Back to School: New Tutors!

We're excited to introduce you to a few new members of the Tutorpedia team! As always, you can browse tutors or search for a tutor in your area on the Tutorpedia website.

Ariel M.

Location: San Francisco

Education: B.S. Stanford University, Biological Sciences, concentration in Ecology and Evolution

I'm a tutor, published scientist, and an educational game designer. I love Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math - known as STEM. More specifically I like emphasizing the creativity required to excel in these fields. I have 3 years of tutoring and/or teaching experience at Stanford; I look forward to bringing my style of tutoring - informed by games and learning research - to you! When I'm not tutoring or working on games I love reading science fiction, road biking, and fiddling in a bluegrass band. Schedule a session with Ariel!

David W.


Location: San Francisco

Education: B.A. Columbia University, 2007: German Literature; M.S. San Francisco State University, 2014 (expected): Physics

I have always considered myself a well-rounded learner and now teacher. My educational history includes years of study of German, literature, physics and film (among other things). After living in a few cities, I ended up in SF, where I am now in graduate school for Physics. I have spent the past few years working as a high school teacher in Berlin, Boulder and the Bay Area, predominantly in math and sciences--although I would love the opportunity to tutor German or film. Schedule a session with David!

Todd L.


Location: Atherton

Education: Amherst College, 2012. B.A.s in Art and the History of Art and Sociology, magna cum laude with distinction.


My first teaching experience was as a photography teacher at an academic summer program for underserved youth, and it was there that I learned three important lessons that are still central to how I teach. Firstly, to be a good teacher, I also need to be a good student. Secondly, there is another way to communicate whatever I am teaching; I just have not thought of it yet! Thirdly, how I teach needs to align with how my students think and learn best; teaching according to all these lessons has helped me develop more much fruitful strategies to help my students learn better. Schedule a session with Todd!

George Z.

Location: Berkeley

Education: Lowell High School '01; UC Davis, Reed College '07 BA English Lit; UC Irvine 2010 MA English Lit; UC Irvine PhD (in progress) English Lit

I am an English Lit PhD student working towards finishing my dissertation on racial commodification in the post-War American novel. As a tutor and educator, I specialize in writing and composition, English lit, grammar, SAT verbal subjects and SAT II English. I have over 7 years of experience teaching and tutoring as well as 5 years of classroom experience teaching writing and critical thinking at the collegiate level. When I'm not reading and writing as a semi-professional reader and writer, I like to hike, play basketball, build PCs, cook as well as eat food from around the world, travel and pretend to be a photographer. Schedule a session with George!

Daniela C.

Location: San Francisco

Education: I am currently finishing up my last year of Law School at UC Berkeley. My field of interest is Patent Law which has allowed me to combine both my degree in law and degree in Molecular Biology which I previously obtained at UC Berkeley (undergrad) and UC Davis (grad school).

I have always enjoyed tutoring and mentoring students so that they can reach their true potential and get into the college of their choice. I have experience teaching and tutoring students of all ages from college students who need help with Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as children in elementary school who struggle with Reading and Comprehension. Schedule a session with Daniela!

Spotlight on Blue Star Admissions Counseling

Tutorpedia partners with several rockstar counselors to give our students additional support with navigating the college admissions process. This month's feature is Blue Star Admissions Consulting's Amy Morgenstern, Ph.D, also known as "Dr. M."

We like Dr. M because she has great organizational skills to keep students on schedule, she is a phenomenal writing coach, she is an expert at helping students with school-selection, and she has a superior track record with impressive results for her students and glowing recommendations from families.

During this past year, Dr. M donated her services to one of Tutorpedia Foundation's scholars, Bianca. With Dr. M's help, Bianca successfully navigated the college application process and recently enrolled at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY.  Congratulations Bianca!

We asked Dr. M to tell us more about her experience working with Bianca. Here's what she had to share:

"Assisting some of the Bay Area’s most competitive students with admission to top universities most certainly provides an educational consultant with a great sense of accomplishment. Helping an under-resourced, urban high schooler get into college when he or she would not otherwise have the chance: that brings great inner joy. Just last week, Bianca, to whom I donated my services, enrolled at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY, just north of NYC, to pursue her dream to be a social worker so that, in her own words, she can “help people and make them happy.” And she means it.

