All’s Well That Begins Well

The hallways are beginning to fill with the buzz of seniors talking about their college choices. It’s hard to believe that just a year has passed since they started their college search – so many campuses have been visited, so many interviews have been had, and so many essays have been written! As the junior class embarks on their own college process, we offer these tips to get their college search off to a strong start: • The process of finding and applying to the colleges that are the best fits for you takes a considerable amount of time, thought, and energy. In the months ahead your ideas about the “right” college will evolve, your selection criteria will change, and what you most value in your college experience will shift. Give yourself the time and space to consider what is best for you. • Commit yourself to working on your college search as if it were an additional class. Set aside time each week for your “college process homework”. • Finding the right college involves many steps and even more details. To keep yourself from becoming overwhelmed, set up organizational systems early. Designate a place to store all your college materials. Set up folders in your email account specifically for college related correspondence. Create file folders to store hard copies of materials and ask for help from a parent or a friend if organization does not come easily or naturally to you. There is so much to do, you won’t want to waste time looking for materials. • Go into this process with an open mind. Don’t put too much weight on your preconceptions about a particular college or rely too much on what your peers tell you. Your unique impressions are what matter most. • Understand that this year-long process is about more than just “getting in”. It’s a process of self-discovery, values clarification, and taking responsibility for yourself. Be sure that you are at the center of the process, not your parents, or you will deny yourself the opportunity to learn these valuable lessons. • For most, going away to college marks the beginning of your real independence from your family. Just as leaving home is a big step in your life, so to is it for your parents. Understand that they are going through their own version of the college process and will need time to process just as you will.

Although the road ahead is a long one, getting off to a strong start can set the tone for a successful and rewarding college search experience. Get organized, set aside time to work on your college process, and take advantage of the opportunities to show your emerging independence and self-sufficiency that this process allows and your efforts will be well rewarded.

Is the Liberal Arts Degree Passe?

The cost of college coupled with the bleak employment outlook for college graduates has caused many a high school student to feel the pressure of declaring a major that will be “useful” at graduation. As a career coach for college students and graduates, I am often asked the question: is the liberal arts degree passé? Bill Gates recently argued that our country needs to reduce the money spent on liberal arts education as it doesn’t create jobs. Steve Jobs was quoted 2 days later saying that “at Apple, it’s technology married with liberal arts married with the humanities that makes our hearts sing”. In an attempt to settle the issue, a research team from Duke and Harvard surveyed over 650 senior executives. The findings made my heart sing: gaining a college degree made a big difference in terms of employment, but the major and the school selected were not major factors. Our society needs artists, musicians and psychologists as much as we need bio-medical engineers and computer programmers.

My advice to high school and college students remains unchanged: study what interests you the most. Excel in fields in which you have the most passion and ability. Your GPA will most likely be higher and you will enjoy your college experience.

Any field of study today requires that students engage at their school of choice to build a portfolio of marketable skills. Employers want proof that a job candidate can communicate, think analytically, solve problems and work well with others. A strong work ethic and the ability to self manage remain at the top of the list of attractive qualities especially in a lean job environment.

Consider the student who majors in accounting: their mastery of accountancy is a given upon graduation. The ability to communicate, work well with others and a strong work ethic will make them stand out.

College students can build these marketable skills by obtaining paid part time work, internships (sophomore and junior year are ideal), leadership and participation in student organizations as well as volunteer work. Just as students built their resumes in high school for college applications they now have to build their resumes for the job market throughout college. College is a time for exploration; many a college student changes major and career interests as they explore the options open to them.

Still undecided? Keep in mind that many jobs that are now seen as commonplace did not exist 5 years ago—social media, forensic accounting and video gaming to name a few. In fact, 40% of the jobs being done in the country did not exist 10 years ago. It’s virtually impossible to predict where the jobs will be in 5 years. It’s all the ability to learn and be flexible in this fast changing world.

Written by: Susan Kennedy, Founder of Career Treking

How to go to College... Without Going Broke

At this seminar you will learn tips on the financial aid process, which colleges have the most scholarship money to distribute, and how to maximize your free scholarship money. To register please contact Karen Grunow kgrunow@ahpnet.com or 978.261.1417.

One College Tour, Two Different Impressions

One of the “benefits”, or so I like to call them, of being the child of an educational consultant is that you “get” to tag along with your parent on college tours from the time you can remember. My daughter plays club soccer and, for years, whenever she had a tournament in some far away state, we would leave a day early so that I could take advantage of the opportunity to visit college campuses. And she, of course, got to come along. This has been our routine since she was in middle school. Sometimes she would beg off, choosing instead to pass her time reading in the admissions office while I toured. Other times she would join me, learning more than a 13 year old should probably know about co-ed dorms and frat parties.

Now she’s a junior and last week we took our first official tour of colleges specifically for her. Although I had, of course, anticipated this moment for years, looking at colleges through the eyes of an invested parent instead of a detached consultant, was an extra-ordinary experience for me, unexpected in many ways. I worried about how she would find her niche in this new community, I tried to imagine her taking a semester to study abroad, and I wondered how she would be shaped differently by her experience at each college.

But my most pleasing revelation was how ready my daughter is to go off to college. Not in that “I-can’t wait-to-get-away-from-my-parents-and-lead-my-own-life” way that many students feel, but in the way that she is ready to tackle the challenges of collegiate life and is excited by the many new opportunities that await her.

