Speaker: Julie Armenta

Register:  949.425.5100

Location:  Crown Valley Park, View Room, Laguna Niguel, CA

Activity # 2013/Sep 25/Thursday/7pm/Free

Julie Armenta, M.A. Educational & Family Specialist, will educate both parents and teens with helpful tips for getting into the college of their choice.  Reduce the anxiety of the application process by being educated.  Julie will guide you through topics such as GPA requirements, test scores, and making your application stand out.  Walk out of this workshop with a clear time-line of where you should be and to help understand the process of college applications.  Due to limited seating, pre-registration is require for this free workshop.

Students can pick which scores a school sees…Attention, high school juniors:  Starting next spring, you can determine which of your SAT scores a college gets to see.  The College Board’s current policy is that if you send one score to a school, that college also sees the scores from every time you took the test.  But starting in March 2009, students will be able to hide SAT-taking blemishes.

Some counselors worry that the new policy will give a boost to kids who can afford to take the $45 test multiples times and sign up for tutoring sessions.  The college Board says the average score gain on the first SAT retake is 40 points and “there’s no advantage to taking the SAT more than twice, and our fee waivers let low-income students take the test (free) twice.

Admissions offices will have to figure out how to handle the new policy.  The University of Southern California, for example, opposes the new option because it obscures the context in which a score was earned, and may still require applicants to submit all SAT attempts.

Surveys of admissions officers show that fewer than 30 percent of the students who agree to stay on a college’s wait list are eventually accepted. At many elite schools, the chances are even slimmer. In recent years, for example, Massachusetts Institute of Technology has accepted anywhere between none and 40 students from its wait list of several hundred.

But admissions officers say there are a few steps students can take to ease the anxiety and improve their chances:

• Choose among the colleges you have been accepted to, and send a deposit and commitment by the May 1 deadline. At the very least, you should arrange to enroll in a local community college. Admissions officers say the single most important action for all wait-listed students is to be realistic about the low acceptance rates for those on the wait list and make sure they have some other college alternative lined up.

• Don’t automatically ask to stay on a college’s wait list. Colleges typically ask wait-listed students to mail a card or letter stating their continued interest in getting a shot at admission in May, June, or even later. “If they are happy with their other choices, please don’t say, ‘Yes’ to the wait list,” says Eric Kaplan, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania. “They could effectively be taking somebody else’s spot.”

• Ask the school about your chances. Some schools rank their wait-listed students: Lower-ranked students have lower odds of getting accepted. But many schools don’t rank. They instead look to the wait list to replace the kind of student they had been counting on with a similar student—such as someone to fill a spot in an orchestra, a team, or a major. This system makes any individual student’s chances much harder to predict.

• Ask the school about criteria for getting on, and off, the list. Emory University in Atlanta says that the students on its wait-list are typically those with academic credentials matching those of students who were admitted but who didn’t demonstrate any special interest in or affection for Emory by, for example, visiting the campus or attending a local recruiting session.

• Be eager and creative, but not scary or desperate. There’s a fine line between admirable persistence and stalking. Most admissions officers say students can help their causes by obeying the school’s instructions and perhaps sending one well-written letter updating their achievements and explaining why they still should be admitted. Creative stunts can sometimeshelp. Jean Jordan, dean of admissions at Emory, remembers admitting a student who rewrote the words of the school song to argue her cause. But Jordan’s pretty tired of getting mailed shoes from students who “want to get their foot in the door” and is a little leery of any gift of food. “Don’t come down here and make a big plea; and hounding us can be super-destructive,” she adds.

President Bush this month signed an emergency law that will make it easier for students and parents to borrow more this fall.  Congress raised by $2,000 a year the maximum students can borrow through the federal Stafford program, which charges no more than 6.8 percent (with an additional 2 percentage points in fees).  And it fave a break to parents, too, by allowing those struggling with mortgage bills to still get a PLUS loan and allowing all new PLUS borrowers to defer repayment until the child leaves school.