An avid community volunteer (she even got herself to a remote village in Costa Rica  last summer and built a concrete floor for the church kitchen) who both laments and loves her far-less-than-ideal neighborhood, Bianca brought a unique, honest voice and strength of character to the process that translated brilliantly into an admissions profile so much more capacious than her academic profile could convey on its own.

Exciting! Yet as fulfilling as it was, the work was also hard. Each of us clear-eyed, we combed every potential target school for an undergraduate social work program, narrowed the list down to 10 schools, and over a period of five months met weekly to tackle the bureaucracy and essay writing for each.

During our sessions, I became acquainted with the struggles of Bianca’s daily reality––exposure to violence, gang activity, sexism, poverty, city and landlord neglect––while she learned a thing or two about good writing and reflective thinking, gaining steady support along the way.

Now that we have completed the process and gotten Bianca through this first hurdle, we are thrilled and a little nervous. New challenges loom: acclimating herself to an unfamiliar region of the country, getting used to a more competitive academic climate, missing her family and neighborhood, and negotiating the cultural difference she will invariably encounter in Dobbs Ferry. Challenges notwithstanding, Bianca’s world has opened up; the way is hers to take, or pave, and for that, let us feel joy."

The entire Tutorpedia team is proud of Bianca's incredible resolve and remarkable accomplishments during this journey. We wish her the best of luck at Mercy College and beyond.

“It’s not about the brand, it’s about the fit.”

In his book Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges – And Find Themselves (Penguin Books), Dave Marcus shares what he has learned from observing the guidance counselor Gwyeth Smith (affectionately known as Smitty), of Long Island High School.

“It’s not about the brand, it’s about the fit,” Smitty would tell parents.

Marcus writes about the pressure put on adolescents to succeed, and how Smitty’s approach to the college search helped parents find ways to help their kids slow down, take advantage of the present, and in effect, redefine the word “success” in a more personally relevant way.

Some of his advice is shared in an interview with TeenLife blog, and Acceptance is often cited by the NY Times college admissions blog The Choice. Reader response to “Slow Down and Savor Middle and High School” on The Choice included this comment from Debra Makar:

“Savor middle and high school? I was a gifted student (Mensa member) and counted the minutes until I could get out of those horrible places. My experiences were, for the most part, either excruciatingly boring or cruel. I wanted out and the sooner the better. If I hadn’t started college classes during my junior year, I would have been suicidal. High school is not the same for everybody, sometimes it’s your social world and sometimes it’s your nightmare. The worse thing someone said to me was to enjoy it all since it was the best years of my life. I now chalk it up as the worst years of my life.”

Unfortunately, Debra is far from alone in this experience. School can be unhappy and even excruciating for a great number of young people, especially during middle and high school, even for those who are fulfilling certain requirements for "success." This brings us once again to the importance of finding your passion and a place where you feel you really fit. Having adults—parents, tutors, mentors—who know you well and can help you find joy in learning and doing, and a welcoming place in the world, is especially crucial during this time. In the end, this is what helps students reach their true potential and paves the way for their greater achievements.

Relationships that help nurture your curiosities and talents are the best form of support and can affect the rest of your life for the better. Have a comment or experience to share? Please join the conversation and post your thoughts below!

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.

Debunking the SAT

Of all the hoops students are made to jump through on their road to college, few are as disliked as the SAT. The test stands apart from content learned in school, and is rarely - if ever - thought of as having any amount of intrinsic value, but it nevertheless weighs heavy in the minds of countless college-bound students.  To many, the four hours spent sitting this standardized test is a make-or-break when it comes to college admissions. 

It's unfortunate that one's SAT score can be the pivotal deciding factor for admissions counselors.  Students' grades, accumulated over four years of work and study, seem to be a much more valid and reliable indicator of ability and performance than one number generated on one Saturday morning.  Yet, colleges still rely on the SAT to tell them something about their applicants.  Why?  What does the SAT tell you, exactly?

According to Edward Carroll, whose job it is to take the SAT over and over again, the infamous test tells you nothing except how good you are at taking the SAT.  He elaborates in this Washington Post article:

The SAT, more than anything else, shows how well you take the SAT. It is NOT a measure of a student's raw math or verbal ability. The College Board itself does not claim that the SAT predicts subject skills, but rather that it is a predictor of performance in college (along with the rest of a student's application).


