High school students face a lot of pressure when it comes to planning their future. There’s a persistent idea that if you don’t have your entire life mapped out by the end of 11th grade, you’re somehow doomed to a life of vagrancy or doing whatever job your parents pick out for you. If you’re a high school senior still uncertain about choosing a college major and setting career goals, a career Q&A that appeared in The New York Times earlier this week might help. It primarily offers advice to parents, but can also serve as a road map for high school students who are thinking about potential college majors and post-college careers.

Focus on Strengths and Interests

Rather than starting out by exploring careers and seeing which one you can fit into, begin by thinking about what you’re good at and what you like doing. Maybe you’re amazing at math and like to build things in your spare time, or maybe you get joy out of helping your classmates edit their English papers. Think about what you like doing and what environments you prefer to work in. Then begin looking for careers that play to those strengths. By focusing on both what you enjoy and what you excel at, you stand a much better chance of finding a major or a job you can enjoy doing.

Research Potential Careers Now

Don’t wait until your final year of college to decide whether or not you like the professions you found fascinating in high school. Look for opportunities to learn more about potential careers and the people who pursue them. Internships, volunteer experiences, and job shadowing can be great ways to do this. If you know any adults whose job sounds interesting, see if you can arrange to talk to them about it, observe them at work, or even help out after school. Consider reading books about careers you find interesting, as well, but be sure to balance glamorized or fictionalized accounts with real-world observations and experiences to avoid disappointment.

Career exploration and research don’t have to stop in high school, either. You don’t need to go to college with a career plan set in stone, nor do you need to wait for your department or advisor to take the lead on preparing you for a career or showing you what options exist. Feel free to choose classes that interest you and find time outside of school to continue to learn about what people with your degree can do and take advantage of opportunities to gain exposure to and experience in fields you find interesting.

Don’t Feel Forced

Finally, and most importantly, don’t worry if nothing comes to mind right away, or you’re still hearing nothing from your parents and teachers but “you’re good at math! Be an accountant!” It’s normal to be undecided for awhile or to change your mind later, and you likely have a lot more talents and interests than what you can recall immediately as a high school student. College students switch majors and adults switch careers and both groups do so successfully. So don’t feel like you have to make a lifelong commitment to the first idea that appeals to you or those around you. If you keep your mind open and have some strategies in place, you’ll eventually come across something that will stick.

Posted: under College Majors, High School, Internships.
Tags: career, College Majors, College Search, High School, Internships, service, volunteer

Comments (0) Oct 29 2009

Most high school seniors are now entering the last leg of their college search and selecting the colleges to which they plan to apply.  Many are already beginning the college application process, especially if they plan to meet rapidly approaching early decision or early action deadlines at their top choice colleges.  For students looking for a last bit of data with which to game the college admissions system, the National Association for College Admission Counseling has just released their annual State of College Admission report.  Included below are some highlights.

Competition

The report shows that, on the whole, while most colleges and universities aren’t terribly selective, they appear to be becoming slightly more selective on average as they deal with larger numbers of students applying for admission.  Between 2001 and 2007, the average acceptance rate at colleges and universities surveyed declined from 71.3 percent to 66.8 percent.  Colleges largely seem to be expanding enrollment to meet increasing applications, though, with the growth in applications (24 percent) only slightly outpacing the growth in enrollment (20 percent) between 2002 and 2006.

The number of applications colleges received continued to grow in 2008, with approximately three out of four colleges reporting an increase in applications over the previous year.  Students also appear to be applying to more colleges on the whole, with the number of students submitting 7 or more applications growing from 19 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008.  This growth in applications, especially multiple applications, has resulted in a decrease in yield (the percentage of admitted students who ultimately enroll) by about 4 percentage points.  However, a student’s odds of getting admitted off the wait list remain largely unchanged, hovering around 1 in 3 for 2008.

Selection Process

Also included in the survey were questions about the criteria college admission counselors considered most important when reviewing college applications.  The following criteria were given “considerable importance” (the highest level of importance in the survey) by college counselors:

• Grades in college prep classes (75% of counselors gave it considerable importance)
• Strength of high school curriculum (62%)
• Admission test scores, such as SAT and ACT (54%)
• Class rank (19%)

Criteria that received less importance in consideration were race, first-generation college student status, gender, alumni ties, high school attended, state or county of residence, and ability to pay.  Inside Higher Ed has an article with some nice charts comparing the level of importance given to all of the above criteria.

The Take Away

While there’s a lot of attention given to schools that are more selective, the majority of colleges admit most students who apply.  While more students are kicking the college application process into overdrive and applying to seven or more schools, these students still make up a minority of the college-going crowd.  Additionally, while applications are increasing everywhere, the pace at which early applications are increasing at early-action and early-decision schools seems to be slowing.

