Archive for November, 2007

Do you want to get into that college of your dreams? Then don’t screw up the opportunity to shine. Here’s what you want to avoid when you’re filling out that college application.

1. You include grammatical and spelling errors. Keep in mind that the admissions counselors has this packet of paper on front of them and this is how you’re presenting yourself. Review your credentials carefully and have someone proofread it to ensure that you don’t overlook anything.

2. You forgot to sign the documents. It’s another way to make a bad impression. If you’re not meticulous enough, you’ll certainly lose points with the person reviewing your app.

3. You didn’t read properly. Don’t misunderstand what is being asked. If it says “Last Name, First Name,” don’t fill out the form with your first name preceding your last name. Don’t say you live in the United States when it asks which county you reside in.

4. Illegible handwriting. Come on, this is your application to enter the schools of your dreams! Don’t make it more difficult for the admissions counselor who has to wade through tens of thousands of applications. Better yet, if you can get ahold of a typewriter or apply online, do it.

5. Not submitting your application online. Since college applications are a long process and cannot be completed after just an hour, you may want to save your changes and revisit the app several times, getting your content reviewed in the process. Make sure that when everything is said and the book is sealed that you actually submit your application! It’s one thing to save it; it’s another thing to ensure that it was sent.

6. Using an inappropriate email address. Just like you want to be a little careful when you present yourself online, so too you want to ensure your email address is of a professional nature. If you include too many sixty nines or four twenties, you may not score brownie points (even if they contain… oh, nevermind) with the people who will review your application.

7. Having someone else write your college application. Okay, seriously. If you’re going to delegate part of your application to a friend and part to a family member and you two have grossly different styles of writing, you can expect to be rejected without reconsideration. It is obvious when someone else writes your college application if the voice changes. Do it yourself. You’ll likely have to work on your own for at least part of college, so it helps to prepare now when the answers are all about you. (Trust me, this is a lot easier than your final exams.)

Take the application process seriously. It’s a little tough, there’s a lot of information, but you’ll be a lot more confident about your decision when you’ve gotten it out of the way. Remember, this is it, and many colleges bypass the interview almost entirely.

For high achievers, your GPA means everything. If it does, you need to work for it.

The Daily Herald reports that a DePaul University student is suing the school because he had opted in for “grade forgiveness,” which means that a grade can be ignored and not calculated in a final GPA. Since once grade forgiveness kicked in and he had a 3.588 GPA (where a 3.5 would give a student “honors” status) but he was not designated as an honors student, he is taking the case to court to rectify the situation.

Do you think the student is right? Do you think grade forgiveness is worth the trouble?

“I went to school with my major all decided. I was pretty stubborn and although I didn’t like the coursework, it was what I thought I wanted. Now, college is over with, and if I could do it again, I’d choose a different major.”

Have you met anyone like that? If so, you’re not alone.

Most students see some kind of major in their future. But after taking college classes in the subject matter, they decide that the major is not worth the hassle. If that’s you, that’s okay! Students do it all the time. I have a friend who wanted to be a doctor after taking a bunch of biology classes and chemistry classes. He was really excited! Then, he spent the summer at a medical school doing a lot more pre-med stuff and got tired of it. He ended up choosing a business major and spending an extra 2 years in school. He then decided he wanted to be a lawyer and started law school. Into his first semester, he dropped out. He’s now doing something along the lines of medical school but not for an MD — and this is over the course of 8 years. Yes, it happens, and no, it’s not abnormal. Here are things to consider when you’re thinking about your major:

Don’t give in to pressure. Don’t choose your major for the wrong reasons. Do you want to become a lawyer just because “the money is good” but be miserable for the rest of your life? If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t force it. I don’t care if your whole family is comprised of mathematicians; you may be the first humanities major in your family if math and science is not for you. Don’t go with a major because it “runs in the family.” It’s always good to be different. (Personally, I like having a wide variety of relatives to count on when it comes to their areas of expertise. If everyone in the family is a doctor and you need accounting advice, you’ll actually have to hire someone.)

