Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
College Interview Mistakes http://collegevideos.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/college-interview-beware-part-4-of-4/
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
FAFSA: The short video that makes it easy
No time? Watch this 2-minute video on the easier way to fill out your 2010 FAFSA form.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Olympics = Preview Of College Admissions
The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics revealed something dreadful:
Sameness.
There were so many characters on stage who not only appeared the same, but performed in the same way and at the same time.
Individuality was totally absent.
It was a visual metaphor that I warn students about: sameness will make more difficult your ability to get into college.
You have to stand apart. How do you do that?
My 2-minute video says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLRNC9K4A28
Sameness.
There were so many characters on stage who not only appeared the same, but performed in the same way and at the same time.
Individuality was totally absent.
It was a visual metaphor that I warn students about: sameness will make more difficult your ability to get into college.
You have to stand apart. How do you do that?
My 2-minute video says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLRNC9K4A28
Monday, July 21, 2008
6 Survival Tips For College Freshmen
More college freshmen will drop out of college in the first 6 weeks than at any other time this year (over 30% will drop out after the first year). But the 6 tips below have proven to work, according to Dr. R. Gilbert of Montclair State University in New Jersey:
1. Treat your roommates like they’re your best friends...even if they aren’t.
2. Never assume anything...no matter what your question. Keep asking until 2 people give you the same exact answer.
3. No matter what your problem...there is an expert on campus to help you. First, check with your Head of Residence. Then, go to the Dean of Students office.
4. Don’t be intimidated. College looks much more difficult than it really is.
5. When you think everyone else is so much smarter than you, remember this quote:
“College is a fountain of knowledge. A few come to drink, a few come to sip, and, unfortunately, the rest come to gargle.”
6. When you feel like dropping out, repeat slowly this question several times:
This last one gets a few laughs, but it’s no joke. Like the condemned man about to be executed, it forces a student to focus on what’s really important.
1. Treat your roommates like they’re your best friends...even if they aren’t.
2. Never assume anything...no matter what your question. Keep asking until 2 people give you the same exact answer.
3. No matter what your problem...there is an expert on campus to help you. First, check with your Head of Residence. Then, go to the Dean of Students office.
4. Don’t be intimidated. College looks much more difficult than it really is.
5. When you think everyone else is so much smarter than you, remember this quote:
“College is a fountain of knowledge. A few come to drink, a few come to sip, and, unfortunately, the rest come to gargle.”
6. When you feel like dropping out, repeat slowly this question several times:
“Would you like fries with that?”
This last one gets a few laughs, but it’s no joke. Like the condemned man about to be executed, it forces a student to focus on what’s really important.
______________
To receive FREE weekly 2-minute videos on how to get into college and pay for it, go to this website: www.videocollegedad.com
Thursday, July 17, 2008
7 College Essay Writing Tips
1. Write your college application essay before your senior year begins. Senior year is very busy, and you don't need another distraction from concentrating on what's more important: your studies. Get it brainstormed, drafted, corrected and finally written before September 1.
2. Find a topic that you know better than anyone. For example, you're a dancer because you use dance as a way to express with your body what you cannot express with your vocal cords. Who knows the language of your body better than you do? Who knows more about what you say with your dance than you do? You're the expert, which is why it'll be a whole lot easier for you to communicate what you want to say. Read: your essay can be one easy task!
3. Keep it simple. By way of illustration, let's say you're standing on a street corner and you witness a car crash in front of you; you were the only one who witnessed the crash, and the police have asked you to write a description of what you saw. Why did the police ask you? Because they know you are the expert in what you experienced in that brief moment of the car crash. You could write about a brief moment in your life that had some positive impact on you because you are the expert on how that moment affected you. Keeping it simple also means using simple words, so throw away the thesaurus.
