Category: community service

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College To Career – For High School and College Students

Most high school and college students fall into one of three categories with regard to career:

  1. They are all set to dive into a specific career path.
  2. Their career is unknown, but they have a specific subject they really enjoy.
  3. They have no idea of a career or a subject of special interest.

If you fall into the first category, you may want to investigate the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn what level of education is needed for the career you have chosen, what the job forecast is for that career, and what the job typically pays.

If you are in the second category, you may want to find out what career options you might have if you major in that subject in college by checking out a site like this.

If you have no idea of a career or subject of interest, it might be best to determine your personality type using a Myers Briggs personality test and then see how the careers for that personality type appeal to you.

Whichever group you are in, it is good to get first hand career exposure for careers you are considering by doing as many of the following as soon as possible:

  • Talk with someone in that career
  • Shadow someone in that career for a few hours or a few days
  • Volunteer or work part time in that career or a related one to see if and how you like it
  • Do research or a capstone project related to your career
  • Take advantage of service learning related to your career (i.e., a class with a community service component) to gain some real world experience
  • Join a student organization related to your career.
Hands-on activities and projects by engineering students at Olin College

Be sure to take advantage of the career guidance available in high school and college. For example, your college advisor or a professor in your major can help you by:

  • Talking about the career with you and answering questions you may have
  • Providing guidance regarding what classes to take
  • Providing you research opportunities
  • Introducing you to potential employers
  • Providing references and letters of recommendation for graduate school or jobs.

Don’t forget to take advantage of your colleges Career Services offices which provides services like:

  • Career assessments
  • Help with resumes, cover letters, and interviews
  • Listings of internships, co-op opportunities and jobs
  • Career fairs
  • Graduate school application assistance including preparation for exams (e.g., GRE, LSAT, MCAT).

You can help yourself in your career search and growth by:

  • Strengthening you writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills
  • Joining professional organizations for your profession
  • Networking (e.g., with alumni, with local business people, with local chamber of commerce members)
  • Using social media like LinkedIn to aid in your job search.

While you are in college, don’t forget to keep your grades up and make use of these services so you can do your best academically:

  • Study groups
  • Professor’s office hours
  • Tutoring
  • Writing Center
  • Math Center
  • Learning Differences Resources (if appropriate).

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Can I Get In There?

If you are wondering what your chances are at getting accepted to a particular college or university here are four things to consider:

  1. What percent of students do they accept?
  2. What criteria are important to that college?
  3. How well do you meet the criteria?
  4. Will the major you have selected have an impact on whether you will be accepted?

What percent of students do they accept?  

The higher the percent of students the college accepts, the better your chance for admission. If the percent acceptance is very small, your chance of admission is very small.

Percent acceptance ranges between 2 or 3 % and 100%. Schools that accept 100% include many 2-year community colleges and some 4-year colleges.

Some schools accept a much different percent of applicants depending on whether the student applies as an early decision, early action or regular decision applicant. Percent acceptance may also vary by gender or ethnicity. In-state and out-of-state acceptance rates vary significantly and many public colleges and universities.

What criteria is important?

Important criteria may be reflected in the school’s mission statement. It also may be reflected in published data (see collegedata.com) which indicates how important (i.e., very important, important, considered, or not considered) each of the following is to the particular college:

  • Rigor of secondary school record – Rigor considers the number of years of a particular subject that you have taken.  Colleges often specify the number of years required or recommended for a particular subject like English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. Rigor also looks at the level of the course you took (e.g., college prep, honors, AP, IB) as compared to what your high school offered.
  • Academic GPA
  • Standardized Tests
  • Class rank (if available)
  • Recommendations
  • Application essay
  • Application interview
  • Level of applicant’s interest
  • Extracurricular activities
  • Volunteer work
  • Particular talent/ability
  • Character/personal qualities
  • First generation to attend college
  • State residency
  • Geographic residence
  • Relation with alumnus
  • Religious affiliation/commitment
  • Ethnicity
  • Work Experience.