Personally, I think it also filters out students who can't perform quickly. The test is rigidly and tightly timed. It is very, very difficult to finish each section and the [College Board] knows it. They design it that way so that they can assure a nice range of scores to the colleges for comparison.

 In this light, the SAT seems like cruel and unusual punishment.  To many students it may feel that way.  And they might be correct.  But just knowing these simple facts - that the SAT is not a measure of one's academic ability and that it's designed to be very hard to finish in the allotted time - might put some people's minds at ease.  The SAT, more than almost any other part of a young person's school experience, is about learning how to abide by the rules put in front of them, and play by those rules as well as they can.  Many other test prep companies make money (A LOT of money) teaching students tips and strategies on how to play by those rules as craftily as possible, and this does result in improved scores.  Knowing the rules and how to work in and out of them is an important skill, but at some point there must also be a recognition that this is simply a game that is being played, a hoop that students are being made to jump through.

Tutorpedia offers SAT prep both for individuals and as a small group workshop.  Tutorpedia's directors are also available to give free speaking engagements about the SAT to students, families, or school.  We do examine the context - the structure - of the test, but we prefer to focus on the content, the actual substance of what is being tested.  In this way, SAT success is directly tied to generalizable skills and habits of mind that students can use in school and in life.  And in this way, the SAT becomes a little more meaningful. 
Some colleges have de-emphasized the SAT in their applications, and some have gone "test-optional," that is, they have stopped requiring the test altogether.  The list of forward thinking schools like this is growing.  We at Tutorpedia applaud this stance, and hope to see more critical analysis of tests like the SAT from institutions of higher learning.

Good Value Colleges

Today's tough economic times make college decisions even more difficult. If it wasn't tough enough deciding between in-state or out-of-state schools, public or private, big or small, liberal arts or not, now your (or your parent's) pocket book will play a big role in where you decide to continue your education. The University of California schools have raised tuition 10% this year; even our beloved community colleges have increased their sticker price. The Ivies have been - and always will be - outrageously expensive. (The average hot liberal arts college costs $39,000/year, and four years at Harvard will set you back over $200,000!)

So where can you find the best bang for your buck? Or, in today's ed-speak, the best learning for your lifestyle? Check out these 10 interesting, quirky, yet very cost-effective colleges that Mother Jones Magazine put out this month. Here's a few highlights:

Berea College (Kentucky)
Tuition: Free!
All 1,549 students get free tuition for four years. Some live in the Ecovillage, environmentally friendly housing that features a "permaculture food forest" and a contraption that makes sewage so clean you can swim in it.

New College of Florida (Sarasota)
Tuition: $26,300/$4,700 in state
The Sarah Lawrence of the South favors tutorials and evaluations over giant lectures and letter grades. In the past 14 years, it's cranked out more Fulbright Scholars per student than Harvard, Stanford, or Yale.

California State University - Monterey Bay (Seaside)
Tuition: $3,845 + $339 per unit
The nearby Monterey Bay serves as the classroom for the school's popular Environmental Science, Technology & Policy major.

The University of Minnesota-Morris
Tuition: $8,830
This public liberal arts college has academic chops and green-energy cred: By 2010, it expects to go carbon neutral with help from an on-site wind turbine, which already produces 60 percent of the power on campus.

The College of New Jersey (Ewing)
Tuition: $16,825/$8,718 in state
Students at this small public college can make a four-year commitment to participate in service projects in return for a scholarship that covers up to full tuition. And they swear that the annual LollaNoBooza bash isn't totally lame.

So as you can see, lots of good colleges, lots of good cost. Harvard will give away $150 million this year in scholarships, but the University of Kansas, which has a fraction of the endowment that Harvard has, hands out $25 million every year. Point being, don't let this financial mess get in the way of finding the right college for your specific needs, interests, and budget. It might take some more research, some more patience, and some more time, but in the end, the next four years are well worth it.

Competing and Collaborating

The college admissions game is a very competitive one. But that's really just one symptom of the larger beast: school itself is a very competitive place. Those who have successfully made it through many of school's academic hurdles will be the first ones to say that such competitiveness doesn't end once one matriculates at the college of their dreams. The life of an academic is a constant competition - for grant money, for tenure, to get your paper or book out before anyone else does.

