Tamara Keith from American Public Media reports that preparing for the SAT is a good idea, but you’d probably get the same benefit from a $30 at-home study guide as a multi-thousand dollar test-prep course.

David Hawkins from The National Association of College Admissions Counseling says “There needs to be a buyer-beware notice for students and families who are thinking about commercial test preparation.” The group pulled together a report that says the average score increase as a result of prep courses is only 30 points. Out of 2,400.

Hmm … while that might be enough to make or break an Ivy League acceptance for a few people, it’s probably not worth it to the rest of us.

Whether you took an SAT prep course or not, what if your score didn’t turn out quite as high as you’d like? Don’t worry! Standardized tests aren’t for everyone – we know that.

Not all schools require an ACT/SAT score for admission. Schools that don’t often offer a more targeted education, building practical skills rather than general knowledge. Career colleges and technical schools around the country realize that your priorities are different – that test scores don’t matter to you as much as starting a stable career.

Recently, at least nine college institutions have received gifts totaling over $45 million from a mystery donor. What’s unusual is no one, not even the universities, knows where the money came from.

Typically when an educational institution receives an anonymous donation – they are allowed to know the identity of the donor.  In the recent donation sweep, however – lawyers and middlemen have cornered academic institutions into signed agreements not only disallowing them to know the identity of the donor, but promising not to try and find out.

Some of the schools that received the donations are the University of Iowa colleges receiving 7 million, the University of Southern Mississippi college receiving 6 million, and Purdue’s Indiana college receiving 8 million. It’s not clear whether the gifts come from an individual, organization or group of people with similar interests.

All donations were given on March 1st. Each came with the stipulation that most of the money must go to student scholarships.
Donations have dwindled at several colleges, and many schools have been trying to make ends meet during this economic downturn. These gifts show that someone recognizes the importance of higher education and truly wants to make a difference in the lives of students.  Historically speaking, and only exempting some of the Ivy League institutions – a larger endowment is a typical prelude to enrollment increase.

I would certainly be on the lookout at these specific universities enrollment metrics over the next academic year – as opportunity might arise for those looking to attend one of their programs.

This kind of fear and self-doubt can prohibit many people from going to a college which can vastly improve their lives.  A new website, www.college.gov identifies these common concerns and shows ways to overcome them. There are testimonials from students across the country that have triumphed over challenges such as peer pressure, lack of family support, and financial barriers. Against the odds, these students made college a reality.

More features of the website:

• Create your own roadmap.  No matter what year you are in high school, www.college.gov can create a personalized road map that will layout detailed steps necessary for getting to college.  You can keep the roadmap on your computer, or print it out and put it on your wall or in you locker.  Either way, this roadmap can put you on the path towards college!
• Find the school for you.  Universities, community colleges, or vocational schools, whatever you are looking for, this website can help you find a school to fit your lifestyle.
• Why go? What to do? How to pay?  www.college.gov  helps you realize reasons for going to school such as, increasing your income, finding your passion, proving your potential, growing with help and support, and lifting your family.  It also shows you the step for getting into college and payment options.
• Information for everyone. The website is geared towards high school students but also gives information to parents, families, teachers and counselors.

What sets this website apart from other education sites is that it was made by students for students.  The creators of this website have pinpointed real concerns that high school students have about going to college.  Through their college roadmap, they give us the tools to overcome those obstacles. 

Anyone can make their dream of attending college a reality.  www.college.gov is one tool that can help.

The GCU study, conducted via forums and electronic surveys of area public high school guidance counselors, showed some surprising results. A record number of students are seeking help to decide what to do after high school.

While colleges and universities are investing heavily to recruit students, the demands on high school students are escalating as well. Students are pressured to decide on an area of study before even entering college. A majority of counselors said that less than half of their students had decided on a major or direction of study for college.

Couple that pressure with the stress to select a college or university. As a result, students are increasingly seeking out guidance counselors to help with the critical decision-making process. Students are coming to counselors for assistance with college applications, financial aid and scholarship information.

Many of the counselors also reported that they need better training to assist students with the application process.

Sidebar:
Among the guidance counselors surveyed by Grand Canyon University, most responded that students had also sought assistance for something other than college planning. The most frequent reasons students asked for help were:

• Grief and bereavement – 76% of counselors
• Suicide issues – 68% of counselors
• Drug and alcohol issues – 65% of counselors

• find new videos and music
• send and receive messages
• upload photos
• chat with new friends

Facebook has more than 8 million photos uploaded each day, and is the seventh most-visited site for web surfers in the USA. MySpace attracts almost 230,000 new user registrations a day. Their user base totals over 250 million. Friendster, one of the longest-standing, high-traffic social networks, still commands over 30 million users. And more are popping up each month.

