Sample College Update Communication

This article first appeared on GoLocalPDX.com on May 20, 2015.

In last week’s column I talked about sending thank you notes to the people who helped you throughout high school. I also suggested that college-bound seniors send an update to people at the end of each semester of college.  Melissa M., a student who is completing her freshman year at Pacific Lutheran University, graciously gave me permission to share the update I received from her this spring.

Hello!

Where do I start?

How about with the New Year? Happy 2015 everyone (we're 25% through the year already...whoa)! Spending time at home for Christmas and New Year’s was absolutely amazing. I got to see all of my best friends and celebrate with family. I spent one day at home/with family and then one day with friends. Then I came back to school.

PLU has something called J-Term, which is between Fall and Spring Semester, and is just the month of January. During J-Term students take 1 four credit course. I took “Business Financial Accounting” and it was really interesting. I learned a lot from my professor who is from Italy, and earned both his C.P.A and his J.D. Finding mentors this year has been one of favorite things. Not only have I connected with a lot of my professors, but I have also found advisors, staff, and older students who have helped make my first year of college eye opening.

Spring Semester started at the beginning of February. First I'll talk about my classes and then all of the awesome things I'm involved in!

I'm taking 17 credits this semester:

Microeconomics (4): I enjoy economics a lot and am trying to see if I can minor in it. My teacher is trying to convince me to be an econ major (I don't think that will happen), and nominated me for a 1st year economics scholarship that I was pleasantly surprised to receive! My professor also connected me to one of her former students who is now in law school and I have learned a lot by talking to her. 

Statistics (4): I have the same professor for stats as I do for econ and I love her. She has a very dry sense of humor and she makes me laugh almost every class. Also enjoying stats. It's a lot of equations and information but fun to manipulate data and figure out what it all means!

Intro to Business (4): As an intro level course we're just skimming the surface of many topics ranging from marketing to finance. I have really connected to my business professor. We both have curly hair and she’s given me hair tips and tricks (professors are good for more than solely academic questions)! And she has a super cute micro labradoodle that I sometimes take out and play with.

International Honors (4): Straight from my professor’s site: "This course examines innovative ideas and institutions from the Enlightenment to today that have shaped the contemporary world. Themes include scientific, political, artistic, and commercial revolutions; emerging concepts of justice and natural rights; capitalism and imperialism; the experience of war; narratives of progress and their critics; and globalization, sustainability, and the environment". We've read a variety of pieces ranging from Pride and Prejudice to passages from the Communist Manifesto. We talk a lot about modernity and how the idea of the individual has changed.

Personalized fitness and health (1): This was just the first half of the semester and was a required class. Had information about health and physical fitness. We mainly just worked out.

Now to what I've been involved in outside of class:

Lute Ambassadors: I am currently working for the Office of Admissions as a Lute Ambassador. I went through a rigorous selection process, but I think they saw my passion and excitement for the opportunity. After completing 30+ hours of training and passing 2 evaluations and a final presentation I finally got my second gold name badge and my t-shirts. I get to give tours, host students and have lunches with prospective students and their families. It's a wonderful job that plays right into my skill set.

ASPLU: I am still a senator for our student government. I am currently working on getting a program going to give students the opportunity to get coffee with their professors for free to give them a more social atmosphere to talk to their professors rather than having to go to their office hours. The idea is to increase communication (which is already pretty good) and allow more opportunities for students to get to know their professors. ASPLU is going through a lot of changes right now and I am putting in a lot of hours to help the organization reach its full potential.

Habitat for Humanity: I am on the council for Habitat for Humanity. I asked about potentially doing a little bit more with our campus chapter and the next thing I knew I was in the council meeting. We talk a lot about advocacy, fundraising, and expanding our chapter and of course still have build days. 

ELL: English Language Learners! Every Monday and Thursday night from 6:45-9:15 I teach English to adult Spanish speakers (and we recently acquired a Russian woman.--it's hard communicating with her sometimes). I really enjoy this, even though it is a big commitment. Our class is wonderful and I can't wait to do it again next year!

With it written down it doesn't look like much, but I can assure you I'm putting a lot of time into all of these wonderful programs and classes, and still having fun along the way! You might be able to tell how busy I am as I write this email at 3am...

