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New Year’s Resolution for High School Juniors

If you are a high school junior who made a New Year’s resolution to start college planning in earnest, here are ten things you can be doing:

  1. Do your best in your classes and extracurricular activities.
  2. Plan your summer. Consider a job, a learning experience, and/or a volunteer activity.
  3. Select challenging classes that interest you for your senior year of high school.
  4. Prepare for and take the SAT or ACT.
  5. Determine what you are looking for in a college: academically, socially and financially.
  6. Discuss with your parents how much money is available for college.
  7. Build a balanced list of colleges that meet your needs and that which is affordable for your family.
  8. Research and visit the colleges on your list, virtually or in person.
  9. Write your Common App essay after the prompts are announced, typically in January or February.
  10. Make a list of your extracurricular activities, volunteer activities, jobs, and hobbies that you spend time on regularly starting with the summer after 8th grade. Include any leadership positions you held, the number of hours per week and weeks per year you spent on the activity, and in what grades you participated in the activity.

If you need assistance in any of these, feel free to reach out to me.

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Making a small college seem bigger

A number of small colleges are part of a consortium, allowing them to seem bigger because they can take advantage of shared resources like classes, clubs, libraries, dorms, cafeterias and cultural events at other schools in the consortium. Which resources are shared vary from school to school. Consortiums are most effective when the member colleges have calendars and class times that align and when the colleges are physically close.

For those of you who wouldn’t consider a small college, you might consider attending a small college in a consortium to get the feel of a medium or large college. Here are four consortiums to consider:

  1. Claremont McKenna colleges has 5 adjacent private undergraduate colleges in southern California
  2. Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges and to a lesser extent Swarthmore College (private colleges in Pennsylvania)
  3. Five College Consortium consisting of 4 small private colleges (Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and Hampshire Colleges) and 1 large public university (UMass Amherst) in western Massachusetts.
  4. Olin, Babson and Wellesley Colleges (3 private colleges in Massachusetts).

What is your experience with making a small college seem bigger through these or other consortiums?

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Selecting high school classes

This time of year, many students are selecting their high school classes for the Fall. Here are three things to consider when picking classes. 

(1) Be aware that the preferred high school curriculum for applicants of selective colleges include:

·        4 years English

·        3 or 4 years Math

·        3 or 4 years of a lab Science including Chemistry or Physics

·        3 or 4 years Social Studies

·        3 or 4 years Foreign Language. 

(2) Take the most challenging classes (e.g., honors, AP, IB) your high school offers that you can handle without harming your grades, extracurricular involvement or your health. I believe a “B” in an AP class is better than an “A” in a standard class. If you don’t think you can get more than a “C” in the more challenging class, I would advise against it. Look at the difficulty of your entire schedule and be sure to consider how many challenging classes you can handle at one time. 

(3) Different classes expose you to possible college majors and careers. Think about whether you enjoy the class material, whether you excel in the subject and whether you want to learn more about the subject in high school and beyond. If you have an idea of your future college major or career, let that impact the classes you choose.  For example, if you are planning to study math, science or engineering, I would recommend that you take at least four years of Math and Science, including Calculus if your school offers it.

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University of Washington

While I was in Seattle visiting my son, I toured the University of Washington, more fondly known as UDub.  If you are looking for a large public university in a major city, with strong research funding and a beautiful campus, this might be the university for you.

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Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ

Rider University focuses on five advantages: connected learning, leadership skills, global perspective, social responsibility, and being student-centered.

Some special items of note at the Lawrenceville campus are:

o Education – Education majors are in the field observing starting in their Sophomore year; Education majors can student teach in NJ and Pennsylvania; 100% passed PRAXIS

o Business – Separate business honors program, one of only 35 Global Supply Chain Management programs in the country, forty co-op positions with Johnson & Johnson

o Hands-on learning including research, internships, co-op assignments, field experience.

o About 88% of students live on campus. There are over 150 clubs.  12-15% of undergrads are involved in Greek life. There are 20 Division I teams with basketball being the biggest sport.  Students contribute about sixty thousand hours of community service per year.

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Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

The clock tower is playing a show tune.  The Division I Tennis Team is practicing.  You look out at the spacious quad and to the adjacent Sleeping Giant Mountain State Park.  You are in Quinnipiac’s 250-acre Mount Carmel campus, one of three campuses that make up the university.
The school is best known for health, including physical therapy and nursing; communications, with two radio stations, a TV station, and home to the famous Quinnipiac Polling institute; and business, with the facilities of the Lender School of Business.

Classes are small with an average size of 22. Students are involved in clubs, intramurals, and Division I sports. A small percent participate in Greek life. Students also take advantage of activities in Hamden and New Haven.  Juniors and seniors will need a car for travel between the York Hill and Mount Carmel campuses.

If you’ve been admitted to Quinnipiac, what do you think the pros and cons of the school are?

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Time to Plan February College Visits

If you are a high school student with time off from school on President’s weekend, plan a college visit.  On a week day during your break, visit a college that is in session.  Sign up, if needed, for a tour, information session, and to sit in on a class.  Take notes and photos to capture your college visit.

  • For Seniors, visit or re-visit schools you have been accepted to (or are waiting to hear from).  Include an overnight stay if possible.
  • For Juniors, who have a list of colleges they are considering, pick a school that is on your list. 
  • For students who don’t yet know what schools they are considering, use a visit to a nearby college to help you understand college characteristics better (e.g., whether you like big or small schools, whether you like city schools or schools in the suburbs, to see how you feel about a large lecture).

Share what schools you visited and what you learned.

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Columbia University

What makes Columbia University unique? Its location in Manhattan, combined with a rigorous and extensive core curriculum distinguish it. You might be surprised to find that Columbia has a beautiful, enclosed campus spread over six square blocks with green grass and trees, as well as a subway stop, making it easy for students to access the arts and internships in New York City.

Unlike many other colleges, the core curriculum is a set of specific courses, not just distribution requirements. The core curriculum consists of a third of the courses and ensures that all the students have a strong foundation in literature, the humanities, contemporary civilization, foreign language, and science.

Other than foreign language classes, there are few classes on Fridays, enabling students to take advantage of internships, community service opportunities, political activities, and museums. For those interested in sports, there is a gym with an indoor pool. Fields and most games are played in the Bronx, with free shuttle bus transportation provided.

While the cost of attendance is $56K per year, the school meets 100% of need, is need-blind, and excludes loans from its financial aid packages.