here are some other options that hopefully will allow you to strike a better balance between chaos and over-regimentation.

(don’t slip up over winter break like this baby)
 

the “one hour a day” finals study plan

many students promise themselves they are going to study hard over winter break, but since vacation time can be so unscheduled, whole days often slip by before they realize they haven’t done anything at all. prevent this slip-up by incorporating just a little bit of discipline into your days.

schedule a “final exam review/essay writing/winter reading/whatever you’ve been assigned to do” period in every day. sticking to the same time will help this plan be more successful. you can boost your discipline by scheduling some fun me-time around this as well. for example, “yoga 9-10 am,” “study time 10-11:30 am,” “video game break “11:30 am-12 pm,” then keep the rest of the day open-ended if you want.

over winter break, you’ll be gifted about 8 or so hours per weekday that were previously taken up by school, so it hopefully shouldn’t be too painful to keep a few hours of your morning regimented, and then allow yourself to take the rest of the time off.
 

the “take a break first” final exam study plan

if you are entering winter break feeling completely burned out by school, it’s understandable if you don’t feel like scheduling study time into your first morning of freedom. if this is the case, it’s ok to allow yourself a few days (or even a week if you have longer break) of total decompression. put your backpack in your closet and get fully rejuvenated. it may mean you need to put more hours of work into each day once you resume studying, but if you are feeling completely refreshed when you do, you will likely get more out of your efforts.

but just so the procrastination train doesn’t go completely chugging off the ends of the earth, i highly suggest you spend the first evening or morning of break making a list of everything you need to do and how much time you think you need to devote to studying overall. then determine how many days you can take completely off and when you will resume your studies. once you’ve done this, you can put it all out of your mind until it’s time to pick up those books again.
 

the “holiday rewards” finals study plan

there’s often no time like the holidays for gratuitous treats. when i was a kid, we always got chocolate-filled advent calendars from my grandmother. every day of december, you opened the door and got a chocolate, but my mom used to make me wait until after homework to eat mine. the wait was agonizing, but it made the chocolate all the more sweeter and helped stave off the procrastination that otherwise would have inflated my homework time. find your own holiday or wintertime rewards that help you get your studying done: whether it’s a cookie or evening ski time with friends. no reward unless you finish that day’s (or hour’s) studying task.
 

the “avoid-my-relatives” final exam study plan

i’m kind of joking about this one (but only kind of). winter break often involves some family time, and sometimes it involves a lot of family time. now, i hope you love spending time with your loved ones, but if it gets to be a bit much, you might be able to strategically schedule some study time around it. so make sure you know what your family’s winter break plans look like. studying for your history test or writing an english essay just might get you some much needed alone-time holed up in your room instead of endless rounds of board games with your cousins. and don’t forget to make full use of travel time. several hours on a plane or in a car without wifi can provide some distraction-free study time and might help you put a lid on that harmonized family sing-along. ok, ok, get in one round and then slip on the headphones; your parents can hardly complain about your studiousness :).

enjoy your break with a little study-time snuck in, and you’ll be ready to head back to school both refreshed and ready to conquer those exams!
 

the post how to study for finals or semester exams over winter break appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

this is major college admissions news. for over 40 years, the common application has existed as the primary multi-school application. with over 600 colleges and universities as members, the common application is an application that most students currently use for at least some of their college list. and now it has a competitor.

so let’s take a look at some of the most common questions swirling around out there right now about the coalition application, and we will keep you updated right here on the latest developments regarding how you can prepare for it!

why was the coalition application created?

the group who created the coalition (formally known as the coalition for access, affordability and success) has the goal of improving access to college, so it hopes that the application will be beneficial to underrepresented students and students in need of financial aid. in order to join the coalition, colleges must meet the financial need of all students they admit and have a 70% graduation rate. (there’s plenty of controversy about this, but we are not going to tackle that in this post. we’re operating under the assumption that the coalition app is here to stay, and our goal is to make sure students are prepared for it!)