I got to go home this past weekend and Pa visited! It was really fun being home and seeing Lilly flower, the cats and my mom and dad. I also got to see some of my best friends and have a Passover Seder dinner with my best friend Margot and her family. Then my roommate (and one of my closest friends, Shannon) came up on Easter and my dad made a wonderful breakfast and Pa, Uncle Bill and the two of us ventured up to PLU and they went on to visit Seattle.

Ok, finally, plans for the future:

Right now I'm pretty set on majoring in business and minoring in non-profit leadership (with the hopes of doubling minoring in econ as well). Here at PLU we talk a lot about vocation,--where your greatest passion meets the greatest needs of the world. This year I dove right in o volunteer work and I kept asking myself how that work would play into my future - in my career or just in my life in general. I started to think about how a passion in my life has always been to help as many people as possible. Combine that with my passion for law, connecting and working with other people, and my major and minor and you have a non-profit consultant/lawyer on your hands.

Now I'm looking for an internship for the summer. Just interviewed with a non-profit organization today (that would pay me). But I'm still looking into some law firms.

Hope to hear all of your news and what you've been up to!

Best,

Melissa 

I often tell students, that it is not where you go to college, but what you do when you get there, that will matter most in life. Melissa turned down several more “prestigious” colleges because she felt that PLU would be the best place for her. She has certainly taken advantage of opportunities to explore academics, build relationships and invest herself in the school and local community. I am confident that all of the people with whom she is communicating are thrilled to be “in the know”, feel invested in her success and will go out of their way to help her in the future!

Follow her example and make a commitment to communicate throughout your college years.

Thanks and Stay in Touch

This article first appeared on GoLocalPDX.com on May 13, 2015.

Hooray graduating seniors! In just a few more weeks you will be tossing that graduation cap in the air and moving on to the next phase of life. If you are headed to college in the fall, you didn’t get there on your own. A lot of people helped, and now is the time to say thanks.

Who should you thank? Here are some suggestions:

• All your high school teachers, with a special recognition to the ones that wrote you college recommendation letters 
• Your high school counselor
• Your athletic coach, choir director, robotics mentor—anyone who supported you in discovering your talents and interests throughout your high school years
• Your school administrators, including the secretaries who sent out your transcripts
• Your school support staff including the cafeteria workers and custodians
• Your boss at work or supervisor at a place where you did volunteer work
• Any tutors or test prep folks who helped you be academically successful
• Any organization that gave you a scholarship
• Your independent college counselor (if you used one)
• The friends who supported you throughout this crazy year and through all of your high school ups and downs
• Any adult mentor who has not been mentioned
• Your parents

Emails and verbal thanks are normally okay, but for this big moment I actually want you buy a pack of printed thank-you cards and hand write notes to people. In case you don’t have much practice at this, here is some advice, andhere are some phrases that are nice for teachers.

All of these people care about you. They were invested in your success and your heartfelt expression of gratitude will be deeply appreciated. Don’t be surprised if you visit years later and still see your card pinned on a teacher’s bulletin board.

Thank you notes are a short term assignment, and I am also going to suggest a long-term task. Make the effort to stay in touch with some of these people throughout your time in college (and perhaps beyond that.) For this purpose email is an excellent tool. Here’s the easiest way to update multiple people about your journey through college. Create a group contact list. Name it something easy to remember like “College Update List”.  At the end of each semester write a message that lets folks know what you have been up to. (Come back for next week’s column if you want to see a sample update from a student.)

In addition to being polite, staying in touch can have tangible benefits. One of my students included the local chapter of the Elks Club (which had given her a small scholarship) in her updates. Because the members were older and many did not have computers, she printed her update each semester and mailed it to the lodge, where it was promptly posted on the bulletin board by the entry. Last I heard, all eight of her updates were still posted (four years’ worth!) and donations to their scholarship fund increased during the years she was communicating. Another example is that when my daughter decided to apply for prestigious international fellowships for the years after her college graduation, she got a recommendation letter from a Spanish literature professor who had been her instructor while she was in high school and taking an enrichment class at Lewis & Clark College. He was able to write with confidence and provide specific examples of her achievement, because she had been regularly in touch with him during the intervening six years.

If you get in the habit of thanking people and being a good communicator, you will feel comfortable using this skill set in your career and throughout life.

Yield Rate and Demonstrated Interest

This article first appeared on GoLocalPDX.com on May 6, 2015.

When I worked in the advertising industry I hired many college graduates for their first full-time job. I always had multiple qualified applicants for each open job. What I discovered through experience was that the best workers were ultimately the people who wanted the job the most—they had a passion for advertising and were willing to do entry-level tasks to learn a lot and work their way up. I judged who wanted the job most based on the follow-up I received after the interview phase.