4. Make your first statement of the essay the most powerful. Readers in a college admissions office believe 80% of the essays they read are a waste of time. So make your first statement a "hook" - a pleasant surprise that catches their attention from the get-go. Here are some example first-sentences of what some of my students wrote last year:
"I was suddenly surrounded by rifles pointing at me." (theme: paintball)
"It was clear that I was completely cut off from civilization." (theme: wilderness hiking)
"I had nowhere to go but down." (theme: overachieving)
"Pain was a requirement for me to succeed." (theme: dancing/ballet)
5. Read your essay out loud. Besides your eyes use your ears to hear what you're saying. Reading out loud gives you another sense of how the essay is moving, and you'll be able to tell if it sounds right or needs improvement. Then get friends and family members to read and listen to what you're saying. Ask for comments and suggestions.
6. Essays should be no longer than 500 words. Give the admissions reader another reason to LOVE you - keep it shorter than 500 words. The 500-word limit has been a standard for years, and the Common App now allows you to write more than 500 words. With short attention spans in a college admissions office, do you think colleges are excited that the Common App allows you to write more than they want to read? Less is more, or quality beats quantity every time.
7. Keep your essay upbeat and positive. My favorite college essay requirement comes from the College of William & Mary in Virginia where they suggest: "Surprise us!" What they're asking you to do is write something that's positive. Why? Like most colleges they're so used to reading the seven topics they don't like. Not to write about these topics would be a huge surprise.
2. Find a topic that you know better than anyone. For example, you're a dancer because you use dance as a way to express with your body what you cannot express with your vocal cords. Who knows the language of your body better than you do? Who knows more about what you say with your dance than you do? You're the expert, which is why it'll be a whole lot easier for you to communicate what you want to say. Read: your essay can be one easy task!
3. Keep it simple. By way of illustration, let's say you're standing on a street corner and you witness a car crash in front of you; you were the only one who witnessed the crash, and the police have asked you to write a description of what you saw. Why did the police ask you? Because they know you are the expert in what you experienced in that brief moment of the car crash. You could write about a brief moment in your life that had some positive impact on you because you are the expert on how that moment affected you. Keeping it simple also means using simple words, so throw away the thesaurus.
4. Make your first statement of the essay the most powerful. Readers in a college admissions office believe 80% of the essays they read are a waste of time. So make your first statement a "hook" - a pleasant surprise that catches their attention from the get-go. Here are some example first-sentences of what some of my students wrote last year:
"I was suddenly surrounded by rifles pointing at me." (theme: paintball)
"It was clear that I was completely cut off from civilization." (theme: wilderness hiking)
"I had nowhere to go but down." (theme: overachieving)
"Pain was a requirement for me to succeed." (theme: dancing/ballet)
5. Read your essay out loud. Besides your eyes use your ears to hear what you're saying. Reading out loud gives you another sense of how the essay is moving, and you'll be able to tell if it sounds right or needs improvement. Then get friends and family members to read and listen to what you're saying. Ask for comments and suggestions.
6. Essays should be no longer than 500 words. Give the admissions reader another reason to LOVE you - keep it shorter than 500 words. The 500-word limit has been a standard for years, and the Common App now allows you to write more than 500 words. With short attention spans in a college admissions office, do you think colleges are excited that the Common App allows you to write more than they want to read? Less is more, or quality beats quantity every time.
7. Keep your essay upbeat and positive. My favorite college essay requirement comes from the College of William & Mary in Virginia where they suggest: "Surprise us!" What they're asking you to do is write something that's positive. Why? Like most colleges they're so used to reading the seven topics they don't like. Not to write about these topics would be a huge surprise.
To view free weekly videos such as the one you just watched, visit this website: http://www.videocollegedad.com/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
5 Benefits Of Going To College During The Summer
Just going to college in the summer doesn't automatically put your student on a "preferred" list at any college. You have to have a specific reason for going, such as taking a course because a scheduling conflict during your child's junior year prevented him or her from taking a needed AP or Honors course, or your student simply needs to find out if s/he really wants to go to college.
