Parents, think of the college application process as another course your child will be taking this fall. Writing college essays and answering short answer questions is time consuming. To put their “best foot forward” they will need to devote considerable thought, time and effort to their writing. Randy Mills, a former admissions counselor concurs, “It is certainly apparent -- the amount of time and effort that goes into an application. You can tell the well thought-out ones from the ‘I just whipped this up’ applications.”
Many things occur during the fall of senior year that might prevent students from giving the application process their all. Students who begin during the summer have a distinct advantage.
Marilyn
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Education Must Meet the Challenge
Two recent events made me mad! At first these happenings might not seem related, or even have anything to do with college admissions. So, please bear with me. The first was the oil leak in the Gulf. As of today, we are up to the seventh plan for stopping the oil leak. Engineers are trying to cut off the pipe and then lower a dome over it in the hopes of containing the oil.
The second, I have actually seen again and again. It is not limited to a particular high school or to a certain region of the country. I recently met with a student who excels in math and science who had no idea what he wants to do after graduating from college. That did not bother me. Rising high school seniors often do not, and probably should not, know this. I became angry, not at the student, but at our system, when upon suggesting to the student that he consider engineering as a career, it became apparent the he had never thought about engineering. Further, no one at his school, no teacher or counselor, had ever mentioned engineering. Not only did he have no idea about the different types of engineering, he really did not know what engineering is.
Are you beginning to see the link? Engineers apply the principles and theories of science and math to technical problems. By doing so, they find solutions. The tragedy in the Gulf reflects the failure of a challenging and very difficult engineering project. In a broader sense, it highlights the critical need for the "best and the brightest" to step up to the real challenges our nation faces. By encouraging excellent math and science students to think about engineering we will be doing our country a service. It is very important for high school teachers and counselors to spur excellent science and math students to think about studying engineering.
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
The second, I have actually seen again and again. It is not limited to a particular high school or to a certain region of the country. I recently met with a student who excels in math and science who had no idea what he wants to do after graduating from college. That did not bother me. Rising high school seniors often do not, and probably should not, know this. I became angry, not at the student, but at our system, when upon suggesting to the student that he consider engineering as a career, it became apparent the he had never thought about engineering. Further, no one at his school, no teacher or counselor, had ever mentioned engineering. Not only did he have no idea about the different types of engineering, he really did not know what engineering is.
Are you beginning to see the link? Engineers apply the principles and theories of science and math to technical problems. By doing so, they find solutions. The tragedy in the Gulf reflects the failure of a challenging and very difficult engineering project. In a broader sense, it highlights the critical need for the "best and the brightest" to step up to the real challenges our nation faces. By encouraging excellent math and science students to think about engineering we will be doing our country a service. It is very important for high school teachers and counselors to spur excellent science and math students to think about studying engineering.
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
Monday, May 24, 2010
Teens: Your Behavior Can Deny You the College Acceptance You Hope For
Re "Albertus Magnus expels six students in marijuana brownies incident on school trip,"
Notwithstanding any sympathy we might have for the six expelled students, every student planning on college should pay close attention to the Albertus situation and the fallout. And so should their parents.
Teens need to understand: Your behavior can deny you the college acceptance you hope for and can affect your eligibility for financial aid.
I am a former high school teacher and now a lawyer and an independent admissions counselor. I know kids make mistakes and expulsion is a severe penalty, but the consequences can go beyond this.
Not all colleges ask the question, but 390 colleges that use the Common Application for Undergraduate College Admission seek information on a student's disciplinary and legal history, both on and off campus. Some other colleges ask similar questions.
The 2010-11 Common Application asks two questions under the heading, "Disciplinary History":
• Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any educational institution you have attended from ninth grade (or the international equivalent) forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in your probation, suspension, removal, dismissal or expulsion from the institution?
• Have you ever been adjudicated guilty or convicted of a misdemeanor, felony or other crime?
The application also states: "If you answered 'yes' to either or both questions , please attach a separate sheet of paper that gives the approximate date of each incident, explains the circumstances and reflects on what you learned from the experiences." The student can write an explanation to ameliorate the event, but this is not a position any applicant wants to be in.