As a contracted application reader for a small, selective college I find myself in a similar situation. There are way more fantastically qualified applicants than spots in our freshman class. I want to offer admission to all of them, but I can’t, and therefore spend a lot of time trying to determine which applicants want to be there the most. Who really understands our mission, our hands-on curriculum and would prefer what we offer over any other college option? Many students profess that the school is their first choice, but they could be saying that on every application. 

The percentage of accepted students who actually enroll at a given college is known as the “yield rate”. May 1 was the date by which current seniors needed to notify the colleges that accepted them whether or not they will attend. Since an individual student can only attend one school, if that student was offered admission at six places, he or she will help increase one school’s yield rate, but be bad for the yield rate of the other five schools. This week every school is scrambling to deal with the numbers. Schools that did not hit their enrollment targets are contacting students on the wait list to offer a spot. Schools that over-enrolled are scrambling to figure out how they will accommodate the extra students in the dorms and classrooms.

Colleges used to be able to predict their yield rate with a narrow margin of error. Since the rise of online applications and vehicles like the Common Application which make it simpler for a student to apply to more schools, yield rates have become far less predictable. April is the highest stress month for admissions teams as they wait to see how the deposits come in.

Why do colleges care so much about their yield rate? A big part of the answer is financial. The cost of maintaining the facilities and paying salaries does not fluctuate much based on enrollment. Colleges need a targeted number of students in order to be financially viable. We are in a moderate downturn in terms of the number of high school graduates, so those demographics mean fewer college students overall. Over the past few years many excellent colleges have not met their enrollment goals, which puts strain on the budget. In addition, yield rate is one factor that is counted in the US News &World Report rankings. Schools can move up in the rankings by having a higher yield rate and a lower acceptance rate. Since rankings have a correlation with both the number of future applicants and with alumni donations, colleges care a lot about them.

One way that colleges try to predict a student’s likelihood to attend is by tracking “demonstrated interest”. Although not all colleges do this, it is a growing trend in admissions. According to the NACAC 2011 “Factors in the Admissions Decision” report and the Chronicle of Higher Education report on “The Dynamics of Demonstrated Interest” a total of 50.2% of all colleges consider demonstrated interest to be of “Considerable Importance” or “Moderate Importance” when making admissions decisions.

Demonstrated interest refers to the interactions initiated by college applicants with colleges they apply to. These might interactions include:

• Requesting information 
• Responding to recruitment materials
• Interacting with the school on social media (follow or friend)
• Contacting the admissions office or local admissions representative
• Contacting a professor or athletic coach at the school
• Attending college fairs and visiting that school’s booth (scan your bar code)
• Registering and attending informational presentations when school reps travel to your city or visit your high school
• Visiting the school and taking a campus tour and attending an info session
• Requesting an overnight visit 
• Participating in an on-campus, virtual or alumni interview 
• Writing thoughtful and well-researched  supplemental essays (especially the “Why this college?” essay) 
• Applying before any deadline dates
• Applying early action, restrictive early action or early decision
• Applying for anything like Honors College or special scholarships that require extra effort
• Sending (handwritten) thank you notes

Here’s one way to look up whether or not a college considers demonstrated interest. Go to collegedata.com. Type the name of the school in the search bar. Click on the school name in the results. Click on the “Admission” tab. Scroll down to the heading “Selection of Students”. Look at the line “Level of Applicant’s Interest” in order to understand whether or not demonstrated interest is a factor at that school.

Get a Summer Job

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on April 29, 2015.

Many students want to choose summer activities that will “impress” a college. Since application readers are humans with distinct personalities and preferences, there is no prescriptive list of activities that will make you stand out. Colleges don’t want to advantage students from wealthy families, so they try not to favor activities that are expensive—a trip to the Galapagos to save the sea turtles, a service trip to build a sport court in a remote village of Peru, a six week summer program at Oxford. While these are amazing experiences, you should only pick them if you have ample financial resources and because they are something you truly want to do. No college will be particularly impressed, and some admissions officers will joke that you are another applicant with a bad case of “affluenza”. 

Some students feel stressed if they are unable to get a summer internship or research position. Research with a professor at a local college is a fantastic way to deeply explore an area of interest, but these positions are hard to find and often unpaid. Internships are another opportunity to try out a field that’s intriguing. You help a company or non-profit accomplish a task of importance to them and gain great experience, but these too are often unpaid and hard to secure. An alternative to these options sounds like old-fashioned advice: get a job!