Here are 5 benefits for taking a college course during the summer between junior and senior years:
1. Colleges will be impressed that you took initiative to "make up" what you missed (translation: you didn't use the standard excuse of bad scheduling to NOT take an AP or Honors course, or that a 2nd AP course was never offered);
2. Colleges will see that you challenged yourself at a time when the beach was more appealing (translation: you demonstrated a high level of maturity and focus that are not always evident on a college application);
3. You were able to test-drive the college experience: you actually know what a college class room session is like, how professors act, and how challenging college can be. You now have a solid sense of whether you want to go to college, or you now now have a confidence level about going to college that was never known before, and the anxiety of "what's college really like?" - the fear of the unknown - is a lot less;
4. Your student earns college credit before senior year in high school, an advantage that 99.6% of competing seniors will not be able to claim; and
5. Your student's letters of recommendation will reinforce all of the above.
Here are 5 benefits for taking a college course during the summer between junior and senior years:
1. Colleges will be impressed that you took initiative to "make up" what you missed (translation: you didn't use the standard excuse of bad scheduling to NOT take an AP or Honors course, or that a 2nd AP course was never offered);
2. Colleges will see that you challenged yourself at a time when the beach was more appealing (translation: you demonstrated a high level of maturity and focus that are not always evident on a college application);
3. You were able to test-drive the college experience: you actually know what a college class room session is like, how professors act, and how challenging college can be. You now have a solid sense of whether you want to go to college, or you now now have a confidence level about going to college that was never known before, and the anxiety of "what's college really like?" - the fear of the unknown - is a lot less;
4. Your student earns college credit before senior year in high school, an advantage that 99.6% of competing seniors will not be able to claim; and
5. Your student's letters of recommendation will reinforce all of the above.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
How Crass Can A College Get?
A lot of press is being given to a college in South Carolina for the way they treat their students.
For approximately $36,000 a year, here's what you get for your money from High Point University if your student is looking to be treated like a rock star:
1. an ice cream truck roams the campus giving away free ice cream all day;
2. music is piped into the walkways between buildings;
3. snack kiosks are situated with an endless supply of free bananas, pretzels and drinks;
4. each student receives a birthday card signed by the president, with balloons and a Starbucks gift card inside;
5. gift baskets of snacks and drinks are dropped off at student rooms when they return from breaks;
6. to get exactly what students want, the university maintains a database of each student's preferences in movies, candy bars, and sodas; and my favorite...
7. upon request, wake-up calls in the morning and afternoon.
This is the Club Med of academia. Did I mention that there are people there who actually teach courses if your student wants to take some?
The press reports indicate that the university's passion for "customer service" is paying off. Enrollment has never been higher. Should the term "customer service" apply to an academic environment? If you don't think so, you and I are both clueless.
In May of 2006 Brown University's president told an incoming freshman class: "You are the smartest, the cutest, the savviest, most dynamic, extraordinary - I could go on and on."
As long as colleges continue to baby our kids, the less prepared they will be for the daily demands and tough expectations of real living.
This story is not an aberration. It highlights the college trend in pampering the next generation. The injustice such schools are doing to these students is incalculable.
The focus is not so much on academics, but on what can we do to make your student more self-absorbed and narcissistic. "It's all about me" in a lah-lah world that has no shame with indulging in crass commercialism while making you pay through the nose. Okay...so I'm totally clueless.
Once our students discover how the world works after graduation, they'll complain that it was a wake-up call they never requested.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Hot Chicks & Minorities
Over 75% of college catalogs are fraudulent. Evidence is found in the photos.
Look carefully at the catalogs you get in your mailbox. How many include photos of black and Asian students? Nearly all of them.
A recent study reveals some embarrassing information that has caught colleges with their pants, well, in the lower regions of fiction. A few examples...
1. Although 7.9% of college students are black, college catalogs convey a 12.4% impression.
2. Colleges are defining diversity - brace yourself - with photographs of students with a different skin color. And you thought diversity of thought was the standard. Always with colleges, appearances trump substance. Because colleges are superb marketing machines, they truly believe that your perceptions are more important than their reality. If photos make you conclude their college is "diverse," then it's true.
