Collegewise

Time to Buy a Broomstick!

Many kids come into the Collegewise offices looking for schools with soccer or football teams. Sometimes they're even looking for a badminton team! But for an avid Harry Potter fan like myself (judge me all you want, but those books are going to be on the list of CLASSICS someday soon!), I'm crossing my fingers that one day I'm going to meet a high school student looking for a Quidditch team.

Yep, you read it right. Quidditch. As in Howgart's Inter-House Quidditch teams.

There's only one real difference between Harry Potter's sport and the newest sport on college campuses: gravity. But these kids aren't letting a little thing like gravity get in their way. Colleges all over the country are starting up Quidditch teams for their own campuses, joining the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association and training to compete in the Quidditch World Cup. Schools like the University of Washington, Middlebury, Vassar Chestnut Hill College and McGill University from Canada all competed in the 2008 World Cup. Boston University and Northeastern organized a "Battle Over Boston" and there are 105 teams associated with the IQA, recruiting and training for the next World Cup.

If you think you're the next Quidditch star, check out the IQA at www.collegequidditch.com. Or if you're like me and absolutely positive you're not the next Quidditch star, you can live vicariously by watching this clip of the Middlebury and Princeton teams competing on CBS Sports.

It's not quite the Sweet Sixteen, but it's still pretty awesome.

Reunited and It Feels So Good

When I was a freshman in college, it took about two weeks for me to get tired of dorm room living and dining hall eating.  I remember lamenting the fact that I was stuck in a triple bedroom and dreaming about the days that I would live in a real house with an actual kitchen.

Today, I remember my dorm room days in a positive light.  Cereal for every meal?  Fun!  Staying up all night with friends writing papers?  Woohoo!!  So, as my Five-Year Reunion quickly approaches, I can't help but get excited about staying in a dorm room again and grabbing breakfast with my roomies!!

I head out to Colgate tonight.  My best college buddy is meeting me at the airport, and we're planning to stop immediately at Roger's Deli for egg salad sandwiches (with extra salt and pepper).  After that is check-in at the dorm rooms, coffee with Gary Ross (Colgate's Dean of Admissions), and undetermined shenanigans.  I'll be sure to check in Monday with a run-down of my fabulous reunion weekend.

-Katie Konrad, Director of Collegewise - Northwest

50 Fantastic Summer Activities for High School Students

The New York Times ran an article today about the National Young Leaders Conference--one of many organizations that offer high-priced summer programs for students, but that misleadingly market the programs as auspicious honors for which only a few outstanding students are selected.  It's a good reminder to be suspicious of any "honor" for which you have to pay (a lot) to receive.

You don't have to spend money on an expensive program to impress colleges.   Here are 50 fantastic summer activities you can do for free or almost free.  All of these are positive, productive and interesting to potential colleges.  Pick the one(s) you feel you could really get excited about, get going, and have fun. 

