Travel BugSchool Girl
College City, USA—Boston, Massachusetts!
I frequently talk about great cities to go to college (e.g. Pittsburgh, PA) or, more commonly, colleges that are great despite their city (e.g. Tucson, AZ). But the granddaddy of all college towns and cities everywhere is none other than Boston, MA. In the metropolitan Boston area there are 51 colleges and universities! These schools range from the world famous ivy, Harvard, to big public commuter schools like, University of Massachusetts-Boston, and even a few women’s colleges, including Simmons and Pine Manor. So odds are if you love Boston, you’ll find a college here to fall in love with. And, heck, even if you don’t like Boston (like me!) you’ll find a college here to fall in love with.
It was the search for the perfect undergraduate college that drove me to the Boston area. During a business trip to the area I evaluated Brandeis, Emerson, and Harvard. Oddly enough, none of which I decided was even right enough to file an application with. Though with that experience perhaps I can lend insight for those of you lusting for Boston University, Tufts, or Northeastern too.
I really disliked Boston. But don’t let that sway your opinion. I’ve visited a lot of cities and those that know me best can vouch for my pickiness. So learn from my mistakes!
Boston is not a city meant for cars! It’s not! Many of even the major roads are narrow, curvy, and terribly congested! Furthermore, road maintenance in Boston is particularly challenging because of the overuse of what roads they have and the difficulty of shutting them down. So if you’re going to visit this city, leave your car at home or at a hotel in the suburbs. Boston has OUTSTANDING public transportation that can do the driving for you. The great public transportation options also mean that, for example, you don’t have to attend Harvard to enjoy some of the outstanding cultural activities on or near that campus.
Plan! Some cities are easy to visit if you’d like to fly by the seat of your pants, like San Francisco. However cities that aren’t laid out following a grid or just don’t even seem to have any parallel roads are not good for this. For a visit, know what you want to do and see and where it is, there’s a word for people that try to guess about this stuff in Boston. “Lost.”
Ask a local, before you go. There are some sights in Boston that every person will visit, regardless of how obnoxiously tourist they are (e.g. Faneuil Hall, Boston Common) but Boston has a lot of secret, hidden gems. Indeed it is these places that you need to know about, especially when it comes to eating and shopping if you’re on a budget!
If you’re going to visit a college, be sure to ask the admissions office for recommendations. The folks in the admissions and recruitments offices are paid to make their school look excellent to prospective students. That said, they know what’s on campus and nearby that is excellent to do, see, and eat (and hopefully they’re wise enough to know what’s nearby within a student’s budget).
Just a sampling of some of the on-campus gems in Boston include: McMullen Museum of Art (Boston College), Rose Art Museum (Brandeis University), Babcock Arboretum (Eastern Nazarene College), the Paramount Center (Emerson University), Harvard Yard and the Charles River (Harvard University), the nine galleries at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s on-campus nuclear reactor, the Gallery of Mount Ida College, and the Chapel at Saint John’s Seminary.
But simply, more than in any other big city I have ever visited, knowing where the locals go is crucial in Boston. There is a lot to do and see here, but it can quickly become overwhelming and just really unpleasant incredibly quickly. And truly, that’s what happened to me. So learn from my mistake!
If indeed you are looking at Boston as a place to attend college, I strongly urge you look up the LiveJournal community for the school of interest and ask lots of questions, as well as to check out reviews on websites like Unigo. The information you’ll find in places like these will be crucial to your understanding of how your school fits into the community and even to some degree whether or not you’ll like it. If you’re still positive after check in with real students in the LiveJournal community and aren’t scared off by Unigo reviews, give the admissions office a call and don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions about the locale! Failing all else, you’ll get points for seeming genuinely and deeply interested in the culture and life that the school is in the midst of.
