Notice how the older, more experienced student is looking after the younger one? (Photo credit: Oakley Originals via Flickr)
Welcome back everyone!
By now I'm sure all of our Freshman and Sophomores are well on their way to a fantastic start to their high school career. But what about those students that have been there and done that? They need just a little more in the way of advice than just, "study hard." Lucky for all of you, in addition to the basics, we here at Omniac have more specialized things that our upper classman can be doing to improve their college applications!
Junior Year!
This is when most people start to really think about college, but you should have already done some of that stuff already, so you'll be a few steps ahead of your classmates. As always though, there's still plenty you can do.
"Study Hard!"
Thought I wasn't going to tell you this? Well, Im sorry, but there's never a time when you can afford to give up on your grades. The first thing you should do as a junior is take a good, long look at your GPA. If you've kept your nose to the grindstone the past 2 years, it'll be just more of the same for you. If not, then this is the time to try to pull that up. Remember! Most applications will have deadlines in the winter of your senior year, so you only have 2-3 more semesters to improve your grades.
"Take the PSAT"
This test is open to all juniors and there's really just no excuse not to take it. I know it's a long, boring standardized test, but if you do well enough, your college prospects will greately improve. Let me repeat that for emphasis. If you do well enough on this single test (the PSAT), colleges will literally fight each with big handfuls of money to get you to go to their school. And if you don't do very well...then you've only lost about 3 hours. Like I said, there's really no reason not to at least try it out.
"Take the ACT/SAT. Take them early and take them often"
On the subject of tests, when spring rolls around, you should be trying out your first ACT or SAT. These tests are only held 6 times every year; so the earlier you take it, the more time you'll have to
fix any problems you find. And if you get the score of your dreams now, then that's one less thing to worry about next year.
Senior Year!
Here it is! This is what the past three years have been all about. More than any other year in high school, your senior year is all about what you've made of it. If you've had your eye on the prize this whole time, you'll largely be able to sit back and enjoy yourself this year. But if you've slacked off as an underclassman, there'll be no enjoyment to be had as you work your butt off trying to play catch up.
"Avoid Senioritis"
The first and most important thing you can do during your senior year is AVOID SENIORITIS!!! One F or major discipline problem can destroy all the hard work you've put in over the past 3 years. The party that everone is going to or the class that's so easy to skip...is just not worth endangering your future. This is the last year of high school and the end is so close, just a little more work and you'll finally be done!
"Dot your Is and cross your Ts"
You've done all the work already. You've kept a good GPA throughout high school. You've experienced different clubs and activities and lived life outside of the classroom. You've taken your tests.
You've picked your colleges. Now all that's left is to put all that hard work together and wow colleges with your tremendous application.
That's all there is to it. If you can stay on top of everything, you can almost just coast this last year. You may have to take a test again, but at least you know what you need to do to prepare for test day. You will have lots and lots of applications to fill out, but since you've spent the past 3 years building towards this, it should be relatively easy. This is the reward for all the previous years of hardwork you've put yourself though, so enjoy it!
She looks like she's starting to study. Remember that: we'll go back to it again...several times. (Photo Credit: Dawn Ashley via Flickr.)
Hey all!
A new school year is right around the corner, if it hasn't gotten to you already, and there are always things you can be doing to improve your college applications regardless of your current grade. Every year, students of every grade level have questions about things they can do to start prepping for college. As always, Omniac is here with some answers!
So, without further delay, here are a few simple tips that any student can use to help prepare for college!
Freshman Year
In a lot of ways, freshman year is the most important year because it sets the tone for your entire high school career. Rock the socks off it, and you've put yourself in a great position to do the same for the next three years. But if you blow it, you'll spend those same three years trying to dig yourself out of a very, very deep hole.
1.
Study, Study, Study!The number 1 thing you can get taken care ofduring freshman year is
GRADES, GRADES, GRADES! High school GPA is the biggest clue as to how well a student will do in college and it's the most important part of your application. The earlier you can lock down your grades, the better you'll look to colleges.
2. Embrace your next 4 years!
After you get your grades where you want them, the next most important thing is to fully experience high school. Like it or not, this is where you'll spend the next 4 years of your life, and you can make yourself have a great time, or a miserable time. Obviously the better time you're having, the better you'll do academically. Make some more friends, check out sports, or band, or the myriad other clubs that every campus offers. Find your niche, find the thing that makes you special and colleges WILL notice.
Sophomore Year!
