Senioritis? Oh shut up.

You've done everything you were supposed to do: you have applied; you have been admitted to at least one great option college/university; you have always dotted every "i" and crossed every "t". And now you want your rightful rest. You think you have earned it, right? I'm sure you're not considering anything unreasonable, miss a few days of school here, a few homework assignments there, sleep a little in class, stop reading the literature . . . I know where you're coming from. Trust me. I do. This is what I have to say about the dreaded (and all too familiar) "senioritis":

When you're a senior-- especially a reasonably intelligent one-- and you know that this process is coming and that when it's all settled and college seems just around the corner and high school seems like something of the past, more for the plebeians of the world, don't forget that you signed a small contract with each university that you were admitted to, stating that you would continue to do satisfactorily (this is the university's concept of "satisfactory", not yours) in all of your current year courses, maintaining standards which you had achieved in your previous years. In other words, you better have your act together enough so that your transcript does not look like you were completely absent for Spring semester of senior year.

First of all, let me say that four years of high school is a long time. I think that three years, in many cases, would be plenty of time to be locked in this adolescent incubator. However, the concept of senioritis is confused by so many. People think it's an excuse when really it's NOT a real psychological (or physical) ailment. All senioritis means is that you're tired of school, you want to be finished, BUT you know that you have to keep working toward the goal that you had for yourself LONG BEFORE senioritis set in. Senioritis is NOT an EXCUSE. It is a revelation that you have to work harder than your mind might want. Deal with it. To an adult or an educator, just uttering the word: "s-e-n-i-o-r-i-t-i-s" makes one seem just a fraction less intelligent than they were prior to speaking it. Second, granted, if you're usually an "A" or an "A/B" student and you get one or even two "C"'s during Spring of your final year, it may not have a negative impact on your admission. But there is never a way to know. Earning an "F" or a "D" in an academic class is totally unacceptable and may even prevent your high school graduation.

But the bigger question here is Why?

Is learning really about the goal of college admission? If that's the case, you're missing the point of it all and I'm afraid college is going to be a big waste of time and resources for you. Why would you want to stop achieving and learning in the final few months of high school. An approach like this can actually create MORE anxiety in a student than the actual school work, itself. There is a complete curriculum in high school that, whether I agree with it or not, is what you should be focused on. For many high school seniors, if you were accepted to an institution of repute, then you're probably taking AP or IB courses that have significant, knowledge-based exams at the end of the year. If you're in Honor's classes, you must have a final or a final paper that will be expected of you. In most academic courses (i.e. English IV, Government and Economics, etc...), whether or not they're AP or Honor's or Regular-level, they matter and the information you should be learning is a part of that foundation of knowledge that ALL colleges and universities will expect their freshmen to have.

I don't like seeming as if I am a man who blindly preaches the benefits of education. I realize that right now, in our country, there is a significant movement to debilitate the education elitists- which I would probably be considered as I do enjoy being around people who read often, write clearly, think critically and can reference interesting ideas in order to give unique perspective to their arguments. However, no matter what anyone says, and I have probably written this before on this very blog, education is the one thing that NO ONE can EVER take away from us. It is what makes people interesting (education in ALL forms, experience and the classroom) and it is what our world demands of each of us as we become more complicated in our governing, technology, industry and individual lives. Bottom line: finish your senior year with energy and motivation. Not only will you not have to worry about what your college of choice is going to think when they see your grades (because your grades will be great) but you will feel better for being the person who actually takes responsibility and assignment seriously. There are plenty of opportunities during senior year to have fun with your classmates. Take advantage of all of them. But never forget that the reason you are even able to have so much fun is because you have worked hard every day leading up to the fun.
Thanks for reading and enjoy these last few months!

Marketing

Sometimes mass marketing is accomplished for me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03guidance.html?hpw

enough said . . .


--
Brady Norvall, M.A.
http://collegecounseling101.blogspot.com
Education Counseling
954.254.7113

I couldn't have written it better myself

http://www.slate.com/id/2243435/

Humbling and motivating . . .