But why all the competition? Is learning a race that needs to be won? Perhaps it's a simple byproduct of the economic realities of higher education: lots and lots of people all want to be granted acceptance to a select few number of colleges. In other words, when it comes to college admissions, supply is low, and demand is high. Or perhaps it has something to do with personal recognition - trying to be the person whose name is selected for this medal or that prize. Or to put a more positive spin on the dilemma, perhaps a degree of competition will bring the best out in all competitors, push students to learn and achieve more than if they were simply given a teacher and a book and told to learn. Whatever the reason, all this competition has turned school (and applying to school) into something quite stressful for students.

Competition is inherent in most of the structures that school utilizes. The admissions process is an enormous competition, especially for top-tier schools (it has also spawned a college admissions industry, itself highly competitive). The types of assessments and grading methods that most schools try to use incite competition. Awards are given out, class rank is calculated, and GPAs are amassed, all to somehow enhance one's chances at future successes. The No Child Left Behind law was written primarily because of concerns of "21st century global competitiveness." And all of this, of course, is modeled in the post-school world, where the United States has been relying heavily on competition to encourage innovation and economic growth, and its citizens take open-market competition as a given in their individual lives.

Small amounts of healthy competition can be good, but competition taken to the level students experience today isn't. Learning isn't a race, and making it into one renders the runners fatigued, edgy, distrustful of their peers, and not always eager to practice. There must be some sort of alternative, one that involves collaborating with our peers and working towards a common end goal, one that involves some sort of shared experience.

This isn't a concept familiar to those of us who have ground (or are grinding our way) through the machinery of our current school system, but it is one for which we should advocate. Thinking globally, it may be the case that schools won't change until society (and what society values) changes, but we can do something. At Tutorpedia, it is our goal to instill a love of learning and a belief that the school experience is itself intrinsically valuable into every student we work with. We put a great deal of stock into the collaborative relationships we form with our students. And in the coming months, we are preparing to introduce a series of small-group workshops in which students will be encouraged to work with each other - not against each other - in order to make, do, and understand things that are themselves very much worth making, doing, or understanding. Experiences such as these in students' lives can be powerful reminders that what we do in school is bigger than what our college applications will say.

Intrinsic Value

For many college-bound students, school is often just a means to an end. Students (and parents) may believe and understand why school is important, but that belief and understanding is an abstract ideal. On the day-to-day level, the experience of going to school can often be more drudgery than enjoyment. Yet, millions of students endure their school experience, holding fast to the idea that this, somehow, will pay off later. The thought process goes something like this: doing well in school will allow you to get into a good college, which will then allow you to find a high-paying job and comfortable life.

This line of thinking is unarguably correct, but it leaves something enormous out of the equation - the intrinsic value of learning. And this is a terrible shame. Both because learning has a great deal of intrinsic worth, and because when we enjoy what we're doing, we tend to be much more successful at it.

Alfie Kohn, in his book The Schools Our Children Deserve (p.119), gives us four reasons for the purpose of schools, set up on a 2x2 matrix that looks like this:

	Private	Public
Humanistic	Enhancing Personal Fulfillment	Building a Democratic Society
Economic	Maximizing Competitive Financial Success	Increasing Corporate Profits

This matrix is potentially illuminating. We see that the institution of school simultaneously operates at and serves several different levels and interests. Too often, though, the "economic" purposes are what are defined as important, and the "humanistic" interests are largely relegated to the bottom of the list when our kids ask why do I have to do this?

Kohn's "economic" reasons for schooling point towards this idea of schooling as a means to an end - places of learning, in this light, are places that set up and maintain the basic rules of society, and that if we want to be successful in society, we need to learn and master those rules. Again, this is undeniably true. Almost nobody would deny the importance of a college education in today's economy, or the competitive advantage college graduates have when they enter the job market. Sadly, though, some of the "humanistic" reasons for schooling have gotten lost in the scramble towards college and a better economic life. It is tragic when students (and parents...and even teachers) attribute academic success, or even involvement in extracurriculuars, to the fact that "it will look good on college applications." This may be true, but to do something simply for the sake of resume-padding is to miss the point as to why it might look good on a resume in the first place.