But there’s a different side to these “super public” sites. Social networking sites can be more than just cures for boredom. They can also be a great way to network and boost your professional development. Forget about getting your band signed, but think about getting a business interview when you alert a potential hiring company to a public portfolio of your work experience. Focus your approach to get better results.

The refined network approach
So you earned your degree. You have a few professional hours under your belt. You’re on your way, but you just don’t know which direction to start in. Do you begin with the want ads? An employment office? Burger King? Perhaps, but it would be wiser to start laying a bit more groundwork to better your chances of landing a great job.

There is a huge interest in social networking sites. It’s the past time of choice for millions of people of all ages. But the great part about this new trend is that you can also do it seriously to gain professional partnerships and peers. To be effective, you don’t necessarily have to wade through millions of diversified interests in the high-traffic currents of sites like MySpace or Facebook. There are already social networks set up to address specific needs of professionals. The truth is, social networking sites aren’t just places, they’re business models. They’re models designed to connect people with similar interests for professional development. This can be for everything from finding a perfect romantic partner, or the next great American band, to your next great job opportunity.

The networks
Two online professional social networking sites that work well are Linkedin.com and ryze.com. They both help people who are looking to make professional connections and build a better portfolio, but they function differently.

1. Ryze.com is set up to help people find other professionals in their area for face-to-face networking and public events. Add people who work with specific things related to your field of interest and ask them questions. The more you add, the better your chances at a professional connection. When you join people’s groups by adding people, you boost their personal and group ratings.

The interests of groups on ryze.com can be very generalized, such as career assessment tests, or things that are very specific, such as resources for local graphic artists.

Ryze.com goes further by making it easy for your group members to meet for events themed on professional topics. They’re designed for you to meet people and trade professional tips or connect for new work. The whole purpose is to build a network of professional references and job leads.

2. Linkedin.com helps you create a profile that summarizes your professional development and accomplishments that help you find and be found by former colleagues, clients and partners. You build connections by sending emails to professional colleagues to join the network then connect back to you. This network has a massive user base, numbering in the millions, connected through over 350 companies.

Through this network, you can:

• be found for business opportunities
• search for great jobs
• discover connections within companies to help you land jobs or close deals
• post job listings for your company
• find potential clients, service providers, subject experts and partners who come recommended
• have the people you know introduce you to other professionals

Work to find your niche
You can choose to start out with these social network models to help you begin your professional climb, but there are more being created everyday. One might be just perfect to help address your specific needs and build your skills. Keep your eyes open and hit the search engines, because now more than ever, it’s easier to collect resources designed to help you in your journey.

LONDON – For students at the University of Oxford, Facebook is a great way to keep posted on gossip and parties. For campus officials, it’s a new way to find – and fine – troublemakers.

After exams, students at the venerable English university traditionally drop their serious ways and indulge in a spasm of “trashings” – rowdy revels that include dousing classmates in foam, eggs and flour.

In recent years, students have taken to posting photos of the mess on Facebook, the popular online social networking site.

Disciplinary officials at Oxford have caught on – and have begun e-mailing students fines of $80 to $200 for breaking campus rules, said Martin McCluskey, president of the Oxford University Students Union.

McCluskey sent an e-mail to all members of the student union warning them that they are being spied upon by school officials trolling through Facebook profiles containing photos of “trashings.”

“It’s fairly disgraceful and underhand,” he said Tuesday. “Disciplinary procedures are supposed to be transparent.”

A university spokesman confirmed the practice, saying officials began searching Facebook after receiving complaints of unruly student behavior. The 800-year-old university has been issuing fines for misdemeanors such as spraying fluids and hurling eggs hurling since 2004.

“The University Proctors have told the students that they are welcome to meet their friends after their exams but that students who create a mess in the street with food or alcohol, or who indulge in anti-social behavior contrary to University regulations, will be disciplined,” the spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in line with university policy.

The student union advised students with Facebook accounts to change their privacy settings to prevent staff and faculty from viewing their profiles and photographs.

Facebook has an estimated 30 million users around the world – and has seen a surge in popularity coincide with an increase in the number of users busted by Facebook photos and comments.

Last week, Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo was made to sweat over whether she would be stripped of her crown. Organizers had been sent photos Polumbo’s Facebook page showing her acting “not in a ladylike manner” – including one in which her boyfriend appears to be biting her breast through her shirt.

In April, five students at a Toronto school were banned from an end-of-the-year trip after disparaging remarks about a teacher were found on Facebook.

Alex Hill, 21, a philosophy and mathematics student at Oxford, said she was among students to receive a disciplinary e-mail.

