twitter - College Admission Counseling

Pinterest and College Planning?

Jared Hobson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:00:03 +0000

Are you hooked on Pinterest yet? I am! I must admit I have been swept up in the Pinterest craze like a lot of my friends and colleagues and have spent many a recent evening here in Boulder collecting ideas for crafts, recipes, decorating ideas and much more.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest it is touted as an “online pinboard where you can organize and share things you love.”
So, I started thinking. Since higher education has become completely intertwined with all of the other social networking sites out there (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, etc) is Pinterest next? I decided to take a look to see what I could find that would be helpful to our high school students and their parents in their planning for college. Here are a few thoughts.
1) Type in the word “dorm” and what will you find? Plenty! Lots of creative ideas for how to decorate and organize your future dorm room (or residence hall as us higher education folks like to call them).
2) Interested in Greek Life? Type in a sorority or fraternity name and you will find tons of Greek letter memorabilia and images to get you excited about rush.
3) Looking at a particular college? Type in the name to see pictures from campus, books related to the college, and much more. Or go a step further and type in the city name or location of the college to see images and information related to that region.
4) Parents, are you planning a graduation party for your senior? Type in “Graduation” and you see everything from graduation themed cupcakes to inspiring quotations to pass on to your future graduate.
5) Wondering how you will keep track of your schedule in college? Looking for creative and eye catching time management tools? Type in “calendar” to find great ideas to organize your schedule from chalkboard calendars to calendars made with recycled buttons.
The possibilities are endless! Give it a try…and watch out, it’s addicting!
Mark Montgomery
Expert Educational Consultant

The post Pinterest and College Planning? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Using Twitter Can Help Your College Search

Jared Hobson — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:26:06 +0000

Are you tweeting yet?
If not, we think it’s time that you jump on board.
Twitter is a great tool for both high school students and parents to add to their college search toolbox. A number of colleges have started incorporating Twitter into their admission marketing campaigns, campus visit programs, weather and emergency updates, faculty recognition and much more. Some colleges even offer free t-shirts and other fun giveaways for their followers through online Twitter contests.
SmartCollegeVisit offers their top reasons that high school seniors should start using Twitter when conducting their college search. Check out StudentAdvisor.com for a list of some great college admissions offices that are actively using Twitter.
Go for it! Create a username and start tweeting!

Image credit: https://technmarketing.com/2011/08/twitter-to-follow-back-or-not-to-follow-back-how-to-decide/

The post Using Twitter Can Help Your College Search first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Tweet for a Scholarship?

Jared Hobson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:01:49 +0000

Last week, USA Today published an article about a new trend in the race for scholarships: Tweeting. While the main contest in the article was about University of Iowa’s tweeting contest to win a two-year scholarship to their MBA program, there are also descriptions of three additional contest geared toward undergraduates.
So start writing your best 140 word tweet! This may be a future trend worth begin prepared for!
Katherine Price
Educational Consultant

The post Tweet for a Scholarship? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Teaching with Twitter

Jared Hobson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:16:58 +0000

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted an interesting article on professors using mediums like Twitter and Facebook in the classroom. Sugato Chakravarty, a professor of consumer sciences and retailing at Purdue University, is testing a software called Hotseat that allows students to posts questions from their cell phones or laptops via Facebook or Twitter.
The results of the experiment are definitely mixed. In some lectures, students take control and post questions that are off topic, often taking the lecture in an unexpected direction. These unexpected questions can often lead to great learning opportunities. However, Charkravarty has also caught a student cheating by posting a question to a classmate during a quiz. (The student thought the posting would be anonymous, but requiring students to log in allowed Chakravarty to track the post.)
This is definitely taking teaching in a new direction and allowing professors to reach students through a medium they are comfortable with. Some professors see this experiment as “potential for disaster,” but isn’t that part of the educational process?

Educational Consultant

The post Teaching with Twitter first appeared on College Admission Counseling.