Tags: college, northeastern, harvard, new england, massachusetts, boston
Taking the SATs
When you are in high school, or maybe even middle school, it will be time to take the SATs. The SATs are a very important test that is a big part of your final grade. It will also most likely determine what kind of college you will go to. But don't be nervous! Just use these tips and tricks to make sure you ace them! These tips aren't only for the SATs, but are based around them. Feel free to use them for all of your tests and quizzes!Use pencils that aren't THAT sharp. IF a pencil is a bit more blunt, it has more surface area on the tip and you can save yourself a few seconds from bubbling answers. You may save 1-2 seconds per bubble. For 20-30 questions per section, you may save yourself up to a full minute.
Take the test in October or June. During the winter months, many people have colds and are always sniffling. This makes you lose your focus, and not work as quickly. In May, there tends to be a lot of pollen outside and people's allergies begin acting up. Sneezing and sniffling from that, too, can be distracting.
Take practice tests and time them to give yourself about 2-3 minutes less time per section than allowed. You will get used to working quickly.
On reading sections, working quickly will make you get more correct and make you lose less time. On reading questions, your instinct is usually the best weapon to get correct answers. In addition, if you work quickly, the passage seems more fluid. On other words, it doesn't seem broken up every time you turn to the questions. The questions will seem easier and you will leave yourself more time remaining. Also, for the same reason I just said, on passages, circle your answers in the book first, that way you don't take your mind off of what the passage said while you spend a few seconds bubbling in. At the end of the passage, or at about 30 seconds prior to the end of the section, fill in the bubbles. Fill in the bubbles right away for all other questions.
Bring a watch. It is much faster to put a watch on your desk and keep track of time then look all the way up at the clock, or turn your head to look at a clock.
Those tips are things that most people probably wouldn't think of, but will definitely help! Thanks for reading and check back again soon!
Tags: tips, school girl, test taking, sats
How to Read Your Textbooks
The most common model for effective textbook reading is the SQ3R method. This method is:
- Survey: before really reading, scan over the headings, figures, and pictures in the assigned reading to get oriented
- Question: ask yourself some general, yet important, questions to answer while you read
- Read: read for comprehension, this is probably the most overtly time consuming step of this process
- Review: go back over the reading with an eye for key concepts and potential exam questions
- Recite: commit those key concepts to memory for the long term
Surveying is probably the easiest of the five steps. To do this effectively you need to look for basically everything that is not plain text. So look for titles, headings, bolded and underlined text, diagrams, tables, figures, and photographs and images. When you survey you will basically be orienting your mind to what you're about to read.
Questioning takes a little more skill to do effectively. When you're "questioning" a reading you want to be thinking of what the key concepts and lessons to be learned in this chapter are. For each section of the chapter (or even each paragraph if they're long enough) come up with a quick quiz-like question to answer in your next step. These questions don't have to be particularly detailed, and even if you ask yourself "what is the most important sentence in this section?" that WILL help!
Reading is the most time consuming part of this process. Make sure you're in a quiet place by yourself at a time when you don't feel particularly rushed (that might be asking a lot, but if you can get relaxed you'll find your comprehension is greater). Read for comprehension, this isn't for pleasure! As you go along, answer the questions that you came up with in the previous step. This is also an opportune time to use your highlighter. Though try to not highlight more than one sentence per paragraph, this is to keep you more focused and to help in the next step.
Reviewing is like coming up for air after your reading. Here you want to briefly go over the answers to your questions answered while reading as well as reviewing the content that you highlighted. Here you want to make sure you've got the key points down.
Recite, or commit your reading to memory, the information! This is tougher and likely one of the most personal steps in this process. For some people, the best way to do this is to write down the key items from the reviewing stage, for others the best way to do this could be by using flash cards. To effectively master this step you need to really evaluate how you memorize information for exams from lecture notes and the like.
This method is only one that can help you with reading your textbooks more effectively. Hopefully it will be more helpful than anything else. Also know that like any process, this is a process that you can modify if parts of it don't quite fit with your style. Each person is unique and will have different experiences with each thing they trip.