Focusing on the economic purposes of school as justification for working hard is like focusing on the destination and not enjoying the journey. Instead of fiercely driving towards an end goal at the expense of the journey, maybe it would make more sense to focus on the journey itself, to believe and understand that every step along the way is one that has intrinsic value. Instead of putting primary importance on outcome, which has been most of our tendency, we should focus instead on process. That is, instead of being constantly driven towards the college acceptance letter, students should invest more fully in the things they are learning in school every day. Engagement with school on a private, humanistic level will make school a more enjoyable, fulfilling experience, and because of this it will yield higher levels of academic success, which in this light is more of a byproduct of the process of learning as opposed to a primary goal. Therefore, a refocusing towards that which is right in front of us would not only make students' immediate experiences with school more enjoyable, it would also ultimately increase their achievement, and in doing so increase their economic and societal viability. That is, concentrating on the process actually leads to a more favorable outcome, even (and especially) when we aren't even thinking about the outcome!

This is a difficult concept to swallow for the goal-directed thinker. And the institution of school in the Western world is, of course, quite goal directed. In order to properly refocus on the intrinsic value of learning, then, society would need to take a different approach to schooling. Here the 2,500 year old words of Lao Tzu might be of use:

Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn't cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.

-Tao Te Ching, Chapter 63

Therefore, reinvesting students in the intrinsic value of learning should be one of the most important parts of educators' jobs. This makes school a more enjoyable, positive, and fulfilling place, yes, but it also will ultimately lead to greater overall academic success. How to go about doing this? A start is to make learning real, relevant, and rigorous. Learning should connect to students' life experiences, and tell them something about themselves and their world. It should be challenging and push them, but not so hard that they grow discouraged. Teaching should not be a series of memorizations or test-taking tricks; teaching should cultivate sophisticated habits of mind and hone skills that are generalizable to many different contexts. In this way, learning won't just be a means to an end. Learning will have intrinsic value, and that value will in turn affect positive academic outcomes.

Free Education

What if education were free? What would it be like if students and families had free access to the best teachers, tutors, curriculum, and pedagogy in the world? Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired magazine, argues in his new book that Free is the future of business, that every business that becomes digital eventually becomes free. Free is not new, but the rise of the Internet Age has created more Free models than ever before. Every two years, bandwidth, storage, and processing have doubled in speed and halved in cost. Lewis Straus, chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1953-1958, saw this coming, and at the dawn of the Nuclear Age intuitively predicted that electricity would some day be "too cheap to meter." He was wrong (we still write checks to PG&E every month), but digital bits - replacing material atoms - have become cheap enough that web-based businesses can round down, effectively offering their content and distribution for free (Andersen lists 50 case studies at the end of his book). Google, his number one example, makes its multi-billion dollar fortune by giving away its products for free (think gmail, google docs, and its new Chrome browser), and collects cash - plenty of it - from advertisers.

Anderson gives two Free models of education: free online textbooks and free online lectures. Flatworld Knowledge offers their content free online (and many colleges and universities participate in their archived catalog). They only have business and economics books now, but math, science, humanities and social science textbooks are coming soon. University of California, Berkeley, and Massachussettes Institute of Technology both provide their lectures free online. MIT's Open Courseware offers entire courses - including lectures, exams, and notes - free online, and Berkeley's free webcasts have allowed professors like Dr. Richard Muller to achieve pseudo-celebrity status with his "Physics for Future Presidents" lectures, also freely available on YouTube.

But what if we could offer more? Tutorpedia is currently providing or is in the process of creating the following 10 services free of charge:

• free tutoring to low-income students (through our Supplemental Educational Services program)
  
• free tutoring donated to local school auctions (we've given away over 100 hours)
  
• free content/workshops online (see this summer's offering)
  
• free college advice online (here on our blog from our local college counseling experts)
  
• free teaching/academic resources (coming soon, but check out Envision Schools Project Exchange)
  
• free training manuals (coming soon)
  
• free SAT curriculum (coming soon, but check out VocabSushi and Grockit for SAT prep)
  
• free college application help (coming soon)
  
• free college essay help (coming soon)
  
• free consultation with Founding Director
  

Free is the future of business, and Tutorpedia is interested in creating a Free model of Education - to close the achievement gap, improve access to college, and teach better life skills and habits of mind. Our hope is to create exciting, alternative, enriching content that parents, teachers, and students will use online (for free). Then, if and when you want that material taught to you by an expert, we're just a phone call or email away. Our tutors will continue to provide the collaborative relationships, innovative expertise, and holistic vision to do just that.