You're a year older, a year wiser, and you're hopefully well on your way to having that whole "high school thing" figured out. There are good and bad things about sophomore year: the Good is that you're not a freshman anymore. The Bad, though, is that you're kinda like the middle child of the school. You don't get all the cool stuff that the juniors and seniors get, but you're held to a much higher standard than the freshmen. That doesn't mean you can let sophomore year go to waste. There are still lots of things you can be doing to make this year great!
1. Find "Yourself" and make that person AWESOME!
After the obvious (keep those grades up!), the best thing to work on is YOU! Ya know, the unique individual things that make you stand out. Hopefully, you have a couple of ideas about what those things are, and you might have even found extra curricular activities that let you show your passions off. Dive as deep as you can into your activities and make them your own!
2. Take your show on the road!
Let's say that you've been finding things out about yourself that are unique and great and you've been exploring those things through your school. Fantastic! But there are plenty of other avenues outside of school that are just as good, if not better. Always remember that, in addition to big changes in your education, your high school years are about big changes to you and your community. Taking whatever skills and talents you have to help better your community is not only just an all-around good thing, but it will look even better on your application than school-sponsored events!
Thanks a lot for checking in with the first part of this series. We certainly hope that all Freshmen and Sophomores are able to put these ideas to good use so they can have a spectacular start to high school! Come back next time to see our tips for upper classman!
It's been said time and time again: Grades are by far the most important element of your college application. In the eyes of college admissions officers, high school grades reflect your comittment to learning, your desire to succeed, and your willingness to push yourself as you work toward your dream school.
When I meet with students, however, they largely consider GPA to be the least fascinating part of the college admissions process. Students always have questions about SAT and ACT tutoring, college essay help, and school search tips, but rarely does a kid sit across the table from me and ask "What about my grades?"
I think this is because students think that improving their grades is going to be hard work. And they aren't wrong. Bringing up your grades and improving your GPA requires more than just a twitch of your nose.
Yet, improving your GPA is easier than raising an SAT or ACT score. It's a lot easier than writing the perfect college essay. And it's a ton easier than doing hundreds of hours of community service or opening your own business to impress colleges.
So where do you start if you want to raise your GPA?
We suggest hiring a tutor. Our Omniac Tutors can cover any subject you throw at us and even come to your house to meet you!
And we don't think you should wait until finals week to get started working with someone. It's tempting to try to make things up at the end, but it's often not realistic. In addition, getting started early has quite a few advantages you probably haven't even thought about:
1. It's easier to catch up when you start early.
It is significantly easier for a tutor to help a student meet their academic goals before all of the damage has been done. Many of our clients call us the week before finals, hoping to use the last test to turn a D into a C. While we are always happy to help students patch things together at the last minute, all tutoring is more effective if it starts early and stays consistent. Learning is like losing weight; it can't happen all on one day!
2. Tutors help you focus on learning instead of your grade.
Most students get into trouble when they start to think that grades are more important than learning. A grade is temporary; you will get a new set every semester. If you are working smart, you should be focused on learning the material, not just getting your goal grade. Working with a tutor gives you the confidence you need to concentrate your efforts on understanding the class you are in now so that you can use that knowledge to learn more effectively in the future.
3. Busy schedules mean you have less study time.
Students with a long list of intensive extra curricular activities often don't have time to spend 3-5 hours on their own studying. While a student in an ideal setting would have an infinite amount of time to study and work, it's an unfortunate reality that most students don't have enough time to even do the homework they are given. A tutor can help make the most of the time you do have and aid you in prioritizing the elements that will help most when finals week does come calling.
4. Tutors keep you motivated by keeping you accountable.
A tutor is your study friend, there when you need a partner to keep you going or when you need someone to quiz you for that test coming up. They call you to remind you that you need to have all your math done by Friday before the test and they are there to answer questions at late hours when Mom and Dad are tired from a full day of work. In short, they've got your back when you need a lift to succeed!
5. Tutoring can help make your good grades great.
Are you consistently getting Bs? Always stuck at the low end of As, worried that you might drop lower? Why are you settling? Selective colleges don't mind the occasional B in a class, but you really should be earning As to impress the schools you dream about. Working with a tutor can streamline your work and push you to the point of real success! Think of tutors as personal trainers for your mind!
So go get a tutor. You'll thank me when your grades (and your college application) become that much stronger!
#########################################
Got other reasons that tutors rock? Leave them in the comments!
At Omniac Education, we pride ourselves on helping students "learn to fish." That means that we are much more interested in teaching kids skills that help them learn on their own than in telling them the answers to questions on their homework. In addition, it also means that we hold students accountable for their work and effort, emphasizing to them that they decide between and A and a F every time they work on any academic project.
