tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63181009084094352902024-03-13T14:31:50.356-05:00Kahn Educational Group's BlogComprehensive educational guidance and placement services
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-19100730370870809552014-03-11T09:18:00.003-05:002014-03-11T09:18:48.841-05:00What Changes to the SAT Mean for Your Students<div style="background-color: white; color: #4c4c4c; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Lato, corbel, Calibri, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he Internet is abuzz this week with talk of the College Board’s announcement that big changes are coming to the SAT in 2016. David Coleman, president of the College Board, presented an overview of the new test at <a href="http://sxswedu.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="SXSWedu">SXSWedu</a> in Austin this week, and more details will be revealed in mid-April.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Key changes to the SAT</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to the <a href="https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat?affiliateId=cbhomehero&bannerId=rsat1-030514slot1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="College Board">College Board</a>, “The redesigned SAT will focus on the knowledge and skills that current research shows are most essential for college and career readiness and success.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most significant changes to the test is the return to a 400- to 1600-point scale. The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math sections will each be scored on a 200- to 800-point scale, and the essay, which was added in 2005, will be optional and scored separately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are an additional eight key changes that students can expect on the revamped SAT:</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Relevant words in context. </strong>The new SAT will focus on what the College Board refers to as “relevant words, the meanings of which depend on how they’re used.” Students will be tested on words that they will use in college and in their future careers—not just on the SAT.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Command of evidence. </strong>The Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section will ask students to “demonstrate their ability to interpret, synthesize, and use evidence found in a wide range of sources.” This change is aimed at reflecting the type of work required in college and the workplace.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Essay analyzing a source.</strong> The Essay section will undergo a significant overhaul, with students now being asked to read a passage, explain how the author builds his or her argument, and back up their assertions with evidence from the passage. The prompt will be shared ahead of time and will be optional, though the College Board notes that some school districts and <nobr><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.collegexpress.com/counselors-and-parents/college-counselors/blog/what-changes-sat-mean-your-students/?utm_source=In-House&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Wire_Vol29_031014#" id="FALINK_2_0_1" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-width: 0px 0px 1px !important; color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; display: inline !important; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">colleges</a></nobr> will require it.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Math focused on three key areas.</strong> The Math section will focus on Problem Solving and Data Analysis, the Heart of Algebra, and Passport to Advanced Math. According to the College Board, “Current research shows that these areas most contribute to readiness for college and<nobr><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.collegexpress.com/counselors-and-parents/college-counselors/blog/what-changes-sat-mean-your-students/?utm_source=In-House&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Wire_Vol29_031014#" id="FALINK_1_0_0" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-width: 0px 0px 1px !important; color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; display: inline !important; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">career training</a></nobr>.”</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Problems grounded in real-world contexts. </strong>The new SAT will be aimed at engaging students with questions grounded in the real world and related to college course work and career demands. This means questions throughout the test will include references to things like the humanities, history, social science, and career scenarios.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Analysis in science and social studies.</strong> Test takers will be asked to <nobr><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.collegexpress.com/counselors-and-parents/college-counselors/blog/what-changes-sat-mean-your-students/?utm_source=In-House&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Wire_Vol29_031014#" id="FALINK_3_0_2" style="background-color: transparent !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-width: 0px 0px 1px !important; color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; display: inline !important; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">apply</a></nobr>their skills to answer questions relating to history, science, and social studies. “Questions will require them to read and comprehend texts, revise texts to be consistent with data presented in graphs, synthesize information presented through texts and graphics, and solve problems based in science and social science.”</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Founding Documents and Great Global Conversation.</strong> All students taking the SAT will encounter an excerpt from one of America’s founding documents (such as the Declaration of Independence) or a text from the ongoing Great Global Conversation about freedom, justice, and human dignity.</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No penalty for wrong answers.</strong> The new SAT will feature “rights-only scoring,” meaning students will not be penalized for incorrect answers.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why these changes are being made<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/05/new-sat-test_n_4899565.html?utm_hp_ref=education" style="background-color: transparent; color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Huffington Post - SAT Changes">SXSWedu speech</a>, David Coleman explained the reasoning behind these sweeping changes. In addition to helping students prepare for the real world, the new test will also attempt to level the playing field for all test takers. Here are a few highlights from his speech:</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We need to get rid of the sense of mystery and dismantle the advantages that people perceive in using costly test preparation.”</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It is time to admit that the SAT and ACT have become disconnected from the work of our high schools.”</span></li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“What this country needs is not more tests, but more opportunities. It is time for the College Board to move from measuring to acting.”</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Toward that end, the College Board will also be enacting a few changes that may help underprivileged test takers. Students who take the SAT and are below a certain income threshold will get four waivers for their college application fees, and the College Board is also working with <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Khan Academy">Khan Academy</a>, a nonprofit educational website, to create free test prep videos for students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What these changes mean for your students</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new test won’t be rolled out until the spring of 2016, and until then, it’s difficult to predict exactly how these changes will affect test takers. But, as Coleman stated, one of the main goals of the new test is to help students who don’t have access to test prep resources beyond what is available to them in school. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the test has been “dumbed down” or that it will be easier, per se, but Coleman did suggest that things like flash cards will become irrelevant as the focus of the test becomes more practical and real-world-focused.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How colleges and universities will react to the new test also remains to be seen. The weight placed on the SAT and ACT in the college admission process has always varied from school to school. But, as a recent <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/02/18/277059528/college-applicants-sweat-the-sats-perhaps-they-shouldn-t" style="background-color: transparent; color: #336699; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NPR story</a> reported, at schools where standardized tests are optional, studies have found that there is “virtually no difference in grades and graduation rates between test ‘submitters’ and ‘nonsubmitters’” and that “college graduation rates for ‘nonsubmitters’ were just 0.6 percent lower than those students who submitted their test scores.” Standardized tests are optional at around 800 colleges and universities (about a quarter of the schools in the country). If more begin to follow suit, then who knows? SAT stress may become a thing of the past altogether.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Full details on the new SAT will be released on April 16, 2014.</span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you think of the College Board’s changes to the SAT? What are the pros and cons, and how do you think they will affect your students?</span></strong></div>
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Written by Stephanie Farah</div>
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Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/" style="color: #4f48a0; text-decoration: none;">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-80873530839101995072014-02-20T17:20:00.002-06:002014-02-20T17:20:24.851-06:00The Most Interesting Places To Go To College<div style="text-align: center;">
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Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-850354489277272062013-12-18T10:31:00.001-06:002013-12-18T10:36:07.616-06:00College Admissions: What Your PSAT Scores Really Mean<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PSAT scores will arrive for anxious high school students
this week. These scores mark the time when sophomores and juniors can begin to
target colleges that are in range. Realistically, there are only 5</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">months left for juniors to visit colleges before campuses
empty out in the first week of May. In the fall, early action dates begin a few
weeks after school opens, and many colleges are filling 30-70% of their seats
in that round. So, starting your visits in junior year is critical. If your
school is slow about handing out scores, you may want to go online and get
them. Then, how do you interpret your PSAT scores and use them to launch your
college search?Estimating SAT scores <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you add a zero to end of each PSAT score, that would be
your SAT score. Your percentiles indicate how well you did vs. other students
in your grade taking the PSAT. You are not measured against 11th graders, if
you are in 10th grade. If you scored in the 85th percentile, you did better
than 84 out of 100 students in your grade nationally. Because of additional
math coursework, you will most likely see your math score increase from your
sophomore to junior PSAT. If you elect to do test prep, you will probably see a
bigger increase. Most students who prep will go up 60-180 total points (across
all 3 sections) from the junior PSAT to the SAT. Many families believe their
child will jump 300 points or more with test prep. That kind of an increase is
rare, and choosing colleges according to that hope will get you into trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Low scores should NOT be ignored</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For students who are getting A's or B's in school, PSAT
scores below 40 can often be an indicator of an undiagnosed learning disability
(LD) or anxiety during testing. Talk to a neuro-psychologist or college
counselor about options for educational testing. If you are diagnosed with dyslexia, ADD, ADHD
or other learning differences, you may qualify for extended time on test day.
It is best to do evaluations by 10th grade since the standards for extended SAT
time have been getting more stringent. Those with scores in the 40s-50s who are
aiming for a competitive college should begin test prep early and be very
diligent about studying each week on their own. Students should also consider
taking the ACT. It can often be a better test for students who are high
achievers in school or who don't do well with vocabulary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: purple;">What colleges care about</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Colleges DO NOT see your PSAT scores. PSAT scores are
intended as practice for the SAT and allow you to determine areas where you may
need help. The only situation in which they may affect your admission is if you
are a National Merit Semi-Finalist or Winner. Only juniors are considered for
this award, and the cutoff varies, but you usually have to have a total score
of 210 or better. If you are a finalist, it is viewed as a very prestigious
honor by colleges and there may be scholarship money to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: purple;">Test Prep is a MUST</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most students should begin SAT prep in the fall or winter of
their junior year, and spend 10-12 weeks studying before they take the test.
However, some students with lower scores or those aiming for highly competitive
colleges, may want to begin prep as early as sophomore year. The type of study
program you select depends on your budget and needs. Some high school based programs
are free, but many are relatively weak. It depends on the curriculum and
instructor. The major test prep companies like Kaplan and Princeton Review do a
very good job of screening teachers and training them, but the group courses
will not usually help you with content review (geometry, algebra, grammar).
They typically focus on test taking strategy. A well-trained and qualified
private SAT tutor will teach strategy and address individual needs to learn the
relevant math, vocabulary and writing skills-but the cost is a bit higher. For
families who cannot afford courses or tutors, there are terrific SAT prep books
on the market, and some highly motivated students can achieve top scores with
disciplined self-study.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>SAT Alternatives</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have tried the SAT and ACT, done test prep, and still
can't achieve competitive scores-then it is time to consider "Test
Optional" colleges. Today, there are more than 800 in the U.S., and they
include prestigious liberal arts colleges like Middlebury, Bowdoin and Bates.
