The Academic Perspective

When applying to colleges, we suggest you consider four different perspectives and weigh them each accordingly:

• Academic Perspective (40%)
• Financial Perspective (30%)
• Social Perspective (15%)
• Campus Perspective (15%)

This week we’ll discuss the most important perspective to look at when considering where you are going to apply to college – academics. After all, you are going to college to earn an academic degree in order to acquire the knowledge and skills you need to get a well-paying job in your intended career field after graduation. Let’s not forget that!

Safety, Target, Reach: If you haven’t heard these terms before, you will.

• Safety schools are schools that you have a really good chance of getting into. Your academic profile (GPA, SAT/ACT scores) is stronger than most of the other applicants. For example, you have a GPA of a 3.7 and the mean GPA for admitted students is a 3.4. We suggest you apply to about 2-4 safety schools so that you have a back up plan in case you don’t get into your top choices. We also suggest you apply to safety schools because most schools that will give you merit-based financial aid awards will be your safety schools. You will be a very strong applicant at these schools and colleges will be very interested in you.

• Target schools are schools that you have a decent chance of getting into because your academic profile is average for what those colleges typically accept. For example, if you have an SAT score of 1800, the mean SAT for incoming freshman at that school is an 1800. You are right on “target” with the school’s standards. We suggest you apply to about 3-5 target schools. While you have a good chance of being accepted, don’t forget that your academic profile will look almost identical to thousands of other applicants. You will need to do something to set yourself apart in your applications. You will need to work hard on your admissions essay and consider scheduling an admissions interview.

• Reach schools are colleges where it would be a stretch for you to be admitted. Your academic profile is weaker than most candidates. For example, if you have an ACT score of 21, these colleges may require ACT scores of about 28 or even higher. Now, we would never tell you not to apply to a reach school. Your chances are limited, but you never know. You could write a stellar essay or have an amazing interview. But don’t forget that even if you get in to some of your reach schools, you will want to ultimately pick a school that challenges you but that is not TOO challenging. We want you to be stretched, not stressed. Just because you got in doesn’t mean you can handle the work once you get there. We suggest you apply to 2-4 reach schools.

Depth vs. Breadth of Courses Offered: When making your college list, you will want to consider what you are interested in and potential majors and career fields. If you know exactly what you want to major in, for example engineering, you will want a college with a depth course catalog for engineering (ex. – chemical, mechanical, aeronautical, etc). However, if you are unsure of what you will major in and will go in undecided and declare your major later, you will need to make sure that you have a breadth (wide variety) of courses and majors to pick and choose from so that you’ll have options when you learn what you want to do.

Special Programs: When looking at colleges, you need look into any special programs that you will want your future school to offer. Do you want an honors program? What about a cooperative or internship program? Are you looking to study abroad? Do you want to have distance learning options? If you are interested in a special program such as one of these, you need to make sure that your colleges offer them.

Graduation Rates: According to College Board, the national average for graduating college in 4 years is a staggering 44%. Some colleges do a lot better than others in getting their students to graduation in four years. Some colleges offer great academic counseling and advising and additional support and others don’t. Search for your colleges on CollegeResults.org and see what the graduation rates are. On your visits and tours, consider asking why the rates are what they are. Taking more than four years to graduate means two things: wasted time and money. Be sure you have the resources you need to get through college in four years.


Alumni Network: Alumni networks can be very helpful at colleges. Some colleges will connect you to alumni in your chosen career field who will be available to answer your questions and even connect you to other professionals. This is a great networking opportunity and they can even help you with your job search during and after college.


Employment Stats of Grads: In this economy, you will want to research the employment statistics of graduates of the colleges you are looking at. Are most of them able to get jobs right after graduation? Is there any kind of program at the college that helps or even guarantees students jobs after graduation? Most of these statistics you can find right on the college’s website. However, if they aren’t exactly up to par, you may have to dig and do additional research to find them. Also be sure to look into the college’s career services. Do they have a career center? What services do they provide? Are they accessible? Go in with the end in mind and make sure that you have the best chances possible to have a great job after you graduate.