50 Ways to Spend Your Summer

1. Take an interesting class at your local community college.
2. Get a part-time job at the mall. 
3. See how many books you can read this summer.  
4. Work in your family's business.  Consider doing so for free.
5. Think of ten people--teachers, coaches, family members, relatives--who deserve your thanks.  Write them a hand-written letter of at least one page expressing your appreciation and detailing how they've impacted you.  Tell them what you're going to do to make them proud and spend the summer doing it.
6. Take saxophone lessons.  
7. Coach little league.  Or basketball.  Or soccer.
8. Work at a summer camp.  
9. Volunteer at the local mobile health clinic, or the animal shelter, or the public library.  
10. Tutor kids.  
11. Start a business with your friends.   
12. Set a goal that you are 99% certain you won't be able to achieve this summer.  Then go all out and try to achieve it as though your life depended on it.  You'll either get there or get much, much closer than you were at the beginning of the summer. 
13. Learn how to write computer programs.  
14. Read to the blind.  
15. Teach something.  
16. Learn to paint.  
17. Pick something that really interests you and see how far you can go with it.  
18. Take classes to become an emergency medical technician.  
19. Learn sign language.   
20. Pick a cause in your community that you care about.  Find groups who care about it, too.  Organize people. 
21. Offer to intern for free someplace where the work seems interesting, like the city councilman's office, or an advertising agency, or the local newspaper.  
22. Play guitar at coffee shops and see how much money you can make this summer. 
23. Learn CPR. 
24. Cook dinner for your family once a week.  Each time, learn a new dish that you prepare.  Write your recipes down and make your own family cookbook. 
25. Volunteer to lead tours of local state parks.   
26. Buy a college guidebook and learn as much as you can about 20 colleges you know nothing about today.  
27. Raise money for someone or something that needs it. 
28. Learn something that is pure fun, like bongos or hip hop dance or how to make your own purses (check out your local community colleges' "community education" programs). 
29. Pick something you love and figure out how to use it to make contributions to others, like playing piano in a jazz band, teaching residents at a retirement home how to use a computer, or helping run the lights for a play at the community theater.  
30. Work full time and give all the money to a charity of your choice at the end of the summer.  
31. Pick a subject that fascinates you and challenge yourself to learn as much as possible about it. 
32. Learn karate. 
33. Teach karate. 
34. Join a book club. 
35. Organize a book club. 
36. Go to your school principal and ask what you could do, for free, to improve the school.  You could paint a classroom, clean lockers, or refurbish the lunch benches.  Better yet, enlist five friends to do it with you.  Don't just tell colleges you want to make an impact.  Make one.  
37. Set a goal to learn as many new things as possible this summer--facts, skills, concepts, etc.  Write a blog detailing what you've learned so you can share it with cyberspace. 
38. Build an iphone app. 
39. Master one subject or skill you currently don't know anything about. 
40. Hold informal soccer conditioning workouts, or barbecues for the new student council members so you can get to know each other better, or meetings at Starbucks with your co-editors to brainstorm story ideas for the paper this fall.  Show colleges you can organize people and lead them.    
41. Have a neighborhood bake sale for the French Club in which all sales are conducted in French.  
42. Get a group of kids from the drama club together and enroll in an improv class. 
43. Pick a classic author and read all of his or her works. Find out what all the fuss is about Twain or Hemingway or Plath or Dickinson. 
44. Take the hardest college class you can find and enroll in it "not-for-credit" so you can challenge yourself with impunity. 
45. Visit as many colleges as you can in a 30 mile radius of your house.  Take your friends with you.  Write your own reviews of each school and share them with people. 
46. Learn to cut and style hair.  You'll be a savior during prom season. 
47. Vow not to watch any TV this summer.  Not one single second.  Pick something cool and fun and productive to do instead.    
48. Find a class offered at a local college that looks fascinating.  Email the professor and ask if you can sit in on a session or two just to experience what the class is like.  
49. Train to run a 10k, or a half-marathon, or a marathon, or to do a triathlon.  And get your friends to join and train with you.  Consider raising money with your efforts and donating to a worthy cause. 
50. Pick the five most enticing things on this list and do them.  At the end of the summer, email me at kevinm (at) collegewise.com and tell me about your experiences.  I'd love to hear from you, and if you give me permission, I'll share your story here on our blog.

The New York Times ran an article today about the National Young Leaders Conference--one of many organizations that offer high-priced summer programs for students, but that misleadingly market the programs as auspicious honors for which only a few outstanding students are selected.  It's a good reminder to be suspicious of any "honor" for which you have to pay (a lot) to receive.

You don't have to spend money on an expensive program to impress colleges.   Here are 50 fantastic summer activities you can do for free or almost free.  All of these are positive, productive and interesting to potential colleges.  Pick the one(s) you feel you could really get excited about, get going, and have fun. 