Catholic colleges are also jumping on the bandwagon, including Providence
College, St. Michael's and De Paul. What you won't find on the list are the
primary campuses of state universities or the Ivy League.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Written by Cristiana Quinn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></span></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-54063124698160365782013-10-16T17:04:00.003-05:002013-10-16T17:07:21.154-05:00Online Application Woes Make Students Anxious and Put Colleges Behind Schedule<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With early admission deadlines looming for hundreds of thousands of students, the new version of the online Common Application shared by more than 500 colleges and universities has been plagued by numerous malfunctions, alarming students and parents and putting admissions offices weeks behind schedule.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It’s been a nightmare,” Jason C. Locke, associate vice provost for enrollment at Cornell University. “I’ve been a supporter of the Common App, but in this case, they’ve really fallen down.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Colleges around the country have posted notices on their admissions Web sites, warning of potential problems in processing applications. Some Minnesota colleges have created an optional partial application. <span style="line-height: 1.467em;">The Georgia Institute of Technology has one of the earliest fall application deadlines, Oct. 15, but it was not able to start reviewing applications on a large scale until last week and has postponed the deadline for some supporting paperwork until Nov. 1/</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problems have sown worry among students like Lily Geiger, a 12th grader at the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan, increasing the stress level in an already stressful experience. When she entered her essays into the application, what appeared on her computer screen was a garbled mess. Some words were mashed together; others were split in two by random spaces; there were swaths of blank space where text should have been; paragraph indentations were missing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I was completely freaked out,” she said. “I spent the whole weekend trying to fix it, and I kept thinking, what if I can’t fix everything by the deadline, or what if I missed something?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the nonprofit company, also called the Common Application, that creates the form, it has been a summer and fall of frantic repair work, cataloged on its Web site, and frequent mea culpas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In an interview, Rob Killion, the executive director, readily acknowledged a wide range of failings. But he said that they were being fixed and that the number of applications was up more than 20 percent from last year, indicating that students were successfully navigating the system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Problems became evident as soon as the application was released in August, including some confusing wording that was later changed. Students who thought they had finished the application found that it was incomplete because questions had been added after its release. As changes were made, some who had started their applications early found themselves locked out of the system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A function that allows students to preview applications and print them sometimes just shows blank pages — a problem that may be linked to which Web browsers they use. And, as Ms. Geiger discovered, the system often does not properly format essays that are copied and pasted from another program, like Microsoft Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When a user pays an application fee with a credit card, the system produces a “signature page,” where the card holder’s name must be typed to confirm the charge. But that page can take a day or more to show up, leading some users to try to pay multiple times. Worse yet, guidance and admissions counselors say that those who do not immediately see the signature page may be unaware of its existence and may never check back — in other words, they may think they have submitted college applications when they have not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“This software needed beta testing and needed vetting, and it probably needed to wait a year,” said Nancy Griesemer, a college admissions consultant based in Fairfax, Va.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hundreds of colleges use software from the Common Application that automatically delivers a daily batch of new applications directly to their computers. That software is usually delivered in mid-September, but this year’s version arrived at the start of October. Many colleges are still testing it and have not yet put it to use, and most of those schools have Nov. 1 or Nov. 15 early admission deadlines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Common Application also had trouble meshing with software called Naviance, which high schools use to send documents like transcripts, recommendations and early-admission agreements to colleges. Until this month, colleges could not view any of that material on their computers, and some forms are still not accessible to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Common Application, which began in the 1970s, allows a student to fill out a single application for multiple colleges. The number of schools accepting it has more than doubled in the last decade and includes nearly all of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. The company now processes well over one million applications yearly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year’s application was an unusually big piece of engineering — the first in six years to be designed and built from scratch, in ways that were supposed to make it simpler to use, with a newly standardized supplemental form that can be adapted to each college.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The recent problems mean that college admission offices will have to work overtime to go through applications, and some plan to take on temporary extra staff. But they say they still intend to send out acceptance and rejection notices on time in mid-December.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the kinks being worked out, they expect the larger regular round of applications — usually submitted by January deadlines, with replies sent in the spring — to go more smoothly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Any time you roll something out, there’s going to be glitches, but this is the worst year by far,” said Katy Murphy, the president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the director of college counseling at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, Calif.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We’re still in the first half of October, so we’re trying to keep everyone calm,” she said. “I think it will all be fixed by Nov. 1, but if it’s not, we’re in a world of hurt.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Written by Richard Perez-Pena</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></span></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-16608017616551655822013-08-01T10:15:00.000-05:002013-10-16T17:00:40.217-05:004 Reasons to Start Your College Applications Now<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em>For many rising seniors, college still seems far away—but it isn’t. Deadlines for early action and early decision arrive just a few weeks after students return to school in the fall. That means that summer is the best time to do applications and avoid stress later. Still not convinced? Here are some reasons to think again.</em></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">1. Early Action and Early Decision deadlines fall in November at most schools, but some have now moved to October</span></strong></div>
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The reality is that many colleges are filling 25-75% of their freshman class during early admissions. So, the early bird catches the worm. Also, senior year is fraught with AP classes, campus visits, college interviews, sports, extra-curricular activities and social engagements. The last thing you need to do is add applications to that stressful schedule in September/October. A few hours a week this summer will pay off in spades next year.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">2. There isn’t just one app to fill out</span></strong></div>
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While the Common Application is accepted at over 400 colleges, there are still supplements and supplemental essays. And remember that many colleges, particularly state universities, are not on the Common App. Don’t underestimate the amount of hours that will be required to fill out documents and write all the essays.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">3. Polish makes a difference</span></strong></div>
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The biggest complaint admissions officers have about applications is that they often display signs of being rushed. Students make grammar and spelling mistakes, they fail to choose essay topics that showcase their unique attributes, and they don’t demonstrate why they will be an asset to the college. Great essays require at least 5 revisions, and it is important that you showcase all your activities and awards in a strategic manner on your applications. College applications and essays are some of the most important pieces you will ever author—treat them that way!</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">4. Supplements should not be generic</span></strong></div>
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When a college asks you to write extra essays just for them, they do it for a reason. They are assessing your critical thinking, your compatibility with the school, and your interest level. Too many admissions officers at Boston University cringe each year when they receive an essay that begins with “The reason I want to go to Boston College is…..”. Writing a supplemental essay is like answering the question “Why did you ask me to the prom?” No one wants to hear that it’s because you have blonde hair, are nice, and were available. You should have very specific points in your supplemental essays that reflect the individuality of that school, why you are a good match, and show that you have done your homework.</div>
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Written by Cristiana Quinn</div>
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Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-9738778847908668752011-06-09T16:50:00.000-05:002011-06-09T16:50:19.314-05:00Do We Need to Ditch High-Stakes Testing to Compete with China?<div style="text-align: justify;"> At a time when international test results—like last year's PISA data—seem to indicate that American students are falling behind their Chinese counterparts, we're feeling the pressure to adopt a stereotypically Chinese method of educating kids: lots of rote memorization of facts and hardcore standardized testing. But in a recent interview with <em>Education News</em>, Minxuan Zhang, the Director-General of the Center for International Education Studies, Ministry of Education, China, and National Project Manager of PISA, says that the Chinese vision of education no longer includes those kinds of rigid practices. Instead, China's moving away from rote learning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Zhang acknowledges that there's a long history of high-stakes exams in China's education system. "Old China" had a tradition of selecting the best students depending on test results, and 5,000 years of culture isn't exactly going to disappear overnight. But she calls testing "an oversimplified way to check educational results" and she doesn't believe emphasizing them improves education because tests come at the end of the school experience. She says,</div><blockquote> "If we want to build a good system, we cannot only rely on testing at the end of learning. Testing implies that the student has finished the educational system. The most important thing is not just to see the testing results, but to pay close attention to the educational process. The process of education is much more important than the testing."</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"> That's remarkably different from the direction the United States is heading. We're focused on using test results to evaluate students, schools, and teachers alike. And, to do better on tests, we've spent the time since No Child Left Behind was enacted narrowing our educational focus to concentrate on reading and math. But, says Zhang, that's the opposite of China's current thinking since</div><blockquote> "Education is not just about knowledge. It is also the process of socialization of the individual. There are other important elements such as social responsibility, personal potential in arts and the fine arts, how a student handles himself in relationships with other people, how students handle their work. Those kinds of skills and capacities are very important, sometimes even more important than subject testing."</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"> Interestingly, Zhang also shared that Chinese education officials are thinking about how they can "lessen the learning burden" on students. In order to counter the emotional stress students feel, they're trying to get schools to send the message that high school shouldn't be the most important time in a student's life. Of course, this doesn't mean that grades aren't important, but instead of burning students out in a high-stakes pressure cooker environment, China's looking for ways to "keep student's interest in learning" throughout their lifetimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We want to be economically competitive with the Chinese, but while they're actually pursuing new innovations in education, why are we moving toward the "Old China" methods they're discarding?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Written by Liz Dwyer for <a href="http://www.good.is/post/do-we-need-to-ditch-high-stakes-testing-to-compete-with-china/?utm_content=headline&utm_medium=hp_carousel&utm_source=slide_3">Good Education</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-89831031718679897272011-04-26T11:52:00.000-05:002013-12-18T09:52:12.029-06:0010 Most Historic College Campuses in the World<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although colleges and universities more than understandably evolved over the centuries, all of them owe a debt of gratitude to the medieval institutions who started it all. Since 1088, the world of higher education has expanded magnanimously to all corners of the globe, encompassing a far more diverse range of programs, faculty, staff and students. The following have paid witness to this drastic change more than any others, laying the rocksteady foundation for today's institutions. But even beyond that, they have all played an active role in shaping world history itself, regardless of their contributions' sizes.</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Bologna</span>:</b> This lauded institution has been in continuous operation since 1088, give or take a few years. For the longest time, they only offered doctoral degrees, though in recent times they expanded their offerings. Today, around 100,000 students spread across 23 different faculties at 8 different branches and schools — including an international location in Buenos Aires. Considering its Catholic roots, it probably comes as little surprise that University of Bologna receives accolades for its civil and canon law programs. Throughout its incredible history, the school has graduated such diverse cultural luminaries as Dante Alighieri, Nicolaus Copernicus, Albrecht D–rer and Umberto Eco.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Oxford</span>:</b> As with many medieval universities, the exact date of founding remains largely unknown, though it's well known that teaching was going on in 1096. Although the oldest English-speaking school in the world (pictured), much of University of Oxford's wealthy intellectual legacy stems from massive influxes of Continental students and ideologies. Catholic orders, Renaissance beliefs and figures and scholars fleeing Nazism and Communism have all, at one time or another, flocked to this academic safe haven and eventually left their permanent mark. The year 1878 saw the landmark addition of the first women's college, with a second following a year later — and three more came shortly thereafter. Even today, it remains one of the world's most eclectic, prestigious and influential universities thanks to this diverse heritage.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Salamanca</span>:</b> Spain's oldest university started offering classes around 1130, but never received a papal charter until 1218 and a royal charter from King Alfonso X until 1254. By 1255, it was able to refer to itself as a university thanks to the confirmation of Pope Alexander IV. Because of its age, this institution participated in its fair share of notable historical events, both amazing and absolutely terrible. For one, many of its graduates and faculty assisted the government in its unjust expulsion and torturing of innocent Jews. Geographers at the University of Salamanca also played an integral role in assisting Christoffa Corombo on his historic voyage attempting to discover a quicker trade route towards the West Indies. After his accidental landing in the Americas, the very same school that backed his journey would go on to debate the ethical and economic impact of interacting with its indigenous peoples.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Modena</span>:</b> University of Modena actually spreads itself across the eponymous city as well as Reggio Emilia, with eight faculties comprising the former and four in the latter. The original campus was founded in 1175 by former University of Bologna educator Pillio of Medicina, but its original medieval structure fizzled out entirely by 1338. At that point, it ceased offering degrees and focused more on holding classes until funding forced the 1590 suspension. However, it revived itself in Modena around 1680 and eventually picked up its charter five years later. Today, both campuses host a total of around 20,000 students. Anyone visiting Modena needs to head over to the school and explore the Orto Botanico dell'Universit– di Modena e Reggio Emilia. This free botanical garden began as a small plot for medicinal plants, grew into an herbarium and subsequently expanded to its lush form locals and tourists currently enjoy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Vicenza</span>:</b> Many academics, unfortunately, consider the University of Vicenza one of the least significant surviving medieval schools. In spite of this mindset, however, it still deserves recognition for its age and endurance. It was founded in 1204 and received recognition as a stadium generale at some point in the 13th Century.