Follow your passion. By this point in your life, you know (for the most part) what you like. Did you do particularly better in history than in biology? Did it make you feel good? Does learning about computer circuits interest you? Whatever it is that you like, there’s definitely some major for you. Take a look at what you do best (computer networking, building, writing, etc.) and see what kind of academic discipline applies to it. A good idea would be to write down what you like and brainstorm. Then look at what kind of professions you can envision yourself using to apply your hobbies. Take 30 minutes and write down anything, everything, and for now, don’t discount silly ideas because they can still work for you. Only when the 30 minutes is done should you start grouping these ideas together and finding out what works best for you. Check your academic course guide and see what offerings are available to you.

Commitment. Remember, that 4 year computer science degree may translate to 40 years of employment in an area you’re really not too keen on working in. You should be committed to the area of study because it may be your career. (Then again, keep in mind that a lot of people also don’t take a career in their major, so if you’re just looking to pursue what interests you, go for it!)

Money. Money may influence what you’re looking for when you’re choosing a major. Your computer science degree may not require graduate school and still can offer high-paying jobs. Your law and medical degrees are extra years added on top of college (and loans to pay off). Just remember, though, that money doesn’t have to be the means to the end, at least when it comes to choosing a major. If you’re really good at what you do, the cash will follow, so follow your passion and don’t let the money stand in the way if it doesn’t have to.

Four years is something, but it’s only the beginning. Follow your passion, commit to the task, and let money guide you (only slightly if at all) and you’ll be a lot happier in college than my friends were.

In October, three students from Carleton College, in preparation for a documentary, gave up digital life for a mere 24 hours. Could they do it?

In today’s day and age, we’re all wired. Silence and peace of our parents’ years are long gone. We need to be constantly in sync with our surroundings and always be connected. Instead of Facebook, students were meeting face-to-face. Phones replaced email and instant messages. The traditional pen and pencil replaced the word processor.

I never left the computer without an away message informing my college friends where I’d be and where they can find me.

So in this experiment, students spent an entire day without the “necessary” things that held the glue of their lives together (or so they thought). Here were some students’ reactions:

“It’s like I’m training for a marathon.”

“I turned my computer off at 11:59 [Tuesday] night. I read a book. I feel really good about it.”

One student, Jason Hitchcock, wrote on a scale from 1 to 10 that this was as hard as a solid 10. He couldn’t do it. “Agh,” he said.

Most, like Hitchcock, were antsy. Returning to email after one day was like a chore; hundreds of messages awaited students and they were all important.

The documentary is scheduled to be aired in mid-2008.

Could you go without computers for more than a day? Let us know by commenting!

Source: MSNBC

You’ve enrolled in your classes. Now what? It helps to get some idea on how to adequately prepare for exams by note-taking. Let us begin…

Read the syllabus. Find out what your professor expects of you. That way, you can walk into the class and know what is important. Some professors, for example, make it clear that the exams will be straight from the book. Others are much more focused on highlighting lectures in the exams. Understand the syllabus, get an idea of what the homework assignments, quizzes, and exams are about, and focus your mind on what your professor finds important for the sake of those good grades!

Have a “quizzical” mindset: Always assume your professor is going to question you. Prepare your notes if you’re expecting a pop quiz on the topics tomorrow. There are several benefits to this method:

1. What if there is a pop quiz after all? You’ll ace it.
2. You’ll have a head start on studying for midterms and finals by absorbing the information gradually rather than days prior to the big exam — which likely accounts for approximately half of your grade.
3. Professors who give grades for participation will welcome your knowledge, and you’ll be ahead of the game. (As a side bonus, your interest in the topics can help you boost your relationship with the professor, which can help if you need references for grad school!)

Don’t be late to class. Most college professors pack in a lot of material in a short period of time. You’ll be covering a 1000-page book in 6 weeks and the lectures are not going to be much slower. If you’re writing everything down, you’ll probably feel that your professor is talking a mile a minute. Get in class early, get a seat up front, and don’t walk in late especially in classes where tardiness is noticeable. You certainly wouldn’t want to sit down and not know how many pages of notes you’ve already missed, since it kills the motivation to take good notes that day.

Use a laptop if allowed. Nowadays, typing makes life so much easier and faster for note-taking. But at the same time, discipline yourself to be focused on taking notes and nothing else. Disable any Wifi access (we know how tempting the Internet could be during a lecture that might make you feel like snoozing!)