--
Brady Norvall, M.A.
http://collegecounseling101.blogspot.com
Education Counseling
954.254.7113

My Fall in Fall

It is that time of the year where it becomes difficult to tell where the days begin and end. I think that the kids this year have all done/are doing an amazing job staying positive and working diligently with their applications and essays, testing and organizing. However, this does not always help me to sleep. Yet there is one thing that I continue to learn as each year goes by, and is something that I think I tried to deny until just a few years ago: truly getting started early is the only way to keep oneself on track and to feel wholly satisfied with the way the applications turn out. I ran into a student just this morning who will be applying to a number of schools from Harvard to Georgia Tech, Yale to MIT and she had not even begun her applications. A pit swelled in my stomach as I realized that my students are beginning this process in the months of May, June and July and they still often have one or two final pieces to polish come the month of December. Plus, when they get in the early applications, they get the early responses back as well. And I can tell you that these responses coming back this month are extremely welcome by everyone (of course they're acceptances!).
I realize that I have neglected the blog for some time. But I am positively sure that those of you who may be reading this are much happier knowing that if it's a choice between my students and my blog, the blog is definitely the right one to give up on this time each year.
Thank you all for the support. Keep the students coming...
Hope to hear from you soon.
-B

--
Brady Norvall, M.A.
http://collegecounseling101.blogspot.com
Education Counseling
954.254.7113

Ranking the U.S. College Rankings

I was just reading an article this morning about women's professional tennis and the flaws in its ranking system. I also see weekly reviews often at this time of the year when different people are giving their opinion about the various ranking systems in college football. There are computer programs that use data analysis; there are coaches votes; there are win/loss and strength-of-schedule ranking systems . . . indeed, there are different ranking systems based on the weight of each different criteria that is ranked. Honestly, I find it to be a bit of overkill. So how do the U.S. College Ranking systems work? Which U.S. College Ranking organization is most reliable?

So this is the most important thing to remember before you read any further: if a school makes you happy and the education that you are getting is of value to you, you should not be too concerned or caught up in where, exactly, that school lands in any of the number of U.S. College Ranking lists. So, with that out of the way, let's cut to the chase about these dubious (and multitudinous) U.S. College Rankings.

Are they (U.S. College Rankings) legitimate for the quality of academics that are available at each school for every single person? No.

Do they have any necessary influence on how much money you will be earning when you graduate? Not really. Look, if you're going to be a high school math teacher in Arkansas coming straight out of Harvard versus Arkansas State, you're making the same salary. If you're graduating with a degree in business, try to go to a school that has a strong alumni network and is near or in a city with booming industry. But don't make your choice on college based on what you HOPE will be your future career earnings. Things like this, when revealed to rationale people, just make you sound like a pompous fool.

Back to the U.S. College Rankings.

Will you be happier at a school which is ranked 20th in "level of student satisfaction" than you would be at a school ranked 30th in the same category? Not necessarily.

Can you find someone at every school in this fair nation who thinks that their school is the best school there is? Probably.

Can you find someone who thinks that their school is the worst? Almost without a doubt.

Certain aspects, which I think can be glaring, are not factored in to many of the U.S. College Rankings, such as student suicide rate, student exercise rate, and alumni involvement (no, I don't mean JUST financial donations- there are other ways to serve your institution). I also believe strongly that whereas the quality and diversity of food was extremely important in my college selection, some people just don't have such a refined palate. And where Greek life might have played a significant role in your selection of college/university, for me it did not. But these are both areas which are tucked away and given a very arbitrary amount of weight in the College Ranking process. For some, however, they deserve more or less mention than they do get.

One of the major points of the U.S. College Rankings has to do with the number of faculty on a campus, and the number of those faculty who hold what are considered "terminal degrees". A terminal degree is the highest degree that a person in that specialty can achieve. So, in English literature, the terminal degree would be a Ph.D. However in a field such as creative writing and poetry, it might be an M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts). So, when we read that 98% of a universities faculty hold terminal degrees, that's all well and good. However, some of the best teaching, many would argue, has come from those who do not have the terminal degree or maybe they're pursuing it. Perhaps they enjoyed the teaching aspect and not so much the research necessary for finishing a doctoral program. Who am I to say? But I do know that the rankings think that they can judge that and while it MAY be true in some cases, it is certainly not true in all.