Tags: reading, studying, school girl, exam prep
Your Guide to Sports in College
Okay, so I've been doing a lot of college research recently and I've been looking at doing sports at the college level. On the College Board, sports are listed as either varsity, intercollegiate, intramural, club, or scholarship. What in the world does all of that mean?
Julia | age 16 | Pennsylvania | April 8, 2010
Janet says...
Sports are a wonderful way to make friends, keep fit, and expand your extra curricular repertoire. However, not all sports programs are created equal and not all share the same goals. The general level of the sports program at a school can be easily determined by its division in the NCAA (this is only applicable for American schools). The NCAA has three divisions: I, II, and III.
- Division I schools are those that may as well be professional sports, it is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics in the United States. These schools offer the greatest number of athletic scholarships and are permitted to do so. Likewise, these schools can offer full-ride scholarships for their athletes and attending these schools and playing sports there give students the greatest chance at being drafted into the pros. Sports at these schools are a business. Some examples of these schools include the University of Pittsburgh, West Virginia University, University of California Los Angeles, and Washington State University. All Division I schools must field athletes in at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender. There are several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Division II and III.
- Division II is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It offers an alternative to both the highly competitive (and highly expensive) level of intercollegiate sports offered in NCAA Division I and to the non-scholarship level offered in Division III. Schools that are Division II can offer partial scholarships to students as a means to make a college education more affordable and to keep a good team, but the orientation is more on sports as a part of the whole academic experience. Schools that are Division II include the University of Charleston (WV), San Francisco State University, New York Institute of Technology, and University of Alaska Anchorage.
- Division III is the bottom level for NCAA sports. Division III schools cannot offer scholarships specifically for athletics as the other two divisions can, though with that said, they have the most flexibility in what sports are offered and often the easiest availability of sports to beginners. Division III schools still compete with other schools, but these schools have the greatest emphasis on academics and view sports as being important to being students, all students, not just the elite. Division III schools include Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Wheaton College (IL), and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Additionally, some schools are not members of the NCAA at all, but are members of the NAIA. The NAIA is a smaller organization and many of its schools if in the NCAA would be admitted into Division II.
So that frames the tiers of sports programs here in the United States. As for the terms you saw on College Board, let's quickly run through them:
- Varsity teams are those that primarily represent the academic institution. These are the teams that are specifically competitive with other top teams from other schools. Typically schools are considered to have varsity athletics if they are Division I, they play the types of games that you can watch on ESPN or even network TV.
- Intercollegiate sports are simply those played between colleges. They are not typically of the sort that are going to make it onto TV, just simply a game played between colleges. Intercollegiate sports are usually those played at the Division II and Division III levels if you want to put it in a sort of equivalency sense.
- Intramural sports are those played with other schools and organizations locally. Intramural sports are often at the Division III level or sometimes not even that. Intramural sports are played more for the fun of the sport and benefits for the individuals playing them. These are not particularly competitive.
- Club sports don't even fall on the NCAA's radar. These are sports often on campus because students are organize them. These sports will rise and fall in popularity as the students on campus exhibit their interest in them. Though schools with club sports often have some of the widest offerings for types of sports in that there are no issues with compliance with NCAA policies and regulations.
- Scholarship sports are simply those where students can receive scholarships for their athletic skills and what they contribute to the school's athletic program. All Division I and Division II schools have at least some spots that qualify as full or partial scholarships so that would be these schools.
Now, outside of the US the sports systems and terms are different, but this is a pretty good guide to the language of athletics at the American school. Though really, regardless of where anyone goes to school, I strongly recommend students become involved in at least one sport because it is a wonderful way to make friends, stay fit, and get even more out of your college experience--and I say this having taken up a sport while I was in college (rowing). I've graduated from college now and I still enjoy the sport that I took up in college.