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Cambridge</span>:</b> The second-oldest stadium generale in the English-speaking world sprouted thanks to the first. Because of myriad disputes with faculty and townspeople alike, a small throng of Oxford intellectuals went on to found the competing university in 1209. Today, it is considered amongst the best institutes of higher learning on the planet, but it certainly took an interesting historical path to get here. On the orders of King Henry XIII, Cambridge disbanded its canon law program and dissolved any and all associations with Catholicism. As a result, classes shifted towards math, science, the classics and Bible — offerings which eventually inspired some of the most influential politicians, scientists, mathematicians, writers and thinkers of all time. Without Cambridge, there would be no laws of motion, atom splitting, unified electromagnetism, theory of evolution and natural selection, Turing machines or quantum mechanics. Nor would the electron, hydrogen or structure of DNA been discovered. Among a staggering heap of other accomplishments, of course.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Padua</span>:</b> A 1222 split from the University of Bologna resulted in the creation of University of Padua, whose new students and faculty desired more flexibility and freedom. At first, it only focused on providing degrees in law and theology, though it expanded its offerings to include astronomy, rhetoric, medicine, dialectic, philosophy, rhetoric, grammar and philosophy by 1399. During and shortly after the Renaissance, University of Padua enjoyed recognition as one of the world's intellectual and research powerhouses, likely due to its closer affiliation with the Venetian government than the Catholic Church. Even now, the 65,000-student institution is oftentimes considered amongst the greatest institutes of higher learning in Italy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Naples Federico II</span>:</b> Unlike the other historical universities listed here, this one never affiliated itself with any religious institution. Rather, it received its initial patronage from Emperor Frederico II in 1224, making it the oldest state school in the world. Curiously enough, however, its most famous alum made a name for himself as one of the foremost Catholic theologians. St. Thomas Aquinas likely formed many of his influential religious theories based on his exposure to classical philosophy, letters and political science at University of Naples Federico II.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Siena</span>:</b> Established in 1240, University of Siena funded itself on taxes levied upon individuals and families renting living quarters to citizens. By 1252, Pope Innocent IV was declaring that teachers and students alike would be exempt from taxes, forced labor, night watchman duty and military service — particularly those involved with Latin, medicine and the natural sciences. Following a giant influx of University of Bologna faculty and students angered with a young man's death sentence, the institution in Siena swelled significantly, even enjoying stadium generale status. While it may not have played a huge role in Italian history, the school did witness major power switches in the region and hosted many extremely vocal demonstrations against Risorgimento.</li>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">University of Coimbra</span>:</b> Portugal's oldest university is a public school founded in 1290 following the approval of King Dinis. It actually started out in Lisbon before the 1308 move to Coimbra — a result of tensions with Pope Nicholas IV, the citizenry and the students. The core curriculum originally offered classes in the arts, canon law, law and medicine, which remained intact during the transition. In 1338, King Alfonso IV brought the school back to Lisbon, where it stayed until 1537 when King Jo–o III sent it to Coimbra permanently.</div>
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From <a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/02/22/10-most-historic-college-campuses-in-the-world/">OnlineCollege.org</a><br />
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Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-53044615514635588112011-04-21T10:00:00.000-05:002011-04-21T10:00:57.014-05:00More Non-Californians are Offered Freshman Slots at UC Schools<h2 style="color: #073763; font-weight: normal; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Applicants from other states or countries made up 18.1% of the 72,432 students admitted to at least one of the nine undergraduate University of California campuses, up from 14% last year and 11.6% in 2009, data show.</span></b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh65ciafqIcMU3L2OF2ycbk7ayWo7FMTmVTe6iVPutU5Am4feZT9CZgtw6iFs9PY5sMh2FbTbULg3jAIzkRldZXj_nhWh1RvSw7u8-ZArKjyPxMU_yQLWxjeS52TyhAHJELoCdzBUX0qtG/s1600/20090413-ucla-campus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh65ciafqIcMU3L2OF2ycbk7ayWo7FMTmVTe6iVPutU5Am4feZT9CZgtw6iFs9PY5sMh2FbTbULg3jAIzkRldZXj_nhWh1RvSw7u8-ZArKjyPxMU_yQLWxjeS52TyhAHJELoCdzBUX0qtG/s400/20090413-ucla-campus.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><h2 style="color: #990000; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The University of California's recent decision to boost its enrollment of out-of-state students for the extra tuition they pay was evident in the higher number of non-Californians offered freshman admission for the fall, according to data released Monday.<br />
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Applicants from other states or countries made up 18.1% of the 72,432 students admitted to at least one of the nine undergraduate UC campuses, up from 14% last year and 11.6% in 2009, the figures show. The trend was most dramatic at UC Berkeley and UCLA, where 31.2% and 29.9% of freshman admission offers went to non-Californians.<br />
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But fewer out-of-state than in-state students typically accept their UC offers. Officials said they expect the systemwide enrollment of non-California freshmen this fall to end up below 10%, the maximum set by the UC regents in December when they moved to boost the proportion of such students from 6% now. Out-of-state students pay $23,000 more annually than in-state students, money the cash-strapped system says it needs.<br />
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Overall, 68.2% of all the 106,186 applicants to UC were accepted by at least one of the campuses to which they applied, a slight increase over the 68% of the year before. However, more students than ever were denied admissions at their first- and second-choice campuses.<br />
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"Because of these dire financial circumstances, our campuses have had to make very difficult decisions to turn away highly qualified students who they know would thrive and contribute greatly to the life of their campuses," said Pamela Burnett, UC's interim director of undergraduate admissions.<br />
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More than 12,700 students turned away at other UC campuses will be offered a spot at the university's 5-year-old Merced campus, even though they did not apply there. That way, Burnett said, UC will honor the goal of the state's master plan for higher education, which calls on the university to admit all academically eligible applicants, generally in the top 12.5% of high school graduates based on grades and test scores.<br />
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Combined with enrollment cutbacks at Cal State campuses and community colleges, UC's push to enroll more out-of-state students threatens to diminish opportunities for Californians, according to William Tierney, director of USC's Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.<br />
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"We are moving in the opposite direction of where we need to go," Tierney said. "We need to be increasing capacity and participation in higher education, and the public sector is decreasing that. I understand why they are doing it, but it's not in the best interest of the state."<br />
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UC officials said they expect enrollment of California freshmen to stay nearly the same in fall 2011 as it was last year, about 32,600. They also emphasized that public universities in Michigan, Virginia and Colorado enroll more than 30% of their undergraduates from beyond their borders, triple UC's goal.<br />
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UCLA and UC Berkeley once again were the most selective UC campuses. UCLA accepted 25.3% of its applicants and UC Berkeley, 25.5%. Next were UC San Diego, with 34.1%; UC Irvine, 45.5%; UC Santa Barbara, 45.7%; UC Davis, 46%; UC Riverside, 62.2%; UC Santa Cruz, 67.9%; and UC Merced, 78%.<br />
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Admitted students have until May 1 to decide whether to attend, and some students may later switch campuses if they are offered admission from waiting lists. About 16,500 UC applicants were wait-listed for at least one campus this year, up from 10,700 in 2010, when the university first used the lists.<br />
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Among ethnic groups, Asian Americans continued to make up the largest share of UC admission offers, with 36%, up from 35.4% last year. White students remained at 30.6%, and Latinos increased to 26%, up from 23.3%. African Americans made up 4.1% of the accepted pool, compared with 4.2% last year.</span></h2><h2 style="color: #990000; text-align: justify;"></h2><h2 style="color: #990000; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Written by </span><span style="color: black; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> Larry Gordon, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-admit-20110419,0,2915587.story">Los Angeles Times</a></span></h2><h2 style="color: #990000; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h2>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-15969509946191498062011-04-14T11:47:00.000-05:002013-12-18T09:53:11.886-06:00Admission to College, With Catch: Year’s Wait<div class="articleBody">
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For as long as there have been selective colleges, the spring ritual has been the same: Some applicants get a warm note of acceptance, and the rest get a curt rejection.</div>
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Now, as colleges are increasingly swamped with applications, a small but growing number are offering a third option: guaranteed admission if the student attends another institution for a year or two and earns a prescribed grade-point average. </div>
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This little-noticed practice — an unusual mix of early admission and delayed gratification — has allowed colleges to tap their growing pools of eager candidates to help counter the enrollment slump that most institutions suffer later on, as the accepted students drop out, transfer, study abroad or take internships off campus. </div>
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“Life happens — we all understand that the size of the freshman class diminishes as they progress,” said Barmak Nassirian, an associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington. “This is an attempt at what is called enrollment management.” </div>
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But while the practice, known as deferred admission or a guaranteed transfer option, offers applicants another shot at their dream school, it can also place them in limbo, as they start college life on a campus they plan to abandon. And it can create problems for that institution, which is not usually told about the deal the student has struck with a competitor. </div>
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Monica Inzer, the dean of admission at Hamilton College in upstate New York, called the practice “borderline unethical,” saying it had the effect of recruiting students from other colleges. “We would allow a student to defer for a year, but never to matriculate full time at another college,” Ms. Inzer said. </div>
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No one tracks how many colleges use this admissions option, and some are reluctant to reveal that they do. In New York State, they include Cornell University, Medaille College in Buffalo and several campuses in the State University of New York system, including the ones in Albany and Geneseo. Many others around the country, like the University of Maryland and Middlebury College in Vermont, have long had variations on the practice, accepting students if they agree to start a semester later. </div>
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Though deferred admission is not entirely new, admissions officers say the number of colleges offering it has increased in recent years, and they expect that to continue as baby boomers’ children, who created their own demographic bulge, move into adulthood. </div>
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“Throughout the Northeast in particular, the number of traditional freshmen will continue to go down, so schools that aren’t already doing something like this are talking about it,” said Gregroy P. Florczak, vice president for enrollment management and undergraduate admissions at Medaille. “You’re going to need to pick up in transfers what you are losing in incoming freshmen.” </div>
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Some admissions officers suggested in interviews that deferred admission had also provided an edge in college rankings. Because the rankings are based in part on the SAT scores and high school grade-point averages of freshmen entering in the fall, the scores — presumably lower — of students who are to begin later are not included. Deferring the admission of some students also lowers the college’s admissions rate, making it appear more selective. </div>
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William Caren, associate vice president for enrollment services at SUNY Geneseo, said the effect on rankings was not a motivation for his campus’s offering deferred admission, but “a collateral benefit.” </div>
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Each college with deferred admissions does them a little differently. Usually, the offers are put in writing, and prospective students are asked to submit a form demonstrating interest. But while the college promises delayed admission, students are typically not required to commit themselves or pay a deposit. Colleges often provide academic advisers to help students choose compatible courses at the institution they will attend first. </div>
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Such arrangements are different from the traditional “articulation agreements” that four-year public colleges make with community colleges. In those, the institutions work together to ensure the smooth transferring of credits. </div>
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When Evi Nam applied to Cornell two years ago after graduating from high school in Concord, N.H., the first word she got from the university’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations was a rejection. “I was heartbroken,” she said.</div>
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A few days later, she received another message from the school: the offer of a spot the next fall as a transfer student, as long as she earned at least a 3.3 grade-point average at another accredited institution.</div>
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“It felt like a gift from heaven,” said Ms. Nam, who attended New York University for a year, earned a 3.8, and started at Cornell last fall. “It’s an Ivy League. I was singing when they gave me the option.” </div>
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But life was not easy at N.Y.U., where, as fate would have it, she also missed the cut for standard admission. Instead, she was admitted to the university’s Liberal Studies Program, a two-year track for slightly weaker applicants, who are guaranteed enrollment in a bachelor’s program their third year. </div>
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Ms. Nam held off notifying N.Y.U. about her intention to leave until the end of her year there — and held herself aloof from campus life. </div>
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“I knew that I was going to be leaving in a year, so I didn’t want to make any BFF’s,” she said. “It put me in an awkward position. I had no connections with N.Y.U. — it was just a steppingstone for Cornell. A lot of people at N.Y.U. got jealous and cut me out of their lives. It was messy.” </div>
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The dean of the Liberal Studies Program at N.Y.U., Fred Schwarzbach, was critical of students who enter knowing their stay will be temporary. Without commenting specifically on Ms. Nam, he said, “In general, we would not admit a student unless that student were committed to a four-year undergraduate experience.” </div>
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Still, the benefits of deferred admission can be attractive for both students and colleges. </div>
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For years, SUNY Geneseo was on the receiving end of the phenomenon, losing sophomores to Cornell year after year. “A lot of students who apply here also apply to Cornell,” Mr. Caren said. “When Cornell says it will defer their admission, they enroll here for a year. Then they come to the dean’s office and say, ‘Well, I’m leaving.’ We picked up on this, and we decided to do it ourselves.” </div>
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Two years ago, Geneseo, the most selective liberal arts college in the state system, began offering students a guaranteed-transfer admission for the following fall. Those students must receive a 3.0 grade-point average from any accredited institution. Geneseo sent out 200 such offers, but only about 15 students accepted. </div>
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A more popular program delays admission until the spring semester for hundreds of applicants who are academically stronger than the first group. Mr. Caren said Geneseo last year offered 500 students the option of arriving in the spring, or the following fall; 178 ended up enrolling, up from 50 seven years ago. Though not required to study elsewhere, virtually all do, and more than a third enroll in a four-year college for a single semester. </div>
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“We have a number of students who graduate midyear for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Caren said. “So the spring semester balances out very nicely and we can maintain the residence halls at fuller capacity.” </div>
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There are many other variations on the theme of finding room in the future for marginal candidates. Middlebury College asks applicants to indicate their willingness to arrive in February instead of September; about 100 students enroll in the spring, most voluntarily. The University of Maryland has offered 4,400 applicants admission for spring 2012 on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. </div>