Why would a college admissions rep be impressed if you flip burgers at a local fast food joint, or teach swim lessons at the neighborhood pool, or sell athletic wear in the mall? 

Successfully getting and keeping a job tells the admissions officer a lot about your “grit” (which is a trendy descriptor for the willingness to stick with something even when it is tough). It is challenging to get a summer job because there’s lots of competition for open positions. If you have one it is logical to assume that you wrote a good resume, filled out multiple applications, followed through with the potential employer, dressed and acted appropriately for your interview, and made a good impression. You have demonstrated these characteristics: attention to detail, organization, persistence, solid written and verbal communication skills, and social awareness. 

If you keep your job for the summer an admissions officer can logically guess that you showed up on time and had good attendance, performed to the expected standards, got along reasonably well with your co-workers, and took direction from your boss. At college those behaviors equate to getting out of bed and showing up for class, turning in your assignments, working well on group projects, and showing up during office hours to talk with your professor or at the writing center to get help on a paper. 

Sure, you can tell an admissions officer what type of student you intend to be, but proving you have valued characteristics by holding down a summer job is much more impressive.

Writing During Summer

This article first appeared on GoLocalPDX.com on April 22, 2015.

It’s hard to get started as a writer. I’m not even talking literary agents and publishing houses—I don’t actually know those worlds. Just getting articles published in magazines or newspapers can be tough, especially if you’re a high school student. But there are a lot of ways aspiring writers can pursue their goals, get some practical experience, and burnish their resumes all at the same time. And summer, when you are free from the pressures of school-assigned essays, is a great time to do them. Here are some suggestions.

• Start a blog. Is there a topic that particularly interests you? Something you’re an expert in? Blog about it! Share your posts on your social networks, but don’t worry too much about building up a large readership. If it happens, that’s awesome; if not, you still have more experience and a portfolio. I blog about opera and theater now, but I wish I had started sooner! When I was looking for my first reviewing gig, I actually had to wait until I could write some sample pieces just to submit with my application for the job. If I’d started blogging before, I would have had them ready. If you’re just getting started and need a blogging platform, I recommend WordPress if you want a more customizable blog and Medium if you want a minimalist aesthetic and more publicity for your posts.

• Write fan fiction. If you care about an audience and feedback, writing fan fiction can be a great way to get both. Lots of people obsessively read (and comment on) fan fiction about their favorite characters, so a well-written spin-off from a popular novel or series can quickly develop a large readership. In addition, it’s easy to find writing prompts: people on fan fiction forums often run informal contests built around silly topics like “a Les Miserables-inspired scene with a beach party.” Fanfiction.net is the main hub for this, but a quick search can help you find more specialized sites devoted to particular topics.

• Write flash fiction and submit it to contests or online anthologies. Do you love writing fiction, but you’re not quite ready to start on the Next Great American Novel? Flash fiction is another name for short, short stories, with word limits ranging from 300 to 2,000 depending on the publisher. Tons of venues run regular flash fiction contests (just Google “flash fiction contest”), sometimes with open topics and sometimes with prompts. There are also several zines and sites devoted to publishing flash fiction, including Flash Fiction Online and Every Day Fiction. Submitting to these (check their guidelines for things like word limits) can help you get your stories out to the wider reading public and also give you the satisfaction (and bragging rights) of being published.

• Pitch student opinion pieces to a small, local newspaper. Do you feel strongly about particular issues where your voice as a student or teenager is unique? Perhaps it’s the local school system or a technology or environmental debate. If there’s a local newspaper in your town, try pitching them an opinion piece. Emphasize the value your particular viewpoint can add to the debate. Whether you can pitch a still-unwritten piece or need to submit an already-completed op-ed depends on your target paper, so check their submission guidelines before you write.

• Write poetry and read it at local venues. Maybe poetry is more your style than prose. There are plenty of online and offline anthologies and contests for student poetry, but I don’t know them well enough to suggest specific ones. Suffice to say, seek and you shall find. (A search for “high school student poetry contest” yields a lot of results, many from prestigious institutions.) But there are also less formal ways you can share your work. Many cafes and libraries have open mic poetry nights, where you can read your favorite pieces to appreciative and supportive local audiences. Of course, if you’re into performance as well as writing, you can also sign up to take part in poetry slams.