I smiled several times on these tours as I watched my daughter’s eyes light up at things that would have made no real impression on me. In one dining hall, after seeing a row of 20 cereal dispensers lined up like soldiers, she turned to me beaming and said, “This is a GREAT school!” She engaged tour-guides and asked questions about classes and student activities that would never have occurred to me. And, above all, she concluded that natural sunlight and bright, open spaces were of paramount importance to her.

Despite the fact that we used two different assessment rubrics, remarkably we came away with the very same sense of which schools were the best fit for her. We just had different reasons - mine more objective and focused on the classroom experience and hers more subjective and, apparently, weighing heavily the cold cereal options!

In the end of things, I know that my daughter is going to thrive in college. I saw it by how easily she moved around campus, how comfortably she spoke with students, coaches, and professors, and how happily she took in everything she saw. At this time next year, she’ll be ready to tackle head-on the challenges of collegiate life with poise confidence.

No, I’m not ready to see my child off to college, but she is ready to go, and therein lies the pain, and the pleasure, of parenthood.

How to choose classes for next year Over the next few weeks, students will be filling out their course selection forms for next year. Students should put careful thought into their choices, selecting those that will demonstrate their academic potential and willingness to challenge themselves while not creating a schedule that will leave no time for extra-curriculars - or sleep!

Allison will be attending NEACAC's "The Ins and Outs of Getting into College"

September 29, 2010 at Bryant University, Smithfield, RI  

Allison will be attending "The Ins and Outs of Getting into College"

October 5, 2010 at Roxbury Community College, Roxbury, MA

Where the head hunters hunt

Top 25 Recruiter Picks Everyone seems to like a list - so if you're interested in a career in business, accounting, engineering or the like, here's a list of the college campuses from which recruiters draw heavily.

Free Workshop-When College Doesn't Lead to Career

The job market for college grads is not projected to be a positive one for the classes of 2010 and 2011.  Find out what you can do NOW to enter the job market poised for success. Ideal for parents and recent grads.

In the end, college rankings may mean very little

Grading on the curves This is a humorous and mildly impertinent piece on how unhelpful college rankings can be. In this season where every few days another ranking list is published, it's good to keep perspective on what's important. No, it's not how available free parking is on campus - it's how well the college meets and matches the applicants talents and interests.

V.I.P. Applications

Drexel U. Brings On a New Wave of Applicants Over the next few months, select high school seniors will be recieving "V.I.P. Applications" from colleges encouraging them, through a simplified process, to apply to their institutions. Colleges send out V.I.P applications to those students whose SAT scores fall within a certain range as a way of increasing their applicant pool as well as intentionally raising the average SAT scores of their applicants. Both these moves make colleges appear more selective. The other advantage to the college is that it increases their chances of yielding students from this targeted pool.

However, V.I.P. applications have advantages for the student as well. Typically not requiring a long essay and waiving the application fee, the V.I.P. applications don't take as much time to fill out. As an acceptance is not a binding commitment, for some students having an acceptance in their back pocket early in the application cycle can be a real confidence booster that also takes away the concerns of finding those "safety schools."

Of course, students should not be lured into completing V.I.P. applications to schools in which they have absolutely no interest. But, if the invitation comes from a school that piques their interest, students should take advantage of this opportunity.

Top 10 things colleges are looking for in their applications

Every year, IECA (the Independent Educational Consultants Association) polls its member consultants to ask them what they have observed to be the trends in college admissions. After the data is collected, the list of The Top 10 Things Colleges are Looking for in Their Applications is published. Annually, without exception, the most important piece of an student's application is their transcript - how well have they done, and how challenging has their course load been. Further down the list fall standardized test scores and extracurricular activities. To read the entire list, go to http://www.iecaonline.com/PDF/IECA_CollegeTopTenList.pdf.

The Common App is here!

Yesterday, the Common Application became available on line! Accepted by the vast majority of colleges in the U.S., the common application has, for many students, streamlined the application process. However, this is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Many colleges will also ask for supplemental materials to be completed. these supplements can ask for as little additional information as a few pieces of data, or can be as involved as asking the applicant how they plan to contribute the richness of the diversity on campus. The Common Application website is also a useful tool for organizing the college process. It keeps track of all the schools the student is applying to, lists the application due dates, provides links to supplements, and keeps track of which applications are complete and which are still in progress.

We strongly enourage all of our clients who are rising seniors to strive to complete the Common Application before the start of the school year so that, come September, they can focus on their academic work, sports, SATS, and final college visits and interviews. The link is: www.commonapp.org. Login in at get started!

Medical school for poets

Getting in to med school without hard sciences Mount Sinai medical school accepts a small percentage of applicants who have not taken organic chemistry, physics, or the dreaded MCATS each year, finding that those who majored in the humanities as undergrads actually make more sensitive doctors. It's too soon to know if more medical schools will head in this direction, but given the wide range of skills and expertise demanded of doctors, it's nice to know that they're not all following the same path.

How to kick the tires of study abroad programs

7 Signs of Successful Study Abroad Programs No question - more colleges are offering more study abroad opportunities. Some colleges are even requiring it. However, if you're serious about taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity, be sure to spend some time in the Study Abroad Office asking these hard questions. The more you know, the more successful and rewarding your experience abroad will be.

College Visits

Allison visits New England College, Colby-Sawyer College, and Dartmouth College.

Colleges Invite Parents to Summer Orientations

Empty Nest 101 Maybe its the helicopter parent phenomenon, or maybe its that parents are more savvy consumers. Or perhaps it's because the price tag on a college education is soaring and parents want to know what their child is getting for their tuition dollars. But whatever the reason, college orientation programs designed for the parents of incoming freshman are gaining in popularity.