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!
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Got other reasons that tutors rock? Leave them in the comments!
Do you think they made any part of the donation in coins? (Photo Credit: Flickr via Theiving Joker)
Several universities (including Purdue, UC Colorado Springs, and UNC Asheville) have recently received very large donations from a mystery donor! Chronicle of Higher Education
California is facing a 6% shortage of college trained workers by the year 2025. Yup, a college degree is more important than ever. Los Angeles Times
Do you have an unusual passion like solving Rubik's Cubes or collecting free stuff on the Internet? Weird hobbies can look very good on an application if framed correctly! About.com
Admissions officer from U of Georgia talks about some of the reasons applicants are denied. He strongly suggests reapplying as a transfer student if you still want to attend. AJC.com
Credit Card applications are everywhere on campus and college students are racking up more debt than ever before. WISTV.com
NYU changes it's testing requirements...one step closer to an SAT-free world! Now all you need to take is the ACT. Inside Higher Ed
National Association for College Admissions Counciling wants National Merit Scholarship to move away from PSAT, claiming that the Scholarship focuses too much on one day of testing. Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Even Princeton is starting to question the effectiveness of the SAT!
The GW Hatchet
New law makes it easier for students to earn financial aid through volunteer work. San Fransisco Chronicle
Tell your teachers it's Facebook's fault! (Photo Credit: Flickr via Laughing Squid)
New study, by Ohio State University, shows that Facebook users have
lower GPAs than non-users. Perhaps it's time to turn off your computer
and do some work? Information Week
Many high schools have students post rejection letters to a wall in the school as a show of camraderie. Examiner.com
The gap between higher and lower income students when it comes to admissions highlights the growing differences in the way students apply to college. Washington Post
If you didn't apply for financial aid during your initial admissions process, you can go back and change your preference. But there may be consequences... New York Times
New novel highlights admissions process from the view of the admissions office. Craziness ensues. San Fransisco Chronicle
Students could find trouble by expressing their desires to bring top atheletes to their college on Facebook. Associated Press
SAT 'at war with itself,' according to former UC president. It's another major hit against the beleagured test. Inside Higher Ed
Can pizza save the US school system? (Photo Credit: Bala via Flickr)
Idaho High School sells pizza ads on tests to raise money for printing paper. AP via Yahoo News
Five students in Mumbia, India expelled for doctoring their transcripts while applying to US Universities. The Times of India
Yale and other top universities have stopped mailing out rejection letters in favour of online notification. Yale Daily News
So-Cal charter school, High Tech High, opens as one of the most eco-friendly schools built to date. SignOnSanDiego.com
Texas state legislatures are considering new law that could make it easier for New Mexico students to get accepted to Texas universities. Beaumont Enterprise Local
New York Times releases new college admissions blog by national experts authored by famed writer Mr. Jacques Steinberg. Fox Business
During recession, students who can pay the full cost have better chance of being accepted into selective colleges. New York Times
The week before an ACT exam is always a stressful time for students. Many test takers try to cram last minute studying sessions into their already busy schedule to bring up their ACT score as much as they possibly can. Unfortunately, the ACT isn't a test for which one can study; it's an exam for which one has to practice!
Practicing is quite different from studying. It's quite likely that you already know all the math formulas, science theories, and grammar rules that you need to be successful on the ACT. Instead of trying to learn more, as you would for a traditional exam, any work you do at the last minute needs to focus on using the information you've already got.
With that in mind, let's take a look a five tips that can help you get the most out of the small amount of practice time you've got!
1. Get The Right Materials
There are a lot of ACT books out on the market. While Princeton Review, Kaplan, and others have books that promise to raise your score, trying to implement any of their techniques at the last minute is probably going to do more harm than good. Focus your efforts on trying actual problems out and get The Real ACT Prep Guide from the makers of the ACT. Doing real problems is the best way to get ready for what you're going to see on test day!
2. Don't Answer Every Question
Most students try to answer every question on the test, regardless of difficulty. This is a mistake! Instead of trying to do all 60 math questions in 60 minutes, focus on doing 40 or 50 questions as correctly as you can. Every question is worth the same number of points, so focus on getting the easy questions right first!