• Take a writing class. Writing in the real world is fun, but you can’t always get expert feedback. (No, your family and friends probably aren’t experts, unless you know a lot of professional writers. Neither are most of the commenters on Fanfiction.net.) Taking a class can be a great, structured way to improve your writing. In the Portland , Oregon area you could consider Fir Acres at Lewis & Clark College or show:tell at Marylhurst University. Nationally known programs include The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop and the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference (already full for summer 2015, but keep it in mind for next year).

• Get a head start on NaNoWriMo. Ambitious enough to write a whole novel? National Novel Writing Month is a worldwide event in which thousands of professional and amateur writers try to complete a novel (50,000 words or more) in just 30 days. Technically, it only counts for NaNoWriMo if you write the whole novel between November 1 and November 30. Obviously, that’s not the summer, but there’s no reason you can’t challenge yourself to do the same thing during, say, July or August. Even if you prefer to participate in November, you can start planning your NaNoWriMo novel this summer, outlining possible plot events and developing your characters’ back stories. That way, you will be more likely to succeed (and the resulting novel will probably be better)!

• Commit to summer pieces for your school paper or literary magazine. Does your high school have a student-run newspaper or literary magazine? Join now (if you’re not already a member), and propose pieces you’ll write over the summer. What, exactly, you should propose depends on your interests—you could offer to cover a big local August sporting event, review a forthcoming film, or compose a short story on a given theme. The point is to give yourself a specific but manageable writing goal to work towards over the summer months, secure in the knowledge that you’ll be able to see the fruits of your labor in print.

Many of these ideas talk about sharing your work, but really, you shouldn’t worry too much about the best way to get your pieces read or published. If you’re a high school student who wants to be a writer, the most important thing to do is simply to write every day. 

Portland Spring College Fair

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on April 15, 2015.

A college fair is an educational opportunity for students and parents and a marketing opportunity for colleges. In the fall and spring many colleges send their admissions staff on the road to promote the school to high school students. The fall fair is larger, often with close to 300 schools in attendance. The spring fair is less overwhelming, but there will still be approximately 75 school representatives here in Portland eager to tell you why their school might be a good fit for you.

The PNACAC Portland regional spring fair is soon approaching.  University of Portland will be the host site for the event on Sunday, April 26, 2015 from 12:00 – 3:00 pm.  I encourage 9th, 10th and 11th grade students and their parents to attend the fair. 

As the event is automated, students are asked to register prior to attending the event, to eliminate filling out prospect cards at each college table every time.  The registration form is accessed from gotocollegefairs.com. After completion a barcode is created, which you should print and bring with you to the fair. Colleges will simply scan the barcodes to obtain your information. This streamlines the fair for students giving you more time to learn about the colleges that interest you. 

How does this work? 

• Students access gotocollegefairs.com
• Click on the “Student Register Now” button
• Select the state, choose the fair you will attend
• Complete the registration form once
• Submit the form.  The barcode is displayed
• Print – you are done!

Great feature; two days prior to the event, you will receive an attendance reminder email with a copy of their barcode attached.

Juniors, now is the time you want to be focused on your college list. If you haven’t started exploring, use the fair to do so. If you already have some schools in mind, check the list to see if they will be in attendance and please make an effort to show up at the fair and meet the rep. Demonstrated interest is one of many factors that are taken into consideration when applications are reviewed.

Sophomore and freshman, the college fair is a great place to explore. Go with an open mind and see what catches your eye. Talk with a lot of reps so you start to understand the pros and cons of larger or smaller schools, the sorts of programs and services offered and get a sense of both the academic and non-academic factors that go into deciding which schools you will apply to. 

The fair can be overwhelming if you just wander. It is a good idea to decide on some schools in advance that you want to check out and to head to those tables first. If possible, do some basic internet research first, so that you are not asking questions that have readily available answers on the school website. 

If a parent is unavailable, go with a friend. Have the friend take notes for you while you are talking about your interests and asking questions. You do the same for her/him. Once you have spoken with a few colleges, it’s easy to get confused about which college had which program. These notes will help you when it comes to filling out college applications, so keep them in a place where you can find them and be sure to record the date you spoke with the rep and get his/her name.

Walk up to the college’s table/booth. Shake hands firmly with the admissions representative. Offer your name, graduation year and your school. 