most people also believe the coalition is a reaction to what some see as the shortcomings of the common application. in 2013, the common app suffered numerous technical difficulties that frustrated students, colleges, admissions officers, and counselors. many colleges, as well, are dissatisfied with the “monopoly” that is the common app and want an alternative.

what is different about the coalition application?

the key word here is “portfolio.” the coalition will provide students with an online “college locker” that they can begin stuffing with material starting in ninth grade. the portfolio could include examples of their best work, essays, descriptions of activities, and so on. students can choose which parts of the portfolio they want to share with colleges and can also share it with colleges and advisors throughout their high school career to get feedback. the idea is to help students plan for college early rather than in the fall of senior year. standardized test scores and high school transcripts will still play an important role for schools that consider them, but rather than admissions essays, it’s going to be portfolio work that students use to round out their application.

colleges will also have more flexibility to customize their application with the coalition app than they do with the common app; in many cases, this might create more work (or opportunity, depending on how you look at it) for students who will have additional school-specific questions, even videos, to submit to some colleges.

will colleges and universities still accept the common application?

yes. as of right now, the coalition application is launching as an alternative to the common application or a school’s individual application, and basically all of the coalition application members are common app members as well. this, of course, begs the question of how schools are going to compare students who apply under the two different systems, which remains to be seen.

when will the coalition application be available?

the portfolio is scheduled to launch for student use in april 2016 (note: this is a change from earlier reports that stated a january 2016 launch for the online portfolio) and the application will be available in the summer of 2016, meaning students will be able to use it for applications as soon as next fall.

who is the coalition application best for?

there’s a ton of debate out there about whether or not the coalition application will best serve the students it is purportedly designed for–underrepresented students–or the students who have the support and means to develop polished, professional-looking portfolios. regardless, as things stand right now, it does seem that the coalition application is best suited for students who do well in school–who have worked hard on their papers and projects both in and out of school and would like these things to stand for them on the application rather than a gimmicky essay or a padded resume. (of course, not all admissions essays are gimmicky and not all resumes are padded, but if you are one of those students who criticize college applications for that reason, maybe the coalition app is a better option for you).

because it is so new, and you also have that new sat thing to contend with, personally i wouldn’t recommend the coalition application to many current juniors (although there certainly might be exceptions, including those who already have an impressive catalog of work they can pull together for a portfolio.) it remains to be seen, however, whether it will work to students’ advantage or not to be one of the first in the system. it’s a gamble. to be fair, i haven’t seen the app yet, so i’ll update this post if i change my tune :).

how can i get started on my coalition application?

if you are a freshman, sophomore, or junior now, you can start locating copies of your best work and gather them together now so you are ready for the portfolio when it launches. get feedback from parents, teachers, and counselors on what materials best illustrates your capabilities as a student. and most importantly, think of everything you do in school from now on as a possible portfolio piece for colleges. but again, don’t panic, no one is going to be obliged to complete the coalition application right now. if this sounds like too much for you, stay the course, plan for your common app, and we will see how this all develops.

the post a guide to the coalition application: faqs appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

whoa, this sounds bad. and it’s been all over the news. should we all be equally freaking out over the state of american education? well, the answer is “no.” at least not in the way the college board and the act would like you to be.

you see, the college board and the act have a vested interest in making the case that their respective tests are an accurate measure of academic achievement. in the past few years, the act has overtaken the sat in popularity. and in response, the sat is going to be drastically changing in march 2016 in the interest of reclaiming some of this market share. the new sat is supposed to be aligned with current common core standards in schools (and is startlingly act-like in many ways). in other words, the sat is working extra hard to fight for its relevance.