How well do you meet the criteria?

For every criteria that is very important, important or considered by a particular college, consider how you will measure up.

For example, consider how your grades and course rigor and how your SAT/ACT test scores compare to the students the college accepts. If your high school has Naviance or SCOIR, you can use scattergrams to get an idea about how your grades and test scores stack up to others from your high school that applied to a particular college or university.

Will the major you have selected have an impact on whether you will be accepted?

The acceptance rate at some universities may also be dependent to the college which you are applying. For example, the College of Engineering may be more competitive than the College of Arts and Science.

Some majors which are in high demand and/or which there are few professors may be “impacted” majors. They may be more difficult to gain acceptance into than other majors. You may get accepted to the college or university, but not for your first choice major. At some schools, no one is accepted directly for a particular major. Students can only declare that major after meeting certain criteria as a college student (e.g., completing certain college courses with a particular grade).

Conclusion

Be realistic about your chances of admission. Be sure to include colleges with a high and medium probability of acceptance, not just colleges with low probability of acceptance.

If you need or want assistance with the college selection and application process, work with an experienced independent educational consultant like me. I help students select colleges which meet their academic, social and financial needs and I work with them throughout the application process to make sure they put their best foot forward in their applications.

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Rich Educational Opportunities at College

Rich educational opportunities support student learning and development at college according to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) at Indiana University for Postsecondary Research. NSSE suggests that students ask colleges the following questions to learn about the college’s rich educational opportunities:

  • “How many courses include community-based service-learning projects?
  • What types of honors courses, learning communities, and other distinctive programs are offered?
  • How many students get practical, real-world experience through internships or off-campus field experiences?
  • How many students study in other countries?
  • What co-curricular activities are most common (performing arts, athletics, fraternities and sororities, guest speakers, etc.)?”

Here are examples of rich educational opportunities at colleges and universities:

The College of New Jersey
  • 91 percent complete internships (American University).
  • All students study abroad (Goucher College).
  • More than seventy courses combine academics with service work in the community (George Washington University).
  • As an alternative to a major and a minor, students can do the Nexus program which builds opportunities for internships, off-campus research, and public presentations in addition to coursework. Participating students can select from one of nine pre-professional tracks (Mount Holyoke College).
  • Community service organization arranges for students to volunteer in about 600 placements (Smith College).
  • Students dorm their freshman year with those in their first year seminar class (The College of New Jersey).
  • Students complete an independent study project in the last two years of college (College of Wooster).
  • Students staff and manage nine campus businesses (University of Massachusetts – Amherst).
  • The Outside the Classroom curriculum is an optional co-curricular program that rounds out the college experience with activities in leadership development, sense of self, service to others, and art appreciation (University of Pittsburgh).
  • Students can spend a semester getting hands-on conservation education from the Smithsonian Institution, George Mason University, and wildlife protection agencies (George Mason University).
  • All students do independent research for three years in the January term and all complete a senior project or write a thesis that they defend before a faculty committee (New College of Florida).
New College of Florida

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Tulane University



Tulane University is a private, residential, research university in New Orleans, Louisiana with about 6800 full-time undergraduates from all over the country and the world. The location in a big city, known for great food, night life, jazz music and interesting architecture is big draw, especially since the school has a campus. A big campus tradition is throwing your Mardi Gras beads on this tree in the academic quad.



One distinguishing factor is Tulane’s focus on community service. Tulane has public service graduation requirements including:

·    One service learning course no later than the fifth semester 

A second distinguishing factor is that students do not apply to a particular school or major within Tulane University and they can take classes in any of Tulane’s colleges.


According to Tulane’s website “applications to Tulane have increased more than 65 percent over the past five years, with 41,365 applications arriving this year. The university’s selectivity rate, the number of students who apply versus the number of students who are accepted, also improved to just over 13 percent – matching or surpassing some of the nation’s top schools.”