3. Colleges justify their misrepresentations as, "What we're really saying is that you're welcome here." Cynics would add, "...although you don't qualify to be here."
4. The old 80/20 rule probably applies: 80% of the truth-in-advertising lies with a little more than 20% of the college catalogs. Translation: to find the truth you have some real digging to do.
A student who helped put this study together concluded that the catalogs portray nothing more than "hot chicks and minorities." Colleges want you to believe they want more male students (who are more apt to drop out, thereby being an economic liability) and minorities (7.9% is a dismal representation of blacks, but it's a reality colleges accepted a long time ago).
Also, attorneys general in more than 40 states last year investigated colleges for their highly questionable relationships with private loan companies, where exotic trips and kick-backs to financial aid officers were commonplace. In effect students ended up paying higher interest rates on their loans.
The catalog photos are now the indicting visuals of college fraud.
Parents are rightfully being forced into this mindset: Buyer beware.
Look carefully at the catalogs you get in your mailbox. How many include photos of black and Asian students? Nearly all of them.
A recent study reveals some embarrassing information that has caught colleges with their pants, well, in the lower regions of fiction. A few examples...
1. Although 7.9% of college students are black, college catalogs convey a 12.4% impression.
2. Colleges are defining diversity - brace yourself - with photographs of students with a different skin color. And you thought diversity of thought was the standard. Always with colleges, appearances trump substance. Because colleges are superb marketing machines, they truly believe that your perceptions are more important than their reality. If photos make you conclude their college is "diverse," then it's true.
3. Colleges justify their misrepresentations as, "What we're really saying is that you're welcome here." Cynics would add, "...although you don't qualify to be here."
4. The old 80/20 rule probably applies: 80% of the truth-in-advertising lies with a little more than 20% of the college catalogs. Translation: to find the truth you have some real digging to do.
A student who helped put this study together concluded that the catalogs portray nothing more than "hot chicks and minorities." Colleges want you to believe they want more male students (who are more apt to drop out, thereby being an economic liability) and minorities (7.9% is a dismal representation of blacks, but it's a reality colleges accepted a long time ago).
Also, attorneys general in more than 40 states last year investigated colleges for their highly questionable relationships with private loan companies, where exotic trips and kick-backs to financial aid officers were commonplace. In effect students ended up paying higher interest rates on their loans.
The catalog photos are now the indicting visuals of college fraud.
Parents are rightfully being forced into this mindset: Buyer beware.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
What To Do On A College Visit
Here are 4 objectives of a first college visit. This will assume you will be impressed with the results of your visit, which will require a second visit with a different strategy. Parents should stay away from the admission office so the student can impress the admission people by your NOT being there.
1. The student - not the parent - should show up at the admissions office unannounced. You want to witness first-hand how flexible and accommodating admission people can be so that your gut instincts will help determine your first impressions. It'll also tell you how hard the college works on making good first impressions.
2. The student should ask for the name of the admissions person who handles your geographical area. This is your contact person for future phone conversations. Try to meet that person, introduce yourself, and get a business card. It would be wicked cool to trade business cards, so I would get one created with only your name, address, email address, and phone number. And no cutesy designs.
If the college doesn't assign admissions people on a geographical basis, ask for a business card from one of them and make that person your contact.
3. Either the parent or student should ask about the school’s retention rate: “What percentage of freshmen return after the freshman year?” When you get home, look on the school’s website to see if the figure matches what you heard. If the answer is a high retention rate, you want to ask a follow-up question: “Is it because of a proactive college policy to recruit a diverse student body that includes non-A students, or does the school focus on the A students who almost always account for a high retention rate?”
These 2 questions will give you a sense of the school’s orientation or philosophy of recruitment. If you’re not comfortable with the answer, move on to another campus.
