Onto WordPress!

Hi readers!

Within the next few days, we'll be transitioning away from our home here to soulsucking.wordpress.com. The team's agreed that WordPress is a much better fit for our goals, and we can't wait to flesh out this blog some more for you. You can look forward to our first WordPress post tomorrow.  :)

Thanks for following, and be sure to stop by our new digs!

--Pauline

College Campus Visits, Minus the Visits

Matthew mentioned his trip to Adelphi University and dropped some tips about preparing before your visit, and I'd definitely say the college visit was one of the most useful (and exciting) parts of my college search and selection process. But what if, in fact, you can't get the heck out of Dodge? Between atrocious gas prices and your jam-packed schedule, the odds of getting out on that college road trip might not be looking so good. Here are ten ways to get the scoop on a school without putting money on a plane ticket:

1. Get spammed - Painful as it may be, make sure the colleges you're seriously considering have you on their mailing list. In addition to the scores or viewbooks, brochures, and catalogs, you'll get updates on other opportunities to learn more like local information sessions and online chats.
2. Tear up the web site – If you took the tour on a real visit, the propaganda there would be pretty much like a summary of the web site anyway. So get past the Admissions page, and read absolutely every inch of it that matters to you. Scholarships, study abroad, what classes you'd be taking in your major, what kinds of counseling services are available, see if the student newspaper is available online, everything.
3. Take a virtual tour - Some colleges' web sites will have these, so you can get a view of campus grounds online. You can also search for them on CampusTours.com, YouniversityTV.com, TheU.com (for a more candid perspective), SchoolFinder.com (mainly for Canadian schools) or even YouTube.
4. Mooch off of your friends - Know anyone else interested in the same schools? Ask them if they're visiting, and ask for their opinions after the trip. Make sure to ask about impressions of the surrounding town and neighborhood. College Confidential also has a database of student-submitted reports on their visits.
5. TALK TO A STUDENT!!! - Pardon my caps, but this is one of the most helpful things you can do, even on an actual visit. Ask your high school counselor if there are any alum attending the colleges you're considering—these folks will probably be able to give you the most useful, relevant perspective. Ask the admissions office if they know of anyone who might be willing to talk to you (at least through e-mail). Participate in admissions chats (sometimes current students will be there). When you do meet/speak with students, ask them if you can have their contact information in case you have questions later. And should you decide to go that school, you even have someone to talk to for the low-down on which dorms to avoid, which professors to pick, and so on.
6. Talk to alumni– If you can't get in contact with a student (or if you can), ask the school if there are active alumni groups in your area. Try to meet up with them. Plus, a current student won't exactly be able to tell you what job hunting or applying to graduate school will be like after graduation.
7. Talk to professors – If you know what you want to major in, find e-mail addresses of the professors in that program. Ask for their syllabi, ask what their teaching goals are, ask what the students' backgrounds in that subject typically look like when they start the class and how students grow over the term, ask about some of the opportunities for students in your major, ask for their perspective on campus culture—anything you can come up with, really.
8. Find the confessional box – In addition to checking the school's web site for student blogs, check out sites like Princeton Review, Students Review, Vault, and College Prowler, which feature surveys of current students. College Prowler only has a limited amount of information that you can read for free online (otherwise you need a subscription), but you can buy (or borrow from your library or counseling office) guidebooks on specific schools that are packed with handy student quotes.
9. "Google this, Google that or even I'll Google you!" - Those, my friends, are the wise words of Barbara Walters, and they can actually be applied to this process. Particularly, I would suggest searching Google News (or looking for the surrounding town's newspaper) to see what significance that school has in the greater community. You may even try searching to see if certain on-campus clubs have a Facebook presence. Get creative.
10. Make friends with your fateholders – If you have questions that can't be answered anywhere else, well, call the admissions office. Also be on the lookout for college fairs, on-the-road information sessions, and other opportunities to meet with admissions reps in person (and hopefully even get your name in their heads).

The truth is, while this is better nothing, you're still dependent on someone else's opinion or bias. Whether it's your peers, admissions counselors, or whoever writes the marketing on the web site, you're speaking with people who have agendas of their own, so take everything with a grain of salt. Once you find out where you've been admitted and have your list narrowed down quite a bit, make some time to go on a real visit where you can make your own impressions and see the school's “personality” firsthand before sending in that final deposit.

College Counselors

The college application process can be very draining. Juggling applications, extracurriculars, AP/IB, SATs and SAT IIs and of course your social life is no easy task, especially in your junior and senior years.

The solution? Most students go it alone and somehow push through the last two years of high school. A small fraction, however, hire a college counselor.