Tags: college, school girl, sports, ncaa
Top 11 Reasons Why Students Drop out of College
Some studies have indicated that these are the 11 most common reasons why students drop out of college. If you're in college, can you relate? If you're thinking about college, how do you think you could combat these problems?
- Homesickness and feeling that you don’t fit in. It’s a whole new world out there, and you may not be ready to embrace it.
- Educational burnout. While college gives you control and flexibility over your schedule, the hard demanding schedule, challenging courses, and boatload of homework certainly has turned a lot of students away from the desire to continue.
- Academic unpreparedness. Sometimes, high school didn’t really prepare students for college. Other times, students slacked off in high school and paid the price during their post-secondary years. The high school goal was to pass (so that students could get into college); in college, it is to succeed.
- Personal or family issues. You may have had an unfortunate illness in the family or you yourself just got totally get stressed out from the workload.
- Financial constraints. Tuition costs continue to soar, and scholarships or grants are not always available. Additionally, financial situations can change from year to year.
- Too much fun — but not enough education. Some students take advantage of their friendships, which could put them on academic probation due to suffering grades or absence in classes.
- The school isn’t a good academic fit for the student. You’ve selected a great school that is very arts-centric. However, you realize that you like the sciences better. Similarly, you may hate the average class size of 100 and prefer much smaller classes for more individualized attention.
- Setting sights on the wrong major. You may have wanted to be a doctor but after taking several science classes, you decided that you’re rather go into marketing. Does your school have a marketing major? If not, you’re likely to go elsewhere.
- No guidance or mentors. In high school, teachers and counselors were there to guide you, as high school classes are typically smaller than the entering freshman class. It’s a lot harder to get the personalized attention that you’ve been used to and that could turn people off quickly.
- External demands, particularly within part time or full time employment. Can we say Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? When the job puts too many demands on you, you may have to choose, and money usually wins out.
- Time to move out. If the cold winter just doesn’t suit you, you may decide to go elsewhere. You may want to go closer to home or to be closer to a significant other.
What do you think about this? Are there other reasons? How do you handle these problems?
Tags: college, school girl, dropping out
Columbus, O-H-I-O!
Compared to its counterparts in Ohio, Columbus doesn’t get half of the recognition it deserves (and might even be getting dragged down). While Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, and Canton rank amongst the most miserable places to live in the USA, Columbus represents a lot of what those cities are not. And finding it may not require one looking much further than the state’s flagship university, Ohio State University, which is centrally located within Columbus and largely sets the tone of the city.
Ohio State is an absolutely massive university of about 52,500 students on its main campus in Columbus. That’s larger than the biggest city in West Virginia! Of course, these students need something to do when they’re not hitting the books, and their campus and city certainly bring forth a number of interesting and unique opportunities, a few highlights of which we’ll discover here!
Ohio Stadium. Ohio State is possibly best known nationally for its outstanding football program and to go along with that outstanding football program is Ohio Stadium, where everyone’s welcome unless you’re wearing or espousing anything positively portraying the University of Michigan. When completed in 1922, this stadium was the largest poured concrete structure in the world. Today it’s still impressive as the sixth-largest non-racing stadium in the world.
Orton Hall. After satisfying your inner athlete, you’ve got to feed your inner nerd. On campus, Orton Hall is built of 40 different types of building stone, all of which are found in Ohio! On the outside walls of the building the stones are laid in stratigraphic order according to their relative positions in Ohio's bedrock. Yup, this is nerdy stuff, but you’ll only find this at Ohio State!
Franklin Park Conservatory. This is truly a top-notch conservatory, featuring plant life from virtually every climate system globally. They also have a comprehensive collection of colorful and unique glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly cohabitating with the plants to really create a unique visual experience. Columbus winters are no joke, and a well-heated, warm, and colorful conservatory is not something you can ever go wrong with!