50 Ways to Spend Your Summer

1. Take an interesting class at your local community college.
2. Get a part-time job at the mall. 
3. See how many books you can read this summer.  
4. Work in your family's business.  Consider doing so for free.
5. Think of ten people--teachers, coaches, family members, relatives--who deserve your thanks.  Write them a hand-written letter of at least one page expressing your appreciation and detailing how they've impacted you.  Tell them what you're going to do to make them proud and spend the summer doing it.
6. Take saxophone lessons.  
7. Coach little league.  Or basketball.  Or soccer.
8. Work at a summer camp.  
9. Volunteer at the local mobile health clinic, or the animal shelter, or the public library.  
10. Tutor kids.  
11. Start a business with your friends.   
12. Set a goal that you are 99% certain you won't be able to achieve this summer.  Then go all out and try to achieve it as though your life depended on it.  You'll either get there or get much, much closer than you were at the beginning of the summer. 
13. Learn how to write computer programs.  
14. Read to the blind.  
15. Teach something.  
16. Learn to paint.  
17. Pick something that really interests you and see how far you can go with it.  
18. Take classes to become an emergency medical technician.  
19. Learn sign language.   
20. Pick a cause in your community that you care about.  Find groups who care about it, too.  Organize people. 
21. Offer to intern for free someplace where the work seems interesting, like the city councilman's office, or an advertising agency, or the local newspaper.  
22. Play guitar at coffee shops and see how much money you can make this summer. 
23. Learn CPR. 
24. Cook dinner for your family once a week.  Each time, learn a new dish that you prepare.  Write your recipes down and make your own family cookbook. 
25. Volunteer to lead tours of local state parks.   
26. Buy a college guidebook and learn as much as you can about 20 colleges you know nothing about today.  
27. Raise money for someone or something that needs it. 
28. Learn something that is pure fun, like bongos or hip hop dance or how to make your own purses (check out your local community colleges' "community education" programs). 
29. Pick something you love and figure out how to use it to make contributions to others, like playing piano in a jazz band, teaching residents at a retirement home how to use a computer, or helping run the lights for a play at the community theater.  
30. Work full time and give all the money to a charity of your choice at the end of the summer.  
31. Pick a subject that fascinates you and challenge yourself to learn as much as possible about it. 
32. Learn karate. 
33. Teach karate. 
34. Join a book club. 
35. Organize a book club. 
36. Go to your school principal and ask what you could do, for free, to improve the school.  You could paint a classroom, clean lockers, or refurbish the lunch benches.  Better yet, enlist five friends to do it with you.  Don't just tell colleges you want to make an impact.  Make one.  
37. Set a goal to learn as many new things as possible this summer--facts, skills, concepts, etc.  Write a blog detailing what you've learned so you can share it with cyberspace. 
38. Build an iphone app. 
39. Master one subject or skill you currently don't know anything about. 
40. Hold informal soccer conditioning workouts, or barbecues for the new student council members so you can get to know each other better, or meetings at Starbucks with your co-editors to brainstorm story ideas for the paper this fall.  Show colleges you can organize people and lead them.    
41. Have a neighborhood bake sale for the French Club in which all sales are conducted in French.  
42. Get a group of kids from the drama club together and enroll in an improv class. 
43. Pick a classic author and read all of his or her works. Find out what all the fuss is about Twain or Hemingway or Plath or Dickinson. 
44. Take the hardest college class you can find and enroll in it "not-for-credit" so you can challenge yourself with impunity. 
45. Visit as many colleges as you can in a 30 mile radius of your house.  Take your friends with you.  Write your own reviews of each school and share them with people. 
46. Learn to cut and style hair.  You'll be a savior during prom season. 
47. Vow not to watch any TV this summer.  Not one single second.  Pick something cool and fun and productive to do instead.    
48. Find a class offered at a local college that looks fascinating.  Email the professor and ask if you can sit in on a session or two just to experience what the class is like.  
49. Train to run a 10k, or a half-marathon, or a marathon, or to do a triathlon.  And get your friends to join and train with you.  Consider raising money with your efforts and donating to a worthy cause. 
50. Pick the five most enticing things on this list and do them.  At the end of the summer, email me at kevinm (at) collegewise.com and tell me about your experiences.  I'd love to hear from you, and if you give me permission, I'll share your story here on our blog.

The New York Times ran an article today about the National Young Leaders Conference--one of many organizations that offer high-priced summer programs for students, but that misleadingly market the programs as auspicious honors for which only a few outstanding students are selected.  It's a good reminder to be suspicious of any "honor" for which you have to pay (a lot) to receive.

You don't have to spend money on an expensive program to impress colleges.   Here are 50 fantastic summer activities you can do for free or almost free.  All of these are positive, productive and interesting to potential colleges.  Pick the one(s) you feel you could really get excited about, get going, and have fun. 

