It's already September! The school year never seems to pass as quickly as the months of July and August. For those students who are entering senior year, this may be the first school year where this is not the case. There's a lot to do and many decisions to be made. For those who have followed my blog this past year and have acted on the suggestions given, this year will be much less difficult. For those who have not, review the archives and try to get up to speed.
Seniors who are planning to go to college after graduation should be at the point of finishing up their applications. If you would like another shot at the SAT, be aware of the deadlines for registration which can be found at www.collegeboard.org. Juniors should be aware of their school's process to register for the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) which will be given in October. More information about this test can be found at The College Board site as well.
In the 38 posts I've written since August 2010, I have detailed a process by which high school students can make some important decisions for plans after graduation. Therefore, I plan to spend subsequent posts reviewing special programs and sites in addition to refining the process as relevant topics come up.
For those who are new to this blog, I will outline the subjects of the posts since January 2011 on Wednesday, October 5. For descriptions of the websites and posts that preceded that, see the archives and the website review I posted on December 14, 2010.
Seniors: Don't get overwhelmed - JUST GET BUSY!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Last Hurrah!
Labor Day is a little more than two weeks away! Don't despair. There's still time for those of you entering senior year to begin work on your applications - especially, the dreaded essay! Just a reminder - I will resume bi-weekly blogs on September 21. If you plan to take the first SAT of the 2011-2012 school year on October 1, the deadline for registration is September 9. Go to The College Board site to register - www.collegeboard.org . (Users of the site will notice that they have changed from a .com to .org.)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
If August Is Here, September Can't Be Far Behind
I hate to be a killjoy, but it is now the first week in August and in about a month - yes, just four short weeks - most of you will return to school. I'll be back on September 21. Remember that the first SAT of the 2011-2012 school year will be held on October 1. The deadline for registration is September 9. For more information, go to www.collegeboard.com.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The College Application Essay
Years ago, it seemed only a handful of colleges used the Common Application. Actually, when I began my career as a counselor, only fifteen schools used the program and it was, as I found out on their website, their Pilot Project year. Now, over 400 programs use the Application and 134 schools use it exclusively. Many of those 134 are quite exclusive as well, e.g., Williams, Brown, Yale, et. al.
On the Common Application home page, www.commonapp.org, under "Additional Resources", you'll find a link to the National Association for College Admission Counselling, www.nacacnet.org, which provides valuable information on parent and student resources. There is also a link to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, www.nasfaa.org.
Those rising juniors who know the schools to which they plan to apply as seniors, can begin their applications now. The Application website provides online and print versions of its first year and transfer applications. The preview of the 2011-2012 application can be accessed online. It provides six topics from which you may choose to write a 250-500 word essay. One of the selections is "Topic of your choice". The LEAST you should do this summer is prepare a rough draft. Even if your senior English teacher plans to cover this in next year's curriculum, this is a head start you will not regret having taken.
I rate essays for a major educational testing program and I can commiserate with application essay readers in admissions offices. Nothing stands out more than a well written, creative essay. Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of essays they must read, I'm sure the majority neither have these qualities nor give the reader a real sense of the writer's voice, of who he is. As a former English teacher, I know that one great tip we have imparted through the years is, "Read your essay aloud". Things that would have been missed in a silent edit of your essay will be picked up and language that is confusing and stilted will not go unnoticed, nor will run-on sentences, which this one has become! All kidding aside, a great website which will help you navigate this process is www.englishclub.com. Just search "College Application Essays Help" and you'll be taken through a series of "lessons" (six in all) that will help you write a good, if not great, application essay. As the saying goes, you've only got one chance to make a good first impression. The college application essay is your chance to do that.
Bi-weekly posts will resume on September 21, 2011.
HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!
On the Common Application home page, www.commonapp.org, under "Additional Resources", you'll find a link to the National Association for College Admission Counselling, www.nacacnet.org, which provides valuable information on parent and student resources. There is also a link to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, www.nasfaa.org.
Those rising juniors who know the schools to which they plan to apply as seniors, can begin their applications now. The Application website provides online and print versions of its first year and transfer applications. The preview of the 2011-2012 application can be accessed online. It provides six topics from which you may choose to write a 250-500 word essay. One of the selections is "Topic of your choice". The LEAST you should do this summer is prepare a rough draft. Even if your senior English teacher plans to cover this in next year's curriculum, this is a head start you will not regret having taken.
I rate essays for a major educational testing program and I can commiserate with application essay readers in admissions offices. Nothing stands out more than a well written, creative essay. Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of essays they must read, I'm sure the majority neither have these qualities nor give the reader a real sense of the writer's voice, of who he is. As a former English teacher, I know that one great tip we have imparted through the years is, "Read your essay aloud". Things that would have been missed in a silent edit of your essay will be picked up and language that is confusing and stilted will not go unnoticed, nor will run-on sentences, which this one has become! All kidding aside, a great website which will help you navigate this process is www.englishclub.com. Just search "College Application Essays Help" and you'll be taken through a series of "lessons" (six in all) that will help you write a good, if not great, application essay. As the saying goes, you've only got one chance to make a good first impression. The college application essay is your chance to do that.
Bi-weekly posts will resume on September 21, 2011.
HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Summer Vacation
This is the penultimate (Look it up!) post until Wednesday, September 21. In this post, I will propose a new twist to an old topic. The September "Back to School" theme of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" will become "How You Should Spend Your Summer Vacation". I'd like to suggest a few things that you should do this summer to help you reach your goals.
1. Define Your Goals
Students in middle school and beyond can use the sites I've written about this past year to help achieve this end. My post of December 14, 2010 lists some good ones where you can find career and interest inventories to help you pinpoint career interests.