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Fairleigh Dickinson, in Teaneck and Madison, N.J., promises eventual admission to a few hundred applicants each year if they perform well at one of 16 community colleges in the state. </div>
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And next fall, Binghamton University, one of SUNY’s four research universities, will begin a program that puts another spin on the community college route. It has just offered about 600 applicants spots in its freshman dormitories. But those students will enroll at Broome Community College a few miles away, becoming eligible for admission to Binghamton in a year or two. </div>
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Asked if housing a subset of community college students on campus could make them feel second-class, Sandra Starke, vice provost for enrollment management at Binghamton, said: “We’re hoping that’s not the case. We believe all students will be inspiring one another to do better.”</div>
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Written by Lisa W. Foderaro for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/education/11accept.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education">The New York Times</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>
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Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-357807048537189312011-03-24T17:23:00.000-05:002013-12-18T09:52:41.045-06:00Packing Heat at College<div style="text-align: justify;">
When your children go to college what do you pack to send with them? </div>
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You probably include their clothing, some sheets and towels, a laptop computer and maybe a small refrigerator or microwave. </div>
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But, how about a gun? </div>
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Don't be shocked. It's not that far-fetched. And guns could be coming to a college campus near you.</div>
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In the aftermath of several campus shootings in recent years and the gun fueled violence in Arizona that killed 6, wounded 13 and incapacitated Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, there is a movement to give college students and their professors the right to carry weapons onto campus. </div>
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It is already the law in Utah where students at all public colleges are allowed to carry a concealed gun if they have the proper permit. And, in Colorado several colleges have taken advantage of a state law giving them the option of allowing licensed handguns in class, several other institutions of higher learning there are also considering it. Similar measures have been proposed in about a dozen other states. There is almost always opposition to the idea.</div>
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But in Texas, which has more than half a million college students at any given time, lawmakers seem ready to pass their version of a guns-on-campus bill that sponsors say will help keep the peace in places where students are trying to learn. They believe the best defense against another out-of-control campus gunman killing innocents is armed students and professors who can shoot back and stop the carnage. </div>
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Naturally, that's a point of white hot debate. </div>
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On one side are those who think guns are the last thing you want to introduce into a college setting rife with academic pressures, romantic entanglements, competitive sports and the universal experimentation with alcohol and drugs. A<em> Los Angeles Times</em> editorial opined recently: "Adding firearms to this volatile mix is a spectacularly bad idea; guns are indeed tools of self-defense, but they're also tools of suicide, accidental shootings, intimidation and murder."</div>
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The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, named for former presidential press secretary Jim Brady who nearly lost his life in 1981 when an assassin opened fire on his boss, Ronald Reagan, stands firmly against the idea of weapons on campus. An organizations rep says, "The college age years -- 18-24 -- are the peak years for engaging in gun crimes, abusing drugs and alcohol, attempting suicide, and having other mental health problems. A binge-drinking, drug-using student is dangerous enough; let's not give him or her a gun."</div>
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Here's the other side. The lawmaker who proposed the pending bill in Texas is state Senator Jeff Wentworth. He recently told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that he was wrong in his assumptions about the bill. </div>
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"It's not college kids carrying concealed weapons on campus. In Texas, the law requires you to be at least 21 years of age to get a license," Wentworth said. The concealed weapons law will be, "mainly for members of the facility, staff, graduate students and a few seniors" to protect the rest of the "unarmed, defenseless and vulnerable" students should someone come on campus and start shooting.</div>
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Wentworth was questioned repeatedly about mixing guns with students using alcohol. What about an armed student carrying a gun into a campus bar? Impossible, he said, "We don't have bars on (public university) campuses. That's the law in Texas." </div>
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What would happen if a student decided to take a weapon to a hotly contested football or other type of athletic contest? "That's not allowed under this bill," the senator said. </div>
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Remembering the 2007 slaughter in Virginia where 32 students were killed Wentworth calmly said, "I don't ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech, where some deranged, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenseless kids like sitting ducks."</div>
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Truth be told I'd like to see all guns -- from small handguns and glocks to rifles and semi-automatic types -- melted down and used for scrap. </div>
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Tra-la-lah! Wouldn't it be a wonderful world that found no need for guns at all? My logical brain tells me that is never going to happen. </div>
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So, the question becomes do we run the risk of regulating gun ownership so much that the responsible people among us decide it isn't worth the hassle of multiple classes, training sessions and big fees to get a license? When that happens only police and the bad guys will have guns. And as we all know the police can't be everywhere. </div>
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Dependable Americans with permits already carry their weapons into shopping malls, banks, churches and grocery stores among countless other places every day. Why should a university campus be any different? </div>
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Final facts to ponder: A group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus reports that over 70 American campuses currently allow licensed guns. There hasn't been a single reported instance of shoot-outs, accidents or heated confrontations with a gun involved at any of them. In fact, statistics show the crime rate at Colorado State University has gone steadily down since concealed carry was enacted.</div>
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Written by Diane Diamond for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-dimond/packing-heat-at-college_b_829785.html">The Huffington Post </a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-55604883509252526202011-03-17T10:38:00.000-05:002011-03-17T10:38:34.887-05:00TEEN VIOLENCE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong></strong>Teen violence is real, and is a big part of a teenager’s life in the society we live in today. It can include things like dating someone who is violent, who slaps them around frequently, to other teens in school beating on them. Your child sees violence in their school everyday; many teens are using drugs and alcohol and become very depressed. This can be dangerous because they are not thinking clearly and may bring a gun or knife to school. If teen is in a bad enough state they could shoot other students or themselves, or maybe a teacher that they feel has been unfair to them. Depression can cause anyone to become violent especially a teenager. <span id="goog_368472302"></span><span id="goog_368472303"></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPglj1vxIp2DAHA_HsPibQtaYQH_kR3VDM8b4Lf_PgQWIFerAOJMibCOAi8elcvHwviwSoO6BwlFS1gfZ4g9O7WHVErPTNOIIDzrdS2vtjzGBa2Jegl04klQl3pHw_SiAl7aE2ATNm_qii/s1600/teenviolence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPglj1vxIp2DAHA_HsPibQtaYQH_kR3VDM8b4Lf_PgQWIFerAOJMibCOAi8elcvHwviwSoO6BwlFS1gfZ4g9O7WHVErPTNOIIDzrdS2vtjzGBa2Jegl04klQl3pHw_SiAl7aE2ATNm_qii/s200/teenviolence.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gang violence among teens is a growing concern; teens in this situation are subject to being shot at, stabbed, or beaten to death. Teens that are involved in gangs are more likely to commit a violent act towards another person, possibly even killing them. The longer a child lives in this type of environment, the more violent they may become. <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Teens also see violence in their homes, they may see one parent beaten and abused by the other, and sometimes one of the parents may be guilty of beating their teen. Maybe the other parent is unaware of what is going on or is too afraid to do anything about it. This type of teen violence is not uncommon in today’s society. <strong style="color: #990000;"> </strong></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><strong style="color: #990000;">Teen violence prevention</strong> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The best way to help prevent teen violence is by not allowing it in your home, treat each other, including your teen with respect and courtesy. By doing this you set good examples for your teen, these examples will help teach your teen how to treat others with respect. Talk to your teenager; let them know you understand there is a lot of violence surrounding them. Let your teen know you will be there, and be supportive if they ever need you. Try and stay a part of your teen’s life, and if you notice any odd behavior, talk with your child letting them know you are there for them. </div><br />
<strong style="color: #990000;">Teen violence statistics</strong> <br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Fifty percent of men who abuse their spouse will abuse their children. As sad as it sounds, three million children are at risk of being assaulted by a parent each year. A teen growing up with their mother being abused will more likely be a violent teenager and adult, than a teen that grows up in a loving home. Forty per cent of teenage girls have friends that have been a victim of some violent act. One in five high school girls has been in a violent relationship with a boy. Teen violence has been a problem for a long time but statistic show that this problem is growing and getting more violent each year. Understand that it is a serious problem and we need to not take it lightly. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Published on <a href="http://www.at-risk.org/teen-violence.html">AT-RISK.ORG </a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-60358963500036307302011-03-03T15:58:00.000-06:002011-03-03T15:58:00.614-06:00Bullying Revisited: The R WordIn our society of child psychology and guidance counseling, one would be hard pressed to find someone who does not acknowledge the pernicious consequences and prevalence of childhood bullying.<br />
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Take, for example, our friend Tyler. Tyler, now in his 20s, was verbally and emotionally abused inside and outside his classrooms growing up. Most would agree that the bullying he faced, while deplorable, was far from unique.<br />
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After all, everyone gets bullied. Right? Bullying is a rite of passage, a de facto hazing that all students endure. Right?<br />
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In short, no; bullying is preventable and anything but ubiquitous. In fact, recent studies show that only 25 percent of general education students are bullied. But how do we reconcile this with our common memory of rampant childhood and adolescent bullying?<br />
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Common knowledge dictates that the victims of bullying are typically those who stand apart from the all-powerful social norms. Bullied students are often those who look different, speak differently, and perhaps even learn differently.<br />
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And here we find the hidden victim. While only 25 percent of general education students report being bullied, this number swells to nearly 75 percent when speaking of special education students. Studies show that as many as three in four special education students face peer harassment, often chronic and pervasive, in their schools.<br />
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But just as we have traditionally sequestered and pigeonholed special education students, so too do many of us turn a blind eye to the deplorable social conditions these young people face. They routinely confront verbal, physical, and emotional assault in and around the buildings purported to be their safe havens, often while already struggling with issues of self-worth precipitated by an unaccommodating society. We choose to ignore -- or, yet worse, deny -- the silent epidemic of victimization and dehumanization infecting our schools and poisoning the social aspirations and abilities of our most abused demographic.<br />
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As you may have guessed, Tyler, like many victims of bullying, has a developmental disability, cerebral palsy. Because of his differences, bullies throughout Tyler's childhood assaulted his self-worth with a concoction of physical and emotional abuse. They all but shattered his self-image with their message of worthlessness, helplessness, and denigration. And their most efficient tool, their best crystallization and communication of this message, was the word "retard(ed)." <br />
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Despite "sticks and stones" upbringings, we all know the marks of physical abuse to be temporary, while the destructive power of language scars the psyche indelibly. Tyler, after years of being bullied with the R-word, internalized the degradation conveyed by it and began to identify himself as a "retard."<br />
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The R-word, its diagnostic history, and the modern synonymy it has accrued with concepts of undesirability and disdain are inextricably intertwined with the causes and consequences of the bullying of people with intellectual disabilities. It has become a convenient shorthand of exclusion, a linguistic vessel that captures and delivers centuries of stigma and discrimination from bully to bullied, abuser to abused. This word enables the harassment of students and adults with intellectual disabilities and the prejudice it embodies continues to bar this population from equal access to education, employment, and quality of life. An end to the R-word and attention to its consequences will contribute to the cure of this silent epidemic.<br />
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To stop this pattern of abuse, tens of thousands of young people across the country and around the world are today uniting in the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign. In their hallways and on their campuses, they are calling their peers and communities to pledge to end the use of the R-word and to create school and work environments where all students and employees are valued.<br />
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Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Since its inception in 2008, Spread the Word to End the Word has collected over 150,000 pledges internationally. We invite you to join at<a href="http://www.r-word.org/" target="_hplink"> <span style="color: red;">www.r-word.org</span></a>, where many of the pledges have been collected.<br />
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The elimination of the R-word will not end bullying but curtailing this verbal dehumanization will perhaps allow us to appreciate the intrinsic humanity in all of us, with and without intellectual disabilities.<br />
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As Tyler shows us, changing language not only transforms our attitudes towards others but also those towards ourselves: "I used to call myself a retard. But I don't anymore. Now, I call myself a person."<br />
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Join Special Olympics and Best Buddies in enabling that humanity in ourselves and others.<br />
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Spread the Word to End the R-Word.<br />
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Written by Tim Shriver, Jr. for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-shriver-jr/bullying-revisited-retard_b_830110.html">The Huffington Post</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-51441112964277243232011-02-25T13:22:00.000-06:002011-02-25T13:22:22.031-06:00Energy Drinks Risky for Children and Teens<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Energy drinks are under-studied, overused and can be dangerous for children and teens. </span> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QCG7SmnZXAwZD_ojicv5zetL1wFjSuZyE_3JSXOOr3GCqflvv0z4eGylbzaPuWyCEA7WX7fiHw2NugQpjxNW6jWPu13y6H9WMu9691GPvMiJOxa97aBqUm37IJqpbNrndeqyFpcAxP8g/s1600/drinks-kids-should-not-drink-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QCG7SmnZXAwZD_ojicv5zetL1wFjSuZyE_3JSXOOr3GCqflvv0z4eGylbzaPuWyCEA7WX7fiHw2NugQpjxNW6jWPu13y6H9WMu9691GPvMiJOxa97aBqUm37IJqpbNrndeqyFpcAxP8g/s1600/drinks-kids-should-not-drink-3.jpg" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Dakota Sailor, 18, a high school senior in Carl Junction, Mo., says risks linked with energy drinks aren't just hype.<br />