College counselors are usually either experienced high school counselors or better yet, ex or current admissions officers, that help high school students through the college application process. Their duties usually include:
- designing an academic plan (SAT, SAT II, GPA/courses, AP/IB)
- designing an extracurricular plan
- helping with personal statements
- finding special opportunities, competitions, scholarships for you
- helping to organize your applications come Sept/October/November of senior year
- encouraging you emotionally

This may seem a bit over the top, but college counseling has proved to be very effective. Just two years ago, my friend hired a counselor for her junior and senior years. She got into Yale University, and is now living in London for a study-abroad program in international business. A popular college counseling company in my area is called Harvard Squared. All of their college counselors are Harvard alumni or current Ivy League admissions officers.

However, these college counselors are not miracle workers. You need to have something for them to work with - your GPA and extracurriculars should be in good shape. College counselors are usually hired for students who are looking to attend competitive colleges, such as the Ivys or other top 25 universities according to U. S. News World and Report.

I am currently looking for a good college counselor. Already, I'm a little overwhelmed about my course load in junior year, and my extracurriculars are not very focused. I feel that I am in need of help, if I wish to go to a better school than UCLA or UC Berkeley (which I do!).

College counselors are mostly for students who are good, but not great. They are competent, but don't have anything special, and might crumble under the pressure.

So if you're ambitious, determined, and qualified, you should look into hiring a college counselor - that is, if you're willing to shell out $3500-4000. But you never know- that money could come back ten-fold if you actually get in to your dream school.

My College Visit To Adelphi University

Hi! Sorry for having not posting more often, been a little busy. I definitely plan to post more!

So, two days ago I visited a college for the first time completing a campus tour at Adelphi University on Long Island. It was a student led tour at 3pm that we had called earlier and reserved a spot for my dad and I to visit. Pretty decent size nice campus. When we arrived, we were given a form that asked for information about the prospective student.

After that, the student guide arrived and another family came and joined us for the tour. She took us around to the different buildings and explained what things were like and also welcomed us to ask any questions if we had any. All in all, it was a very easy, exciting and informative experience.

In fact, when we had reached one of their dorms, a girl down the hallway greeted us: "GO DOWN TO THE BOYS FLOOR! IT SMELLS LIKE A DEAD PIG!" -- she didn't really lie, either as we all found out. I appreciated the warning! Oh dorms... We also passed by the bathroom of the boys floor, which the other family had wished to take a peek in. I stood outside telling the guide jokingly, "i'm not going there - you can't get me to go in there!" which she laughed at. Although don't get me wrong, this is a great opportunity to really scrutinize everything - you want to know this is where you want to go to school and live!

Otherwise, the tour really did help me learn about what the campus was like. And that's exactly what you want.

This school helped me think about what questions to ask in the future, what things I might want to learn more about, what I want in a college, etc. It was a really great educational experience. You really want to get a feel for exactly what you're looking at and no reading can do the true justice of whether the school is right for you until you visit.

So, definitely do your research before visiting schools as much as possible and narrow it down to a nice list. Look to see if they have campus tours, open houses, and admission events, etc. Mark down such dates on a calendar or keep track. Use these as perfect opportunities to narrow down prospective schools. TIP: I've been seeing that some schools have been hosting online chat rooms. They will have a website that you can meet at a certain time where you can chat live with current students and admission representatives at the school; a great way to learn more without having to visit just yet.

Taking out books in the local library helps, as well as websites such as the Collegeboard.com to get in-depth college profiles and Peterson's detailed college search. Both have match makers to narrow down colleges based on what you're looking for.

These resources give you a good feel for what the school is like. Prioritizing which parts of a school are most important are dependent on your needs and interests (ex; do you want small class sizes?). College hunting should be viewed as a matchmaking process. The college must match you as the individual student and your learning needs. So review things carefully and try to think about what environment would work best for you.

Asking For Letters Of Recommendation

...is terrifying.

Because when you were putting off that English essay or that lab report last year, I bet you weren't thinking about your letters of rec. And if you're anything like me, you might be losing sleep over the fact that someone is going to write a judgment of you that may significantly impact the next four years of your life (and beyond)--and you might not ever get to read it.

Yikes.

As usual, I'm no expert on this college app thing, but since you should be starting to ask for your letters of rec as soon as possible (like...now?), I thought I'd throw out some tips for you, all throughout the process.

Deciding Who To Ask

• Be aware of what your colleges require - Your first step should be to check what the applications say. One school may require more letters, another may require letters from teachers of certain subjects.
  
• Pick someone who knows you well!!! - Besides academic enrichment, this is why it's good to stay late after class to ask questions and to see your counselor every once in awhile. The better the writer knows you, the less generic your letter will be.
• Pick someone who's seen your best - Your best may be a year of near-perfect DBQs in your AP US History class, or it may be starting Chem with a D but working to the bone for a B+ by the end of the year. If you've taken challenging classes and those teachers have seen you succeed, they may have a lot to say. This is more likely to be someone from your junior year than earlier.
• You probably can't pick your Ceramics teacher - Colleges want to see that you're prepared for what they'll offer you. Try to choose a teacher from a core academic subject (English, math, history, science, foreign language)
• Alumni points - If you have a teacher who knows you well and just happened to graduate from your dream school, he may be able to speak to your ability to contribute to campus in a way that other teachers may not.
• Don't ask more teachers than necessary - Teachers are busy. Don't waste anyone's time. Admissions offices are also busy, and extra letters usually don't get read. Check which application asks for the most recommendation letters, and ask exactly that many people.