every summer in recent memory, alarmist news reports about the state of sat and act scores flood the media. but it isn’t helicopter parents or indignant students driving these reports. it’s the college board and the act. it’s pretty smart on their part. such reports make the automatic assumption that the act and sat are accurate measures of college potential. and this is a rather questionable assumption, as many teenagers who consider themselves to be excellent students but poor test-takers would not hesitate to point out. this is not to say that there aren’t some correlations between test scores and academic potential, but the sat and act are far from fair judges.

test scores are declining because more students are taking the test

ok, so the tests aren’t entirely fair, and there’s an ulterior motive behind widespread reports about declining scores–but why are scores decreasing?

the simplest answer is that there is a far more diverse group of students taking the sat and act, including more low-income and underrepresented groups. the number of students using a fee-waiver, indicating they are low income, was at its highest in recent years, and the number of underrepresented minority students increased to 32.5%, compared to 29% in the class of 2011. and this is good news, indicating more students than ever before are being encouraged to pursue higher education. as andrew ho, harvard professor in the graduate school of education, argues, headlines about declining test scores could just as easily be about increasing test participation.*

why sat and act test scores will never change that much

it’s also worth mentioning that standardized test scores are subject to a process called equating. it’s not exactly a curve, but it’s a process that ensures that a student’s score should be roughly the same no matter when he or she takes the test. and sat and act questions are carefully tested on students to make sure that there won’t be any drastic changes in difficulty between test forms. this means we aren’t likely to ever see test scores increase or decrease by large amounts year to year–this would mean the testmakers aren’t doing their jobs. if students as a whole do become far worse or far better at the test, then scaled scores would be adjusted to reflect this (in other words it would become either easier or harder to get a certain score).

because the sat has a lot of “points” to work with, a shift of a few points in either direction (when we are talking about a total of 2400 points) is not a huge deal. it also makes sense that act scores (which range from 1-36) would remain “stagnant” in recent years, as opposed to declining or increasing, because it would take a lot more to move the average score from, say, a 21 to a 22.

so, ultimately, doomsday reports about sat and act scores are both rather hyperbolic and rather ingenious marketing strategies on the part of the sat and act.

what we should be talking about regarding declining sat and act scores

opponents of standardized testing are often quick to point out that it is income that is often the strongest predictor of test scores. a glance a bit further down in the college board’s annual report reveals this correlation:

chart data compiled from the college board’s 2015: college-bound seniors total group profile report.
and income is not the only factor with a strong correlation to test scores; there are also distinct differences between ethnicity groups:

chart data compiled from the college board’s 2015: college-bound seniors total group profile report.
in the last decade, students who identify as black or african american, mexican or mexican american, and other hispanic or latino have all seen greater score drops than the average, according to fairtest.org.

so while we really shouldn’t be alarmed at small shifts in sat scores or “stagnant” act scores, we should be alarmed at the discrepancy in scores between different socioeconomic and ethnic groups–and what this means for both our schools and the fairness of these tests.
*“why the dip in sat scores may not be such a bad thing”

the post why are sat and act scores really declining? appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

well guess what? in my humble opinion, i think that means you are actually one step ahead of the game. despite all the talk out there about a “college search,” the vast majority of college applicants never truly search for a school themselves. they make a list of colleges their friends like, their parents like, their counselors like, or simply schools they’ve seen on t-shirts or on tv. i was one of these students. i never looked outside of my own backyard, and when i started learning about all the amazing colleges and universities that are out there later on, boy, did i have some regrets.

so, first, pat yourself on the back just for being on the mission to uncover the right college for you. now, let’s talk about how you can find it.

step 1: take an inventory of yourself

ask yourself these questions: what do i like and dislike about my current school? how do i learn best? do i like to study alone or with a group? do i like to have personal interactions with my teachers? do i like socializing in large or small groups? does climate have a serious impact on me? do i need to be close to home? do i like to be involved in a lot of activities? do i need school spirit? sports? theatre? there are so many questions to ask and lots of resources for self-assessments out there. here is one that i particularly like. taking stock of what you want and need will help you know what to look for as you research schools.

