What Duke Is Looking For
According to Jennifer Dewar, Senior Admissions Officer, Duke seeks students who are engaged in learning, and connect with and challenge the learning process: students who may have had extracurricular or life experiences giving them the potential to impact campus.
Duke’s web site seeks students “who make intelligent and interesting mistakes, students who understand that only in risking failure do we become stronger, better, and smarter….(students who are) “open to change,” (and) “ambitious and curious” According to Ms. Dewer, nearly 19,000 applications were received for 1630 undergraduate openings for 2006-07.
My mission is to empower youth with: - The knowledge about career possibilities, and the education and training needed to attain them - The creative-thinking and emotional skills that make for good career decisions and which employers prefer; - And the resilience needed to flourish in life.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tips for Your "First-Choice" College Esaay
In your college application essay, make it known if the college is your first choice.
From the college web site, research the college mission, history, strategic plan, major initiatives, president’s message, and program structure.
On your campus visit, investigate how these attributes become reality in the day-to-day culture. Talk to students and professors in your program.
After getting a full understanding of the college's uniqueness, summarize it briefly in your essay, and explain why it appeals to you.
Do you have leadership qualities that can make an impact on this campus? Describe your intentions with enthusiasm!
From the college web site, research the college mission, history, strategic plan, major initiatives, president’s message, and program structure.
On your campus visit, investigate how these attributes become reality in the day-to-day culture. Talk to students and professors in your program.
After getting a full understanding of the college's uniqueness, summarize it briefly in your essay, and explain why it appeals to you.
Do you have leadership qualities that can make an impact on this campus? Describe your intentions with enthusiasm!
Monday, September 25, 2006
The “Special Needs” of Unfocused Kids:
An Adverse Economic Impact that Begins in High School and Lasts a Lifetime
Many teens go to college because they have no idea what they want to do or what options are available…and many drop out. Many academically average students, seeing no other alternatives, head off to a two or four-year college, despite being academically and/or emotionally ill prepared. About 70% of high school graduates enter college each fall, but only 30% of them are predicted to earn a college degree.
According to Suzy Wakefield, author of “Unfocused Kids” (Eric Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services, 2004), detachment, lack of hope, and lack of motivation may affect as many as 40% of high school students. Many become “phantom kids”, who get lost in the system and do not make a claim to their right for career education. The “worst case” scenario, over ten percent of high school graduates in 2002, (10.3%) did not go to college and are unemployed.
Unemployability is Exacerbated by Uncertainty
More than one out of ten (12.3%) of college graduates say they “just sort of drifted into their major:
28% changed their majors once
18% changed majors two or three times
2% changed majors four or more times.
A total of 48% change majors at least once.
While being undecided about a major is not in and of itself a problem during college, the lack of decision about a student’s career options ultimately complicate the discouraging employment prospects. There will be 57 jobs requiring a college degree for every one hundred students who earn one. And there will be an oversupply of about 300,000 college graduates who will find it necessary to enter occupations that do not demand a four-year college degree.
Most college students aspire to the professional ranks, yet professional work is only 20% of all employment in the US. And less than 5% aspire to technical careers, which is the fast-growing segment of high-skills employment in the economy.
Parents Can Help Support Guidance Counselors (If They Learn How)
Public school guidance counselors have an average 450-550-student caseload. For college counseling, there is an average 654 students for every advisor. According to the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, the result is that the average public school counselor can devote one hour per year per student to college counseling.
Over eight percent (83%)of parents said planning or their child’s future college or work is the most important of 19 topics about which they would most like information.
Nearly 80% (78%) of students believe that their parents are primarily responsible for helping plan for a career or job. Friends (1 in 3), not counselors (1 in 10), are the most common source of information about the institution they attend.
Yet, two-thirds of college graduates say they had to figure out their career choices on their own. Nearly half (46%) says that no one, outside of school, has advised them on career options or options to further their education.
An Adverse Economic Impact that Begins in High School and Lasts a Lifetime
Many teens go to college because they have no idea what they want to do or what options are available…and many drop out. Many academically average students, seeing no other alternatives, head off to a two or four-year college, despite being academically and/or emotionally ill prepared. About 70% of high school graduates enter college each fall, but only 30% of them are predicted to earn a college degree.
According to Suzy Wakefield, author of “Unfocused Kids” (Eric Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services, 2004), detachment, lack of hope, and lack of motivation may affect as many as 40% of high school students. Many become “phantom kids”, who get lost in the system and do not make a claim to their right for career education. The “worst case” scenario, over ten percent of high school graduates in 2002, (10.3%) did not go to college and are unemployed.
Unemployability is Exacerbated by Uncertainty
More than one out of ten (12.3%) of college graduates say they “just sort of drifted into their major:
28% changed their majors once
18% changed majors two or three times
2% changed majors four or more times.
A total of 48% change majors at least once.
While being undecided about a major is not in and of itself a problem during college, the lack of decision about a student’s career options ultimately complicate the discouraging employment prospects. There will be 57 jobs requiring a college degree for every one hundred students who earn one. And there will be an oversupply of about 300,000 college graduates who will find it necessary to enter occupations that do not demand a four-year college degree.
Most college students aspire to the professional ranks, yet professional work is only 20% of all employment in the US. And less than 5% aspire to technical careers, which is the fast-growing segment of high-skills employment in the economy.
Parents Can Help Support Guidance Counselors (If They Learn How)
Public school guidance counselors have an average 450-550-student caseload. For college counseling, there is an average 654 students for every advisor. According to the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, the result is that the average public school counselor can devote one hour per year per student to college counseling.
Over eight percent (83%)of parents said planning or their child’s future college or work is the most important of 19 topics about which they would most like information.
Nearly 80% (78%) of students believe that their parents are primarily responsible for helping plan for a career or job. Friends (1 in 3), not counselors (1 in 10), are the most common source of information about the institution they attend.
Yet, two-thirds of college graduates say they had to figure out their career choices on their own. Nearly half (46%) says that no one, outside of school, has advised them on career options or options to further their education.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
College Consultant Proud to be a Helicopter Parent
Helicopter parents didn't just hatch or crawl out from under a rock. Our society has created them. We parents are the children of the 60s, and our kids have been (so they say) softened by our love.
Yet, this is the same society that has damaged the college enrollment process. Ruthless competition in schools becomes ruthless competition in the workplace.
There is less time for family values, as a result of overvaluing of prestige and earning power. Or the simple economics of single, working parents, or families where both parents need to work. The convenience of electronic communication has replaced person-to-person contact, increasing our kids' sense of insolation and detachment.
Some estimates say that 40% of our high school students are "unfocused" and see no relationship between their schooling and their future place in the work world. If you trouble yourself with a global view, you have no choice but to think: “Dang, it's a scary world for these kids.”
It's no wonder that parent (uh, we) hover!
We/Helicopter parents “obsess” about the most prevalent and unnerving transition issues in college. Thankfully, serious mental health issues seem to affect the minority of college students. But they often can’t be discovered unless a parent is highly intuitive and willing to jump in or seek help, when the situation calls for intervention.
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