50 Ways to Spend Your Summer

1. Take an interesting class at your local community college.
2. Get a part-time job at the mall. 
3. See how many books you can read this summer.  
4. Work in your family's business.  Consider doing so for free.
5. Think of ten people--teachers, coaches, family members, relatives--who deserve your thanks.  Write them a hand-written letter of at least one page expressing your appreciation and detailing how they've impacted you.  Tell them what you're going to do to make them proud and spend the summer doing it.
6. Take saxophone lessons.  
7. Coach little league.  Or basketball.  Or soccer.
8. Work at a summer camp.  
9. Volunteer at the local mobile health clinic, or the animal shelter, or the public library.  
10. Tutor kids.  
11. Start a business with your friends.   
12. Set a goal that you are 99% certain you won't be able to achieve this summer.  Then go all out and try to achieve it as though your life depended on it.  You'll either get there or get much, much closer than you were at the beginning of the summer. 
13. Learn how to write computer programs.  
14. Read to the blind.  
15. Teach something.  
16. Learn to paint.  
17. Pick something that really interests you and see how far you can go with it.  
18. Take classes to become an emergency medical technician.  
19. Learn sign language.   
20. Pick a cause in your community that you care about.  Find groups who care about it, too.  Organize people. 
21. Offer to intern for free someplace where the work seems interesting, like the city councilman's office, or an advertising agency, or the local newspaper.  
22. Play guitar at coffee shops and see how much money you can make this summer. 
23. Learn CPR. 
24. Cook dinner for your family once a week.  Each time, learn a new dish that you prepare.  Write your recipes down and make your own family cookbook. 
25. Volunteer to lead tours of local state parks.   
26. Buy a college guidebook and learn as much as you can about 20 colleges you know nothing about today.  
27. Raise money for someone or something that needs it. 
28. Learn something that is pure fun, like bongos or hip hop dance or how to make your own purses (check out your local community colleges' "community education" programs). 
29. Pick something you love and figure out how to use it to make contributions to others, like playing piano in a jazz band, teaching residents at a retirement home how to use a computer, or helping run the lights for a play at the community theater.  
30. Work full time and give all the money to a charity of your choice at the end of the summer.  
31. Pick a subject that fascinates you and challenge yourself to learn as much as possible about it. 
32. Learn karate. 
33. Teach karate. 
34. Join a book club. 
35. Organize a book club. 
36. Go to your school principal and ask what you could do, for free, to improve the school.  You could paint a classroom, clean lockers, or refurbish the lunch benches.  Better yet, enlist five friends to do it with you.  Don't just tell colleges you want to make an impact.  Make one.  
37. Set a goal to learn as many new things as possible this summer--facts, skills, concepts, etc.  Write a blog detailing what you've learned so you can share it with cyberspace. 
38. Build an iphone app. 
39. Master one subject or skill you currently don't know anything about. 
40. Hold informal soccer conditioning workouts, or barbecues for the new student council members so you can get to know each other better, or meetings at Starbucks with your co-editors to brainstorm story ideas for the paper this fall.  Show colleges you can organize people and lead them.    
41. Have a neighborhood bake sale for the French Club in which all sales are conducted in French.  
42. Get a group of kids from the drama club together and enroll in an improv class. 
43. Pick a classic author and read all of his or her works. Find out what all the fuss is about Twain or Hemingway or Plath or Dickinson. 
44. Take the hardest college class you can find and enroll in it "not-for-credit" so you can challenge yourself with impunity. 
45. Visit as many colleges as you can in a 30 mile radius of your house.  Take your friends with you.  Write your own reviews of each school and share them with people. 
46. Learn to cut and style hair.  You'll be a savior during prom season. 
47. Vow not to watch any TV this summer.  Not one single second.  Pick something cool and fun and productive to do instead.    
48. Find a class offered at a local college that looks fascinating.  Email the professor and ask if you can sit in on a session or two just to experience what the class is like.  
49. Train to run a 10k, or a half-marathon, or a marathon, or to do a triathlon.  And get your friends to join and train with you.  Consider raising money with your efforts and donating to a worthy cause. 
50. Pick the five most enticing things on this list and do them.  At the end of the summer, email me at kevinm (at) collegewise.com and tell me about your experiences.  I'd love to hear from you, and if you give me permission, I'll share your story here on our blog.

The Filsteins take over Ithaca...

Margot left town last week and headed to Ithaca, New York to see her sister receive her masters from Cornell University. She's busy running around with the family and pretending to be a Cornell student for the week, but she took a little time to give us an update. Enjoy!

"Hello from Ithaca, New York!  I just got back from my sister's graduation at Cornell, where she earned her master's degree in Management in Hospitality.  While my sister attended the School of Hotel Administration as a graduate student, students can also earn a bachelor's degree in Hotel Administration as an undergraduate.  Cornell even has its own hotel on campus called The Statler Hotel where students in the Hotel School get hands-on experience in the industry.  Pretty cool.

A Healthy Rivalry

Colgate University (my alma mater) and Hamilton College have always had a friendly rivalry.  The schools are relatively similar, and they're only about a half hour apart.  Plus, there's the weird fact that Colgate is in Hamilton, NY, and Hamilton is in Clinton, NY... just to keep things confusing.