Don’t get distracted. Some discussion-centric classes still cover test-worthy material during the conversation. Don’t let a student’s interest in the professor’s knowledge be a door for you to start playing Sudoku. Stay focused on the material, and better yet, involve yourself in the discussion. If anything, stay focused enough to know exactly when the class will resume from its tangent, because you don’t want to lose a few minutes of notes doing something else that’s totally not worth it.

Ask! Have a question? Ask earlier rather than later. Chances are, you’re not the only one who wants to know the answer. There’s no such thing as a stupid question.

Shorthand is great. You could write down everything, but would you really want to review it all? Focus on shorthand where possible, especially if you just can’t write everything down. Make your notes easy to review after class. If you know exactly what is going to be covered, you might want to write in an outline.

Write neatly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken notes in class in such hideous handwriting that I decided that I’d never revisit them again. Don’t do this; you’ll only be hurting yourself.

Keep the margins available. You may want to add something in the margins later on when you get something clarified, or your professor might add, “I forgot to mention…” and you’ll have to either write a whole long paragraph and add an arrow to the area that it applies to — or you can just write in the margins. What’s easiest for you?

Don’t write everything in the same notebook. Use separate ones for each class. If you are using a laptop computer, focus on categorizing your notes in individual folders.

Date your notes. You’ll then be able to keep track of what’s being said and when, and it helps for organizational purposes (especially if a quiz is covering only a certain time period). You’ll also be able to give a needy student a hand with a particular day’s notes if s/he was unable to attend a class.

Become friends with your classmates for the same reasons. If you’re unable to attend class one day, you’ll have someone who can cover for you.

Note-taking isn’t that hard, nor is it that easy. Discipline, motivation, and a desire to learn (and do well) will prevail in your ability to write well during the lecture portion of your classes.

What do you think are the reasons why high school students make it — but stop there? College is a whole four years, but not everyone goes through with it. What holds them back?

We looked at several sources on the Internet and found that these are the main contributing factors:

1. Homesickness and feeling that you don’t fit in. It’s a whole new world out there, and you may not be ready to embrace it.
2. Educational burnout. While college gives you control and flexibility over your schedule, the hard demanding schedule, challenging courses, and boatload of homework certainly has turned a lot of students away from the desire to continue.
3. Academic unpreparedness. Sometimes, high school didn’t really prepare students for college. Other times, students slacked off in high school and paid the price during their post-secondary years. The high school goal was to pass (so that students could get into college); in college, it is to succeed.
4. Personal or family issues. You may have had an unfortunate illness in the family or you yourself just got totally get stressed out from the workload.
5. Financial constraints. Tuition costs continue to soar, and scholarships or grants are not always available. Additionally, financial situations can change from year to year.
6. Too much fun — but not enough education. Some students take advantage of their friendships, which could put them on academic probation due to suffering grades or absence in classes.
7. The school isn’t a good academic fit for the student. You’ve selected a great school that is very arts-centric. However, you realize that you like the sciences better. Similarly, you may hate the average class size of 100 and prefer much smaller classes for more individualized attention.
8. Setting sights on the wrong major. You may have wanted to be a doctor but after taking several science classes, you decided that you’re rather go into marketing. Does your school have a marketing major? If not, you’re likely to go elsewhere.
9. No guidance or mentors. In high school, teachers and counselors were there to guide you, as high school classes are typically smaller than the entering freshman class. It’s a lot harder to get the personalized attention that you’ve been used to and that could turn people off quickly.
10. External demands, particularly within part time or full time employment. Can we say Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? When the job puts too many demands on you, you may have to choose, and money usually wins out.
11. Time to move out. If the cold winter just doesn’t suit you, you may decide to go elsewhere. You may want to go closer to home or to be closer to a significant other.

Why have your peers dropped out of college?

In today’s day and age, college will very likely determine your financial status in the future. College graduates are likely to score higher-paying jobs, even if the work experience is equivalent. The hard work pays off.

