Speaker Event: The Path from High School to College

Thursday night, our first speakers series event went off with great success! Our distinguished panelists provided thoughtful insight to the daunting task of applying to college and all the mayhem that goes along with it. The panel included:

• Our very own Tim Urban, co-founder of Launch Education Group;
• Alexandra Rhodes, college counselor and founder of Rhodes Educational Consulting;
• Baillie Gerstein, college counselor and founder of Admission Accomplished; and
• Billy Wheelan, President and founder of Sentia LLC., a New York based admissions consulting and test prep company.
  

Between the four of them, their years of experience and varying expertise provided for a well-rounded and informative discussion.

Throughout the discussion, I frequently found myself thinking about how valuable the information would have been to me as a high school senior, when I too lost sleep over the college admissions process like many of the students in our audience. I was so impressed by the wisdom and advice from last night, and since I can’t rewind the clock with any real success, I decided to divulge a couple quick highlights in this blog.

1. Pick the School that is right for YOU!!!

In response to the topic of choosing which schools to apply to, Alexandra Rhodes gave a brilliant response. She advised that the task should not be to search for the perfect list of schools but rather to search for the perfect type of school. She also suggests that it is not enough to simply plug in information to online search engines - you must go visit a variety of schools in order to really get a feel for them. In my own experience, growing up close to Arizona State University, I saw first hand what went into the student life at a large state school. Although the thrill of having a Pac-10 football team to cheer for seemed essential, I soon realized after stepping foot on Loyola Marymount University’s campus that a small school was a better choice for me. Size, along with the location and social setting, contributed to my ability to narrow down my list of top schools.

2. The Admissions Essay

Let’s face it, the idea of writing an essay that should state all the crucial knowledge there is to know about you and potentially decide the bulk of your near future seems intimidating (to say the least!). However, the panelists provided a number of useful tips that simplify the process. One very important suggestion was to be yourself and let your unique voice be heard within the essay. However, when describing yourself and your accomplishments thus far, it is not critical to have completed the most unique of tasks. For example, if you played basketball all four years of high school (me), then explain how the sport has affected you personally, and leave behind the fear that someone else has written on the same topic. When it comes down to it, no one has experienced things in the same way you have, and that’s what will help you stand out!

These great points by our panelists last night can help any college bound student feel more confident in their quest toward conquering the college admissions process. The best part is that these were only a few of the many tips provided by the experts, and we have it all on film! We will be posting a link to the video shortly, and hopefully it will help both parents and students, in Billy Wheelan’s words, “breathe” a little when tackling the path from high school to college.

Why Take APs?

High school students often find themselves asking the questions, “Why is it important to take AP classes? Do colleges care whether I take them? Is it worth the extra work? How many should I take?” The fact is, AP classes are a lot of extra work, and it’s important to understand all the factors before making these decisions. So let’s break it down and discuss some of the ways AP courses can help:

Get a Taste of College

AP courses will challenge you and help you develop the confidence and scholastic skills you will need to succeed in college. These courses expose you to a new way of learning, one that will improve your writing, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Not only will you flourish academically, but you will acquire the study habits and time management skills that will prove to be crucial in tackling college-level courses down the road.

Set Yourself Apart

Do colleges take notice of APs? Absolutely. With colleges being more selective than ever (I know, we’re not happy about it either), AP courses will give you a lead in the admissions process. Doing well on an AP exam is a widely recognized sign of achievement. It reflects your dedication to hard work and your readiness to take on college-level coursework. Enrolling in AP courses can also perk up your college application by boosting your grade point average. More than 70% of AP schools give extra weight for AP courses in GPA calculations, with most giving somewhere between .76 and 1.0 point additional weight.* In many schools, a B in an AP course equals an A in a regular course (at least according to your GPA).

Get a Head Start

Qualifying AP exam grades can earn you college credit, advanced placement or both in more than 90% of four-year colleges in the Unites States and in more than 60 other countries.* AP credits can thus afford you the time and flexibility to design a more personalized college curriculum. You could move more quickly into higher-level courses in your field of interest, pursue a double major, and even graduate early. Click here to learn more about AP credit policies of the colleges that interest you. (Note: The most selective colleges usually require a score of 4 or 5 to grant course credit.) As a high school senior, you may shrug at this—but when you’re a college freshman and don’t have to take that core math requirement, thanks to your AP, you will be smiling.

Cut Costs

Not only can AP courses save you time, they can save you money. Recent studies have shown that students who enroll in AP courses are much more likely to graduate in four years (or less) than those who do not. Those who take longer than four years to graduate can expect to pay up to $18,000 for each additional year at a public university and an estimated average of $27,197 for each additional year at a private university.** That’s a lot of cash. On top of that, AP courses and exams can further mitigate today’s heavy cost of college by making you more eligible for academic scholarships and awards.

The moral of the story is the adage you’ve heard a thousand times before: Hard work now will pay off later. Taking APs in high school can give you a huge advantage in the college playing field. Nonetheless, when deciding which courses to enroll in, keep in mind the heavy workload associated with APs (so it mite be a good idea to find a knowledgeable private SAT tutor). Try to avoid taking on too many AP courses at once; it is much more favorable to do well on a few AP exams than to perform poorly on several. There is no magic number of APs to take as the college admissions process is complex, and there is usually no single factor (e.g. AP credits, SAT scores, extracurricular activities) that will make or break you.