If there is anything that U.S. College Rankings have done is that they have increased the hype for a small pocket of elite schools across this country. This has been, essentially, a self-fulfilling prophecy for those schools because when an alumni sees his/her school around the top of a U.S. College Ranking list, the swelling of pride might just induce a monetary donation. That monetary donation can be one small step in actually raising the profile and ranking of said university even more, which then makes even more alumni swell with pride and donate, as they believe the value of their degree is also being enhanced by this ranking. Be aware supportive elite-university alumni. A recent article had a very interesting point to make:

http://chronicle.com/article/Think-Tank-The-Veritas/48590/

I don't know if I have actually made any significant progress towards a conclusion on whether or not U.S. College Rankings are beneficial or harmful to our system of higher education. So, in summary, I would say that while there is certainly some validity to ranking categories like "class sizes", "average incoming gpa" and "graduation rate", because these are statistics that should be known and available to all students who are researching prospective schools, do any of these mean that YOU will be more or less successful at a top-ranked school versus a school ranked somewhere in the ambiguous folds of the pages of some U.S. College Ranking magazine? No.

And in response to the question regarding WHICH U.S. College Ranking system is most reliable? Well, the answer is simple, of course: Your college ranking system is most reliable! Visit a campus, call the admissions office, read about it on the website, chat with students who go there, etc . . . Are we really becoming such passive thinkers that we have to just rely on what information other people give us? No. We are smarter than this.

Please don't think that way. Or soon, you, too, will begin to sound like a bit of a pompous fool.

If YOUR college ranking system fails you, contact me. I am never one to hold back on this topic.

As always, thanks for reading and don't hesitate to email me if you need help deciding whether you should apply to Harvard or Arkansas State--or both.

California's In Crisis. Is The Education System In Crisis Also?

First of all, let me be very specific about one factor: many of the very quality private schools in California have weathered the economic storm quite well. Their endowments shrunk, of course, but they remain in a fairly healthy financial condition. It’s the public schools that I’m referring to here. At the moment there are nine University of California (UC) campuses- the research-intensive branch of the California public higher education system and twenty-three of the California State University campuses (CSU). The major differences are few, but the minor differences are many. The level of academics tends to be more competitive at the UC campuses because more full-time students who are on a more academic track with the idea of graduate school, professional school and/or research on their minds. Keeping in mind that public higher education in California is paid for by the citizens of California and thus, there to serve the residents of California. This is why in-state tuition is less than out-of-state tuition, as an example.

There have been many items tossed around the proverbial table with regard to the state of the system. Everything from shutting down the newest campuses in both the CSU and UC branches, to a fee increase to offset some of the costs, has been proposed. The thing that most people have to understand, first and foremost, is that the cost of educating a student at even the most expensive university in America is higher than the cost of full-tuition. In other words, if tuition at George Washington University is $45,000 per year, the actual cost of the education is closer to $65,000 once you take into consideration all of the academic advising, career support services, tutoring, mentoring, student life opportunities, etc . . . The cost of a university education is fair in many ways. But public universities are in a very different league.

Most public universities are slaves to the annual budget of their respective state. For the majority of the top publics in the country, this has not been terribly harmful as the state continues to fund a significant portion of the university. For California though, that is not the case. California has continued to decrease its support, funding, research monies and expansion investment dollars. The pace of growth in qualified kids who should be guaranteed spots within the system is much faster than that which the system can grow.

California Students:
So how does this play into the opportunity for one to gain admission into UC Berkeley or UCLA or UC Davis or UC Santa Barbara, to name a few? If you’re in California, your chances are slightly worse than years past. In a nutshell, a student must graduate in the top 10% of their high school class, still earn solid SAT/ACT scores and be a stellar candidate. The likelihood that a student with great credentials, graduating from a California high school, will be admitted to a UC is high. The likelihood that it is the student’s top-choice campus is not so high.

