Penn State Live

August 23, 2010

How much time and money have you and your teenager put into preparing to take a college entrance exam? If you are like most families sending a student to college the expense has been substantial. After that kind of effort to ensure a good score you will not care for comments made by Dr. Heller or graduate students in professional programs about what all these standardized exams actually have to offer. Find out more by following this link. http://live.psu.edu/story/47967.

August 10, 2010

Everyone has their own ideas about how, when and even why seniors should submit their college applications. Take a look at the reaction of admission professionals to a student who submitted his application only three hours after the application became available. In this case the early bird will have to wait with all the other birds to have a chance at getting the worm.

Public schools are gearing up for the fall semester and teachers, administrators, counselors and student leaders are hard at work making all sorts of preparations. This story was told to me and I couldn’t help but plead with school officials that they not be guilty of this kind of behavior.

The sponsor of a student leadership club was having pizza with a group of the most active and successful upperclassmen in the school. Keep in mind that the first day of classes is still two weeks away so these highly motivated students are giving up portions of their summer vacation to participate.

Each year a few sophomore students are invited to attend these meetings to guarantee greater continuity with club responsibilities – let’s call this particular sophomore Susan. Susan was a little late arriving at the meeting due to her participation in marching band. She came into the classroom wearing a tank top. This would not be seen as unusual for anyone that has experienced the Texas heat in August. Soon after Susan arrived in the classroom where the club was meeting, an assistant principal happened by. Ignoring the pep-talk being given by the sponsor, the administrator immediately approached Susan and dressed her down for showing up at school in a tank top. Susan was told to change immediately and if she could not find clothes, she could not participate.

In the opinion of the person recounting the story, the reaction of the administrator was out of proportion for the infraction. To compound matters, it happened in front of a classroom full of other students and the sponsor. By the time the lecture concerning the tank top had ended Susan was sobbing. The sponsor tried to console her but the damage had been done. Susan told the sponsor that she would no longer take part in the leadership club. She said that she was already intimidated being a sophomore in a room filled with upperclassmen. Now she had been humiliated in front of them by a school official. It was too much. She could not face the other students again.

I am the first to say that rules are made to be followed, but if you plan to live your life with hard edges and everything in black and white, get ready for a very challenging existence.  What was the cost of enforcing that rule at that moment? What was the cost of enforcing that rule in that way? What was the cost of enforcing that rule in public? We can never know what Susan may have achieved as part of that club or how the school may have benefitted by her participation. What we do know is that the student and the school are lesser for having a list of rules placed before the needs of a child.

Think before you speak or act, especially where a child is concerned. Intent doesn’t really matter when your words wound someone.

The Washington Post

Monday, August 2

Before large numbers of students began crowding the nation’s universities interviews were common. When the number of applications made it impossible to sit down and talk to every individual only a few schools held on to the tradition. Now interviewing is on the rise as colleges try to decide which of the many high-achieving applicants to accept. You can find the complete article by following the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/01/AR2010080103508_2.html?wprss=rss_education&sid=ST2010080202453  

The Washington Post

Jay Mathews

May 24, 2010

Parents and students are annually confused and angered when rejection letters arrive from colleges. Much of the frustration arises from the lack of an explanation for the rejection. What no one stops to consider is that the situation may be worse if the colleges did offer an explanation. Read the full article at the site below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052303569.html?wpisrc=nl_most

Eric Hoover

May 25, 2010

As the number of students applying to colleges continue to rise, colleges utilize more details about the student that may not be included in the application. More schools are increasing the weight of demonstrated interest in their decisions about who to accept, wait list, or reject. Read the article at the site below.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Dynamics-of-Demonstrated/24288/

I don’t know anyone who has ever tried to accomplish anything that will not benefit from watching this clip about those who tried and failed. Think of yourself and your kids and not only the consequences of failing but the consequences of not trying at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiaPNlR5A4I&feature=related

May 14, 2010

I get questions from more than half the families I counsel about preparing for college entrance exams. This blog site may just point the way to the answer for most concerned parents. I have not tried out the available practice exams, and for that matter I am not too excited about taxing my brain like that. So, I would welcome comments from anyone looking for practice exams online to comment on what they find. Follow the link below to the blog site.

http://blogannath.blogspot.com/2010/05/preparation-for-college-admission.html

May 15, 2010 (Ashley Anderson)

This information is most helpful if freshmen and their parents put it into practice but it can help at any level. All the decisions made beginning in the freshmen year of high school will impact the decisions college admission professionals make about you. Don’t give them any reason to doubt that you are and will continue to be an excellent addition to their campus. Read the whole article at the address below.

http://college-preparation.suite101.com/article.cfm/how-to-prepare-high-school-students-for-college

Thursday, April 22, 2010 (Pat Restaino)

The high school student planning on attending college is accepted or rejected on the merit of what they accomplished up through their junior year. Many colleges will make the admittance decisions before the first reporting period of the senior year. This means that the application process begins half way through the junior year. Students that are not already laid the groundwork for their college applications are a step behind. If take advantage of these last few weeks before summer break you can get on track to and remove most of the anxiety of the application process. Don’t waste any more time. If you don’t know what to do next, just ask.  http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/your_college_advisor/91784989_High_school_juniors_need_to_look_ahead_so_they_don_t_get_too_far_behind.html