4. Either the parent or student should ask a question that will be most difficult to answer, but as a parent you have a moral obligation to ask it. If the school is going to ask you to spend thousands of dollars, you absolutely want the answer to this question: “Because campus safety is in the news all the time, how and when can I get access to the campus police’s records of crime on this campus for the past 12 months?”
This could be a real curve ball question, and listen carefully to how your question is answered. If the answer sounds too practiced or too routine, such as, “Any incidents or crimes on campus are public record. You can call the local police to get that information.” If you hear this answer, you’re being lied to. The local police do not record all the campus’s incidents because the college wants to keep any real crimes quiet if they can. The most convenient reason to have a campus police force is to hide any potential public relations or image problems that could damage the school’s effort to recruit if disclosure of all crimes is made.
Unconfortable Fact: Colleges are a business, and image is everything.
Student tour directors are programmed to tell you what you want to hear. Which is why I detest planned tours. You get far better information from students sitting at a dining hall table. But if you take a tour with a young and enthusiastic robotic speaker, you need to ask questions they don’t hear; however, do not be surprised to hear other parents ask these 3 mind-boggling questions:
1. How’s the food here?
2. What are laundry facilities like?
3. Do students get enough sleep?
Colleges witness parents asking what they view as really dumb questions. These are the equivalent of asking, “Do you have running water?”
If you’re touring a college that requires $40,000 a year, you need to ask tough questions. If you don’t get the satisfactory answers WITH FOLLOW-UP research, perhaps another college will be glad to help you.
Comfortable Fact: There are over 4,000 colleges and universities out there, and you are in the driver’s seat to choose, not the colleges. They know it, but they won’t tell you that they know it.
It’s a game - a game you can win.
______________________
Get free videos on college admissions: http://www.freevideos4college.com/
1. The student - not the parent - should show up at the admissions office unannounced. You want to witness first-hand how flexible and accommodating admission people can be so that your gut instincts will help determine your first impressions. It'll also tell you how hard the college works on making good first impressions.
2. The student should ask for the name of the admissions person who handles your geographical area. This is your contact person for future phone conversations. Try to meet that person, introduce yourself, and get a business card. It would be wicked cool to trade business cards, so I would get one created with only your name, address, email address, and phone number. And no cutesy designs.
If the college doesn't assign admissions people on a geographical basis, ask for a business card from one of them and make that person your contact.
3. Either the parent or student should ask about the school’s retention rate: “What percentage of freshmen return after the freshman year?” When you get home, look on the school’s website to see if the figure matches what you heard. If the answer is a high retention rate, you want to ask a follow-up question: “Is it because of a proactive college policy to recruit a diverse student body that includes non-A students, or does the school focus on the A students who almost always account for a high retention rate?”
These 2 questions will give you a sense of the school’s orientation or philosophy of recruitment. If you’re not comfortable with the answer, move on to another campus.
4. Either the parent or student should ask a question that will be most difficult to answer, but as a parent you have a moral obligation to ask it. If the school is going to ask you to spend thousands of dollars, you absolutely want the answer to this question: “Because campus safety is in the news all the time, how and when can I get access to the campus police’s records of crime on this campus for the past 12 months?”
This could be a real curve ball question, and listen carefully to how your question is answered. If the answer sounds too practiced or too routine, such as, “Any incidents or crimes on campus are public record. You can call the local police to get that information.” If you hear this answer, you’re being lied to. The local police do not record all the campus’s incidents because the college wants to keep any real crimes quiet if they can. The most convenient reason to have a campus police force is to hide any potential public relations or image problems that could damage the school’s effort to recruit if disclosure of all crimes is made.
Unconfortable Fact: Colleges are a business, and image is everything.
Student tour directors are programmed to tell you what you want to hear. Which is why I detest planned tours. You get far better information from students sitting at a dining hall table. But if you take a tour with a young and enthusiastic robotic speaker, you need to ask questions they don’t hear; however, do not be surprised to hear other parents ask these 3 mind-boggling questions:
1. How’s the food here?
2. What are laundry facilities like?
3. Do students get enough sleep?
Colleges witness parents asking what they view as really dumb questions. These are the equivalent of asking, “Do you have running water?”