Remember, college research takes a lot of time to do well and to truly find the best fit college for you. Start early and take your time. Gather input from people who know you well – parents, teachers, counselor, coach, friends. You’ll need to visit your schools and ask questions, ask questions, ask questions. Ultimately, you really want to find a school that will value you for what you do well and somewhere where you will be happy. This is not an overnight decision. Don’t wait until the last minute!

Any additional tips to share? Leave your comments!

About Smart Track™ Toolkit: The toolkit is a web based service that assists families with everything from admissions and test prep, to student athletics and financial aid. Our intuitive software and on-demand workshops are key components to making sure students find their top choice colleges, and families can afford to send them there.

About the author: Laura Guarino is the Student Services Coordinator with the College Resource Center, LLC. Laura has a degree in Human Development from Boston College and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in School Guidance Counseling. She is also enrolled in a certificate program in College Admissions Counseling. Laura is at the forefront of the college admissions process for the families of the College Resource Center and The Smart Track™ Toolkit.

Connect with us
http://www.facebook.com/smarttracktoolkit
http://twitter.com/uchoosecollege

Why It's Important to Explore Career Options Early

You may be wondering: Why focus on planning my career while I'm still in high school? Can't I make the decision later? The colleges I'm considering won't make me decide upon a major until my sophomore year in college.

Exploring Career Options Early Helps You:

•  Choose the best college for the career(s) that interest you.
• Avoid having to extend your time in school. When students switch to a new major later in their college career, it may require taking additional courses and extending the time, and often the money, you must spend on college.
• Make sure you enjoy the career you choose. Imagine spending four years studying for a particular career only to find once you start working that you hate it!
• Make contacts that could help you later on with internships, jobs and recommendations.
• Open possibilities for career-based scholarships, such as those promoting science and technology.
• Improve your impression on college admissions and scholarship committees.
• Be happier. Being well-matched in the right school and major makes the whole college experience more enjoyable.

You can always make a final career decision later. It's important to at least begin to explore your interests, abilities, and values and to weed to out the careers that you are not interested in or that may not be suitable for you. Many colleges specialize in specific areas of study. For example, one school may have a world-renowned engineering program, but have very little to offer in the areas of languages or performing arts. Therefore, it is important to have an idea of your interests before starting your college search.

If you make the decision to major in a particular field after you are already in school, you may be forced to change schools in order to accommodate the educational requirements of your newly chosen major and/or career path. Chances are high that not all of your class credits will transfer, and you will end up having to take additional courses. Not to mention the hassle of physically moving to a new location and getting used to a new school. This would cost you and your family a lot of valuable time and money. Depending on the situation, it could add as much as year or two to the time it takes to graduate!

Ways to Explore Your Options Now

Get a job or internship in a field you may be interested in. This gives you an opportunity to try on a career and investigate an industry. It also gives you marketable skills and experience, making you more attractive to both employers and colleges. You may have to work for free at first, but it might be worth it.

Interview people with interesting jobs. You'll learn a lot about various career options, and you'll make contacts that may help you with a job or internship later. Not only that, but the more you know about a particular field of study, the more educated a decision you can make later on.

Develop your hobbies and talents. Try new things. Explore what you love to do, and get out and do it! Not only will life be more enjoyable, but you just may find a career that you love. Also, you'll be improving your attractiveness to colleges and scholarship organizations.

Utilize career assessments to help you identify your strengths and opportunities.  Research-based assessments of work-relevant interests, abilities, and values help people explore career options that are a good match for them.  It provides guidance and information to help people make important career and educational decisions. Ask your guidance counselor if your school offers any of these types of assessments to their students.