Hill said the e-mail stated that three of her photos provided evidence she had engaged in “disorderly” conduct.

“They gave me links to three photos on Facebook where I’ve got shaving foam all over me as examples of my disorderly conduct,” she said. “I think it’s an appalling thing to do.”

View article in its original context.

For more information on the book, visit the publisher’s web site.

In “How to Survive Getting Into College,” the book’s editor, Rachel Korn, points out that the applicant should know what colleges are looking for. She says admissions officers focus on three important factors in students’ applications:

1. A genuine feel for the applicant’s personality. This emerges in essays, recommendations, interviews, and activities which admissions officers put together like a puzzle. You can showcase who you are in your essays and in the activities you list in order of those most important to you.
2. A contribution to the school. What will the applicant add to the academic or social profile of their class? High grades and testing? Stardom in music? Campus leadership? Excellence in athletics? Geographic diversity? Or is the student just a “good kid” who will be loved?
3. A big fish in the pond any pond. This is all about context is the applicant maximizing their environment and their talents? Admissions officers know who has resources and who does not, and applicants are evaluated in the context of their high school and their environment.

Korn, points out that an applicant can never know too much about their target schools. She says:

1. Research, research, research. Through the school’s website and/or a college tour, learn as much as possible about the school’s academic and cultural atmosphere. Knowledge about the university will prepare the applicant to sit down and successfully complete the application. A passion for a school will tend to come out naturally if the student has really done his or her homework.
2. Tailor the application to the school & know the characteristics it values. Convey through essays how the school matches the student. “Listen to admissions officers’ presentations and glean from reading school materials if there are initiatives (especially new ones) that should be mentioned.”
3. Let college counselor and teachers know about you top choice and why. They can reflect that in their letters to bolster the student’s sincerity to the admissions committee. Do not attempt this with a school that is not a favorite. Admissions officers will figure it out.

Equally important, Korn shares some of the top mistakes students make in applying to schools:

1. Failure to research. Apply only to schools where there is a match with interests (size, academics, culture). It is wasted time to apply to a school for its name only. Honestly ask whether you can see yourself at the school to which you are applying. Reasoned applications are the most successful because they are the most genuine and strong – admissions officers can feel this throughout the application.
2. Seeking a “big name” for a recommendation and thinking that this is the ticket into a school. Recommenders who know the student best are those to choose. A fancy title is not impressive if the recommender does not know the person. Admissions officers can sense this easily. Extra recommendations are only helpful if they present new and different information. Without the academics or the profile the school seeks, an extra recommendation rarely makes any impact.
3. Using public Web sites to try to predict chances of admissions or to learn about a school. No one can predict chances of admission, certainly not peers who see nothing more than lists of grades and activities. Ask the professionals (admissions officers) and go to the schools’ websites to learn accurate information and data about specific schools.
4. Making the application process harder than it is! Schools want to see the student. Trying to be someone else is a waste of time and will be counter productive. It makes the student appear bland in the application. At the end of the day, the class must be created, yet institutional needs change each year. A student should be him or herself to stand out.

Here are the top 10 tips for acing the college admissions process and getting into the college of your dreams

1. Apply to about five or six schools with a few true safety schools (including at least one public school) and a few reach schools.
2. Write an essay that shows what makes you tick, do not write an essay that you think an admissions committee wants to read.
3. Ask questions of your interviewer – the interview is a two-way street and you should approach the interview as a conversation.
4. Find positive, true passions to fill your time – there is no “right” activity, so choose a passion not an obvious resume builder.
5. Dress to casually impress when you visit schools – you never know, you could meet your admissions officer.
6. Craft truthful applications – admissions officers are great detectives and can spot exaggeration and insincerity.
7. Apply for financial aid even if you think you may not qualify – schools consider more factors than you realize.
8. Work hard through the end of senior year – these grades can be critical for admissions so do not jeopardize your application.
9. Ask admissions officers your questions about their schools – public Web sites are full of misinformation.
10. Remember that the goal of this journey is to find the school where you can be yourself and thrive.

What was their crime? Being cheered on by their friends and families during the ceremony.

School officials claim that this excitement and encouragement violated a level of decorum that they were trying to uphold. As of now, the students are still unable to receive diplomas, although their transcripts do show that they graduated.

Is the school being too harsh on these students and the families and friends who wanted to show them support? Read this article in its entirety here, and let us know what you think!

While teachers, counselors and parents must admit that underage drinking and drug use has been an issue for years, is it ethical to print pictures of students engaging in these activities in a school-sponsered publication? Do you think that pictures of students engaging in illegal activities in a high school yearbook can come back to haunt them later in life?

So what do you think? Check out the full story here, then leave us a comment!