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Sailor had a seizure and was hospitalized for five days last year after drinking two large energy drinks - a brand he'd never tried before. </span></div><div> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">He said his doctor thinks caffeine or caffeine-like ingredients may have been to blame. Introduced more than 20 years ago, energy drinks are the fastest growing U.S. beverage market; 2011 sales are expected to top $9 billion. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The American Association of Poison Control Centers adopted codes late last year to start tracking energy drink overdoses and side effects nationwide; 677 cases occurred from October through December; so far, 331 have been reported this year.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Most 2011 cases involved children and teens. Of the more than 300 energy drink poisonings this year, a quarter of them involved kids younger than 6.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">A clinical report on energy drinks is expected soon from the American Academy of Pediatrics that may include guidelines for doctors.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the amount of caffeine in soda because it's classified as a food.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">But the FDA has no control over energy drinks because they're classified as dietary supplements.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Doctors said case studies show energy drinks can contain up to three times as much caffeine as soda. It's believed they have caused seizures, strokes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations. Doctors believe energy drinks could also cause sudden death among children with underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, mood swings and migraines.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Denmark, Turkey and Uruguay have banned the beverages while Norway doesn't allow them to be sold to anyone under 15.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div style="color: #990000; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Poison Help 1-800-222-1222</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Published in the Horizon Family RMG TEEN ALERT</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC </a></span> </span> </span></div>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-65043747900915980212011-02-17T13:25:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:53:56.064-06:00Risks for Quitting College Identified<div style="color: #0b5394; text-align: center;">
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College students who consider dropping out are particularly sensitive to a handful of critical events including depression and loss of financial aid, according to a study led by Michigan State University scholars.</div>
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Surprisingly, however, other events such as a death in the family and students’ failure to get their intended major did not have a significant influence on their intention to drop out, said Tim Pleskac, MSU assistant professor of psychology and lead researcher on the project.</div>
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By identifying which risks prompt students to consider quitting, the research could help in the effort to combat college withdrawal, Pleskac said. More than 40 percent of students in the United States fail to get a bachelor’s degree within six years at the college where they began, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.</div>
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“Prior to this work, little was known about what factors in a student’s everyday life prompt them to think about withdrawing from college,” Pleskac said. “We now have a method to measure what events are ‘shocking’ students and prompting them to think about quitting.”</div>
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“From an institutional perspective,” he added, “we are now better suited to think about what students we should target in terms of counseling or other assistance to help them work through these issues.”</div>
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The study, funded by the College Board, will appear in an upcoming issue of the research journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.</div>
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In the study, Pleskac and colleagues developed a mathematical model that describes how students decide to quit. They used the model to analyze surveys from 1,158 freshmen at 10 U.S. colleges and universities. The surveys listed 21 critical events (or “shocks") and asked students whether these events had happened to them during the previous semester; the students were later asked whether they planned to withdraw.</div>
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The critical event with the most influence was depression. Students also were sensitive to being recruited by an employer or another institution; losing financial aid or experiencing a large increase in tuition or living costs; unexpected bad grade; and roommate conflicts.</div>
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They were less sensitive to critical events such as death in the family; significant injury; inability to enter their intended major; becoming addicted to a substance; coming into a large sum of money; losing a job needed to pay tuition; and becoming engaged or married.</div>
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Previous research had studied the role critical events play in employee turnover decisions. However, this was the first study to examine the phenomenon with college withdrawal, the researchers said.</div>
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“Traditionally the problems of employee turnover and college student attrition have been viewed from different lenses,” said Jessica Keeney, a project researcher and doctoral student in psychology at MSU. “But we see a lot of similarities in how employees and students decide to quit. A ‘shocking’ event, such as a clash with a co-worker or roommate, could be the final factor that pushes someone to leave.”</div>
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The other project researchers were Neal Schmitt from MSU, Stephanie Merritt from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Frederick Oswald from Rice University.</div>
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Published by <a href="http://news.msu.edu/story/8930">Michigan State University </a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-75153171043776109202011-02-10T16:05:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:55:38.582-06:00Sexting: Schools, Legislators Debate Punishments For Offenders<div style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; text-align: center;">
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<b>Sending provocative or explicit messages and photos over cell phones and computers has become increasingly popular among American teenagers in recent years.</b></div>
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The popularity of sexting has sent parents, school officials and legislators scrambling to figure out how to address the issue.</div>
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According to a national survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 39 percent of all teens admitted to sending sexually suggestive messages over the Internet or on cell phones. A further 20 percent of teens said they had sent or posted nude or partially nude images or videos of themselves.</div>
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It's become obvious that sexting won't go away over night. The question remains: is it parents, schools or law enforcement's job to intervene?</div>
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<strong>Schools Lead The Charge</strong></div>
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In some school districts, such as Kelso, Wash., sexting policies have recently been put in place to deter students and catch perpetrators.</div>
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KATU News reports the Kelso School Board voted Monday, Feb. 7, to allow school officials to confiscate cell phones from any student suspected of sexting. The device is then searched for evidence of inappropriate messages and photos.</div>
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Students caught engaging in sexting could face suspension or expulsion. The American Civil Liberties Union has objected to the policy, claiming it infringes on individual privacy rights.</div>
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The New York Department of Education has also moved to ban sexting. The rules would mean 90-day suspensions for students caught sexting. Students could get in trouble not just for messages sent during school, but at home as well.</div>
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<strong>States Move To Criminalize Sexting</strong></div>
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Across the country, many legislators have recently passed, or are in the process of passing, state laws that criminalize sexting.</div>
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Before there were official sexting laws, young people caught distributing sexually explicit photos of themselves or others were sometimes charged with felony penalties for child pornography. The felony can carry punishments such as jail time, steep fines and induction into the sex offender registry.</div>
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While lawmakers are suggesting that sexting should be classified as an illegal act, most are looking to divert young people into educational programs instead of overloading the juvenile justice system.</div>
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In New Jersey, Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt introduced a bill last year that would let first time offenders take an informative course in lieu of harsher punishments.</div>
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The legislation requires the attorney general's office to create a program to teach teens about the criminal penalties and social consequences of sending or receiving nude or seminude images through cell phones or computers. The educational components would include lessons on how the uniqueness of the Internet can produce long-term and unforeseen consequences after photographs are posted and the connection between cyber-bullying and the posting of sexual images.</div>
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This week, Texas State Senator Kirk Watson brought a similar bill to the legislature in his home state -- with one caveat: parents would also be forced to attend the educational seminars along with their child.</div>
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According to the Houston Chronicle, being charged with sexting could carry a Class C misdemeanor, for which the youth and a parent would have attend classes about the potential harm caused by sexting.</div>
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The policy would make parents assume greater responsibility for their child's actions, while learning about sexting themselves.</div>
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From the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/sexting-schools-legislation_n_821047.html">The Huffington Post</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC </a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-53753909298440340752011-02-03T12:22:00.000-06:002011-02-03T12:22:23.927-06:00Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen<div style="text-align: justify;"> The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVOaglxjxBIFV7s2ELACmpic0jBPaD0dluz_lf0ZLQKZ97GAmv-M4IyBautq3mcZTw7hiUnVeEBXAp6xPNPUHrRVy4Ol5FV5OAEwEDpxtYK5zE4PuMtgGMyrO3pmPdmUmfjzXsJ2ayUOIH/s1600/s-FRESHMEN-STRESS-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVOaglxjxBIFV7s2ELACmpic0jBPaD0dluz_lf0ZLQKZ97GAmv-M4IyBautq3mcZTw7hiUnVeEBXAp6xPNPUHrRVy4Ol5FV5OAEwEDpxtYK5zE4PuMtgGMyrO3pmPdmUmfjzXsJ2ayUOIH/s1600/s-FRESHMEN-STRESS-large.jpg" /></a></div><div class="caption" style="text-align: justify;">In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges, the percentage of students rating themselves as “below average” in emotional health rose. Meanwhile, the percentage of students who said their emotional health was above average fell to 52 percent. It was 64 percent in 1985. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft" style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="inlineImage module"> </div><div class="columnGroup doubleRule"> </div></div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every year, women had a less positive view of their emotional health than men, and that gap has widened. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Campus counselors say the survey results are the latest evidence of what they see every day in their offices — students who are depressed, under stress and using psychiatric medication, prescribed even before they came to college. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The economy has only added to the stress, not just because of financial pressures on their parents but also because the students are worried about their own college debt and job prospects when they graduate. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This fits with what we’re all seeing,” said Brian Van Brunt, director of counseling at Western Kentucky University and president of the American College Counseling Association. “More students are arriving on campus with problems, needing support, and today’s economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on college students, as they look at their loans and wonder if there will be a career waiting for them on the other side.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The annual survey of freshmen is considered the most comprehensive because of its size and longevity. At the same time, the question asking students to rate their own emotional health compared with that of others is hard to assess, since it requires them to come up with their own definition of emotional health, and to make judgments of how they compare with their peers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Most people probably think emotional health means, ‘Am I happy most of the time, and do I feel good about myself?’ so it probably correlates with mental health,” said Dr. Mark Reed, the psychiatrist who directs Dartmouth College’s counseling office. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I don’t think students have an accurate sense of other people’s mental health,” he added. “There’s a lot of pressure to put on a perfect face, and people often think they’re the only ones having trouble.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To some extent, students’ decline in emotional health may result from pressures they put on themselves. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">While first-year students’ assessments of their emotional health were declining, their ratings of their own drive to achieve, and academic ability, have been going up, and reached a record high in 2010, with about three-quarters saying they were above average. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Students know their generation is likely to be less successful than their parents’, so they feel more pressure to succeed than in the past,” said Jason Ebbeling, director of residential education at Southern Oregon University. “These days, students worry that even with a college degree they won’t find a job that pays more than minimum wage, so even at 15 or 16 they’re thinking they’ll need to get into an M.B.A. program or Ph.D. program.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other findings in the survey underscore the degree to which the economy is weighing on college students. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Paternal unemployment is at the highest level since we started measuring,” said John Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at U.C.L.A.’s Higher Education Research Institute, which does the annual freshman survey. “More students are taking out loans. And we’re seeing the impact of not being able to get a summer job, and the importance of financial aid in choosing which college they’re going to attend.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We don’t know exactly why students’ emotional health is declining,” he said. “But it seems the economy could be a lot of it.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For many young people, serious stress starts before college. The share of students who said on the survey that they had been frequently overwhelmed by all they had to do during their senior year of high school rose to 29 percent from 27 percent last year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gender gap on that question was even larger than on emotional health, with 18 percent of the men saying they had been frequently overwhelmed, compared with 39 percent of the women. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is also a gender gap, studies have shown, in the students who seek out college mental health services, with women making up 60 percent or more of the clients. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Boys are socialized not to talk about their feelings or express stress, while girls are more likely to say they’re having a tough time,” said Perry C. Francis, coordinator for counseling services at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. “Guys might go out and do something destructive, or stupid, that might include property damage. Girls act out differently.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Linda Sax, a professor of education at U.C.L.A. and former director of the freshman study who uses the data in research about college gender gaps, said the gap between men and women on emotional well-being was one of the largest in the survey. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“One aspect of it is how women and men spent their leisure time,” she said. “Men tend to find more time for leisure and activities that relieve stress, like exercise and sports, while women tend to take on more responsibilities, like volunteer work and helping out with their family, that don’t relieve stress.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, Professor Sax has explored the role of the faculty in college students’ emotional health, and found that interactions with faculty members were particularly salient for women. Negative interactions had a greater impact on their mental health. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Women’s sense of emotional well-being was more closely tied to how they felt the faculty treated them,” she said. “It wasn’t so much the level of contact as whether they felt they were being taken seriously by the professor. If not, it was more detrimental to women than to men.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She added: “And while men who challenged their professor’s ideas in class had a decline in stress, for women it was associated with a decline in well-being.” </div><br />
Written by Tamar Lewin for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html?_r=1">The New York Times </a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-33639878237288055772011-01-20T15:02:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:55:07.830-06:00Getting Ready for the SAT and ACT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Afraid of the big, bad tests? There are ways to declaw them. And don't worry about a poor result the first time around—soon you'll be able to hide any score you don't want colleges to see. More and more schools are making tests optional, but chances are you'll want to prepare anyway. So let's get started.</i></div>