If you’re touring a college that requires $40,000 a year, you need to ask tough questions. If you don’t get the satisfactory answers WITH FOLLOW-UP research, perhaps another college will be glad to help you.
Comfortable Fact: There are over 4,000 colleges and universities out there, and you are in the driver’s seat to choose, not the colleges. They know it, but they won’t tell you that they know it.
It’s a game - a game you can win.
______________________
Get free videos on college admissions: http://www.freevideos4college.com/
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Why US News College Edition Is Useless
US News & World Report has just announced its forthcoming edition of America's Best Colleges, due out in August. Instead of running to the nearest newsstand to pick up your copy, I suggest you remain at the beach reading something that has a lot more credibility, like how cow flatulance is going to ruin the quality of the air we breathe unless we kill all the cows.
1. From the announcement: "College presidents, provosts, and admission deans were asked to nominate up to 10 colleges that are making improvements in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity, and facilities."
US News actually believes that these people have nothing else to do and all the objectivity worthy of a traffic court judge to offer objective assessments on their competition. Colleges are a business, and in business there is always pressure to beat the other guy. US News knows they have to beat Time and Newsweek, and they would NEVER answer a survey truthfully that asked them to judge fairly what Time and Newsweek are doing to get better readers, as in, "What are colleges doing to get better students?"
Dumb gets a better name when you see the next gem of incredulity.
2. "We believe strongly that the opinions that high schools counselors, who play a key role in the college admission process, have about the merits of the nation's leading colleges will provide a very valuable source of information for prospective students, their parents, and our readers."
The ratio of guidance counselors to students is at least 350-to-1, and this publication would have you believe what a great impact guidance counselors have with their unique ability to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of at least 350 students at one time. That's with teens who have no family problems at home, or no adolescent problems at school. That would mean the counselors are totally undistracted and totally focused on undistracted and hormornally-driven teens who all seek real guidance in getting into college.
I wonder how focused and undistracted the students and guidance counselors are at Gloucester High School....
It's no wonder that US News is totally irrelvant to high school students and parents who need real information on the college admission process. Enjoy your summer vacation without the distraction of something totally useless for choosing your college. You might start here.
1. From the announcement: "College presidents, provosts, and admission deans were asked to nominate up to 10 colleges that are making improvements in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity, and facilities."
US News actually believes that these people have nothing else to do and all the objectivity worthy of a traffic court judge to offer objective assessments on their competition. Colleges are a business, and in business there is always pressure to beat the other guy. US News knows they have to beat Time and Newsweek, and they would NEVER answer a survey truthfully that asked them to judge fairly what Time and Newsweek are doing to get better readers, as in, "What are colleges doing to get better students?"
Dumb gets a better name when you see the next gem of incredulity.
2. "We believe strongly that the opinions that high schools counselors, who play a key role in the college admission process, have about the merits of the nation's leading colleges will provide a very valuable source of information for prospective students, their parents, and our readers."
The ratio of guidance counselors to students is at least 350-to-1, and this publication would have you believe what a great impact guidance counselors have with their unique ability to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of at least 350 students at one time. That's with teens who have no family problems at home, or no adolescent problems at school. That would mean the counselors are totally undistracted and totally focused on undistracted and hormornally-driven teens who all seek real guidance in getting into college.
I wonder how focused and undistracted the students and guidance counselors are at Gloucester High School....
It's no wonder that US News is totally irrelvant to high school students and parents who need real information on the college admission process. Enjoy your summer vacation without the distraction of something totally useless for choosing your college. You might start here.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fun Approach To The Most Common Student Loan
Monday, June 9, 2008
2 reasons to apply for college work-study
http://www.freevideos4college.com Jobs on-campus for students and their advantages. Two big tips on college work-study. Free college admissions advice from college marketer, Paul Lloyd Hemphill
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