Research the trends of various fields - economic, demographic, geographic, etc.   You'll want to know which fields out there are growing with many new opportunities, great income potential, in your favorite locations, working with people you enjoy as opposed to a declining field where your choices and opportunities will be limited and there would be a large chance of facing unemployment and returning to school to be trained in a new career.  You won't know this unless you do the research!

Attend career fairs. It's a good way to build new contacts and explore career options. Check with your guidance counselor and in the job section of your newspaper for a schedule of upcoming events.

Any additional tips to share?  Leave your comments!

About Smart Track™ Toolkit: The toolkit is a web based service that assists families with everything from admissions and test prep, to student athletics and financial aid. Our intuitive software and on-demand workshops are key components to making sure students find their top choice colleges, and families can afford to send them there.

About the author: Laura Guarino is the Student Services Coordinator with The Smart Track™ Toolkit. Laura has a degree in Human Development from Boston College and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in School Guidance Counseling.  She is also enrolled in a certificate program in College Admissions Counseling.  Laura is at the forefront of the college admissions process for the families of The Smart Track™ Toolkit.

Connect with us

http://www.facebook.com/smarttracktoolkit

http://twitter.com/uchoosecollege

What you should be doing NOW to prepare for college

As college planning experts, we know that it’s never too early to start preparing for college.  You don’t want to be scrambling your junior and senior year trying to find a college that’s right for you.  Here are some things we think you should be doing right now, even if you are only a freshman or a sophomore.

Develop relationships with your teachers and your counselor:  It is very important that you develop and maintain positive relationships with your teachers and with your guidance counselor.  The better your teachers and your counselor know you, the better letter of recommendation they will be able to write about you.  You will want teachers who know you well and are able to speak about your character.

Teachers - This isn’t the time to sit in the back of the class. You need to be assertive and ask questions. Don’t rely on a good grade to result in a good letter of recommendation. Personal relationships are worth far more. Reach out and get to know the people around you, especially if they are on your “letter writing radar”.

Counselors – This can be an incredibly instrumental letter writer – often the most important one. Unfortunately, in most cases, the counselor will have had very little face time with a student – particularly at a public school. Therefore, the student needs to work on and maintain this relationship. Students should approach their counselor early on in the process. Ask them what their school’s protocol is for letters of recommendation. Is there paperwork that needs to be filled out? Then, students should briefly check-in with counselor at least once a month (I call this “drip marketing” yourself) so that the counselor can see that you are a serious student and get to know you . Asking your counselor in the middle of admission season, if they have never seen you before is a “recipe for disaster”.

Engage in self-exploration and career exploration:  This is the perfect time to engage in self-exploration and career exploration.  You need to begin to get to know yourself, what you like to do, what you are interested in, and what careers are out there that you may enjoy.   Ask your guidance department if your school uses any college readiness tools, such as Naviance or Discover, that have personality inventories.  These types of programs help you evaluate your strengths, interests, and career options. Research-based assessments of work-relevant interests, abilities, and values help people explore career options that are a good match for them. These types of programs provide guidance and information to help people make important career and educational decisions.

Keep your grades strong:  At the beginning of freshman year, you have a blank slate in terms of your grades and your GPA.  Once you take your first quiz or test, you are just beginning to form your GPA.  You need to start getting serious about school (if you haven’t already) and really put some effort into studying for tests and acing your projects.  You have some control over your GPA at this point.  However, the farther along in high school you get, you lose this control.  Starting off right is critical.

Read often:  Read as much as you can.  Read the newspaper, magazines, online articles, read anything that interests you.  The more you read, the faster you will become and the more your vocabulary will improve.  This is essential in acing your college admissions tests (SAT/ACT) as well as having a successful high school and college career.

Begin visiting colleges:  Even if you have no idea what you want in a college, go visit some colleges in the area to get a feel for what they are like.  Go see a big school, a small school, a private school, and a public school.  Once you see a few different types of schools, you will have a better idea of what you want in a college and what will be a good fit for you.

