Colleges are NOT Combing through Your Social Media!

Advice for Applying to College When You Have a Learning Disability

Educational psychologist Jane McClure, who is widely respected for her work with students with learning disabilities, returns this month with advice on the college application process for students with a learning difference or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. For students with such special circumstances, making the right match with a college is particularly important. Read on for her excellent recommendations on the college search, visits, testing and making the right match.

Applying to college can seem complicated for all students, but if you have a learning disability or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, it can appear to be downright daunting. However, with careful planning and an understanding of how the process works for LD and ADHD students, it is manageable and should lead to a successful transition from high school to college.  Here are some tips for how to proceed:

Seniors: Treat the Application as Your First College Assignment

Seniors, this week we want to reiterate (SAT word!) something that we hope you will take to heart.

Take the college application itself seriously! Filling out the Common Application correctly or submitting a recommendation letter on time tells an admission officer a lot about you as a candidate. As well, the essay is your unique opportunity in the application to tell the college in your own words who you are -- think of it as standing in front of the admission committee and telling them who you are and what you want.

Treat the application as your first college assignment. It should represent your very best work. Give it plenty of time and your keenest attention. Do not underestimate what you are telling a college at every point in the process. They are paying attention.

The Essay that Starts with a Dialogue with the Police Or How a Parent can Make an Interesting Essay Ponderous

Psychologist and counselor Jeanette Spires joins us again this month to talk about the essay, why it's a good idea to avoid too much "help" from parents, and what it means to show a college what matters to you.

What feels most out of control in the college admission world?   The winner may be the essay process. There is plenty of research indicating that the rigor of high school classes and the grades earned by students are the best predictors of success. But essays do not lend themselves to statistical study. Years ago when I began as a college counselor, there was something of an honor code about essays for competitive colleges. Today, checking search engines leads you to sites offering to take care of that onerous task for you.  "Harvard writers!"  Now why would a high school student want an essay written by a college graduate?  Ding-dong! The admissions reader isn't stupid.

What is it "practical" to study in college? You'd be surprised!

For many parents and students, the most-lucrative path seems obvious: be practical. The public and private sectors are urging kids to abandon the liberal arts, and study fields where the job market is hot right now.

Dr. Peter Cappelli, George W. Taylor Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School and Professor of Education, has some very good, "practical" advice for students and their families in a recent Wall Street Journal article -- Why Focusing Too Narrowly in College Could Backfire.

Here's an excerpt:

Schools, in turn, are responding with new, specialized courses that promise to teach skills that students will need on the job. A degree in hospital financing? Casino management? Pharmaceutical marketing?

Little wonder that business majors outnumber liberal-arts majors in the U.S. by two-to-one, and the trend is for even more focused programs targeted to niches in the labor market.

Juniors: Objective Guidebooks and Websites for your College Search

Guidebooks and websites are great starting points for an initial college search. Objective guidebooks and websites are comprehensive catalogs that provide at-a-glance overviews for colleges and universities -- facts and figures on variables such as location, cost, test scores, academics, athletics and financial aid. The guidebooks are available in bookstores, libraries and the office of your high school college counselor. Websites are available to everyone free of charge.

Here are the objective guidebooks and websites we recommend:

Books

College HandbookThe College Board
Four Year CollegesPeterson’s
Four Year College Admissions Data: Index of Majors and Sports available fromWintergreen Orchard House

Websites

Dear College Counselor... The Year's Best Advice from our Counselors of the Month

October is the cruelest month for high school college counselors, besieged on all sides with seniors intent on applications and juniors beginning their college search and testing -- as well as issues with the Common App this year. So we give counselors a pass at this time of year. Instead of our Counselor of the Month feature, we bring you a round-up of best advice from the counselors who have graced our website with their guidance and wisdom in the past year. Read on to learn their best advice for students and parents, recommendations for financial aid, guidance on the college search and mistakes to avoid.  One of our personal favorite sound bites? Niles West High School's Dan Gin who advises students, "Have fun… Everything will work out in the end." Next year at this time, you'll all see how true this is. In the meantime, take advantage of this advice from the experts on the college counseling side of the desk.

The College Search

Laura Stewart, Ensworth School, Nashville, Tennessee

How do you encourage your students to broaden their college search and look beyond the four or five schools that they know best?

Seniors: Helpful Hints for the Essay and Putting You on Paper

Seniors, last week we offered you a writing exercise to help get you started on your essays -- though we hope that you already have made some headway! Here's what you need to remember as you continue: the real topic is you. Whatever the essay is about on the surface, colleges care what the essay says about you. If you're still looking for the words that put you onto paper, here are some helpful hints:

Put a microscope to your life. Take a look at the little things around you. Go to your room and look at what’s on the walls, what’s under the bed, the things you’ve kept since second grade, or what about the thing you threw away that you really miss now. Where in the house do you spend the most time? Look for inspiration right under your nose. Ask yourself some of these questions:

• How do I spend my time?

• What do I like to do?

• What do I think about most of the time?

• What are the things that truly matter to me?

• What is my family like? Do we have any interesting rituals about dinners or board games or TV shows?

• What would I say about myself if I had to omit any mention of my extracurricular activities?

• When I think about who I am or what I care about, is there a particular day, moment, or event that was important in shaping that?

• If I, like Tom Sawyer, had a chance to eavesdrop at my own funeral, what would people say about me?

Kasey Urquidez, University of Arizona

In its earliest days, University of Arizona had a bit of a Wild West aura. Students rode their horses to school, hitching them outside Old Main, the first building on campus. And a year after the first undergraduates arrived, the dean of students asked the Board of Regents to prohibit the use of firearms on campus.

In fact, Arizona was still a territory when the University of Arizona broke ground in 1885 on 40 acres of land with a $25,000 grant from the legislature.  The first students arrived in 1891 – 32 strong – along with six teachers. But only six were admitted to the freshmen class. The remaining 26 went to a specially established prep school since there were no high schools in the territory. Seventeen years later, the university students finally outnumbered those in the prep classes and more than 20 years later -- in 1912 -- Arizona became a state.

We'll be right back...

College Admission will be away for a few days and will return Tuesday, November 5th, with University of Arizona's Dean of Admissions Kasey Urquidez answering "Five Questions," a roundup of the year's best advice from our featured high school college counselors, a financial aid checklist for seniors and more! See you soon...

   

Pages