Overall, the admission process is only as frantic as you make it.  However, if you are applying to a lot of highly selective schools and the 1-in-3 chance of getting off the wait list if you wind up on it scares you, make sure you’re putting your all into your applications.  Get going on those application essays early and make sure to leave time for feedback and revision.  Also, you’ll want to approach your counselor for any letters of recommendation early–another item noted in the NACAC report was an increased workload for college counselors nationwide.

Posted: under College Applications, College Search.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, college prep, High School, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Oct 20 2009

For students beginning to pen those college application essays, some good news appeared in today’s Inside Higher Education: several competitive colleges are shortening length requirements for the essays they ask their applicants to submit.  Along with the request for briefer essay responses, colleges are increasingly looking for informal and honest responses from students, welcome news to anyone who doesn’t view formal writing as their greatest academic strength.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has replaced a long-form essay (500 words) with several shorter and less formal essay responses of 200 words or less.  The University of Pennsylvania has taken an opposite tack, combining two separate essay questions into one, but reducing the overall amount of writing students need to do for their application.  Other schools that use the Common Application are also increasingly favoring shorter essay responses in their supplemental materials.

Whether universities ask for long essays or short ones, their admission officials seem to want similar things from applicants.  Rather than a carefully crafted application meant to highlight an applicant’s scholastic and extracurricular abilities, along with his or her impeccable grammar and excellent writing style, colleges are asking to actually get to know the student behind the application.   A number of application questions adopt an informal tone to solicit a less stilted and more informative response, even using humor (or the closest thing to humor one can expect to find in college admissions).  Some application questions go so far as to plead with the student to answer honestly and reveal some of their personality.  This represents a change from what most students have been told to expect when it comes to college admissions, and it also represents a conscious move by admissions into a system that can less easily be gamed by students willing to invest in coaching.

After a months long college search filled with research, campus visits, and correspondence, students already have a lot invested in each application they complete.  The intensity of the college application process often prompts students to stifle creativity and rely too heavily on outside help, in some cases employing college admissions consultants or intensive writing coaches (perhaps even ghostwriters) to help craft an application that reflects less what the student brings to the table than what those around the student understand colleges to want.  By requiring more informal responses and fewer formal essays, colleges hope to circumvent this problem, while getting a better sense of whether each applicant is a fit for their institution, which is what the application process is supposed to determine in the first place.

Posted: under College Applications, College News, College Search, High School.
Tags: College Applications, college news, College Search, college tips, High School

Comments (0) Sep 23 2009

High school seniors in a school district in Texas will receive $1 million in scholarships after their district was named the winner of this year’s Broad Prize for Urban Education.  The award is offered annually by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and is designed to reward notable gains in student achievement and in narrowing the achievement gap for poor and minority students.  Aldine Independent School District, which serves the Houston area, won the top prize this year, after having previously been a runner up for the prize three times.

The Broad Foundation names five finalists each year and from them, chooses a winner for the $1 million Broad Prize.  This year, the other finalists were Broward County, Florida (a two-time finalist); Long Beach, California (a former winner and three-time finalist); Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas; and Gwinnet County Public Schools in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Aldine won the prize based on a number of factors.  The Broad Foundation cited the district’s gains in breaking “the predictive power of poverty,” as the district’s predominately low-income students outperformed peers of similar backgrounds on state standardized tests.  The achievement gap for both low-income and minority students has been closing at Aldine, with a 14-point reduction in the achievement gap for African-American middle schoolers in math over the last four years.  Other successes included Aldine’s recruitment of highly qualified teachers, engagement with students, and districtwide standardization of education practices and curriculum (many poor families move around within the district, so making what is taught in each grade more uniform across the district helps them keep from falling behind).

The scholarship awards will help further the success of graduates from Aldine, with $20,000 over four years going to students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities and up to $5,000 over two years going to students who enroll in community colleges.  Students at other finalist schools will also receive scholarship money:  each of the prize’s four finalist districts will receive $250,000 to award to their high school students.

Posted: under High School, High School News, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, High School, High School News, high school student scholarships, high school students, Scholarships, state news, Texas scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 18 2009

Scholarship opportunities abound for students who devote their time and energy to helping those around them.  One such opportunity is this week’s Scholarship of the Week. The Coca-Cola Scholars Program, one of the most generous and well-known community service scholarships, is awarded each year to high school students who have demonstrated academic achievement and community involvement.

Current high school seniors can win up to $20,000 towards their college education through this scholarship program.  By demonstrating the ways they’ve served their communities and made a positive impact on the world, students can earn one of 250 four-year achievement-based scholarships from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation.  Finalists will also receive a trip to Atlanta for personal interviews and an awards ceremony.