Yet, parents still totally have a key role to play in the process. While we want students to take the lead on raising their grades, parents are an incredibly vital part of the overall success or failure of the student. We simply cannot succeed without their help!
With that in mind, here are a few tips for parents who are eager to get involved and make a difference for their children:
5. Ask Your Tutor Questions
Tutors may have specific advice that pertains to your student, but are not comfortable shoving more information at you. Some kids need more attention than others, or struggle with different parts of the school process and usually your tutor will be able to isolate their specific issues. Direct attention to these areas a child is struggling can be more beneficial than glossing over all aspects. Give your tutor a chance to point those out to you.
4. Communicate With Your Child's Teacher
If a teacher knows the parents are putting in effort, they are quicker to tell you progress is being made. If you let the teacher know you are working with them to help your student, they tend to ease up a bit and provide extra opportunities that otherwise might not have been made available. ALWAYS be positive. Your dialogue should always be about solving a problem. “What can I do at home to help my son?” is so much nicer to hear than “Why is my student failing your class?”.
3. Enforce Homework Time.
If a student can’t manage their grades, they lose the right to manage their time. Pick a two hour time slot and expect your student to work without distractions the entire time. Put the dog outside, turn the TV off, and get them out of the computer room. If their homework is done, they can read a newspaper or magazine. When their grades come back up, don’t quit! Reading comprehension applies to every subject and is something every student can always improve on. Ask your tutor for additional materials if you feel like you don't have enough!
2. Check Your Child's Homework
You might think that you don’t know the math, so you can’t check the homework. In reality, parents can do a lot just by looking over the work. Students consistently hand in low quality work that can be spotted from a mile away. Is anything blank? Have the student read the section with this problem and then rewrite the example that is similar, or all of them if they use the phrase “I don’t get it”. Watch how fast blank papers turn into actual effort! Just knowing that you are going to look at it means that your student will work harder on it.
1. Set high standards.
Ask your student what score they are trying to get on their next test. They will probably tell you “a B would be nice”. WRONG! If you know before you take the test that you are only going to get a ‘B’ then you knew ahead of time that you needed to study more, but chose not to. There is only one correct answer: “100%, plus the bonus if there is one.” Just saying this out loud is a huge push in the right direction and can help students set goals that will challenge their current abilities.
#####################################
A huge thanks to our Academic Tutoring Director, Michael Fitch, for helping to write this blog post. Thanks, Mike!
Got any tips we missed? Put 'em in our comments...
Hey all!
Over the past few months, Omniac has been proud to help the Carnival of College Admissions by supplying blog posts and even hosting! We love how awesome all the links are that Mark Montgomery collects!
This week the 13th edition of the Carnival was released and we were once again proud to be a part of it. Here are a few highlights:
- The current recession has made many students re-think their college
choices and even transfer to a more affordable school. Student blogger,
Ally Demos from myusearch.com, presents a video blog about how the
economic crunch is affecting college students. Elizabeth Kudner
presents College Students Feel the Economic Crunch posted at myUsearch blog.
- Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Awesome Open Courses and Lectures for Digital Artists posted at Online Universities.com
- Eric Perron, the host of our last edition of the Carnival of College
Admission, likes to talk back to the television. He offers his
critique of a recent program on college admission, aptly titled Come On “CBS Early Show”, This Is The Best Advice You Have To Pay For College? posted on his blog, Dream Strategy.
Go check the whole thing out! It's definitely worth it!
The holidays are a great time to eat pie, play with your new video games, and enjoy the fact that school feels a million miles away. Every student going to high school today (even the lazy kid in the back of the class) is so busy during the year that I heartily recommend taking it easy when you have a break.
If you're smart, however, you won't waste all of your time for the next two weeks. Instead, you'll use some of the free time you've got over Winter Break to start thinking about next semester...and about college!
But where to start? Should you visit school websites? Start cracking on your essay? Review Algebra II?
Let's be honest. You're not going to do any of those things. Tasks like visiting school websites are boring, random, and tough to focus on when you feel that you aren't leaving for school soon. You need tasks that are active right now!
With that in mind, here are some sites that will let you get active right now and get ready for school:
So go to it, Omniac Attack readers! Take advantage of all that free time and start using some resources!
################################
Got any great resources I missed? Leave them for me in the comments and I'll add them to the main post!
Welcome to the Seventh edition of carnival of college admission! Huge thanks obviously to Mark Montgomery for creating this awesome collection of college admission tips.
Let's get on with the show...