When You Ask

• Give your teachers at least three weeks before the deadline - GIve at least two to three weeks to write it, plus some leeway time to get it back to you. Again, teachers are busy, and odds are, they'll have other students asking for recommendations. Basically, ask for your recs as soon as humanly possible.
• Set up a time to discuss - Please do not just stop your teacher in the hall and hand them your forms. No. Talk to your teacher after class, find him before school, or if absolutely necessary, send an e-mail. Then, politely ask if s/he would be willing to write your college recommendation letters. If s/he says sure, express your appreciation and ask if you could set up a time to fully discuss it. Your meeting will probably be around half an hour.

At The Meeting

• Be prepared with the necessary paperwork - Bring them to the meeting, of course. If there is anything you need to fill out, fill them out before you give them to your teacher. Bring envelopes for each letter. If the application says recommendations should be mailed straight to the school, stamp and address the envelope.
• Be prepared to explain which application is which - If there are differences in the application processes, make sure you clarify for your teacher. For instance, some schools prefer to have recommendation letters sent straight to the admissions office, while others would prefer that the student send everything together (in this case, the teacher needs to seal it in an envelope and signature over the flap, so they can see you haven't read or opened it). It's just as confusing for your teachers as it is for you. I suggest using paperclips (to keep each school's materials separate from the others) and sticky notes (with instructions written).
• Give your teacher a list of your involvement - Ideally, the teachers writing your recommendations are people who know you pretty well and can speak to something specific about you. Even if that's true, a "student profile" is an extremely helpful resource so nothing is forgotten, or so you can discuss something that your teacher may not know yet but that may relate to her experiences with you. Include club involvement, athletics involvement, community involvement, employment, the schools to which you're applying and your educational goals. Keep it to a page or shorter. You can download my student profile as an example, based on a template from my high school (notes are in bold). You may want to follow this template or create one of your own.
  
• Give your teacher a deadline - Have a safe gap of about one week between the deadline you set for your teacher and the actual application deadline, just in case anything happens.
• Make sure your teacher can contact you - If you don't have class together or something, make sure your teacher has an e-mail address and/or phone number where she can easily reach you if she has questions. Make sure you have your teacher's, too. A good place to put your own contact info is on the student profile.

After

• Check up on your letters - A few days before the deadline you've set, casually ask how those letters are coming along. If they aren't coming along, politely remind your teacher of the application deadline.
• WRITE THANK-YOU NOTES!!! - I have seen teachers stay in for lunch to write recommendation letters, and it was not pretty. Your teachers are doing you a huge favor, so please, please at least give them a note of appreciation.

Colleges That Change Lives

Okay, I'll be the first to admit most of my posts haven't been the most relevant. Random books, mostly, and life in general. But this one - this one, I promise, is about college.

More specifically, Colleges That Change Lives. It's a book-slash-website-slash-group-that tours-the-country. They run college fairs for specific colleges that they've classified as...you guessed it, "Colleges That Change Lives". These schools have certain things in common: low student-to-faculty ratios, a focus on liberal arts and sciences, environments that inspire learning, et cetera.

Somehow I managed to get on their mailing list (I guess I must have signed up, though I don't remember it), and however it happened, I'm incredibly pleased, because I got a lovely little flyer in the mail that - yes there is a point to this rambling paragraph. Long story short, CTCL is going to be in Tulsa (where I live, in case you weren't aware) on the twenty-seventh.

The program begins promptly at 7:00 p.m. with a 30-minute information session, and a college fair begins immediately afterwards, lasting approximately 1.5 hours.

I don't actually have a lot to say, having not been to it yet, but both St. John's and Marlboro, the two liberal arts colleges I'm interested in (in New Mexico and Vermont, respectively) will be there. Kalamazoo and Hendrix (Michigan and Arkansas) also look interesting, but you can guess why Kalamazoo appeals to me (and it's not the locale).

This one's short, but only because I'm saving the yammering for after Wednesday.

Next CWL coming up in November!

CollegeWeekLive (CWL) is a two-day virtual college fair to help prospective students in their college planning by connecting them with colleges in a live, interactive environment.

CollegeWeekLive is a bi-annual event which next takes place on November 12th and 13th, 2008 from 10:00 AM EST to 11:00 PM EST. The college fair will draw thousands of students from the US and abroad and over 200 major colleges. Attendance is free for students, parents and guidance counselors. Registration opens September 1st.

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