Become (and stay) involved in extracurricular activities:  Colleges want students who will be valued contributing members of their community.  They want to see that you are involved at your high school.  You don’t need to be involved in 15 different activities.  Colleges want to see that you are involved in a couple of things and that you’ve been committed.  They’d rather see that you’re involved in 2 or 3 activities (clubs, sports, organizations, etc) and have been involved for all four years than having a list of 20 different clubs you’ve joined but just bounced from one to another throughout high school.

Discuss career and college options with your guidance counselor:  Again, you will want to develop and maintain a positive relationship with your guidance counselor.  Check in with them every so often to discuss colleges, career options, your interests, etc.  They are there to help you and you should speak with them MUCH more often than just to plan your class schedule.

Try to get a job or internship in a field you may be interested in: A job or internship gives you an opportunity to try on a career and investigate an industry. It also gives you marketable skills and experience, making you more attractive to both employers and colleges. You may even have to work for free at first, but it might be worth it.

Any additional tips to share?  Leave your comments!

About Smart Track™ Toolkit: The toolkit is a web based service that assists families with everything from admissions and test prep, to student athletics and financial aid. Our intuitive software and on-demand workshops are key components to making sure students find their top choice colleges, and families can afford to send them there.

About the author: Laura Guarino is the Student Services Coordinator with College Planning Strategies, LLC. Laura has a degree in Human Development from Boston College and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in School Guidance Counseling.  She is also enrolled in a certificate program in College Admissions Counseling.  Laura is at the forefront of the college admissions process for the families of CPS and The Smart Track™ Toolkit.

Connect with us

http://www.facebook.com/smarttracktoolkit

http://twitter.com/uchoosecollege

5 Things I Wish I’d Known About JOBS When I Started College

At Grockit, we’re all about education and getting you ready to move on to the next stage in your life.  But we’re not just teachers; we’re all former and/or current students, too, and we’ve got more than just test preparation tips to share with you!

Part-time employment and college go together like cheese and crackers; they’re a natural complement.  And as a student, I was no stranger to part-time work-- in fact, I usually had multiple jobs at the same time, doing everything from making balloon bouquets to offering tech support in campus computer labs.  Read on to learn a few tips about employment that I picked up through trial and error!

            1.         Money matters, but you’re in school, so your studies should be your first priority.  Try to find a job that understands the unique scheduling needs of a student.  You want to work somewhere that will allow you some flexibility during exams and other busy times.  These jobs may pay a little less, but they’re worth it in the long run.

            2.         Another perk to look for in student employment is downtime.  Many jobs, particularly on campus, will have time for you to study.  Some that I found were night receptionist in my dorm, computer lab monitor, and parking garage attendant; these jobs let you double-dip by making money AND getting some of your homework out of the way, leaving more time for extracurricular fun!

            3.         Don’t forget about internships-- sometimes working for free is a great investment.  The most interesting jobs often don’t pay anything at all, but they can lead to amazing paid opportunities or to valuable additions to your professional network.

            4.         A part-time job can be a great chance to explore something outside your usual academic sphere.  If you’ve always wanted to know more about urban planning but you don’t have room for it in your course schedule, check to see if there’s an opening in the departmental library, or a professor looking for some research help.

            5.         If you can get a work-study award, it’s an enormous help in finding student employment. In the U.S., work-study programs provide government funds to pay part of your wages for eligible jobs, and that makes you a very affordable employee—take this advantage if it’s offered to you!

Have you had to learn any lessons about college jobs the hard way?  Share them in the comments!

About Grockit: Grockit is a fun and engaging learning community that encourages students to learn from group study, game play, expert tutorials and solo study. Students that prepare with Grockit have proven to achieve higher scores on college admissions tests.

About the author: Andrea Alexander is a current graduate student in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She's been teaching test prep for about eight years and have picked up lots of helpful knowledge along the way. She specializes in the verbal aspects of test prep, since her education and career experience as an attorney, freelance writer, and editor have given her the background for that.