step 2: establish your must-haves

take a look at the following list of criteria and determine what your requirements are for each category. are there any deal-breakers? are there any you don’t have particularly strong feelings about? be careful of eliminating anything you aren’t sure about at this point: if you’ve never seen a small liberal arts school before, how do you know you don’t want to go to one? if you don’t know, then make some college visits before you rule anything out.

curriculum: have you already decided on a major to pursue? do you want to make sure you have options? do you want to have a core curriculum or total freedom? do you want to double major? do you want to design your own major?

location: is it important for you to be close/far from home? in a certain geographical region or climate?

size: small? medium? large? mega? don’t forget to consider the size of the individual program you are looking at, not just the whole school.

resources: do you need specific resources for learning needs or psychological, social, or medical concerns? desire a strong cultural or ethnic group support network? want robust internships or research opportunities?

activities: what types of activities are you interested in participating in in college, both on and off campus? what type of leadership, service, study abroad, etc. opportunities would you like to pursue?

cost and financial aid: how much can you/your family afford to pay for college? what level of financial aid do you need?

step 3: research, explore, and visit

once you’ve determined what you are looking for in a college experience, you can begin exploring schools that meet your criteria. college navigator and college scorecard are good tools to launch your college search based on the criteria you’ve established.  (you can also check out our list of the best free online resources for your college search here!)

once you’ve developed an exploratory list, lay out a plan for visits. if you don’t have the time or means to visit colleges far away, pick a selection of different types of schools within a day’s drive. plan out a handful of weekend trips to visit 2 to 4 schools each weekend (any more and they will all start to run together in your mind).

for the schools you can’t visit (and even for the ones you can), do research online, get on mailing lists, visit with the rep when they come to your school, talk to current students and alumni, and go to college fairs. learn as much as you can!

step 4: refine your list

once you’ve done your exploration, refine your college list. the length of this list can vary. some students have three or four schools, others have fifteen. whatever you do, make sure to cover your bases. you should have a balance of good bets (schools you have more than a 75% chance of getting into), targets (schools you have a 25% to 75% chance of getting into), and reaches (schools you have less than a 25% chance of getting into).

step 5: express your interest

now that you know which schools you are interested in, make sure they know it too! take advantage of opportunities for interviews and meetings with representatives and alumni; get on their mailing list. even if these contacts don’t seem to lead anywhere, when it comes time for your application, you will be able to check off all sorts of boxes that show your demonstrated interest in the school and your essays will reflect your effort. go to each school’s website and find the admissions representative who will be reading your application (sometimes this is based on the alphabet or geography, sometimes on other criteria). this person is going to be your contact throughout the admissions process. definitely don’t pester them, but don’t hesitate to reach out if you have important questions or if you need to follow up with information regarding your application.

remember, this is your college search! all sorts of people–from your parents to your friends to your teachers–are going to have their own thoughts about it. listen to them, but don’t be swayed by the opinions of others. if you have a better sense of who you are and what you want in a school, you’ll be much less likely to fall into this trap and far more likely to fall in love with your chosen school once you get there.

the post college search: tips to find the best school for you appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

here are our top three tips for a college application that will stand out from the pack.

1. know your schools

it’s blindingly apparent to admissions offices when you have sent them a canned essay copied over from a template on your computer with “insert college here” strategically sprinkled throughout the text. trust me on this. i could spot them a mile away. make sure to take the time to get to know each school you are applying to. visit the campus if you can, and take notes on specific academic, research, extracurricular or service opportunities you are interested in. it’s easy to get caught up in how beautiful a campus is or how much fun the students look like they are having, but remember the college wants to hear your thoughts on it as a place of learning. if a visit is not possible, spend some quality time on the website. pro tip: go to the “current students” page for the best information on classes and other opportunities offered at the school. the “prospective students” page is a good starting place, but it often doesn’t get into the nuanced details on specific opportunities you can tell colleges you are interested in. another good page to check out–that hardly any prospective students frequent–is the “mission” or “about us” page. this is where a college tells you point blank what it values in itself and in its students. why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of this information to show a college how you fit right in with its ideals?

