A Summer of Enriching Learning Experiences!

Summer is just around the corner! For students, summer is a great opportunity to try new things and participate in fun activities. It's a time to relax, but it should also be a time that is full of enriching learning experiences.

This summer, we are very excited to offer over 30 workshops that are designed to be fun and engaging, but also to build essential skills that students can use in school, work, and life. Every workshop culminates in a final project or performance that they’ll be able to share with peers, parents, friends, and the world. In the coming weeks, The Thick Envelope will feature posts about our workshops that will be offered this summer.

We are happy to hold our summer workshops at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, CA from June 7 - August 6. There will be four sessions of workshops. Each session lasts two weeks (June 7-18, June 21-July 2, July 12-23, July 26-Aug 6) and has a morning (10am-12pm) and afternoon (1pm-3pm) period, so there’s plenty of opportunity for students to take more than one workshop!

Tutorpedia Workshops are:

• Real (Project-based). At the end of every workshop, students will have made, done, performed, accomplished, or completed something that they can show to their family and friends.
• Relevant (Authentic). Students will not just be learning about something; they will be actively constructing their understanding and skills in a real context.
• Rigorous (but fun). Workshop authors have chosen the topics they are teaching. Not only are they passionate about their subject matter, they are experts in teaching it.
• Built on Relationships (Personalized). Like Tutorpedia’s 1-1 tutoring, small-group workshops take into account the needs and wants of every student who participates. Enrollment in workshops is kept small to ensure that nobody gets left behind or slips through the cracks. Workshops typically involve 6-10 students and last 12-20 hours (6-10 two hour sessions), but they can be as long or as short as the author wants.
• Enriching. Students cultivate essential skills and habits of mind in a fun, extracurricular context, and they have the chance to work collaboratively with peers who share their interests

Tutorpedia's summer workshops are a great and affordable learning opportunity for students that will help them keep their minds sharp, meet other students from all over the Bay Area, and have a great time learning this summer. For more information, or to enroll, please call us at (415) 948-1585, email davidtaus@tutorpedia.com, or visit our website.

Hope to see you this summer!

The Thick Email: Dealing with Acceptance (and Rejection)

There's a great article in the Huffington Post last month posted by the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions of Yale University, giving good advice to those who are now receiving their letters and emails from the myriad schools to which they applied. The entire article can be found here, but the main points are worth repeating for those who are in the process of dealing with what to do next...

• There is one and only one good answer to any rejection letter you receive, dream school or not: "Your loss, baby."
  
• Every one of your colleges has infinitely more opportunities to offer than you could pursue in a lifetime
• Wipe out every assumption you have made up to this point about these schools
• Go back for another visit to the schools you are seriously considering
• Ask those you know and care about to give you their honest impressions of the schools that admitted you
  
• Think about who is funding your college, and go back to make sure the finances still add up
• Remember above all else that no college is going to be paradise, and that all colleges have something truly outstanding to offer you

It's all about finding the right fit. Whether a romantic relationship, a full-time job, or where you'll spend the next few years of your life - find the right fit for you.

College Roundatble #4

This month's Roundtable question is posed to Matt Spooner, admissions officer at American Jewish University:

How has the economy affected admissions decisions, enrollment decisions, and financial aid determinations at your school? More specifically, has your school admitted more students or fewer, have you seen enrollment increase or decrease, and have you given more or less financial aid since the downturn?

While the economy hasn’t impacted the way AJU’s Admissions Team arrives at admissions decisions, we have noticed a significant climb in the number inquiries about scholarships and financial aid from prospective students and their families. This trend, coupled with our sensitivity toward the financial strain that so many of us are facing, has resulted in us giving more financial aid in recent years. In fact, AJU was recently recognized as one of the top 13 colleges and universities on The Princeton Review’s “Financial Aid Rating Honor Roll,” a first for our university and a sign that we’re working our way through some very difficult financial straits.

As a private institution with a solid financial grounding, AJU has been able to weather the downturn quite well. On average, we’ve admitted and enrolled more students over the past few months than we have during the past few years. Much of this can be attributed to our ability to be generous with scholarships and financial aid, a “must have” even for a low-tuition high-discount university like AJU.

New Website - Videos, Books, & Summer Workshops!

Check out our new website: www.tutorpedia.com.













View our new videos, books, and sign up for summer workshops at Sacred Heart Prep.

And for reflection...