Students could also become ineligible for financial aid if their offenses occur when they are 18 or older. Typically, this would not include high school college applicants, but a drug conviction could require a student to drop out of college for lack of financial aid. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, warns: "It is the law! You might not be able to receive federal student aid if you have been convicted of selling or possessing illegal drugs, if the drug offense for which you were convicted occurred while you were receiving federal student aid (grants, loans, and /or work study)."
High school students often complain that they want to be treated like adults. But they need to understand that being treated like adults can be very tough at times. Learn the rules and stick to them. College acceptance and financial aid could be on the line.
Joseph O'Brien Jr, Esq.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Seniors: Colleges Really Look at Second Semester Grades
According to the State of College Admission Report 2009 (National Association for College Admission Counseling, September, p.30), 21% of colleges reported that they revoked offers of admission in 2008. A drop in final grades was the most common reason for retractions, followed by disciplinary issues.
Recently the University of Massachusetts sent out letters warning admitted students whose grades were falling to shape up. Some schools take it a step further and ask students to explain their lower grades. The University of Washington and the University of Colorado went even further than that and they rescinded a number of offers.
Look at the case of Mark, whose 3.8 GPA (grade-point average) and perfect verbal and math SAT scores helped him gain entrance to University of North Carolina (UNC). He slacked off towards the end of senior year and his final GPA slid to a 3.5 after failing one class and getting C’s and D's in the others. UNC's admissions staff changed its mind and rescinded its admission offer.
Parents need to remind their high school seniors that college’s want students that interested in learning. They want students with the same level of accomplishment throughout the senior year. They certainly don’t want lazy students!
Marilyn G. S. Emerson, MSW, CEP
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Seniors: It's Time to Choose Your College!
May 1st is almost here. This is the date when many high school seniors must deposit at the college of their choice. For some students it is an easy decision. For other students the decision looms large. Often they and their parents try to over think it.
If at all possible, I encourage students to narrow their list to two or to three schools and visit or revisit. When visiting as an accepted freshman, a student may see a school through a very different lens – now knowing the school wants him. For some students the visit will make their decision clear.
For those students that remain conflicted, I encourage them to make a list of pros and cons and then honestly articulate their gut reaction to the way the list played out. If they are instinctively unhappy, it may be because they know which school they want to attend, but for one reason or another, they are finding it hard to verbalize, or do not want to verbalize, what they are thinking. Often, but not always, this occurs because students know that their parent or parents think Great College is the best school for them, but they honestly want to go to Wonderful U.
Sometimes choosing a school is simply picking one of two or three good choices. Other times, difficulty selecting between schools can reflect real important underlying concerns, financial, social, or academic. If this is the case, now would be a good time for discussion.
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
Monday, April 12, 2010
What Should I Do On My Summer Vacation?
It’s time for high school students to start thinking about what they might want to do this summer. College admissions personnel expect summers to have been spent productively. They expect students to take advantage of available opportunities. There are a wide range of good options. Examples include working, volunteering or taking courses. Many colleges offer summer programs for high school students. The University of Delaware, for example, offers a five week residential program for high school juniors, where students take two courses (for college credit) and get a taste of college life (http://summercollege.honors.udel.edu/ ). If you don’t have five weeks to spend, other colleges offer programs of shorter duration. Ithaca College offers a one week and a three week residential pre-college program (http://www.ithaca.edu/summer_college/ ). Stevens Institute of Technology lets high school juniors and seniors earn college credit through The Euclid Program, an online program of Physics, Computer Science and Math courses (www.stevens.edu/undergrad/precollege.html ).
While I do not advocate doing something because it looks good on a college application, I do advocate doing something – anything you enjoy. After all it is summer vacation!
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
While I do not advocate doing something because it looks good on a college application, I do advocate doing something – anything you enjoy. After all it is summer vacation!
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Don"t Panic There Are Wonderful Options for The Average Student
“My child is just average.” Have you ever said these words? They are often whispered by parents who feel that they are not living up to the expectations placed on them by their friends, relatives, community and maybe even society. Not too long ago it was okay to be average; it was not seen as a flaw. Today so much emphasis is placed on the rigor of a high school student’s curriculum, standardized test scores and extra-curricular activities parents and students are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress. Don’t panic there are wonderful options for your child.