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<strong style="color: #073763;">SAT or ACT?</strong> While more high schoolers still take the SAT than the ACT (1.5 million versus 1.3 million), virtually every college will accept either. The SAT is a logic and reasoning test; the ACT hews more closely to the high school curriculum. The ACT, considered the more straightforward test, has four sections, including science, and forgives gamblers (SAT takers, by contrast, are docked a quarter point for each incorrect answer). But the ACT has its challenges: The math goes up to trigonometry and precalculus (SAT math stops at Algebra II), and some find it a struggle to finish on time. Ned Johnson of PrepMatters Inc., a test-preparatory and educational counseling firm in Bethesda, Md., recommends you figure out which test you score better on and then focus on that. "Take the ACT early on, and then compare it to the PSAT," he suggests. "If you're dividing your energy between tests, it's likely to leave you divided and conquered."</div>
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<strong></strong><strong style="color: #073763;">Should I opt for the ACT writing section?</strong> Yes—because on the SAT, the writing section is required. "A lot of schools consider the ACT comparable to the SAT, but the only way they can accept it as a replacement is if students take the ACT with writing," explains Kortney Tambara, a counselor at Oxford Academy in Cypress, Calif. Last year, 41 percent of high schoolers who took the ACT opted for the writing section. It allows you to apply to a wider array of schools and is particularly useful if you're aiming high. The University of California system, for example, requires it.</div>
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<strong style="color: #073763;">Are prep classes worth it?</strong><strong> </strong>Max Bochman, a senior at Taunton High School in Taunton, Mass., says classes helped him "feel more confident, like I had a good understanding of what was going to be on the test." Can't afford them? Many schools offer free or low-cost programs after class, so talk to your counselor. Check out Number2.com, a free test-prep site that adapts to your ability level. Or go the old-fashioned route and buy a book (for a humorous read, try the latest edition of <em>Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT</em>). Most important: Take a simulated test repeatedly, challenging yourself to do better each time. "Prep classes are only as good as the effort a student is willing to put into them," says Judith Koch-Jones, college and career center coordinator at University High School in Irvine, Calif.</div>
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<strong style="color: #073763;">What works best?</strong> Prep starts on the first day of high school, says Richard Bavaria, a senior vice president with Sylvan Learning. "Go to class every day, take notes, work with a study buddy, and get help early when you need it—don't wait!" he says. Want to make it entertaining? Lauren Pinheiro, a junior at Presentation High School in San Jose, Calif., crafted silly pickup lines using unusual words and shared them in a Facebook group. Examples: "Please don't reject me; I'm not that <em>resilient</em>"; "Girl, being that hot just ain't <em>equitable.</em>" Cramming is less effective. It puts your grades in peril, throws your schedule out of whack, and makes you bad company.</div>
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<strong style="color: #073763;">Should I retake it?</strong> The ACT has long let students choose which scores to send to colleges and which to hide. Starting in March, students taking the SAT will be able to do the same thing—so there's much to gain and little to lose from retaking the test. For those taking the SAT, students gain an average of 40 points on the first retest (it goes down after that). The ACT says more than 55 percent increase their composite score upon retesting. Of course, there's a point where you should call it quits. "Hopefully, young people have better things to do with their Saturday mornings than take standardized tests," says Johnson.</div>
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Written by Lucia Graves for <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2008/08/21/getting-ready-for-the-sat-and-act">U.S. News and World Report </a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-10916518525335397232011-01-13T17:22:00.000-06:002011-01-13T17:22:56.758-06:00Best Values in Public Colleges 2011<div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div itxtvisited="1" style="color: #073763; text-align: center;"><i>Despite shrinking budgets, these 100 schools deliver a stellar education at an affordable price.</i></div><div itxtvisited="1" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">As colleges and universities across the U.S. struggle with shrinking budgets and increased enrollment, here’s the takeaway for soon-to-matriculate students: Look for schools that deliver an outstanding, affordable education in good times and bad. The <b itxtvisited="1">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ranked Kiplinger’s number-one best value for public colleges and universities</b> for a remarkable ten times running, is a prime example. Carolina’s admission rate remains among the lowest on our annual list; its students are among the most competitive; and its in-state cost, at $17,000, is not much higher than the average price ($16,140) for all public universities. For students who qualify for need-based aid, the total price for this top-tier university drops to an average of $7,020.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Kiplingers-Personal-Finance-magazine/65904782836" style="color: #003399;" target="_blank"><br />
</a></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <div itxtvisited="1">Carolina’s performance is all the more exceptional considering the current climate for public higher education. Over the past few years, states have cut funding for colleges and universities by tens of millions of dollars. Enrollment and the demand for financial aid have surged. Federal stimulus funding, which provided crucial support, will soon run out, and Medicaid continues to deplete state coffers. “Everywhere you look, there is less money,” says Shirley Ort, director of the office of scholarships and student aid at Chapel Hill. Unlike past shortfalls, this one will likely affect higher education in “significant and probably permanent ways,” says Charles Lenth, of the State Higher Education Executive Officers.</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">In Kiplinger's annual assessment of best value, they identify the public schools that, like Carolina, deliver the best BA for the buck. They start with academic quality, including the school's student-faculty ratio, its admission rate and its four-year graduation rate. They then factor in affordability, such as the total cost of attendance with or without financial aid. </div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1"><b itxtvisited="1">Binghamton University (SUNY)</b>, ranked sixth overall, <b itxtvisited="1">takes the number-one spot for out-of-state value</b> for the third time in a row. It's an honor the school's president, C. Peter Magrath, might prefer to forgo. He complains that tuition is too low for a university whose admission rate, at 33%, rivals top schools such as UNC-Chapel Hill. Out-of-state students pay a total of $27,535 to attend Binghamton, less than the national average of $28,130. The state legislature recently rejected a proposal to transfer control over tuition -- and increases -- to the SUNY schools but will probably revisit the issue, says Magrath. Memo to non-New Yorkers: Grab this deal now.</div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Perennial stars in our rankings include the <b itxtvisited="1">University of Florida (number two)</b> and the <b itxtvisited="1">New College of Florida (number 11)</b>, both of which offer strong academics at a sticker price below $15,000. New College, a tiny honors school with a spectacular view of Sarasota Bay, drops the price to less than half that amount for in-staters who qualify for need-based aid. For a rock-bottom $4,545, students get the view, the company of other highly competitive students and a 10-1 student-faculty ratio. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (number 48) earns top honors in the student-faculty category, with a ratio of 8-1.</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Two Virginia schools deserve special Kiplinger kudos for consistently maintaining their position among our top five since our first rankings, in 1998. The <b itxtvisited="1">University of Virginia (number three)</b> and the <b itxtvisited="1">College of William and Mary (number four)</b> each draw high-scoring incoming freshmen and post the highest four-year graduation rates on our list, delivering degrees to more than 80% of their students in four years and more than 90% in six. UVA also brings its cost after aid to students with need to less than $6,000.</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Virtually all of the schools we list raised their price in 2010-11, but the <b itxtvisited="1">University of Maryland</b>, which maintained a tuition freeze for four straight years, kept this year's total cost increase to less than $600. The first-class flagship continues its march up our rankings, moving from number eight last year to number five in 2010-11. As for the lowest sticker price, that distinction belongs to the University of North Carolina at Asheville (number 58). In-state students pay only $12,762. Appalachian State (number 35), in Boone, N.C., runs just a few dollars more, at $12,775.</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Faced with a state budget crisis of epic proportions, University of California schools were forced to bump up costs by as much as $3,500 a year for in-state students and more than $4,000 for out-of-state students, pushing several UC schools past the $50,000 mark. Despite the price hikes, UC schools stand out for their relatively low average debt and impressively high six-year graduation rates. Out-of-staters who can afford to pay UC's private-school prices will find opportunity in California's crisis: UC schools have opened the doors wide to nonresidents, the better to collect that out-of-state tuition premium. </div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Be it perspicacity or plain luck, Carolina finished a major capital campaign at the end of 2007, just before the recession. Still, the current austerity has meant raising tuition by almost $1,000 this year and pruning operating costs to the tune of $36 million annually, mostly by streamlining administrative expenses. "Efficiency enhances our ability to meet our academic goals," says Chancellor Holden Thorp. The university recently hired 120 junior faculty members, expanded its honors program and introduced an enrichment program for top freshmen. "Decisions were made with an eye to providing students not just with a low-cost education but also with a great one," says Stephen Farmer, director of undergraduate admissions.</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Carolina is willing to pony up to ensure affordability. "One of the things that have helped us remain a good value is the commitment the university has to funding need-based aid," says UNC's Ort. Carolina continues to meet the full need of students who qualify despite a 35% increase over the past two years in the number of students who qualify for financial aid. Financial aid offsets the tuition increase for students with need. </div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Such policies allow UNC to attract the best students that North Carolina (and the country) has to offer -- and Thorp intends to keep it that way. He aims to prevent in-state students from straying to elite competitors, such as Harvard or UVA, and has been known to call prospective students to make his case. "It's great to say to a parent, 'Your daughter is a great student. Please put her on the phone.'"</div><div itxtvisited="1"><br />
</div><div itxtvisited="1">Jerry Bowens, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., found his way to Chapel Hill not by a phone call but through the Carolina College Advising Corps, which helps North Carolina high school students get through the college admissions process. At Bowens's high school, "a lot of people felt lost and didn't go to college," he says. With the adviser's help, Bowens not only was admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill but also scored a full ride through the Carolina Covenant, which provides no-loan financial aid to students in the program. Says Bowens, who participates in a student hip-hop group, plays a main role in <i itxtvisited="1">General College</i> (the campus soap opera) and plans to study abroad, "Being here, finding a niche, things that cater to my interests -- it's a perfect fit for me." </div></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br />
</div></div></div>Written by Jane Bennett Clark for <a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/best-values-in-public-colleges-2011.html">Kiplinger</a></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a> </div>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-10990142567202817852010-12-29T13:36:00.000-06:002010-12-29T13:36:46.436-06:00With Common Application, Many Find a Technical Difficulty in Common, TooThe Common Application, the admission form accepted by more than 400 colleges and universities, was created in part to ease the burden on high school seniors. No longer must applicants fill out a dozen different forms to apply to a dozen schools, including the nation’s most selective.<br />
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So it was frustrating for Max Ladow, 17, a senior at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, to discover this fall that he could not get his short essay answers to fit in the allotted 150 words on the electronic version of the application, even when he was certain he was under the limit.<br />
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When he would follow the program’s instructions to execute a “print preview” of his answers — which would show him the actual version that an admissions officer would see, as opposed to the raw work-in-progress on his screen — his responses were invariably cut off at the margin, in midsentence or even midword.<br />
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This technical glitch in the Common Application has vexed an untold number of college applicants, not to mention their parents, at a moment in their lives already freighted with tension.<br />
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Considering the stakes, Max said he was left with two head-scratchers: Why can’t the Common Application be better, technologically, given the caliber of the institutions involved? And, at the very least, why can’t the nonprofit association of colleges that produces the form fix this particular problem?<br />
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“It’s kind of ridiculous,” he said. “I take computer science. I have a vague idea of how this may or may not work. I think it would be just such an easy thing for an error message, at least, to pop up.”<br />
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By the Jan. 1 application deadline at many colleges and universities, an estimated 1.9 million versions of the Common Application will be submitted for slots in next year’s freshman class, an increase of 27 percent in just one year, said Rob Killion, executive director of the Common Application.<br />
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Part of that increase is from submissions to Columbia and the University of Michigan, the most recent colleges to agree to accept the Common App, as it is widely known.<br />
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Mr. Killion said the issue of “truncation,” as it is known within the Common Application offices, is not new, and had been a reality of the process for more than a decade, causing barely a ripple.<br />
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And yet, enough students, parents and counselors complained about the problem this fall that the organization has scrambled in recent weeks to embed a link to a warning box within the form.<br />
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It reads, in part, “It is critical that you preview your Common App and check for truncated information. If you preview the Common App and find some of your text is missing, you should attempt to shorten your response to fit within the available space.”<br />
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The organization’s explanation for such technological quirks — some applicants have found that the form also cuts off parts of parents’ job titles, as well as details of their own extracurricular activities — has provided little comfort.<br />
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As it turns out, applicants do not have, say, 150 words to discuss their most meaningful extracurricular activities; they have something closer to 1,000 characters (Max said he eventually figured this out). And because some letters may take up more space than others, one applicant’s 145-word essay may be too long, while another’s 157-word response may come up short, Mr. Killion said.<br />
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“A capital W takes up 10 times the space of a period,” he said. “If a student writes 163 characters that include lots of Ws and m’s and g’s and capital letters, their 163 characters are going to take many more inches of space than someone who uses lots of I’s and commas and periods and spaces.”<br />
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Asked why the problem had not been fixed, Mr. Killion said, “Believe me, if there’s a way to do it, we’d do it. Maybe there’s a way out there we don’t know about.”<br />
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The truncated answers might be funny if the matter at hand were not so serious.<br />
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Frank Sachs, director of college counseling at the Blake School in Minneapolis, said an anxious parent showed up at his office recently to lament that her child had inadvertently pushed the “submit” button on a college application without carefully checking how the mother’s title had been rendered in the section on parents’ jobs. The application read: “director of pla,” instead of “director of planned giving.”<br />
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In that case, at least some fault may rest with the applicant: an applicant is not allowed by the Common Application program to push “submit” until checking a box that reads, “I have print previewed my application and it looks exactly as I intend.”<br />
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Still, Mr. Sachs, a former president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said that the board’s making available a box to check is “not a great solution,” and that he noticed such cutoffs had added to the stress of some families at his school this year.<br />