3. Bubble in Every Bubble
While you should take your time and answer questions slowly, you shouldn't leave any bubbles blank. The ACT doesn't mark off extra points for wrong answers, so you should always guess. The worst thing that can happen is that you get a question wrong, costing you nothing. The best thing that can happen is that you get a free point!
4. Do Timed Sections
While it's tempting to pick through the book you've purchased, you need to actually sit down and take a few timed sections. That means getting Mom or Dad to time you as you try to do as many questions as you can within the time limit. You might not have time to take an entire practice test, but a few timed sections can give you a much better sense of how many questions you can do and keep your accuracy up!
5. Get Up Early on Test Day
You have to get up early enough on test day to wake up your brain. That means that if the test is at 8:00 AM, you need to be awake and active by 7:00 AM at the latest. It's also a good idea to eat something resembling a real breakfast and engage your brain so that it's as awake as you are. I suggest a crossword, video game, or a fight with a sibling you don't like very much.
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Any other tips you've found useful on test day? Let us know in the comments!
If you haven't heard, things aren't going so well for the global economy. The Dow has dropped to half its previous value in just a few months, unemployment is rising to possibly double digits, and consumer spending and confidence are at nearly all-time lows.
So how does this affect America's colleges and universities? Are they immune to the slings and arrows of outrageous global catastrophes? Do their massive endowments shield them from the "real" world. Unfortunately...the answer is an unequivocal "no."
Last month, Harvard announced that it was cutting the travel budget for its admission department by 50%, slashing all out-of-state travel programs and reducing individual visits to only local high schools. Admissions Dean William R. Fitzsimmons stressed that Harvard will still strive to reach out to interested students through their "joint" programs:
Fitzsimmons said that joint travel trips—attended by larger numbers of
students, parents, and counselors—have proven more effective in
attracting prospective applicants. He added that Harvard will continue
to visit 127 cities with along with Georgetown, the University of
Pennsylvania, Duke, and Stanford.
When asked if he was worried that these cuts would hurt
Harvard’s perception of accessibility, Fitzsimmons acknowledged that
this is “always a concern,” but said that this was one of the purposes
of joint recruiting trips.
Teaming up with these colleges may help attract students who
might not attend an information session only for Harvard, Fitzsimmons
said. Joint trips with Princeton and the University of Virginia to
target students from lower income backgrounds are still on the books
for November. - Harvard Crimson
In short, don't expect to meet a Harvard Admissions officer at your school's counseling office. They simply don't have the money to come out and see you. Harvard isn't publicly funded, but its endowment lost over 20% of it's value in 2008.
On the other side of the spectrum, larger schools are finding that budget cuts are having a much more immediate and dire impact on their ability to enroll students. This year, San Jose State University was forced to deny admission to over 4,000 qualified applicants due to the state's budget crisis:
University officials blame
the budget for the enrollment cuts; overall the CSU system got 10
percent — $283 million — less than officials say they need. On Nov. 20,
CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed asked every campus to cap enrollment
because funding hasn't kept pace with a growing student body. For San
Jose State, that meant a 9 percent reduction — 29,750 students in the
2009-10 school year, down from 32,750 in 2008-09. - MercuryNews.com
That cap resulted in the first time the university has ever turned away applicants who met the minimum qualifications for attending the university. Without time to plan for the cuts, San Jose State officials noted that they simply didn't accept the 4,400 most recent applicants.
I feel pretty terrible for those kids who tried to get into a safety school at the last minute, only to be denied on the basis of a state budget crisis. Next year, San Jose promises to think more carefully about applicants and design some way of selecting the most qualified rather than the "first" qualified.
These trends are only becoming more common as schools get final budget numbers and endowment results. If you're looking at colleges for the first time now, it's time to start asking them "How are you planning on dealing with less money?" They might have answers that will shock you.
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Got another college trying to cope with budget woes? Let us know in the comments!