Potential questions to get you started:

• What can you tell me about your _______________ department/program?
• What are some distinctive, special or unique programs to your college?
• What type of students does well at your school? What kind of students finds it a poor fit?
• What programs do you offer to help freshmen adjust to college? What programs do you have that serve first-generation students or students of color?
• What kind of tutoring or academic help is available?
• Do you have any special housing options?
• What do students do for fun on campus? (Ask about specific clubs or activities in which you are interested).
• Do you offer buses or transportation to a city or other off-campus programs?
• Do you offer Greek (fraternities & sororities) life? What percentage of students participates?
• What traditions does your school have?
• Does your school meet full demonstrated need? If not, what percent of need do you typically meet? What percentage of students receive merit aid? Is there an early scholarship deadline? What is the average debt of graduating students?

Share your interests, as it will allow the representative to highlight programs in which you may have interest. 

Grab his/her business card and send a thank you email when you get home. Let the rep know what you appreciated learning about the school. Make sure your grammar and spelling are top notch.

Committing to a College by May 1

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on April 8, 2015.

By now you should have heard back from all the colleges to which you applied. Hopefully, you are feeling very excited about your options! During the month of April you will decide where to attend and make a commitment to one of the schools that accepted you.

Please note these ethical and etiquette practices:

1. No college can pressure you in any way to make a commitment to attend prior to May 1 (unless you applied binding early decision). All schools have agreed that applying pressure to increase their "yield rate" (the % of students they offer spots to that actually come) violates ethical standards. It is a good idea to wait until you receive all aid packages before making your choice. You also may want to visit (or revisit) your top 2-3 choices during April (if that's reasonable for your family) because you are different now than you were when you applied and your priorities and preferences may have changed.

2. It is unethical for you to double deposit! You absolutely may not tell more than one school that you are coming in the fall. If you do double deposit and are caught, both colleges may revoke your admission. Don't do it! If you are struggling to choose (by May 1) between great options, please talk to your school counselor, parents or another trusted advisor to get help with your decision. You can get some other tips from my past two columns “Deciding Where to Attend” and “Undecided on your College? Try Guided Visualization”.

3. You must commit somewhere by May 1 and send in your required deposit. This is not a flexible deadline because after May 1 schools that did not meet their enrollment targets may accept students off their waitlist. It is also polite to tell the schools you didn't pick that you are denying their offer of admission because you have chosen X college. This allows them to keep cross-application data, and it also may allow them to take students off of their waitlist. Remember, your third choice is definitely some other student's first choice!

4. Thank everyone who helped you. Let your recommenders, test-prep tutors, and anyone else who supported you know where you have decided to go to college. A handwritten thank-you note (rather than an email or text) is appropriate. (Don’t forget to thank your parents, too.)

Once you have decided, celebrate! You can have a great college experience at whatever school you ultimately choose. Remember, it is not where you go to college, but what you do when you get there that matters most in your future.

Undecided on Your College? Try Guided Visualization

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on April 1, 2015.

As the May 1 decision date looms closer, many students are still undecided about which school is the best fit. See my previous column about why this is no longer an intellectual decision.

One technique that has been very effective at helping my students decide is guided visualization. Before the visualization do the following:

1. Narrow the list to three schools you are choosing between (more is too many for your psyche to handle)

2. If at all possible, visit all three (whether it is the first time or a repeat visit)

The visits may be enough to help you decide. If not, ask a parent or friend to talk you through this scenario for each of the three schools.

• Sit comfortably in a relaxing spot
• Take 18 deep breaths
• Picture the school you are considering
• Imagine yourself at orientation
• Introduce yourself to three freshmen, and listen carefully as they introduce themselves to you
• Go with your three new friends to a spot on campus you like
• Share something you hope to get out of your college experience and tell them why you chose X college. Listen as they do the same
• Go early to a class to meet with a professor. Tell her/him about a research project idea you have and get her/his reaction
• Participate fully in a class. Pay special attention to the professor’s interactions with students and the student engagement in the classroom
• Go to the dining hall, grab some food, and sit with people you don't know. Join the conversation and pay attention to what is being discussed
• Go back to your dorm and connect with your roommate
• Go with your roommate into the dorm lounge and hang out with other students. Notice the interactions and activities
• Fast-forward to your college graduation. You are the valedictorian. In your speech, share your three favorite memories from your four years in college

Use the same guided imagery for each school you are considering. Do not talk about the experience until you have completed the visualization for all of the schools. How did you feel after each? Where could you most easily picture yourself for the next four years? My experience with students is that if you are willing to be honest with yourself (set aside outside pressures and thoughts about the prestige of each choice), you will instinctively know where you belong.