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He added: “I do not recall this happening in years past.”<br />
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Wiley Davis, a senior at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach, Calif., said the most maddening aspect of the Common Application was trying to get his descriptions of his activities — including his role on the school robotics team, as well competing in Shotokan Karate — to fit within the space allotted for the activities section.<br />
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The robotics team, he said, “won the world championship last year, and we won in a different category in 2008, so getting that down was difficult.”<br />
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“The character and space limits,” he said, “meant that I had to do a great deal of work to get my point across without running over and cutting information.”<br />
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Still, students and parents, can take heart: Shawn Abbott, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at New York University, said that when he occasionally sees a sentence cut off in an application, he knows immediately what has happened, and does not penalize the applicant.<br />
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“In a nutshell, I would empathize with students’ frustration,” Mr. Abbott said. “A truncated essay is not going to be the end-all, be-all of an admissions decision.”<br />
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Written by Jacques Steinberg for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/education/23college.html?pagewanted=1">The New York Times</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-29984439913292148082010-12-23T15:30:00.000-06:002010-12-23T15:30:34.803-06:00Issues Facing College Arts Students When Transferring<div style="text-align: justify;">A recent survey that shows one-third of parents of high school students say they are considering sending their child to a local community college for two years and then transferring the student to a four-year school. Sounds like a practical plan for financial reasons, but for arts students, a college transfer can be a major obstacle in the pursuit of their dreams.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfQJ-5AuyzhaVLFy9LoYulQkxHf-zNAzvTdvIPOdAzGrkfqrwFGjOrfUZ8K81FioBKjuXuwBw01Ro-gHMc_Ie49J0DPHxQdLeFKmVBGoNJB1umzV96xCIj2zVHGsfSawbptScPclQg4FG/s1600/drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfQJ-5AuyzhaVLFy9LoYulQkxHf-zNAzvTdvIPOdAzGrkfqrwFGjOrfUZ8K81FioBKjuXuwBw01Ro-gHMc_Ie49J0DPHxQdLeFKmVBGoNJB1umzV96xCIj2zVHGsfSawbptScPclQg4FG/s320/drawing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why? For students in the performing arts—from voice to musical instrument to drama and dance—the three most important criteria to success are auditions, auditions, auditions. The fact is, by the time a transfer student hits the stage at their new college or conservatory, their peers who may have been there for a year or</div><div style="text-align: justify;">two, have already proven themselves. The competition is more intense to get roles, get cast, or to play in the orchestra, because other students have already earned the confidence of those who make the decisions in such matters. Bias exists, it’s a fact of life. In addition, existing students have likely already formed close relationships, and gotten involved in school activities such as chamber groups, ensembles, or a cappella groups that don’t include the “new kid.” New students, even with two years of training elsewhere, are starting from scratch. It’s not a level playing field.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Students of visual arts face challenges of their own. Their peer students who have been enrolled in the “new” college since freshman year may have already had gallery exhibits on campus or off and be making a name for themselves. Access to studios or other workspace may be limited and those with seniority know how to work the system. New students are challenged when collaborative projects are assigned, because the existing students already know the strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of their classmates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether the student is pursuing visual or performing arts, they are working toward a degree in a very specific curriculum. Studying the arts takes a passion that is generally not found in students of liberal arts, communications, or many other majors. The hours of practice an arts student has invested by the time</div><div style="text-align: justify;">he or she gets to college is likely unmatched by students of many other majors. Therefore, arts students rarely transfer out of their major. They are pursuing a dream they have had for years, possibly since childhood. For this reason, there may be few openings at the target university or conservatory into which the arts student hopes to transfer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arts students, like others, also have to struggle with issues of course credit transfers, especially between</div><div style="text-align: justify;">non-accredited and accredited schools. In addition, many colleges don’t give transfer students the attention that freshman may receive for a variety of reasons. The first and main reason is that freshmen students are more profitable. Since transfer students may be able to transfer at least some credits from general education classes and will likely live in off-campus housing, they do not contribute as much financially as a freshman student who lives on campus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The adjustment to the new school is another issue that transfer students face. Colleges roll out the red carpet to make freshmen feel welcome and at home. That is not necessarily true for transfer students. When transfer students are included in freshmen activities, they often feel out of place because they are older and already have some college experience.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet transferring schools is not impossible for the arts student. They must keep in mind that hard work pays off. Brush up your audition skills or portfolio, use your experience to create compelling essays, and master the presentations schools require. Most important of all, be both realistic about the challenges and</div><div style="text-align: justify;">excited about the journey ahead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Written by Halley Shefler for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.org/PDF/IECA_Insights-Dec10-Jan11.pdf"><i>IECA Insights</i></a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-47778441525569626532010-12-14T14:50:00.002-06:002013-12-18T09:56:08.654-06:00What to Expect When Your College Freshman Comes Home For The Holidays<div style="color: #990000; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><em>Here are some tips about how to interact with your college freshman coming home for the holidays </em></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;"><em></em></span>After three-plus months of living at school, your college freshman has gotten used to being on his or her own. And you’ve become accustomed to a quieter house. But now he/she’s coming home for the holidays, and your household routine is about to be disrupted.</div>
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Levester Johnson, vice president for student affairs at Butler University, says parents need to be prepared to navigate those waters. “Their student is going to have a stronger desire for independence,” he said. “He or she has had several months to figure out how late they want to stay in bed, how long they want to stay up at night and how late they stay out. Parents are going to see a changed individual as it relates to those daily habits. They should also notice more maturity, and more introspection, perhaps.”</div>
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To keep order – and structure – Johnson recommends that parents maintain rules their student would be used to and expects to come back to. Like curfew.</div>
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“But you don’t want to go to an extreme – being too strict or saying I don’t care,” he said. “Loosen the rules, but don’t get rid of them. Even though they want more independence, there has to be a pragmatic approach. It’s only been a few months they’ve been away. They continue to need structure.”</div>
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Johnson said parents also should make the most of this time to ask a lot of questions about what’s happening in their student’s life in four broad areas: day to day living; finances; health; and the future.</div>
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Day to day: He recommends asking: How are classes going? Tell me about faculty members. Talk to me about your grades, your friends, your activities. “You want to make sure they’re engaged in the campus community,” he said. “Because that’s really what’s going to keep them there: How did they make a connection and have they found that niche in their first semester?”</div>
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Finances: Your student is also starting to develop life skills, so you should ask: How are you managing your money? What major expenses are you expecting when you return to school? Are you considering options for earning additional funds such as student work or an off-campus job to off-set college expenses?</div>
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Health: Are they taking care of themselves? Eating right? Exercising? Studying late in the residence hall or library? “Get into well-being issues to make sure they’re taking care of themselves,” Johnson suggested.</div>
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The future: Ask: What’s coming up? How are your grades? What are you doing next semester? What are your spring break plans? What are your summer plans? Work? Internship? Coming home? “They need to start working on that as soon as they get back to school in January,” he said.</div>
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“During their first semester, students do a lot of testing of the waters, and they have probably learned some valuable lessons,” Johnson said. “Whether they’ll tell parents that right away, probably not. That’s the reason for the probing questions. Through that reflection and those conversations, that’s where you’ll hear the maturity. If you’re just looking at physical changes, those won’t be as apparent. It’ll be in the conversations and the probing of their experiences.”</div>
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But, Johnson cautioned, don’t expect answers in the first 24 hours.</div>
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“They’re probably going to sleep,” he said. “Give them time to acclimate to the room they used for 18 years.”</div>
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Written by Dr. Levester Johnson, Butler University<br />
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Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-50377072824357953952010-12-02T14:21:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:54:37.172-06:00Social Media: New Ways to Pick the Best College for You<div style="text-align: justify;">
Social media sites are dramatically changing the way teens and colleges connect with each other to find the perfect match. Today, a teenager can take a tour of a campus, attend a class, chat with an admission officer and accumulate enough reconnaissance on a school to fill a book — all from thousands of miles away.</div>
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Three free sites in particular — Cappex, Zinch and the colleges’ fan pages on Facebook — let students reach out to particular colleges or hope that schools using the sites will discover them (or both). Beyond matchmaking, the sites have clever ways students can research schools: snazzy admission tools, videos, and information on scholarships and financial aid, all served up in easy-to-use formats.</div>
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“The traditional high school visits have passed us by,” observes Bob Patterson, deputy director of undergraduate admissions at the University of California, Berkeley. “I see more and more students interacting over the Web.” Berkeley is increasingly using social media to reach students, rather than having its admission reps parachute in to visit high schools.</div>
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Cappex and Zinch, which didn’t even exist three years ago, are especially useful in letting students and schools look beyond their regions to find each other. During the past admission season, for example, more than three in 10 high school students who contacted Kalamazoo College, a highly ranked liberal arts school in Michigan, came through Zinch or Cappex.</div>
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Facebook college pages are pretty much like any other Facebook interest page, letting you keep up with the latest news and chat with other fans. But Cappex and Zinch work more like matchmakers: Students create profiles on the sites to locate colleges that seem like good fits, while colleges tell the online firms the type of students they’d like to find. Schools might be looking for students with certain grade point averages or standardized test scores, or they may be interested in highly tailored searches. (For instance, a school could use Zinch and Cappex to locate minority teens from the Midwest who play an instrument, maintain at least a 3.4 GPA, and are looking for a medium-sized university near a city.) The sites share their matches with colleges, but the schools won’t know a student’s identity unless the teenager wants to share it.</div>
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Meghan Conroy, a college student who attended high school in Neptune, N.J., found Cappex, Zinch, and Facebook offered a huge boost in researching and reaching out to schools. “These sites have so much information in one location,” says Conroy. “It was easier than buying those huge books like the Princeton Review, and it was cheaper.”</div>
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Here are closer looks at Cappex, Zinch, and Facebook college fan pages as well as the most helpful features on them:</div>
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<b>Cappex</b></div>
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Cappex has about 3,000 schools in its database, including four-year colleges, online, and for-profit schools. Helpful features incude:</div>
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* Merit scholarships: Cappex has assembled information on roughly 79,000 merit scholarships offered by particular colleges. Merit scholarships are larger than private scholarships, which are often worth less than $2,000. When I typed in Washington University in St. Louis, I instantly obtained a list of 21 scholarships from the school (nearly all renewable) ranging from $2,500 for dance majors to more than $37,000 for humanities, architecture and science majors.</div>
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* Handicapping acceptance: The site’s What Are My Chances? Calculator can generate scattergrams for specific schools, showing their acceptance rates for students who participated in Cappex. The calculator also provides its own assessment of whether the student has a realistic chance of admission into a particular school. When I used it to see if my imaginary California junior could get into Wake Forest, the software concluded that she had just a middling chance of admission. </div>
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<b>Zinch</b></div>
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Zinch casts a smaller net than Cappex because it focuses on traditional four-year colleges. The 700-plus schools that participate include the likes of Yale, MIT, Wellesley, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Vanderbilt, along with hundreds of lesser-known institutions. Among its advantages:</div>
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* Social networking: One of Zinch’s big selling points is that teenagers can network on the site so they can instantly discover other students interested in the same colleges and compare notes. A Zinch user can click on other students’ names (first names only) and find out where they attend high school, their profiles, and the colleges that have expressed an interest in them. Students can also screen for classmates from their own schools.</div>
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* ‘Shout outs’: College admissions staffers can only contact a Zinch user if the student has chosen to click on the college’s Zinch link and make a “shout out” to the school — sending in his or her own profile information, and getting access to You Tube videos and photos about the school, a discussion board, and other information. When UC Berkeley began using Zinch, the college wasn’t prepared for the avalanche of 1,000 “shout outs” it received in the first month. </div>
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<b>Facebook</b></div>
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Visit a college’s Facebook fan page and you’re likely to see virtual campus tours, You Tube videos, photos, comments from current and prospective students, and standard admissions information. Applicants can ask questions or post comments on fan pages; some schools even let them apply through Facebook, giving whole new meaning to the phrase “common app.” Nearly 90 percent of four-year colleges have Facebook fan pages, according to BlueFuego, a higher-ed media consultant.</div>
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Many college experts say Facebook fan pages are most beneficial for students who have finalized their list of schools they’ll apply to or ones who’ve been accepted. Before then, teenagers don’t want colleges intruding on their Facebook territory, which they consider their social refuge, says Shelley Krause, co-director of college counseling at Rutgers Preparatory School in New Jersey. Among the Facebook pages’ uses:</div>
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* Admissions access: Admission officers use their Facebook fan pages to quickly knock down rumors, correct misinformation in the ether, and to answer applicants’ questions. You can see a lot of errors, for instance, on College Confidential, a popular site with discussion boards about individual colleges.</div>
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* Meet and greet: Accepted students can begin their acclimation to college early by participating in their institution’s Facebook fan page. Through this forum, teens can begin meeting their classmates online months before freshmen orientation. That just might make them more chipper at home and more likely to talk with you, which is a nice side benefit.</div>