Prize:

50 National Scholars awards of $20,000

200 Regional Scholars awards of $10,000

Eligibility:

Current high school seniors (at the time of application) attending school in the United States with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.  Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents planning to pursue a degree at an accredited college or university in the United States.

Posted: under High School, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, community service, community service scholarships, High School, high school student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships

Comments (0) Aug 31 2009

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, College News, High School, High School News.
Tags: acceptance rates, applications, college admissions, High School, high school students, SAT

Comments (0) Aug 28 2009

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, College News, Tips.
Tags: Graduate School, High School, Minority Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, undergraduate students

Comments (0) Aug 27 2009

College rankings, such as those published this week by Princeton Review, always generate media buzz and factor heavily into students’ decisions (”Do I really want to go to one of the top 20 party schools?”).  However, rankings are not everything, nor is cost (even in a recession), and in your college search, you may find that many colleges offer things that can’t be easily quantified.

Rising high school seniors returning from their first round of campus visits and newly admitted undergraduate students who have gone through orientation and registration have likely experienced some of this.  In addition to offering good financial aid, academic programs, extracurricular activities, and dorm food, the best colleges will also entice students to imagine themselves living on campus and being a part of the culture there.  While prestige is certainly nice, your college experience will be enriched by feeling as though you are engaged with those around you and like you really belong to the campus community.

How colleges try to create this impression varies greatly.  I’ve seen tongue-in-cheek Facebook groups for several colleges, including my alma mater, declaring students’ decisions to enroll were based on receiving a free t-shirt, but gestures like this can make a difference.  The small liberal arts college my sister ultimately chose to attend offered a package of cookies from the local cookie factory to students who took a campus tour, which we happily munched on while driving home from an impressive campus visit.  The most interesting college freebie I’ve heard of comes from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, which sends each incoming freshman a box of Walla Walla onions.  That definitely makes a unique impression!

This has us wondering: have you received anything cool from a college you’ve visited or chosen to attend?  What unconventional things have caught your attention during the process of choosing a college?

Posted: under Back to School, College Culture, High School.
Tags: Back to School, choosing a college, college admissions, College Culture, College Search, college tips, High School, high school students

Comments (1) Jul 29 2009

Did you think your high school’s administrators were strict?  Chances are they’ve got nothing on Suzanne Lukas, the superintendent of Bonny Eagle High School in Maine.  During the school’s graduation ceremony, a student pointed to his friends and blew a kiss to his mom when his name was called.  Instead of shaking his hand and handing him his diploma, the superintendent told him to return to his seat empty handed.  He still hasn’t received his diploma.

The story’s getting national media coverage as the student’s family demands an apology and a diploma from the school’s superintendent.  While this story certainly appears to fall on the extreme end of things, it does serve as a good reminder to high school students to take school policy very seriously until you have that piece of paper in your hand and are literally out the door for the last time.

This has us curious, though.  For those of you who have already finished high school: did you run into any incidents at your high school graduation where students’ diplomas were withheld?  What antics did you or your classmates get away with as high school seniors and as participants in your school’s graduation ceremony?

Posted: under High School, High School News, Tips.
Tags: High School, High School News, high school students, Just for Fun

Comments (1) Jun 17 2009

Standardized tests area huge part of the college application process, and one of the biggest issues college-bound students and their families face is whether and how extensively to make use of ACT and SAT test preparation services. Standardized test prep can range from taking a practice test online to spending hours in intensive one-on-one tutoring sessions, with countless options in between.  Debate has raged for years over how much test preparation courses actually pay off, and a new study published by the National Association for College Admission Counseling represents perhaps the most ambitious effort to quantify these gains.

Through analysis of previous research, the NACAC study concludes that a consensus has emerged that score increases for students who use test prep services tend to be fairly small, often only 5 or 10 points on the critical reading section of the SAT and 10 or 20 points on the math section.  Evidence is still inconclusive as to ACT score gains, according to the study.  However, the study also surveyed college admissions offices to determine the impact of score gains and found that score increases on the upper end of this average range can have a significant affect on a student’s chances of being admitted to a top college.  Inside Higher Ed has a more detailed breakdown of the study and its implications.

With many high school juniors already signing up to take, or in some cases already awaiting scores from, the SAT and ACT, the release of this study is timely.  It is not a ringing endorsement of extensive and expensive test preparation programs, but does provide an argument for at least taking some time to familiarize yourself with the standardized test you will be taking before you show up for the test day.  If you’re competing for admission at your dream school or vying for an academic scholarship, those few extra points on your test score could make all the difference.

Posted: under College News, High School, High School News, Standardized Testing, Tips.
Tags: ACT, college admissions, college news, education study, High School, high school students, SAT, scholarship tips

Comments (0) May 20 2009