This is the time of year when plenty of super-achieving high school seniors are agonizing about their college choices.
Their parents are just as frazzled as they are. What stresses these families is choosing between an expensive brand-name university (often on the East Coast) or a relatively affordable public university. I’ve been getting emails from parents who are facing these very choices. Here are snapshots of their dilemmas: The daughter of one mother was accepted into the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University, but what got the teenager excited was a coveted acceptance from New York University. The mom shared this in her email: She is determined to go to NYU because she thinks it's the best school and will give her all the contacts after college. She's paying for it so she thinks she can do whatever she wants, but she will have a $200K debt when she graduates in four years. Her dad and I think this is a huge mistake but she won't listen to us. Also weighing in was a father from Southern California whose son, who is interested in sports management, got into Indiana University, University of Massachusetts and the University of Minnesota. While the dad considered it a long shot, his son applied to New York University and was accepted. The dad works in a boom-and-bust business, real estate development, and while he has the money to pay for an NYU degree that he figures will cost $300,000, he wouldn’t be able to afford such an extravagant education for his youngest son who is just one year younger. And then there is the mom in New Mexico whose daughter, a National Merit finalist, got into George Washington University, which was her dream college because of its location in Washington, DC, and it’s opportunities for internships. She received a $20,000 yearly merit scholarship from GWU. Her biggest scholarship haul, however, came from the University of Mississippi where she got into the honors program and received a full ride plus a yearly stipend. I’ll reveal shortly where each students is heading off in the fall, but first here’s a brief backgrounder about college pricing...................... Excerpt from Cappex
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Yes, there is such a thing as writing your college essay too early. For over a decade, my students (and their parents) have heard me deliver this refrain, and it remains true as it ever was.
At the sprightly age of 16 or 17, students are pulling from a limited set of life experiences for their college application essays; and every month of life lived offers new experiences and paths to maturity that could help them write more thoughtful and effective personal statements. Ideally, students should begin writing their essays at the tail end of their junior year or the summer before their senior year, but not before. That said, there is no such thing as preparing to write your essay too early. Just because you shouldn’t pen your personal missive in full before the end of junior year doesn’t mean you can’t start gearing up for the task. Here are three things you can do to be better prepared when you finally sit down to tap out that admissions essay masterpiece. 1. WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THE TASK AT HAND.Most students come to the application process with little experience writing personal statements. Very few have been tasked with writing these kinds of highly introspective essays in their school curriculum and many feel uncomfortable writing at length in the first person. The college essay is also an assignment with a highly specific purpose, meant to reveal something to admissions about an applicant that may not be present anywhere else on the application............ Excerpt from USA Today College When I give college information sessions at high schools, I’m used to being swarmed by students. Usually, as soon as my lecture ends, they run up to hand me their résumés, fighting for my attention so that they can tell me about their internships or summer science programs.
But last spring, after I spoke at a New Jersey public school, I ran into an entirely different kind of student. When the bell rang, I stuffed my leftover pamphlets into a bag and began to navigate the human tsunami that is a high school hallway at lunchtime. Just before I reached the parking lot, someone tapped me on the shoulder. “Excuse me, ma’am,” a student said, smiling through a set of braces. “You dropped a granola bar on the floor in the cafeteria. I chased you down since I thought you’d want your snack.” Before I could even thank him, he handed me the bar and dissolved into the sea of teenagers........ (Excerpt from NY Times) |
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This blog is meant to share information, resources and tools. Some are original works by staff at NTHS and others are republications of useful posts. These republications, the authors and any comments do not represent North Tahoe High School, it's staff or TTUSD (or it's opinions/beliefs). Archives
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