2. Investigate Possible Careers
Hopefully, you've used some of the information I've posted to enroll in a summer program that will assist you in this endeavor. www.bls.gov and www.careercornerstone.org are two excellent websites.
3. Investigate Training for Specific Careers
The websites above will help you find out what kind of educational background a specific career requires. You can find out more about these programs and schools at www.collegeboard.com and www.unigo.com.
4. Visit Specific Schools
Actually travel to places where you might enroll after high school. At the very least, use the sites mentioned to find out more about a school. In addition to these and individual college websites, www.campustour.com provides virtual tours of many campuses. www.neighborhoodscout.com gives a wealth of information about the region and city in which a school is located. www.thefire.org gives information as to the school's protection of the individual's Constitutional free speech rights.
5. Determine Entrance Requirements and Prepare for Entrance Exams
Students should be sure they have the proper courses to fulfill entrance requirements. These can be found on the school's website or by looking up the school on www.collegeboard.com. If you need to take a class/classes that you haven't scheduled, you'll have to notify your counselor as soon as possible. Students entering junior year in the fall should spend some time preparing for SAT's. Those entering senior year who haven't taken the SAT should be sure to apply to take the first one to be given on October 1, 2011. Register by September 9, 2011. Go to the College Board site for more information.
6. Begin Your College Application
Hopefully, those students who are entering senior year have done all of the previous things on the list and should spend some time this summer to prepare as much of their college applications as possible, specifically THE DREADED ESSAY! More on that next time!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Safe and Sound - Part II
In my last post, I wrote about ways to ensure that you'll be able to keep a "safe body" while on campus. This week I'll write about the "sound mind" portion of the equation.
In his pamphlet, "What is a College Education? (and How to Get One)" published by the National Review Institute, Jeffrey Hart, professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, writes about Allan Bloom's, The Closing of the American Mind. Hart states that,
"Bloom's great theme throughout is that ideology has invaded
the academy to an absolutely unprecedented degree, closing the
American mind - at least the academic American mind - to the
truths about human nature as it actually is and has aspired to
be."
Often on college campuses, speech codes and victim group sensitivies trump the rights of the individual to express, debate or even examine ideas that run counter to the pervasive campus ideology. It is important to know if your school of choice is tolerant of and, even better, fosters individual intellectual freedom. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, FIRE, is an organization whose mission
"is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's
increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and
universities. These rights include freedom of speech,
legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and
sanctity of conscience - the essential qualities of
individual liberty and dignity. FIRE's core mission
is to protect the unprotected and to educate the
public and communities of concerned Americans about
the threats to these rights on our campuses and about
the means to preserve them."
The Foundation has taken an active role in adjudicating specific cases where a student's Constitutional rights have been violated. One such case involved a student who actively and openly opposed the construction of a parking garage on campus. While this issue may seem mundane, the student was expelled. He filed suit in cooperation with a First Amendment attorney who is a FIRE Legal Network member. Not only was the student's expulsion reversed, the university president was held personally liable for damages owed to the student.
By going to FIRE's website, theFIRE.org, and surfing FIRE's Spotlight, you can find information on speech codes and rights violations at over 400 academic institutions. Each school's page also displays FIRE's red, yellow or green light speech code rating and links to the campus' current policies "restricting individual rights, as well as that campus' advertised commitments to freedom of expression".
Another way to judge a college's adherence to the philosophy that it is a "marketplace of ideas" is to see who has been invited to speak on campus and what the reception of the speaker was like. Were they allowed to present their views or heckled and disrupted to such an extent that they were unable to present? College, among other things, is supposed to be a place for the civil exchange of ideas - a place where one is encouraged to perfect how to think not what to think. If your college won't encourage that, you're not going to get your money's worth!
In his pamphlet, "What is a College Education? (and How to Get One)" published by the National Review Institute, Jeffrey Hart, professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, writes about Allan Bloom's, The Closing of the American Mind. Hart states that,
"Bloom's great theme throughout is that ideology has invaded
the academy to an absolutely unprecedented degree, closing the
American mind - at least the academic American mind - to the
truths about human nature as it actually is and has aspired to
be."
Often on college campuses, speech codes and victim group sensitivies trump the rights of the individual to express, debate or even examine ideas that run counter to the pervasive campus ideology. It is important to know if your school of choice is tolerant of and, even better, fosters individual intellectual freedom. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, FIRE, is an organization whose mission
"is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's
increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and
universities. These rights include freedom of speech,
legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and
sanctity of conscience - the essential qualities of
individual liberty and dignity. FIRE's core mission
is to protect the unprotected and to educate the
public and communities of concerned Americans about
the threats to these rights on our campuses and about
the means to preserve them."
The Foundation has taken an active role in adjudicating specific cases where a student's Constitutional rights have been violated. One such case involved a student who actively and openly opposed the construction of a parking garage on campus. While this issue may seem mundane, the student was expelled. He filed suit in cooperation with a First Amendment attorney who is a FIRE Legal Network member. Not only was the student's expulsion reversed, the university president was held personally liable for damages owed to the student.
By going to FIRE's website, theFIRE.org, and surfing FIRE's Spotlight, you can find information on speech codes and rights violations at over 400 academic institutions. Each school's page also displays FIRE's red, yellow or green light speech code rating and links to the campus' current policies "restricting individual rights, as well as that campus' advertised commitments to freedom of expression".
Another way to judge a college's adherence to the philosophy that it is a "marketplace of ideas" is to see who has been invited to speak on campus and what the reception of the speaker was like. Were they allowed to present their views or heckled and disrupted to such an extent that they were unable to present? College, among other things, is supposed to be a place for the civil exchange of ideas - a place where one is encouraged to perfect how to think not what to think. If your college won't encourage that, you're not going to get your money's worth!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)