The changes to the federal loans will very likely succeed in steering many students and parents away from expensive private loans, says Rick Vonk, who heads education lending for Key Bank.  But hose who need more than federal loans still may have trouble.  The credit crunch has caused many lenders to suspend their student loan programs altogether.  — Kim Clark

Gap year. Are you familiar with this term? Gap year typically refers to a transitional year between high school and college during which a student takes a break from school and works or volunteers either in the United States or abroad. It can also refer to a break taken during college or after college. Although taking a gap year is much more common in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, it is gaining popularity in the United States. This newfound interest in gap year can be attributed in part to the increased emphasis in American culture on community service. Attaining a certain number of service hours is sometimes even a prerequisite to high school graduation. A gap year can be a wonderful way for a young person to gain a new perspective on life, learn about another culture, language, or social milieu, or delve into the working world. Some benefits are pragmatic–earning money and learning new skills–while some are more intangible–discovering a new passion or finding a new sense of purpose and maturity. Whatever the motivation, there are myriad possibilities available to students seeking this experience; in fact, an entire industry has sprung up around the “gap year” concept.

Traveling overseas has its own special allure, and many students choose to spend their gap year doing public service abroad. One of the drawbacks of service abroad can be the expense. There is the cost of travel, vaccinations, health and medical evacuation insurance, housing, and a passport or visa, not to mention program fees. A New York Times article estimated these costs could be as much as $12,000. That being said, there are many wonderful opportunities to work in education, conservation, and public health.

– In Seville, Spain you could work for Amnesty International, or the Red Cross.

– In Calcutta, India, you can teach brothel children in a red-light district.

– In Somaliland, you can work in a maternity hospital run by an extraordinary woman named Edna Adan.

– In Valparaiso, Chile you might work for a local public health organization.

– In the Dominican Republic you could help out at a rural work site run by the Peace Corps.

– In Shanghai, China you could teach English to the “floating migrant children” at a state-run elementary school.

– In Bangladesh, a well-respected development organization, BRAC, is starting an internship program.

Spending a gap year in the United States, although less exotic-sounding, can be just as rewarding.  For example, City Year is a well-known domestic educational service program whose motto is “Give a year. Change the world.” It recruits young people between the ages of 17 and 24 to serve for a term of ten months. City Year corps members serve full-time at one of 17 urban locations across the United States. Corp members might tutor, mentor, run an after-school program, or lead a youth leadership program or vacation camp. In exchange, a corps member receives a weekly stipend to help with living expenses. In addition, at the end of the term of service, he or she will receive an education award of $4,725 to be applied toward a college degree, graduate school, or an existing or future qualified student loan. Leadership development, basic health insurance, a uniform, and a cell phone are also provided during the year of service.

Taking time off between high school and college is viewed positively by most colleges, graduate schools, and future employers. Having pursued a gap year shows the type of initiative and perseverance and fosters the maturity that colleges want to see. Princeton University, for example, has championed the notion of a gap year and is in the process of creating a program to begin in 2009 that would send a tenth of incoming freshmen for a year of social service work in a foreign country prior to stepping foot on campus. Many employers realize that having spent time abroad helps in today’s global marketplace. And a gap year can translate into better grades. A recent study by two economists at the University of Western Australia indicates that students who take a year off scored an average first-year university mark 2.3% higher than those coming straight from school. The increase was even greater for males who were underachievers: they scored an average 3.7% higher if they took a gap year.

A gap year is not for everybody, but it can be a beneficial learning experience for those who choose to follow this more circuitous route to college. Whether you choose a structured program or create your own game plan, go abroad or stay stateside, you will undoubtedly be a more focused, mature individual for the experience and approach your college years with a renewed sense of purpose.

For more information about gap year, visit the following websites:

Gap Year

Taking Off

CIEE

Enrichment Alley
City Year

CCI Exchange