Talk to your teachers or school counselor about the AP courses and exams available at your school, or read more about APs online.

*www.collegeboard.com

**Costs include tuition, fees, and books only, and do not include room, board, and other living expenses. Average Estimated Undergraduate Budgets, 2008-09 (Enrollment-Weighted). The College Board, ”Trends in College Pricing,” 2008.

Humble Soup

Like many students, there was a point in my academic career when I questioned the relevance of school and SAT tutoring. I had convinced myself there was little possibility that I would “ever use this stuff again” once I left the classroom.

So, feeling brazen, one day I challenged my teacher with my “rationalistic” perspective. I raised my hand and blurted out, Why do we have to LEARN this, anyway? It’s so BORING!

The class went silent. Luckily, my teacher had a seasoned rebuttal and without blinking replied, “Well, are you planning on eating lunch today?”

Taking a stance, I nodded.

“What do you have in your lunch?” He asked.

Frowning, I listed a cheese sandwich, an apple, a yogurt, and an oatmeal cookie.

“I see," he replied. ‘You know, without geometry and fractions, you wouldn’t be eating ¾ of your lunch today.”

Cynically, I pondered the point of his statement. Of course, after class as I was gathering my books, my teacher sat down next to me.

“So, Sallie, it seems like you are frustrated with fractions.”

Nodding, I told him that yes, I thought fractions were dreadfully boring, not to mention I just couldn’t see myself ever needing to use such a thing ever again. Plus, studying fractions on flashcards was lame.

"Well, do you like to cook?” He inquired.

Yes, I do it all the time with my mother.

“Great!" he announced as he stood up and strolled over to his book case. After taking a few minutes to run his fingers along the spines of a few of the most weathered in his collection, he wiggled one out, let it flop open to a random page, read a few lines, and then in a dramatic swoop, he tore out the whole page and then tore the page in half.

Looking at the shard of paper, I saw that it was a recipe for spaghetti sauce – but, he had removed all the measurements for each ingredient.

“That’s your homework assignment for tonight. Make this sauce.”

Later that day, I presented my mother with my assignment. She smiled and said she couldn’t express enough how excited she was to have a night off from dinner duty. And so it began – I pulled out all the ingredients listed, set them on the counter and surveyed the scene.

Ground beef. Salt. Pepper. Olive oil. Celery. Carrot. Onion. Tomato paste. Tomato chunks. Red wine. Garlic. Basil. Bay leaf.

Oh, this is going to be easy, I thought. Following the instructions to a T, I tossed in a hunk of beef, veggies and olive oil. I let it simmer down and then sloshed in an unknown amount of tomato paste and tomato chunks, followed by a good half bottle of red wine and the listed seasonings.

Cool, I thought, as I covered the pot. Now I let it simmer for 25 minutes, and the sauce is done!

Twenty five minutes later, I lifted the top off the pot to survey the scene. My mother, who was standing next to me, peered inside.

“Wasn’t this a recipe for tomato sauce?”

On my tip-toes, I looked into the pot. To my dismay, I was met with a pot of tomato soup.

I looked at my mother.

“Well, how much wine did you use,” she asked, poking a spoon at the bubbling liquid.

Oh – maybe half a bottle? I shrugged.

Doubling over in laughter, when she was finally composed, she reached for one of her cookbooks and flipped to a spaghetti sauce recipe that called for wine. A quarter cup of wine, that is.

The next day, my math teacher eagerly approached me before class.

“So, how did it go?”

I shifted my gaze a bit uneasily.

It went, well, I guess. But I ended up with SOUP instead of sauce.

“So something was off – do you know what?”

I nodded.

Too much wine for the amount of everything else in the pot.

“Ah," he confirmed. "So knowing how much of an ingredient you need per whole recipe is a KEY component to the successful outcome of – any dish?”

I sheepishly blinked in silence. Indeed, he was right.

For a while, I thought that my lesson was solely related to math. It wasn’t until I found myself dreading practicing Latin grammar rules with a high school classmate that I realized if we could commiserate, couldn’t we somehow find a way to make studying together fun?

Hence, the second part of my lesson on fractions sprung to life. Heading into the kitchen, we decided to cook an entire meal – using only vocabulary words from our study list and attempting to construct sentences using proper Latin grammar rules. The next day we both received A’s on our Latin grammar test, and we vowed to study the fun way for the rest of the semester.

Here are a few more ways to make studying fun:

Multiplication Tables: Grab a deck of cards, and throw down two. Shout out the product. This game can be played with one person at a time answering as quickly as possible, or it can be played as a competition to see who can come up with the answer first.

SAT Vocabulary Words: Pin index cards with vocabulary words around the house in key places like mirrors, the refrigerator, or next to the front door. Consider laminating word lists and sticking them in the shower or using them as placemats.

Language Skills: With a friend, pick a fun activity like cooking, a board game, or riding bikes. Communicate and play during that activity using as little native language as possible.