Source: The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (PDF)

Similar reports from the US Census Bureau show that a professional degree really is the way to go. The expected lifetime earnings, in numbers:

Professional degree: $4.4 million
Doctoral degree: $3.4 million
Master’s degree: $2.5 million
Bachelor’s degree: $2.1 million
Associate’s degree: $1.6 million
Some college: $1.5 million
High school graduate: $1.2 million
Non-high school graduate: $1 million

I think that college, and then some, is an obvious choice.

What’s your mission? What do you want from your life? As soon as you determine the answer, you can get started on setting goals for the ultimate college achievements.

Let’s outline what you need to do to get started. Ask yourself these questions:

What are my values?
What interests me?

Your values are the most important things to you such as principles and beliefs. Is it family? The desire to pursue medicine? You already should have a few strong ideas in your mind. Similarly, look at what you enjoy doing. Look at the skills you’ve gained both inside and outside the classroom, including part time work experience. Make the connection between these experiences and your core beliefs.

Now start setting goals. Write down reasonable goals that both work for the short-term and long-term. Take a piece of paper and write all the steps required to reach that goal, from start to finish. Keep reviewing your actions to keep yourself motivated.

Finally, do some research: what do you want to be when you grow up? Or, if you don’t know, what is your dream job? Learn how people with your job got to where they are: learn what skills are necessary, what the salary is, the work conditions, and anything related to the job at hand. Can you envision yourself in that position? If so, you have just set for yourself a goal.

Remember, life is worth living, so enjoy it too while you’re aiming for the stars.

College is a means to an end: your career. Nowadays, without the education, it’s hard to be considered for many job opportunities. A Bachelor’s Degree is usually a minimum. Sure, you can browse Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, and the hundreds of websites out there to find the job that may get you what you’re looking for, but there’s one tool that’s accessible to everyone that makes job searching all the more easier: Google. The One Day, One Job blog explains how easy it is to tailor your searches to find the right job:

• Use Quotes in your search to make your search as specific as possible.
• Subtract sites you’ve already visited. For example, search for jobs -careerbuilder -monster and you’ll get jobs that are NOT listed on either CareerBuilder or Monster.
• Use similar search terms with the ~ character. If you’re looking for jobs in Florida, the Florida ~jobs will give you results related to careers and employment in Florida.
• Search top level domains. You want a job at Unilever? Try a search in Google for site:unilever.com careers and see what the results give you.
• Visit your Web History to see what you’ve already checked out. You might want to revisit that sometime later.
• Find out about opportunities using Google’s Blog Search.
• Google names and email addresses to establish contacts with the right people.
• Use Google Alerts to be updated about new opportunities.
• Google for your desired job title–if you know it.

The article itself goes into a lot more detail about the efficiency and effectiveness of each search. Whether you’re seeking out a full-time career or an internship position, Google is a great place to start for your search.

Let’s face it. College takes preparation and a whole lot of courses. And the right choices in high school will prove to the college admissions department that you’re a worthy candidate and will set your path for the four years to come.

What kind of choices are you making? Are you doing the bare minimum so that you can get by? Are you immersing yourself in electives that show that you have other interests? Are you challenging yourself with accelerated courses, like Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses? Your choices say something about you. Are you going to slack now, experiment now, or are you going to consistently evolve by taking those difficult classes that really exercise your brain? What do you think is the worthwhile investment for the long haul?

Consider when your application gets to the admissions office. The admissions counselors would much rather see you take a hard course and struggle with it than see you take easy courses and get by without a fight. College courses are typically much harder than high school courses, so don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Prepare today.

For most colleges, the following, at minimum, should be your courseload:

Math: 3+ years (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, etc.)
English: 4+ years (language, comprehension, grammar, literature, etc.)
Science: 3+ years (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.)
Social Sciences: 3+ years (history, geography, psychology, economics, government, etc.)
Electives: Some colleges require foreign language, visual arts, physical education, computer science, theatre or art, and other courses.

As for me, I had a full courseload. I dabbled in journalism, computer science, and had a full plate of AP curriculum courses in addition to an elective one year in peer counseling, three years of a foreign language, and electives in music. Did it pay off? It certainly did. My interests were clear when I made it to the college interview, and I was somewhat prepared for the years to come.

Choose your high school classes carefully, but seek out those interesting classes to bring you satisfaction and a constant challenge to let your college application stand out in the crowd.