2. consider how you present yourself

most applications include various sections to fill out with honors, classes, test scores, activities, and interests. whenever possible, take a “top-down” approach to listing information. highlight your best stuff at the top where it will get noticed. for example, rather than listing your courses in the order you attend them (which is what most students do), put your aps or ibs first, then honors, then other academic subjects, then electives. just because you have gym first period doesn’t mean gym should be first on your list.

take every opportunity you have to tell the college about yourself. don’t skip over optional “description” spaces: seeming as if you have too much to say rather than nothing at all to say always looks better. so, for example, rather than just writing “soccer, grades 9-12,” let colleges know you were the “recipient of the student athlete award and chosen as a mentor for the freshman players.”

also, remember that some information is optional. if your sat or act scores are less than stellar, and you are applying to a test-optional school, remember that you don’t necessarily need to fill out the test score section. this gets a little tricky, so make sure you consult with your college counselor.

be thoughtful about your applications. the best applications tell a story and give a college a sense of who you are and how you will contribute to its campus. are you an artist and a filmmaker? a budding chemical engineer? make sure your “identity” comes across on the various parts of your application.

3. don’t forget about all your supplemental components

college applications can be pretty complex. there are essays, recommendation letters, transcripts, official test reports, maybe art portfolios or music supplements, and more. create a spreadsheet early in the process to keep track of everything you need and the deadlines. you don’t want to hold up your applications and miss early deadlines because you are waiting on a recommendation letter or need to scrape together some art samples. also, don’t forget that all of your friends (and their friends) are going to be clamoring for recommendation letters from the same teachers. ask your teachers early (the spring of junior year is ideal) and give them whatever they need to write a stellar recommendation. when i advised high school students for college admissions, i rarely allowed them to skip any opportunity to tell the schools more about themselves. so if there is an optional essay asking you to describe yourself in an acrostic poem, think twice about brushing it off; completing the optional essays shows the colleges your investment in going above and beyond.

there’s too much competition out there to throw an application together at the last minute! you’ve invested so much in your high school life so far, so put some thought into how you present yourself to colleges, so they don’t miss just how special you are.

the post college application tips appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

focus small

how are you supposed to sum yourself up in 500 words? the answer is, you can’t. so don’t even try. the first trick to writing a successful college admissions essay is to let go of the belief that this is even a possibility. instead, focus on one aspect of who you are and choose a narrow enough topic that you can fully develop it in the space allowed. this always makes for a more powerful statement than a generalized essay that attempts to address your entire life.

be genuine

as college admissions has gotten increasingly competitive, applicants do all sorts of crazy things to stand out, such as sending in love letters, a plate of cookies, or a shoe to get their “foot in the door.”

most students don’t go to these extremes, but, in the face of such a momentous and stressful task as writing a personal statement, they do things they otherwise wouldn’t, such as affect an air of maturity they don’t actually possess (or worse, their parents jump in with their red pens and affect this air for them). or they exaggerate their involvement in a community service project or go waaaay overboard professing their love for a school.

what i’ve seen as a trend in recent years amongst admissions offices is a real appreciation for the “good old days” of the genuine college essay written in a genuine teenage voice. this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t carefully choose your words and refine your presentation, but it does mean that you should write about a topic that you truly care about and write from the heart. you don’t need to have saved the world or use dozens of sat vocab words to impress an admissions officer. in my years of advising students on college essays, it took me about ten seconds to determine which ones were genuine and which ones were not. and this was true regardless of how strong a writer the student was.

avoid no-no topics and overused topics

in general, you should avoid talking about death, divorce, pets, controversial subjects, or illegal activities. there is occasionally a time and a place for one of these topics (such as explaining a dip in grades due to a death in the family), but you should consult with a college counselor before proceeding. and if you have another topic you could write about, this is often for the best.