If you say that your child is “average,” you probably mean that Jillian has average grades and/or standardized test scores. You know that your child’s grades approximate the arithmetic mean at your child’s high school and her GPA causes you to feel that she has moderate potential to learn and perform? But, is your assessment of her ability accurate? “Average” may mean something different depending upon where you are located and the high school your child attends. What is perceived as average at one high school may indeed be below average or above average at another high school. Grades only measure how your child in fact performed in high school. They may not necessarily measure how she will perform in college.
When you use the word “average” do you understand why your child performed they way he did in high school? Grades may be an imperfect measurement of your child’s ability. Only after you have fully assessed your child both as learner and as a person will you be ready to move on to finding colleges that fit your child academically and socially – if you and your child still think that college is the appropriate next step. For some students, a typical liberal arts education many not be the best use of their time and your money. Here are some things to think about:
Age - Each student is different and each student matures at his or her own rate. Maturity may be influenced by many factors including: heredity, sex and age. Your son may physically look like a man, but he may not have reached the same level of social or emotional growth. Your daughter’s reasoning skills and decision making skills may be better than they were in middle school, but she may not behave as responsibly as you may like. For some high school students, school work and learning take a backseat to physical, social and emotional maturation. Some students who begin slowly, due lack of maturation may perform better in their junior or senior year.
Intellectual Curiosity – Some students do not, or have not been taught, to enjoy hypothesizing or to draw inferences from what they read and hear. They do not think critically, nor do they enjoy problem solving. For them school work is a chore to be endured. Their talent and gratification may lie in other areas such as working with their hands or making beautiful music.
Learning Style – Some students learn differently than others. Some students may have a hard time doing one or two things, while other students may easily do many things concurrently. It may take one student twice as long as another to read a passage in a book, add a column of numbers or understand the chemistry experiment. It is important to understand how your son or daughter learns in order to find the right environment for continued learning, for those students who want to continue with traditional learning.
Expectations – Unfortunately students are often characterized as bright, average or slow learners in elementary school. This learning designation too often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When you use the word average, do you mean the way your child performed on standardized test scores? Most studies find that the correlation between these scores and the student’s performance in the first year of college are not overwhelming; there is no consensus from the many who have debated the predictive validity of these tests. A study performed by the University of California, found that the scores on the SAT II subject tests are indeed better indicators of how freshmen will perform in college than traditional SAT I scores. Also, standardized test scores unfortunately discriminate against economically disadvantaged students as well as students who are simply poor test takers.
Using the word “average” is an unreasonable simplification and does not serve the best interest of the student. Students whose grades and test scores cluster around the fiftieth percentile are vastly different in other ways. Your “average” child is not ordinary, typical or common. I strongly doubt that your child has no special qualities or that there are no areas in which Jimmy will shine. Juliet has her own strengths and talents and needs to be able to find the right environment for her to continue to develop her personality and strengths.
If your child is a B/B- student (it that is typical for your school system), if his standardized test scores hover around 1000, if he only made the junior varsity soccer team, if he is not particularly tall or short, if he has an occasional zit and if he thinks you’re a nag there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. In fact, there is a distinct possibility that he or she may ultimately be happier and more successful than the student with a higher GPA and test scores.
Not everyone is destined to be a stellar student in the classroom. Some students excel in other areas. This does not mean that college is the wrong option. Different people flourish in different environments. For the student who has not been academically stimulated in high school there are many, many colleges and universities where professors enjoy the challenge of motivating students with interesting course content, dialogue and hands-on experiences. Their goal is to make these students into lifelong learners and contributors to society. For the students who have real music, art or theatrical talent there are colleges and universities that will nurture these talents and help them prepare for a career in their chosen field. For students who have no idea what they want to study, courses such as The Science of Harry Potter (offered at Frostburg State University in Maryland), Maple Syrup – The Real Thing (offered at Alfred University in New York), Muppet Magic: Jim Henson’s Art (offered at the University of California – Santa Cruz) and the Art of Walking (offered at Center College in Kentucky) might spark their interest.
When trying to find the optimum learning and social environment for your child regardless of academic strata you need to ask the questions that will help you find the right fit.