College Roundtable, Part 2

We had a great response to our first College Roundtable, and I'm happy to post answers to our second Roundtable question from four new local college experts:

Research shows that students undergo a sort of "brain drain" over the summer. Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in math over the summer months, and low-income students - despite the fact that their middle-class peers make slight gains - also lose more than two months in reading. Given this distressing data, what suggestions do you give students about how to stay engaged and academically active over the summer months? Keeping an eye specifically on college, what should seniors be doing while school is out?

David Montsano, College Match
Based on data showing that students lose two months of learning over the summer in math and in reading, it makes sense to stem the tide of this “brain drain” with a strategy for summer brain maintenance. Many of the students that I coach find that doing an intellectual project during the summer helps stem the tide from brain drain toward a summer spent actively learning.

Rising seniors might use the summer to practice for the SAT in the fall or do a capstone project. These types of activities should help reinforce concepts learned from class work during the previous year as well as provide much needed intellectual spark to avoid the summer doldrums brought by too much tv watching and video games. My advice is for students to find an area of academic passion that they can build a project around. One way to find this is to ask themselves, if I had 30 hours to research something, what would it be? So for example if a student is passionate about food and organics and also likes chemistry, there may be a project around testing organically grown food in different environments—at the grocery store, at an organic food store and at farmers markets. A summer research project while not exactly the same as work done during the school year helps keep the student engaged, provides an opportunity to flex intellectual muscles and sharpens the mind. Colleges like it too.

Kim Glenchur, Choices to College

Summertime for seniors is a busy time. First, academic skills must be at least maintained:

• Savor literature instead of rushing through chapters to complete an English assignment. Entering "summer reading list" into a web browser will draw up numerous suggestions from many reputable organizations. Most books on these lists will be found in public libraries.
• Manipulate math problems. The web browser can also look up "summer math activities high school." Cool Math Sites are among several options at all levels of math proficiency.
• Begin college applications, specifically prep for standardized tests (if not done yet) and write essays. Applications begin to appear around July. Working on them over the summer will reduce stress when classes restart in the fall. For low-income students, federal government TRIO programs were created to address issues of college access. Click on this link for more information: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/index.html. .

Second, identifying college selection criteria begins with self-knowledge. Though maintaining academic skills are vital, for purposes of college, rising seniors should try to participate in a summer activity that tests a favorite interest. Exploring it provides insight into whether to continue that interest to the next level in college. A good activity provides a fair test of that interest or even of related interests. Ideally, active hands-on learning supplements viewing experiences. The exploration process may also identify which colleges offer environments to further develop that interest -- a compelling reason to apply to a particular college. High school teachers, faculty club sponsors, and counselors are excellent information resources.

College applications commonly ask students about their previous summers. Note that an activity need not be costly. For example, one need not travel overseas to engage in a community service project, particularly if numerous local organizations need assistance. Do not discount the experiences gained from employment. Using a web browser to list "high school summer programs" will find over a billion options. Many of these programs will be offered at colleges and universities. Please be aware that attendance during an institution's summer session will not guarantee freshman admission.

Barry Beach, Arts Counselor

For students interested in studying art in college, the summer before their senior year is an important opportunity to take extracurricular art courses. As most students expecting to study art in college will be required to submit a portfolio of their work during the application process, summer is one of the best times to try a new kind of art to expand your portfolio.

Most students have taken drawing/painting courses, but trying more specialized courses in photography, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, etc. are good ideas. Liking a new course can highlight another major to consider. And not liking can be equally important - knowing what not to major in.

Pre-college programs are great for portfolio building, as they give prospective college students a taste of college life and an intense schedule of art-making. However, community colleges and local art centers usually offer numerous choices as well, and tend to be more affordable. One advantage of attending a pre-college program is the ability to select one at the college a prospective student is interested in attending. We artists are usually tactile people, so visiting and experiencing a place is important in the college narrowing process.

Marita Surace, College Applications Advisors

The first thing that comes to mind is preparing for the SAT/ACT (assuming a fall re-take or initial test), as well as keeping the mind in active mode. The best way to do this is to Read - A LOT - with a dictionary close by. Preferably, the reading would be focused on the classics - there are some terrific books that have stood the test of time and they contain many great SAT words and should keep the mind active for reading comprehension on the standardized tests. One could search online for lists of the 100 Greatest Books for High School or College Bound Students, or just walk into a library and ask a librarian for a recommendation at the reference desk. Many libraries have printed lists. Some libraries also have summer reading programs, where a student is rewarded with a free paperback.