Deciding Where to Attend

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on March 25, 2015.

Hopefully you did your homework before you decided which colleges to apply to. Whether you applied to three schools or nine schools, every school on your list was a good academic match. It had the programs that interest you and top-notch professors. My point is that you did the intellectual decision-making at the time of application. That means you have all good choices!

This is the week when I get a lot of calls from students and parents asking for help choosing between great options. My advice is pretty consistent. Eliminate all options that are not within your financial comfort zone. Now narrow the remaining options to three. Your criteria could be financial or geographic or any other reason that makes sense to you. Try to reduce the scope of your decision to three choices by April 1. Three seems to be a reasonable number that most psyches can juggle.

Now is the hard part for all my brilliant students to hear. It's no longer an intellectual decision. You are picking between three options that all make sense, and you need to trust your gut instinct. If you can visit each of the three, that is optimal (even if you saw them before), but I realize that is not possible for every student. Since you are making a decision that includes social, emotional, and cultural criteria, now is the time to use subjective tools. Join the Facebook group for admitted students. Chat with current students on College Confidential. Imagine your prospective peers as your future best friends. Spend a night in the dorms. Sit in on a class. Talk with a professor. (If you can't do that in person, ask one to Skype with you.) Do you feel valued? Picture yourself there and happy for the next four years. Your college experience will be as fabulous as you make it, so listen to your heart and pick the community that feels right!

Disappointing Admissions News

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on March 18, 2015.

If you applied to selective colleges it is likely that you will get disappointing news from at least one school. Those are the odds. You have every right to feel sad about a dream that doesn’t come true. While the adults around you know that the sting of rejection will fade over time, it feels really rotten right now.

Lots of college counselors have written about ways parents can be supportive during this tough time and how you can rebound and approach the school you do select with joy. To help you in that process, here is my favorite advice and explanation. It is written by Emily Moscol, Assistant Dean of Admission, Olin College of Engineering (originally published on the school admissions blog March 2011).

Exhale.

I know, I know. You were expecting that big UPS package. The one with the folder inside. The hand-glued ribbon. Instead, you got the regular #10 envelope. What the heck?

I am not going to write a blog post about how sorry we are that we couldn't take you, we had a lot of great applicants, etc. You have that letter. I know, I helped stuff the envelopes. I know what it says. I know that it stinks. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of news that you don't want to get, and that you weren't expecting. There's no way around it. It feels huge. Like a too-big gulp of water that hurts going down. And you wonder for a minute if it IS going to go down, because it hurts and it feels impossible. And sometimes it feels like the world ought to stop for a second and recognize that you're hurting, but it just keeps going on, and you wonder how everyone else can possibly feel fine when you feel so terrible.

We brought you to campus, made you fall in love, and then just when you started picturing yourself here we sent you the regular envelope. Even after you told all your friends that this was your dream school and you started saying "When" and not "If". This is the part that is hard for us too. We fell in love with you all. We finally got to meet you and see what you looked like; we met your parents and learned your dog's name and all the things that make people friends. And we had to see that envelope, the #10 regular envelope with your name on it, and think of your smiling face and how much fun you were having and how disappointed you are going to be.

What makes me able to do this job is that I know for a fact that you are amazing. We didn't turn down anyone who wasn't. You are going to go somewhere else in September, you are going to do extremely well there, and you aren't even going to be thinking of Olin. You are going to make friends, and go to parties, and love your classes. You are going to find a club to join with likeminded people and it's going to be perfect. The next time you will think about us is when your little cousin applies and at Thanksgiving Aunt Carole says "Didn't you apply to Olin?" and no one hears what your answer is because there's 25 people there and someone's baby is crying and Nana might have burned the gravy and Uncle Dan is laughing at the story about the dog that ran away. You will realize that you don't care about Olin anymore, because you have everything you ever wanted somewhere else. You will be living a present that is wonderful. Perfect. Like you.

Job Shadows

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on March 11, 2015.

A job shadow is where you spend a full day with someone who does work that is potentially interesting to you. You see what a “day on the job” is like for that person. Most high school students don’t have any way to know what it is really like to be an engineer or graphic designer or nurse, yet many colleges ask students to indicate a potential major/career.

