The Third Edition of the Carnival of College Admission is our best yet. We continue to receive more and better submissions with each edition, and I’m happy that we are building a community of bloggers that want to share their content related to the transition between high school and college. If you missed the first two editions, you can view Number One here and Number Two here.
And now, on with the fun!
Admissions
Andy Burns is the director of admission at Fort Lewis College, a publicly-funded liberal arts college in the funky, hip mountain town of Durango, Colorado. If you love to ski and hike and raft and kayak and bike–this is someplace you ought to consider. Andy travels a good bit to meet high school students from all over the country, and in this post he shares some tips on Writing your personal essay posted at Transitioning to College. If you’re still trying to figure out how to begin that essay, start with Andy’s advice.
The CollegeBound Network presents some hints on how to use all those college guidebooks clogging the shelves at your local bookstore. This post, entitled College Guidebook Facts: What They Really Tell You , helps to cut through the good and bad information presented in those hefty tomes. Some of that information contained in the books is better ignored. Check out the CollegeBound Network blog at College – U. Got It?.
Elizabeth Kudner, co-founder of myUsearch, an unbiased online service that matches students to colleges, presents College Search Sites: Web Surfers Beware posted on the myUsearch Blog. This post explains how to avoid deceiving college search sites that prey on the curiosity of college-seekers.
Sometimes, Mother Knows Best. O. Daille Nation-Ashley, a mom who knows, presents Get Cracking With College Applications posted at CEOmum – Parenting is a Full Time Job. She includes some links to helpful resources.
What’s your stereotype of an admissions officer? Some stodgy, old guy in a tweed jacket and bow tie pouring over your application with a frown on his face? Adam Epstein destroys this image in his post All work and no play… , which he describes a prank he and his colleagues played on another staffer in Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s office of admissions. Check out Adam’s other posts at Adamissions.
Blake Spiers presents a few key words of wisdom regarding the college search and admissions proces in a post entitled “College Comes Quickly!” You can read the rest of Blake’s posts at My Messy Dorm Room.
Sometimes you just have to talk to students if you want to learn about the admissions process. In this post, Jeff presents Interview with a Recent College Grad posted at Campus Bound. In case you’re wondering, the grad in question graduated from Simmons College in Boston.
Todd Johnson is like most college counselors: he doesn’t like to use rankings because they provide too narrow a set of criteria to be able to tell if this or that college is right for you. However, everyone seems to be getting into the ratings game. Todd points us to a set of World wide college rankings posted at College Admissions Counseling. Everything you wanted to learn about colleges around the world…and more!
Ian at Step Into College has just published a new magazine on college admissions that goes out to high schools, so that students and families can have access to great information. (Shameless plug–I wrote an article for the magazine.)
And yours truly, Mark Montgomery, respectfully submits advice on When to Visit a College Campus. My one word of wisdom: a college is a community, not a set of buildings. Just as you choose a doctor or lawyer based on their competence and records of success, you want to take the time to get to know the people that make up the community…the community you may call “home” for the next four years. If you want to read more of my posts, well, you’re already visiting my blog…so go ahead! Make my day!
Boarding School
Peter Baron, the major domo of boarding schools over at AdmissionsQuest, offers up a post by Tom O’Dell, has been fretting–as we all have–about what the financial downturn will mean for the education sector. Tom tells us that we shouldn’t count chickens before they come home to roost. Or rather, don’t hesitate to apply to the school of your dreams, because you just might get a good financial aid package.
Test Prep
Dave Van de Walle reveals the SAT scores of President George W. Bush in his post, Fresh New Going to College Content – for the test-takers posted at U Sphere Blog. Dave also reminds us that there are hundreds of schools for which test scores are considered optional in the admissions process.
Happy Schools presents 10 Steps to Improve Your GRE Score posted at Happy Schools Blog. Good GRE Score is required to get into college of your dream. Good study plan and practice will improve GRE Score over time. 10 Steps listed helped me to improve my GRE Score by 40% from the first practice test I took to Actual GRE test Score. There are many GRE Exam strategies available, but from what I have seen with my friends and from my experience, steps listed here will definitely improve your GRE Scores.
College Life
Moving off to college can be stressful. What do I need? What do I not need? Brett J Callahan helps us out, by warning us not to be whipped into a frenzy about buying sheets to fit those longer dorm beds. Brent has plenty of other shopping advice at 2East: The College Living Blog
Ali Hale is the Alpha Student. She gives college student advice on Organising your lecture notes . If you have heaps of indistinguishable bits of paper all over your desk (or worse, under your bed) then you need to learn how to organize your lecture notes with a minimum of effort.
AndrewB presents Forget Success – Try to Fail Instead | Personal Hack posted at Personal Hack. Say what? This is a great piece of advice AndrewBI heard originally from Steve Pavlina the Personal Development expert. He was asked how being an authority on personal development impacts his own personal growth? If he ever feels intimidated, as if he can’t fail and always has to be successful to be a good role model.
I used to be heavily into the textbook industry, and constantly lamented the high cost of worthless textbooks. But, for better or worse, textbooks are here to stay. College Degrees notes that the cost of books is a big-ticket item in a student’s budget (anywhere from $300-$500 per semester). However, there are ways to cut the cost, and College Degrees tells you How to Find Free Textbooks For College posted at the Degree Talk Blog. If you’re ready to stop shelling out for this exorbitant cost each year, read on!
Tom Tessin advises students that there are 5 Things Every College Student Must Have when they head off to college. Can you guess what they are? Check out Tom’s blog at FCC Student Blog.
Choosing a Major or Degree Program
College Degrees presents Distance Learning: Does it Make the Grade? posted at Degree Talk Blog. Have you wondered how distance degrees really stack up in real life? Does anyone actually take distance learning seriously? Can anyone really earn a college degree at home and find a worthwhile job?
Dawn Papandrea presents Beat the Economic Crisis: 5 “Safe” Careers posted at CollegeSurfing Insider. The economic crisis is giving college students (and career changers) something new to consider when choosing a field of study: which college majors and their corresponding careers have staying power? Find out about 5 “safe” ones.
Heather Johnson presents 100 Free Self-Assessment Tools to Choose Your College, Major, and Career posted at eLearning Gurus.
Financial Aid
Marwan reminds us that there can be a lot of hidden costs in preparing to go to college for the first time, in this post, entitled Tuition Tales: The Expensive First Month of College gives the parent’s perspective on all these extra purchases. Check out more stories at Tuition Tales.
Graduate School
Khan, who writes for the Higher Education and Career Blog, presents a very comprehensive view of The Law School Admissions Game . As with undergraduate admission, there is a fair amount of strategy involved in how you fill out the application. You won’t want to miss this one.
Other Cool Stuff
John presents Einstein’s 5 Maxims for Creative Excellence posted at Ace Online Schools.
Need a brain break? Alvaro Fernandez presents Brainy Haikus for brain training posted at SharpBrains.
Spanish Learner presents Using Connecting Words In Spanish posted at Learn Spanish Blog. This is quite relevant for me, as my family is spending the year learning Spanish in Baja California. They blog here. I go down occasionally, but I hold down the fort, work, and put together Blog Carnivals!
Joseph presents Learn English Articles » Blog Archive » Some Tips for Navigating Nouns in English posted at Learning English.
And that’s a wrap, folks! Which posts did you like best? Leave a comment and let us know!
Thanks to all our participants, as well as our readers. If you’d like to include a post in our next edition, scheduled for November 12th, just fill out our handy-dandy submission form. If you want to check out all the past editions of the Carnival, you can visit the Index Page.