An idea for writing would be to journal in any kind of notebook - every day. It keeps the thoughts and words flowing for that ultimate "College Essay" plus the SAT/ACT writing component, and starts the self-reflection process about goals for college. Teenage summers can often be very special and it could also end up as a wonderful longtime keepsake. My other recommendation would be to tutor others in Math. This could be done as a part-time job or on a volunteer basis. We actually learn subjects better when we teach them to others. Older students would benefit by tutoring younger ones in Algebra and Geometry, perhaps younger students who are repeating a class in summer school. This will keep the content fresh for Seniors for the test, and they will be able to list a "meaningful summer activity" on their college application.

I hate to focus so much on the SAT/ACT, but it currently is a reality of the college admission process. However, there will be great knowledge gained by the student, so maybe if they can think of it as self-education for life and not test prep, these activities may seem more interesting. I know that this is such an idealistic answer. If only the video game companies could create games around classic books and geometry, and engage teens educationally like they did with the Wii for exercise! At least that was a good start.

Plenty to do this Summer to prepare for the Fall

The summer is definitely a well-deserved break for students to relax and recharge for the upcoming school year. But it's also a critical time period for parents and students to start game-planning ahead for a number of important admissions-related activities, including: SAT/ACT test preparation, beginning work on writing samples or visiting/research potential colleges. After all, once the school year begins, your son or daughter is going to see virtually all free time disappear under the weight of a full course load and extra-curricular activties. The sooner you can impress it upon your child to begin the heavy lifting now (in balance with leisure time), the more likely that the college admissions process during the academic year will become more manageable and free of stress.

One good place to start in building some potential summer goals as it relates to preparing for college applications this Fall is to review a typical timeline-based checklist. These checklists aren't a great fit for every student, but it covers the general milestones and pace of preparing for college admissions for most students. One list we like that seems pretty comprehensive and is worth checking out is from QuestBridge here.

We definitely recommend utilizing the summer months to begin work on the personal statement. Free of school and other distractions, your child may be better positioned to write a more substantive, unhurried essay. And of course, completing an initial draft early on will allow for plenty of time to edit and rewrite. Check out last week's Times blog post on college essay writing tips for a start.

Finally, take some time to weight the relative benefits of visiting prospective colleges over the summer with your child. The NY Times' Advice for Travel section is a nice place to look for advice on planning and making the most of college visits. Within the Bay Area alone, there are a number of great colleges and universities worth visiting over a weekend including but not limited to:

California Maritime Academy
Dominican University of California
Holy Names University
Mills College
Notre Dame de Namur University
Saint Mary’s College of California
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco State University
Santa Clara University
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California at Davis
University of the Pacific
University of San Francisco

College Admissions in the 21st Century: Education as a Commodity

Continuing my live blogging from WACAC, here are some sobering figures from high school and college graduation:

• High school attrition rates have tripled in the last 30 years
• Only 70% of 9th grade students graduate from high school (the figure is closer to 50% for low-income and minority families)
• United States ranks 11th out of 32 similar industrial nations in terms of educational attainment
• Four-year college grads made 54% more on average than those who attended but didn't graduate

The College Board is presenting a new vision for college admissions in the 21st century. They have drafted an open letter to education professionals, which includes both a declaration of values to guide your profession and a re-framed college discussion and call to action. Some interesting research tidbits and advice from a Santa Monica City College rep:

• Academics - Algebra 2 completion has a significant impact on college success
  
• Summer - keep the mind engaged and reduce cerebral shrinkage after graduation
  
• Persistence - complete at least 20 units in your first year of community college (SMCC transfers more students to 4-year colleges than any other city college)

There's big applause as the College Board rep says it's time to do away with college rankings (I agree). Here's some independent sites to replace your perusal of US News & World Report's annual rankings:

• The College Board
• U-CAN
• College Portal
• Educational Conservancy

Who's going where? There are 18 million students in higher education today. Thirty-four percent attend public universities, 33% attend private schools, 14% attend non-profit institutions of higher learning, and 8% attend for-profit colleges. Online education is the fastest-growing sector of them all, with the University of Phoenix at the top.