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Written by Lynn O'Shaughnessy for <a href="http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/article/social-media-new-ways-to-pick-the-best-college/484577/">CBS MoneyWatch</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-89399208508757429752010-12-02T13:55:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:54:21.241-06:00Preparing to Make the Most of Your College Tour<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every year, people spend a good deal of money to check out colleges, but rather than returning home with the information they were seeking, they often find themselves exhausted and more confused than before. This is especially disheartening for students who will have the opportunity to visit colleges that are far from home only once. </div>
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In my experience, the most productive college tours have been well thought out and reasonably planned. Here are a few simple things you can do before you ever leave home to hopefully make your college tour more productive - and pleasant.</div>
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<b>Do your research.</b> Before you decide which schools to visit, find out everything you can about them. Make sure they have the all the programs you are looking for and that you have a reasonable chance of being admitted there. While you’re on the schools’ websites, be sure to check out their information about visiting campus. Make sure to note whether you have to register for tours in advance, the phone number for Admissions, as well as the procedure for sitting in on a class.</div>
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<b>Make a reasonable plan.</b> Once you’ve done your research, decide which schools would be the most helpful to visit. I strongly recommend that you pace your college tour in such a way that you visit no more than two colleges a day. This will give you enough time to do more than just the standard tour, as well as help prevent all the colleges from blending together. If this will be your only chance to visit a campus, take the opportunity to sit in on a class - if allowed - and speak with someone in Admissions. These last two things may need to be set up well in advance of your arrival, so be sure to give them a call at least 2 weeks before you plan to be there.</div>
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<b>Make a list of the information you want to get from each college.</b> Take the time to consider what you would like to know about each college that you weren’t able to get from your research. (i.e. Do a lot of the more local students go home on the weekend?) Be sure to get your all your questions answered at every college you visit so you can compare them. Just a hint: don’t feel like you need to limit your questions to your tour guide or admissions reps. Go ahead and ask other students you may meet on campus. If your question can only be answered by a professor in a certain discipline, be sure to ask the people in admissions if they can arrange for you to speak with one of those professors. (This is another thing that needs to be set up well in advance.)</div>
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<b>Make the most of your meals and lodging.</b> As you plan your college tour, keep in mind that there’s more to college than classes and campus buildings. This can be an excellent opportunity to get a better sense of the atmosphere on and around the school. Choose lodging close to the colleges you are visiting whenever possible, so you can get a sense of the “flavor” of the area. When it comes to meals, be sure to have lunch in the dining commons of whatever school you’re visiting at the time. In the evening, make the effort to eat at a restaurant near a different campus on your tour to get yet another perspective on campus life. Not sure which restaurant to try? Try using the school’s Facebook page to ask for recommendations from current students.</div>
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<b>Take care of the logistics.</b> There are some things you can’t control such as flight delays or rental car snafus, but the better prepared you are for your college tour, the more likely the small stuff won’t ruin it. Here are a few of my logistical recommendations. Confirm all reservations. Check the weather forecast before you pack, so you have the right clothes with you. Have printed directions and a map with you- just in case the rental place runs out of GPS systems or it malfunctions. Allow enough time to find parking and locate the Admissions Office. Make sure you wear comfortable walking shoes for campus tours. If you have been dealing with a specific admissions rep, be sure to have their name and phone number with you in case you run into a problem.</div>
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<b>Discuss expectations before you leave the house.</b> A college tour isn’t exactly a vacation where everyone can do their own thing. In order to run smoothly, everyone needs to know what is expected of them. Parents and students should talk about what parts of the college tour they will do together (i.e. campus tour) and which ones they will not (i.e. eating in the dining commons). Discussing seemingly small things, such as what time you will need to get up each day, can be important in preventing unnecessary tension. The key is to clearly communicate expectations with each other in advance in order to avoid potential misunderstandings later.</div>
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Once you’ve done this, you’re ready to pack your bags and find out exactly what the colleges on your tour have to offer you.</div>
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Written by Julie Manhan</div>
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Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a></div>
Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-64119913804111790952010-11-22T10:42:00.000-06:002013-12-18T09:55:22.753-06:00More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them<div style="text-align: justify;">
If any of the 70 undergraduates in Prof. Bill White’s “Organizational Behavior” course at Northwestern University are late for class, or not paying attention, he will know without having to scan the lecture hall.</div>
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Their “clickers” will tell him.</div>
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Every student in Mr. White’s class has been assigned a palm-size, wireless device that looks like a TV remote but has a far less entertaining purpose. With their clickers in hand, the students in Mr. White’s class automatically clock in as “present” as they walk into class.</div>
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They then use the numbered buttons on the devices to answer multiple-choice quizzes that count for nearly 20 percent of their grade, and that always begin precisely one minute into class. Later, with a click, they can signal to their teacher without raising a hand that they are confused by the day’s lesson.</div>
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But the greatest impact of such devices — which more than a half-million students are using this fall on several thousand college campuses — may be cultural: they have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages, e-mail and other distractions.</div>
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In Professor White’s 90-minute class, as in similar classes at Harvard, the University of Arizona and Vanderbilt, barely 15 minutes pass without his asking students to “grab your clickers” to provide feedback</div>
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Though some Northwestern students say they resent the potential Big Brother aspect of all this, Jasmine Morris, a senior majoring in industrial engineering, is not one of them.</div>
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“I actually kind of like it,” Ms. Morris said after a class last week. “It does make you read. It makes you pay attention. It reinforces what you’re supposed to be doing as a student.”</div>
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Inevitably, some students have been tempted to see clickers as “cat and mouse” game pieces. Noshir Contractor, who teaches a class on social networking to Northwestern undergraduates, said he began using clickers in spring 2008 — and, not long after, watched a student array perhaps five of the devices in front of him.</div>
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The owners had skipped class, but their clickers had made it.</div>
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Professor Contractor said he tipped his cap to the students’ creativity — this was, after all, a class on social networking — but then reminded them that there “are other ways to count attendance,” and that, by the way, they were all signatories to the school’s honor principle. The practice stopped, he said.</div>
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Though the technology is relatively new, preliminary studies at Harvard and Ohio State, among other institutions, suggest that engaging students in class through a device as familiar to them as a cellphone — there are even applications that convert iPads and BlackBerrys into class-ready clickers — increases their understanding of material that may otherwise be conveyed in traditional lectures.</div>
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The clickers are also gaining wide use in middle and high schools, as well as at corporate gatherings. Whatever the setting, audience responses are received on a computer at the front of the room and instantly translated into colorful bar graphs displayed on a giant monitor.</div>
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The remotes used at Northwestern were made by Turning Technologies, a company in Youngstown, Ohio, and are compatible with PowerPoint. Depending on the model, the hand-helds can sell for $30 to $70 each. Some colleges require students to buy them; others lend them to students.</div>
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Tina Rooks, the chief instructional officer for Turning Technologies, said the company expected to ship over one million clickers this year, with roughly half destined for about 2,500 university campuses, including community colleges and for-profit institutions. The company said its higher-education sales had grown 60 percent since 2008, and 95 percent since 2006.</div>
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At Northwestern, more than three dozen professors now use clickers in their classrooms. Professor White, who teaches industrial engineering, was among the first here to adopt them about six years ago.</div>
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He smiled knowingly when asked about some students’ professed dislike of the clickers.</div>
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“They should walk in with them in their hands, on time, ready to go,” he said.</div>
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Professor White acknowledged, though, that the clickers were hardly a silver bullet for engaging students, and that they were just one of many tools he employed, including video clips, guest speakers and calling on individual students to share their thoughts.</div>
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“Everyone learns differently,” he said. “Some learn watching stuff. Some learn by listening. Some learn by reading. I try to mix it all into every class.”</div>
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Many of Professor White’s students said the highlight of his class was often the display of results of a survey-via-clicker, when they could see whether their classmates shared their opinions. They also said that they appreciated the anonymity, and that while the professor might know how they responded, their peers would not.</div>
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Last week, for example, he flashed a photo of the university president, Morton Schapiro, onto the screen, along with a question, “Source of power?” followed by these possible answers:</div>
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“1. Coercive power” (sometimes punitive).</div>
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“2. Reward power.”</div>
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“3. Legitimate power” (typically by virtue of one’s office).</div>
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“4. Expert power” (more typically applied to someone like an electrician or a mechanic).</div>
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"5. Referent power” (usually tied to how the leader is viewed personally).</div>
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To Professor White’s seeming relief, a clear majority, 71 percent, chose No. 3, a sign that they considered his ultimate boss to be “legitimate.”</div>
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And then, to his delight, the students emerged from their electronic veils to register their opinions the old-fashioned way.</div>
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“They can be very reluctant to speak when they think they’re in the minority,” he said. “Once they see they’re not the only ones, they speak up more.”</div>
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Written by Jacques Steinberg for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/education/16clickers.html?_r=1&emc=eta1">The New York Times</a> <br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com/">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318100908409435290.post-81907053185632677812010-11-11T15:57:00.000-06:002010-11-11T15:57:13.639-06:006 College Admissions Tips for Artistic StudentsIf your child wants to major in musical theater or some other performing art, go ahead and blame it on <i>Glee</i>, <i>American Idol</i> or <i>America's Got Talent</i>.<br />
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Television shows make performing look fun, but the process of applying to colleges as a prospective visual or performing arts major is anything but. For these students, the admission process can be even more nerve wracking and time consuming because of requirements for auditions or portfolios.<br />
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To learn more about what's involved in being a prospective visual or performing art major, I talked with Halley Shefler, former dean of admissions at both the Boston Conservatory and the School of Music at Boston University. She is now a college consultant at The Arts Edge, which works with students who want to major in music, theatre, arts, and dance.<br />
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Here are six of Shefler's suggestions on how artistic students—and their parents—can navigate the admission process:<br />
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1. Don't apply where everybody else is. Ambitious students who are aiming for the same elite schools that are on everyone's short list will usually be disappointed. These schools are overrun with applications and will reject most students. In musical theater, for instance, applicants tend to flock to the University of Michigan, New York University, Boston Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University, and the College-Conservatory of Music, which is part of the University of Cincinnati.<br />
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Other wonderful school in musical theater, Shefler suggests, include Syracuse University, University of the Arts, Elon University, Otterbein College, Point Park University, Millikin University, Montclair State University, and Florida State University.<br />
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"You don't need to go to Juilliard, NYU, or the Cincinnati Conservatory to make it in the arts," Shefler emphasized.<br />
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2. Solicit opinions from experts. It's a reality that many stage parents believe their teenagers are far more talented than they are. With inflated opinions of their abilities, Shefler has seen countless teenagers apply to highly selective schools where they have no hope of attending. Families should ask outside experts to critique their students' talent.<br />
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3. Look for joint auditions. Going to auditions can be expensive, which is why some schools in the art fields hold joint auditions.<br />
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Some schools that offer a bachelor of fine arts program in theatre get together every year to hold a "National Unified Audition." In 2011, the audition will be held on different dates in February in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.<br />
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For visual art and design majors, there is "National Portfolio Day." Representatives of schools will review artwork and offer feedback for the students who attend.<br />
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4. Consider traditional universities or colleges. For lots of students, art schools and conservatories are going to be unaffordable. Many of these institutions are expensive and yet the financial aid students receive is often modest compared to traditional colleges and universities that offer a broader array of majors.<br />
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The Savannah College of Art and Design, for instance, only meets 20 percent of the typical student's financial need, according to College Board statistics. This is a school costs more than $41,000. The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where tuition with room and board costs $47,050, typically covers 59 percent of a student's financial need. The Boston Conservatory meets an average of 40 percent of a student's need. In contrast, many elite colleges meet all or nearly all of students' financial need.<br />
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5. Be prepared for the audition. When you are at an audition, don't wear a T-shirt and jeans. You should also not wear anything that would draw attention away from your performance. You don't need to buy a suit, but consider choosing an outfit that you would wear on a first date, Shefler suggests.<br />
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You should also perform appropriate material during an audition. A 17-year-old, for instance, shouldn't perform a piece that requires her to pretend to be a middle-aged woman.<br />
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6. Parents, take a chill pill. In this time of high unemployment, more parents than ever seem to be hoping that their children major in something practical like business or engineering. But art majors end up with many desirable skills such as being able to present in front of a group, taking constructive criticism, and being equipped with excellent speaking skills. Remember, what's most important is that students graduate with a degree!<br />
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Written by Lynn O'Shaughnessy for <a href="http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-college-solution/2010/11/09/6-college-admissions-tips-for-artistic-students.html">U.S. News & World Report</a><br />
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for <a href="http://www.educationalconsulting.com">Kahn Educational Group, LLC</a>Lindy's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435903595554092403noreply@blogger.com1