in addition to these tabooed topics, you should avoid overused topics such as a sports challenge or victory (the “big game” essay), community service projects (the “i learned how fortunate i am” essay), trips abroad (the “i learned about cultural differences” essay), or overcoming an injury (the “i learned perseverance” essay), unless you have a unique perspective to present. here is a good way to think about it: the more original a topic is, the less original you have to be in your presentation of it. the less original a topic is, the more original you have to be in your presentation of it.

have an attention-getter

admissions officers read tons of essays. they get bored. if you don’t nab their attention right way, you are not likely to regain it. so never start off by restating the question (“the most important lesson i ever learned was…”). here are two options for much better attention-getters:

1. start with an anecdote. put the reader right in the middle of a story that introduces your topic. for example, if you are writing about the competition between you and your sister over the violin, perhaps start with an anecdote about the two of you performing together on stage, furiously bowing the strings and eyeing each other sideways.

2. start with a surprising sentence and then explain how it actually has meaning. for example, “elephants make the best kind of friends.” then tie this into a discussion of lessons learned during your internship at the zoo.

tell a story

everyone loves a good story. telling a story is not the only way to write a college essay, but it is one of the easiest ways to do it well. rather than trying to cram everything about yourself into one essay, and thus ending up with a disjointed collection of paragraphs about your swim team, drama club, eclectic family, and drum lessons, find an important moment in your life and tell the colleges about it.

end with a moral to the story

you have to do more than just tell a story, though. you have to explain what it means and how it has shaped your life. admissions officers won’t take the time to guess how this moment has made you who you are. at some point, you need to directly tell them. let them know who you are right now–what kind of person will they be admitting to their school? a good way to do this is to end your essay with a “look to the future,” whether this means explaining how the topic of your essay has resulted in your desire to study biomedical engineering in college or how it has changed your outlook on leadership.

writing a good college essay takes a lot of work, but if you follow these tips, you are well on your way to making it a worthwhile effort, and one that will get you noticed (in a good way )!

the post college admissions essay: top tips for making a statement colleges will remember (in a good way) appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

college scorecard: a user-friendly and engaging tool to search for schools from the u.s. government college affordability and transparency center based on a range of criteria. you can also find out how much the average student pays for a school, how much they borrow, and graduation and employment prospects.

college confidential supermatch: a search tool that uses 20 criteria (attributes such as location, major, diversity, special services, and party scene) to help you find the right school for you. it uses a “fuzzy” approach to ranking schools based on your preferences, meaning it finds not only the perfect matches, but also the schools that are pretty darn close.

college navigator: not quite as fun as college confidential’s tool, but is an authoritative one hosted by the national center for education statistics. you can search for schools by criteria, compare them side by side, and pinpoint school locations on an interactive map.

big future from the college board: another well-respected search tool. of particular note is the ability to find schools based on test scores, those that offer academic credit for advanced high school courses, and those that meet financial aid needs.

u.s. news and world report best colleges: the most famous national source of college rankings, highly anticipated each year. you will need either a website subscription or a purchase of the magazine for full details on the rankings.

colleges that change lives: a non-profit organization promoting a small group of liberal arts colleges supporting a student-centered college experience. also has numerous quality resources for a general college search.

best colleges: uses compiled information from various sources to rank colleges on specific features (for example, online colleges that offer free laptops, tuition-free colleges, and colleges with lowest out-of-state tuition)

ecampus tours: offers 360-degree virtual tours of 1300 campuses.

college week live: a virtual college fair. live chat with admissions representatives and students at 300+ colleges and universities.

niche (formerly college prowler): aims provides the “real dirt” on colleges; students review aspects of the college experience at their respective schools, such as the sports scene or campus food. lots of information; take individual student opinions with a grain of salt, though.

unigo: similar to niche. compiles student reviews on various schools.

the post free college search resources appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.