Financial Aid Tips from WACAC

Knowledge is power. We've all heard that before, but it rings especially true when it comes to financing your college education. Especially in today's market, it's all about knowing the rules of the game, in this case the Financial Aid game. Here's some tips I picked up to lower your effective family contribution (EFC) from Fox College Funding:

1. If you have more than one student in college, note that! This will lower how much you have to pay for your most recent high school graduate.

2. Note the differences between FAFSA and CSS profile forms. They have different rules and apply different percentages to assets, income, and other financial data.

3. Assets should be reported with a 30-day "quick-sale" value - net of selling fees and taxes.

4. Custodial accounts can be reduced by reimbursing parents for expenses paid on the child's behalf.

5. For divorced families, FAFSA does not take non-custodial parent's financial info into account - for these purposes, custody is defined as the parent with whom the child lives (physically, not legally) the majority of the year.

6. If your first letter is denied, be sure to appeal in writing - from the student - and follow up in person (or over the phone). Other special appeal circumstances: change of employment, excessive debt or medical bills, private K-12 tuition, and supporting other family members. Appeal to other schools, and do some more homework: Check out FinAid!

7. If you can save for college, fill out Section 529 Plans. These are tax-advantaged tuition-savings plan sponsored by the state, state agencies, and educational institutions. For 2009-10 school year, it's counted as an asset.

8. PLUS loans are not financial aid gifts - these are awarded through the federal government - don't get fooled by seeing this on your award letter. (Standardized forms & awards letters coming soon!)

9. Federal Loan rates:

• Direct loans:
• Stafford - 6.8% fixed
• Perkins - 5% fixed
• PLUS - 7.9%

• FFELP loans:
• Stafford - 6.8% fixed
• PLUS - 8.5% fixed

• Military:
• 6% interest rate for borrowers in military

10. Apply for local and regional private scholarships: clubs, foundations, service groups, corporations, banks, individuals, etc. Many are merit-based and awarded to specific ethnicity groups and fields of study. Over $100 million in private scholarship money was not given away last year because students didn't know they were out there!

11. American Opportunity Tax Credit - up to $2500 paid on tuition and school costs can be tax-deductible, thanks to the Obama Administration.

12. Tax saving opportunities for high income families: Gifting, shifting income, and shifting assets.

Five (More) Ways to Fix Our Schools

As always, I find a good article in the NY Times from former New York City schools chancellor Harold Levy. Here are some new - and not so new - ideas about how to save our ailing schools:

1. Raise the age of compulsory education to 19. Instead of being done at 18 after 12th grade, the federal government should pay for 1 year of post-secondary education - community college, vocational school, whatever - from the funds that the public school district would get for that student. "The benefits of an extra year of schooling are beyond question: high school graduates can earn more than dropouts, have better health, more stable lives and a longer life expectancy." Great idea, would be even if Obama put this into his federal education plan.

2. Reduce no-shows with high-pressure sales tactics. Making repeated home visits and early morning phone calls, securing written commitments, and eliciting oral commitments in front of witnesses would be valuable ways to compel parents to ensure that their children go to school every day. Great idea - in my former teaching jobs in Oakland and Providence, RI, and now tutoring in San Francisco and East Palo Alto - the best way to secure student involvement is to keep on top of their parent or guardian. And if not them, then give each student an advocate, an ally.

3. Advertise creatively and aggressively to encourage college enrollment. The University of Phoenix is an extraordinary example of an on-line (for-profit) school spending millions of dollars in advertising (on-line) to grow to an enrollment of 350,000. Although I encourage online discussion and believe education is going more and more into cyberspace, I lament the day we eliminate face-to-face discussion, teacher-tutor-student mentoring, and a relationship that can only be created in person. A good idea, but colleges already advertise, and you'll get more ad space for the richer - not necessarily better - schools.

4. Unseal college accreditation reports. Make these public documents and allow the Department of Education to rate and rank more objectively college performance and prestige. These reports are generally kept secret, and US News & World Report captures our attention with its schools self-aggrandizing themselves and marketing themselves to appear more selective or fill-in-the-blank as they can. This is a great idea.

5. Improve parenting skills. This is tough to evaluate, can often be perceived as patronizing, but increasing our collective compassion for one another is a good thing. Reading to your child as opposed to watching TV or playing a video game is also a sure fire way to increase literacy and improve the chances that your child will be a better applicant for higher education. Decent idea - I have a hard time blaming the parents.