I am a huge believer in the value of job shadows. If you spend a day with someone and discover that the work is boring, that time was not a loss. Perhaps it allows you to cross a potential career off your list, and knowing what you don’t want to do is valuable information. If you do a job shadow and are super-excited by what you observe, you can ask your host about ways to connect with others in the field and perhaps find an internship.

Make a list of careers that sound interesting to you. You can research more about them using the career exploration resources on my website. If you still find the field appealing after your initial research, then set up a job shadow. How do you do that? 

First, use your family and friends. Ask your parents or friends’ parents if they know anyone in the field you want to explore whom they would feel comfortable introducing you to. All you need is an email introduction. Your parents or friends should not make job shadow arrangements for you—that’s your task! 

Next, reach out to the person and explain who you are and that you are interested in a job shadow. Prepare a list of days when you do not have school and would be available to do the job shadow. Spring break and summer vacation are ideal. Make sure you have available transportation so you can be on time. Ask what you should wear, and be sure to follow the guidance you get. Bring a packed lunch and some snacks, since you want to be energetic the whole day.

Your host is doing you a favor, so be sure to act respectful and appropriate. If you are unsure whether certain behavior is okay, just ask! Be prepared with a list of questions such as these:

• How long have you been working in this career?
• Why did you choose it? 
• What kind of education did you need to get started?
• What types of continuing education have you had as your career progressed?
• What do you like best about your work?
• What do you like least about your work?
• What is a typical day like? Will I be experiencing a typical day with you, or is there something out of the ordinary today?
• What percentage of your work is done alone, and what percentage of your work is done in collaboration with others?
• With which other types of professionals are you in daily contact?
• Are there any trends that are strongly affecting your work? If so, what are they?
• What are the most critical skills to have in order to be successful in your work?
• If your job has a normal career path, please describe how most people start, the various jobs along the way as they advance, and the usual amount of time in each position.
• What would a starting salary be like for someone straight out of college, and what would be a usual salary range for someone competent with ten years of experience?
• What advice would you give me if I am interested in pursuing this career?

Take good notes as your questions are answered. Be sure to take the business card of your host and send a handwritten thank-you note the next day. It is also polite to send a thank-you card to the person who connected you with the job shadow (if it wasn’t your parents).

Some professions do not allow job shadows because of privacy or security reasons, so a back-up option to learn more would be to meet the person for an hour and do an informational interview in which you ask questions about his/her job.I recommend that you complete eight job shadows before the start of senior year. I do not expect job shadows to result in a definite career decision, but they do help you narrow your options. The average college student changes majors three times, and you may too; however, the more you know about yourself and what careers might use your strengths, the more likely you are to find colleges classes and majors that excite you, and the more likely you are to actually graduate in four years.

Create an Academic Resume

This article first appeared in GoLocalPDX.com on March 4, 2015.

You probably think of a resume as something you need when you apply for a job. If you are a high school student, you may or may not need that sort of resume, but it is a good idea to start an academic resume as early as 9th grade. You will use your academic resume for all the following purposes:

• to keep track of your academic achievements and awards
• to keep track of all of your activities throughout high school
• as an info source when you fill out the common application and other college admission applications
• to send with scholarship applications
• as a resource for all your recommenders
• as a handout to admissions officers and alumni interviewers

An academic resume is different from a job-seeking resume in many ways. First, it starts with academic information such as where you go to school, your graduation year, your GPA, standardized test scores (once you have some), and extraordinary academic achievements.

Next, it shares your extracurricular activities, both those that are part of your school and those that happen outside of a school setting. This can reflect anything that you choose to spend time on—clubs, sports, religious activities, community service, work, internships, or hobbies. Some applications ask you to report hours spent per activity. Since that is hard to keep track of on your academic resume, I suggest you keep a separate spreadsheet where you record your hours, and use that as a reference to report your hours when requested.

Academic resume guidelines:

• One page excluding pictures
• Font size between 12-10 pt
• broken into logical categories with some white space for readability
• use of acronyms discouraged (for example, spell out National Honor Society instead of putty NHS)
• use present tense and active verbs
• create headers/categories that make sense for your individual list
• if you have a portfolio or blog, link to it in the resume
• a back-side photo page is optional

Here are a few samples resumes to get you started:

• Lori Leader
• Ed Engineer

Please note, if you are especially accomplished at a sport, performing or visual art, speech and debate, or any other focus area for which you might be recruited, you will probably want a separate resume dedicated to your area of focus. Some resources for creating those are located here.