This year, school administrators from the two schools came together and came up with a creative fundraising idea.  Hamilton and Colgate would compete to see who could get the most first-time donors in the month of April.

Unfortunately, Colgate fell in this bout, but - like this page points out, it's the students of both schools who came out on top.

A few years ago, I worked with a student who applyed to both Colgate and Hamilton.  After lots of consideration, she chose Hamilton.  While my love for my alma mater knows no bounds, I've got to admit that Hamilton was the right fit for her.  Click here to see what she has to say about her experience at this small liberal arts school in Upstate New York.

Blogged by: Katie Konrad, Director, Collegewise - Northwest

Saving Lives on Study Breaks

A lot of our students talk about wanting a “hands-on” learning experience when they get to college.  Well, it doesn’t get any more hands-on than the Fire and Rescue Squad at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.  Since 1969, the student volunteers of St. Michael’s Fire and Rescue have been serving the school and surrounding communities, responding to everything from motor vehicle accidents to structure fires.  And we thought studying for an Anthropology final was tough…

You can learn more about the St. Michael’s Fire and Rescue Squad through their website, or by watching this video featuring actual student volunteers.

More Great Advice from The Choice

 About this time of year our students pick their courses for the following academic year. It’s also the time of year when our sophomore and juniors are the most stressed out due to back-to-back SAT, SAT Subject tests, AP exams, and finals. It's not uncommon for my students to come to meetings with a Starbucks venti double shot latte chased with a Coke.  For high school sophomores and juniors, the months of May and June are definitely not for the faint of heart!

That’s why I was so happy to see this article on the New York Times’ college admissions blog, The Choice.  We love The Choice and read it on a daily basis. In fact, it’s a staple on my Google Reader. Today’s post is referencing in part how colleges use SAT scores as a cut-off for admission. It’s a great read so I hope you link over to it after you read my post.

 

Here’s why I’m smiling all over, “The good news for most applicants is that more than three-quarters of the colleges report using such scores “holistically.” That usually means the tests are mixed into a stew of many factors being evaluated, including the rigor of applicants’ curriculums; their grades; their activities; their teacher recommendations, and their essays. In fact, when asked to rank the criteria for assessing applicants, most colleges said they give more priority to “strength of curriculum” and “grades in college prep courses.”

 

This is advice we give to our students on a regular basis so it’s nice to know that a nationwide survey of colleges across the country continues to support this.  What I want each of my students to know every time they leave my office is that they're more than just their numbers. Getting into college isn’t just about how high an SAT Critical Reading score is. Thanks to the Choice blog for helping us help our students make sense of a very stressful time in their lives.

 

 

A Penny Saved...

In 1981, a man named Larry Armstrong was on his way to work at the University of Idaho as the executive assistant to the college president.  Outside of a sorority house, he saw three pennies on the ground.

At that time, the University of Idaho (in addition to other campuses nation-wide) was suffering from budget cuts and a shrinking endowment.  Larry decided to pick up the pennies and see how much he could save for the University of Idaho.  After a few years, he and his department had found and saved $44.  They jokingly decided to donate it to the school under the name "Found Money Fund of Idaho."

Word got out, and the fund grew bigger.  Idaho alumni began mailing in their found pennies, quarters, and dollars into the fund.  Armstrong was even invited to a television show in LA in which he brought in $2,100 for the college.

As of last count, the fund is now well over $100,000.  Who knew that a few pennies and a little inspiration could go that far?  You can find out more about the Found Money Fund here.

Blogged by Katie Konrad, Director, Collegewise - Northwest

Cool College Fact: CMC Bubbly

Ask any of my past or present students, and they’ll tell you how much I love my alma mater, Pomona College.  Most of them would also be able to tell you how I’ll defend my wonderful college in any contest against rival school Claremont McKenna College, but I think I may have found one area in which the Stags have us Sagehens beat.  At the end of every year, the president of the graduating class awards each CMC senior with a bottle of champagne after turning in his or her senior thesis.  Free champagne from CMC??  Even a devoted Sagehen would drink to that!

Senioritis Strikes

Every year, our students ask us if colleges actually take away offers of admission if a student has too severe a case of senioritis.  The answer, of course, is yes.  It's important for students to keep their grades up and stay out of trouble.  That said, being a second semester senior earns students a little wiggle room - enough, at least, to enjoy prom and graduation.

This article gives an excellent and honest view on rescinding offers of admission.

Blogged by Katie Konrad, Director, Collegewise Northwest