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
If you say that your child is “average,” you probably mean that Jillian has average grades and/or standardized test scores. You know that your child’s grades approximate the arithmetic mean at your child’s high school and her GPA causes you to feel that she has moderate potential to learn and perform? But, is your assessment of her ability accurate? “Average” may mean something different depending upon where you are located and the high school your child attends. What is perceived as average at one high school may indeed be below average or above average at another high school. Grades only measure how your child in fact performed in high school. They may not necessarily measure how she will perform in college.
When you use the word “average” do you understand why your child performed they way he did in high school? Grades may be an imperfect measurement of your child’s ability. Only after you have fully assessed your child both as learner and as a person will you be ready to move on to finding colleges that fit your child academically and socially – if you and your child still think that college is the appropriate next step. For some students, a typical liberal arts education many not be the best use of their time and your money. Here are some things to think about:
Age - Each student is different and each student matures at his or her own rate. Maturity may be influenced by many factors including: heredity, sex and age. Your son may physically look like a man, but he may not have reached the same level of social or emotional growth. Your daughter’s reasoning skills and decision making skills may be better than they were in middle school, but she may not behave as responsibly as you may like. For some high school students, school work and learning take a backseat to physical, social and emotional maturation. Some students who begin slowly, due lack of maturation may perform better in their junior or senior year.
Intellectual Curiosity – Some students do not, or have not been taught, to enjoy hypothesizing or to draw inferences from what they read and hear. They do not think critically, nor do they enjoy problem solving. For them school work is a chore to be endured. Their talent and gratification may lie in other areas such as working with their hands or making beautiful music.
Learning Style – Some students learn differently than others. Some students may have a hard time doing one or two things, while other students may easily do many things concurrently. It may take one student twice as long as another to read a passage in a book, add a column of numbers or understand the chemistry experiment. It is important to understand how your son or daughter learns in order to find the right environment for continued learning, for those students who want to continue with traditional learning.
Expectations – Unfortunately students are often characterized as bright, average or slow learners in elementary school. This learning designation too often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When you use the word average, do you mean the way your child performed on standardized test scores? Most studies find that the correlation between these scores and the student’s performance in the first year of college are not overwhelming; there is no consensus from the many who have debated the predictive validity of these tests. A study performed by the University of California, found that the scores on the SAT II subject tests are indeed better indicators of how freshmen will perform in college than traditional SAT I scores. Also, standardized test scores unfortunately discriminate against economically disadvantaged students as well as students who are simply poor test takers.
Using the word “average” is an unreasonable simplification and does not serve the best interest of the student. Students whose grades and test scores cluster around the fiftieth percentile are vastly different in other ways. Your “average” child is not ordinary, typical or common. I strongly doubt that your child has no special qualities or that there are no areas in which Jimmy will shine. Juliet has her own strengths and talents and needs to be able to find the right environment for her to continue to develop her personality and strengths.
If your child is a B/B- student (it that is typical for your school system), if his standardized test scores hover around 1000, if he only made the junior varsity soccer team, if he is not particularly tall or short, if he has an occasional zit and if he thinks you’re a nag there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. In fact, there is a distinct possibility that he or she may ultimately be happier and more successful than the student with a higher GPA and test scores.
Not everyone is destined to be a stellar student in the classroom. Some students excel in other areas. This does not mean that college is the wrong option. Different people flourish in different environments. For the student who has not been academically stimulated in high school there are many, many colleges and universities where professors enjoy the challenge of motivating students with interesting course content, dialogue and hands-on experiences. Their goal is to make these students into lifelong learners and contributors to society. For the students who have real music, art or theatrical talent there are colleges and universities that will nurture these talents and help them prepare for a career in their chosen field. For students who have no idea what they want to study, courses such as The Science of Harry Potter (offered at Frostburg State University in Maryland), Maple Syrup – The Real Thing (offered at Alfred University in New York), Muppet Magic: Jim Henson’s Art (offered at the University of California – Santa Cruz) and the Art of Walking (offered at Center College in Kentucky) might spark their interest.
When trying to find the optimum learning and social environment for your child regardless of academic strata you need to ask the questions that will help you find the right fit.
Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP
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