school but more men have bachelor's degrees". Some questions allow you to select more than one answer. You can also find colleges by state and majors.

I presented the first post specifically addressing college search and matching tools in mid-January. That article focused on the search and match features on The College Board site, www.collegeboard.com. If you take one or, better yet, both of these inventories, you'll come away with some very good leads as to colleges that will meet your needs. Many schools have some kind of winter break coming up soon. Juniors should plan to use at least some of that time productively to advance their post high school plans.

I've Found Another One!

As I find websites that I think are of particular interest or particularly helpful, I intend to share them with you via this blog. Well, I've found a really good one (with the help of my lovely daughter!) about which I'm very excited. What can I say? I'm a guidance geek! WSJ (Wall Street Journal) on Campus has partnered with Unigo. Founded by recent college grad, 25 year old Jordan Goldman, www.unigo.com aims to provide a free service where over 30,000 "college students tell you what the colleges won't". Reporters from the Wall Street Journal and Unigo staff provide numerous reviews from students at different schools on a variety of topics. There are videos of panel discussions and college admissions staff members on pertinent topics as well.

There are two main sections: "Getting There" and "What to Expect". The "Getting There" section includes: College Rankings; Nail Your Essay; Recommendation Letters; Paying for School, and Facebook Scars. Clicking on the Facebook Scars heading, I found a video of an interesting panel discussion which included personnel from Princeton, Williams, UPenn, Franklin & Marshall and other institutions. They were discussing the topic, "Can What You Post on Facebook Prevent You From Getting Into College?". Other topics included their views of applicants who declare a major as opposed to those who are undecided and the importance of SAT's and other standardized tests.

There are also college match and college search features. If you create a free account, you can take a match survey. The test questions are sprinkled with interesting little factoids like: "Only four college football stadiums can hold over 100,000 fans."; and, "In 1955, 143 colleges required the SAT/ACT. Today, that number is over 1,400.". If you enter the name of a specific college in the college search section, you will not only see an updated college profile containing the usual info about size, cost, etc., but also student reviews.

The Top 10 for '10 rankings include: Top 10 New Ivies; Party Schools; Colleges You've Never Heard Of; Most Political Colleges; Most Intellectual; Hook-Up Scenes; Safest Schools, and Sports Schools. There's so much information on this site, you'll just have to explore it yourself.

With the beginning of Hanukkah tomorrow, the holiday season will get into full swing. I intend to post on December 8 and again on December 15. On January 4, 2011 (Wow, that year went fast!), we'll begin the new year with "It's January and Junior Year".
Happy Hanukkah!