International Students:
The admission process for this group of students is going to remain as competitive as it has always been. The California system will not be cutting a significant number of their international student “slots” because this is where they gain some of their greatest diversity: those coming in from Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America will only see their probability go down if the number of International applicants rises. Otherwise, the percentage of students on each campus who are admitted from out of the country will be steady.

Non-California Domestic Students:
This will be the biggest single group affected by the admission numbers as the only significant percentage drop in UC and CSU admissions will be coming from those students who are graduating from high schools out-of-state. However, due to cut back enrollment numbers on all campuses and increasing percentages of in-state students for admission, the domestic, out-of-state students will suffer greatly. Couple this with the fact that application numbers continue to rise every year for the various UC and CSU campuses (and the obvious cutback in admitted numbers) and it’s going to be a tough road for those students who are outside of California, but domestic nonetheless.

Overall, my recommendation is, like everything else, be very careful and thoughtful about how you will present yourself as an applicant. Unless your scores are phenomenal and your math and science curriculum is really the absolute most competitive, DON’T apply engineering or math and science. You’re competing against the best of the best in not only the UC and CSU systems, but the world! You’re competing against those students from around the country who have perfect scores, IB and AP classes, near-perfect and perfect SAT II’s, etc . . .

I hope this is helpful for those who have been struggling with how and where to apply in California. Good luck and, as always, thanks for reading.

The Importance of Reading and Writing

Greetings!
With the beginning of a new year it seems as though there has been an inundation of discussion and discourse on the topic of young people and reading. I am always intrigued by the topic as it is one area where, I am sure, our schools are failing-- and thus, creating a vicious cycle which will only weaken our social system, from the work-force and economy to the leaders we create for political and industry leadership.
Bottom line: for some reason there is a large percentage of students who think that it is okay to NOT read. With great sadness I believe that this is a group of young people who will, many of them at least, look back in retrospect on their teenage years and wish they would have had a book in their hands. Or, perhaps, their ignorance won't permit that. Regardless, it seems that the subject has been appearing quite often in the headlines. Some of the better articles that I have seen are linked below:

Each of the short essays is on a different aspect of importance in the educational journey of young people, written wonderfully by a long-term professor at one of a number of distinguished institutions. I implore you to read them all (which would take, perhaps, 15 minutes). But if you have to choose just one, I recommend the brief essay, Off-Campus Life. However, they're EACH wonderful.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06collegeadvice.html?em

This is a wonderful post by Stanley Fish (who also had the first short essay in the above link). The problem that occurs- and that which Fish points out- is that the lack of reading does not just affect the student. The obvious lack of reading carries over into his/her writing, verbal communication, vocabulary, effect on others, all-around competency, etc . . .  I believe it's something that needs to be taken very seriously. Fish follows up on this post with 2 more posts on the same topic, eloquently titled "What Should Colleges Teach part 2 and part 3).
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/what-should-colleges-teach/

This was just a very interesting post which highlighted the different sides of the debate on whether or not summer reading is healthy. Bottom line: OF COURSE summer reading is healthy. What would be unhealthy about reading? Ever? There's something inherently sad about the fact that this is even up for debate. See for yourself. But I think that giving the students a summer off of reading as if we are treating it like a chore and not a pleasure, is the worst example of reinforcement I could imagine.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/the-crush-of-summer-homework/?scp=2&sq=lack%20of%20reading%20skills&st=cse

I recently asked a good friend, who is a Professor of English, whether she has experienced these issues since she began teaching over 10 years ago. Her response was simple: She told me that she 'cannot take the time to revise papers as she used to because, although the university continues to boast higher admission standards and "more intelligent" incoming classes each year (higher SAT/ACT scores and GPA's), her students demonstrate a lower level of understanding of how to form a sentence, let alone a decent argument.' In other words, we are sending our students off to college-- they are graduating from our high schools-- without the ability to write a thesis statement and supporting ideas.

Reflect on this and think about the last time you read a student's writing and were impressed. Let us not lower our standards.

Thanks for reading. I always love hearing from my readers so please do keep your emails coming.