Admission
Adam Epstein presents Happy Holidays from the Admissions Staff posted at Adamissions, saying, "No heavy lifting this time, just fun holiday greetings. :)" Thanks, Adam!
College Degrees presents 2009: Janet Napolitano and the H1B Visa Cap posted at The Degree People,
saying, "If confirmed, Janet Napolitano’s nomination as Director of
Homeland Security is likely to have a significant impact on the H1B
visa process and possibly even be a significant factor in increasing
the cap on these employment visas."
College Life
I bet you've seen Credit Card vendors out on college campuses, promising free pizza for your signature. Credit Card Assist helps you cut through fiction and get to the facts with What College Kids Might Not Know About Credit Cards posted at Credit Card Assist.
Raymond reminds us that not all credit cards are evil, however, with his post Why College Students Should Apply For Student Credit Cards over at Money Blue Book. He even points out the best credit cards students SHOULD get!
Elizabeth Kudner from myUsearch (www.myusearch.com) presents a post from student blogger Pauline Diaz on the best holiday gifts for college-bound high school seniors. You can find her Holiday Gifts for College-Bound Seniors posted at myUsearch blog.
Jessica Dye informs us that college students have switched magazine allegiances--a new survey shows
that collegians' favorite periodical is now Time, finally replacing
Cosmopolitan at the top of the list. She documents the whole story in College Students Ditch Trashy Mags posted at theprereq.com.
Financial Aid
Looking at Harvard as a potential dream school? David Bonvie keeps you in the know with College Affordability, the Big Financial Aid Overhaul posted at Student Loan Help. Learn what Harvard's Financial Aid Office is thinking early!
Ted Reimers covers the basics in his post Ways to get Free College Tuition featured at CampusGrotto. Scholarships, grants, and employee waivers are all covered in his Financial Aid 101-style post.
David Bonvie presents I Don’t Want To Pay For College posted at Student Loan Help. It's a great short guide to the "guerilla" style tactics students can employ while searching out money for school!
###################################
That about wraps up this edition of the carnival. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of college admission
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.
Thanks!
Finals week really isn't fair. You've got tests in every class, not enough time to study, and the holiday season just around the corner. But like it or not, the end of the semester is coming and you better be prepared. Here are a few tips that will help make Finals a bit less terrible!
Pay Attention To Your Teacher
If you want to earn a decent grade in any class, it's wise to listen to what your teacher has to say. But around finals, make a special effort to focus on the material they advise you to focus on. Your teacher has actually seen the final they are going to give out and will probably give you hints as to what will be tested. No matter how evil they appear to be, all teachers want you to do well on the test and have the best possible shot at a good grade. Nobody likes to give out F's at the end of the year and they don't want other teachers to get the impression that they can't teach. Listen up when they give last minute tips because they are telling you exactly what to study!
Use the Review Packet
Most teachers will hand out a review packet in the last few days before the final. This is worth its weight in gold! While your teacher may drop a few hints, the study packet also tells you exactly what to study. If you see it in the review guide, focus on it! Learn the stuff that the teacher has deemed important enough to include and go over it enough times to be able to answer questions without notes or help. Testing is stressful and difficult; in order to be ready for the challenge, you should know everything on the review guide cold.
No, Seriously. Go Use the Review Packet.
I'm serious. Go find the review packets your teachers handed out. Don't leave them at the bottom of your backpack, squashed like a bug by your enormous math book. If you can't solve a problem on the study guide, you probably won't be able to solve a problem on the test when the pressure is on. Students who perform poorly on tests usually overestimate their ability to do well in the days prior to the exam. Use the review packet as an honest assessment of how you are doing and carefully examine every question you get wrong!
Stay Healthy the Week of the Test
Don't use finals as an excuse to eat poorly, miss sleep, and stop exercising. Acing a test is as much physical as it is mental. If you don't feel well, you aren't going to be able to concentrate for the long periods of testing you need to suffer through. I know it's hard to fit the time in, but seek out decent food, a reasonable bedtime, and an hour at the gym. You'll thank me when you are fully awake during the last test of the day and your friends are fast asleep!
Use All the Time on the Test
Please, please, please...use all the time allotted to you to complete the test. Don't work hard for the entire semester and quit at the last minute when you get tired and bored. It absolutely kills me to watch students turn in a test that's half done with 10 minutes still left on the clock! Imagine you were playing professional basketball: Would you quit playing your hardest before the buzzer rang? Nope. And you shouldn't give up on your test either!
Good luck on test day!
#################################
Got a tip I missed? Leave it in the comments for everyone else to enjoy!