Not only is Columbus home to Ohio State, but it is also the capital of Ohio. Like most state capitals, the Ohio Statehouse is an impressive structure. Group, self-guided, and audio tours are available free of charge in this magnificent facility. Compared to the cities to its east and even to its south, Columbus is a relatively young in its development into a big city. The present Statehouse opened in 1861 and it truly serves as a window into Ohio’s diverse and fascinating past!
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places is German Village, a neighborhood just south of downtown Columbus that is rich in history. German Village is particularly scenic featuring some particularly outstanding parks, including Schiller Park, which often offers outdoor performances of classic theater productions throughout the summer. And of course, you’ll have to get your fix of schnitzel at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus!
Columbus also has some top-notch shopping! It boasts two premiere shopping complexes, Easton and Polaris. Both of these complexes can boast some of the finest shopping in the state (I know some places around Cincinnati might want to argue this). Either of these shopping malls could have been plucked right out of the affluent suburbs of Orange County, California.
Art and culture is also not lacking by any means in Columbus! There are monthly gallery hops in the ever-trendy Short North District, near Ohio State (where you can also indulge in some delicious Jeni’s Ice Cream!). Periodically, gallery hops are also held in other areas of the city, but the Short North never fails to be a good time!
So while Ohio might sound like a depressing or even just a boring state, it’s got a real gem for a state capital and is a great “college city”. So whether you’re thinking about applying to Ohio State or looking for a little road trip, Columbus is a great place to visit.
Photo credits: Ohio Stadium Rotunda - OZinOH (flickr); Franklin Park Conservatory - Tom Cox (flickr); Short North at Night - Nick Koogler (flickr, website)
Tags: ohio state capital, shopping, franklin park conservatory, ohio, ohio stadium, osu, short north, culture, columbus, ohio state
College Students Getting a Special Tax
Right now in Pittsburgh, college students are on the verge of revolt.
In a city now defined more by it’s vibrant colleges and diverse student population than the steel industry local government thinks they’ve figured out a way to fill their municipal budget gaps.
A 1% tax on tuition and fees charged to each student in the city.
This tax would affect students at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Carlow University, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, Community College of Allegheny County, Duquesne University, Point Park University, and the University of Pittsburgh. It may also affect students at La Roche College and Robert Morris University.
The money collected by students is estimated to total about $5 million/year, one-third of the current gap in the municipal pension fund. Of course students, many of whom are not from the area, are outraged. As if attending college isn’t expensive enough as it is, the city is finding a way to make it even more expensive.
Myself, a graduate of Chatham University in Pittsburgh, am upset at this proposition. Instead of taxing tuition beefing up the $1/week user fee to work in Pittsburgh to $2-$3 (which would put it on par with much smaller cities) could be a much more productive and less invasive way to make up the money. Or the city could stop giving its municipal workers the Cadillac of pensions. We all deserve a little fairness here.
Read the official scoop here on the Post-Gazette.
Tags: getting in, community college of allegheny county, duquesne university, tax, university of pittsburgh, carnegie mellon university, chatham university, carlow university, point park university, robert morris university
News and Views - December 9, 2009
Would you take a class from 10pm to 2am? Turns out that a fair number of community college students in Oregon will. In fact, enough that they're expanding their "graveyard" offerings! As are community college students in the Boston area and in Southern Nevada. Originally these courses sprung up as a result of surging enrollment, but now students just plum like them!
And for as much as women are dominating higher education, the Virginia Military Institute is currently being investigated for discriminating against female students. Being a public institution allegations such as these are incredibly serious. However others just say that the school has a military model, and that it's nothing against female students--and that point may be well taken, if we look at the composition of the military itself, there are substantially more men than women in the armed services.
Are historically black universities in danger? Folks in Mississippi sure are concerned. Two historically black colleges in Mississippi, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State, are being considered for a possible merger. The governor of the state claims that this would ensure the future of black education in Mississippi, but students, alumni, and community members are not convinced that it really is their best interests at stake.
Tags: getting in, news, community college, virginia military institute, historically black colleges, alcorn state university, gender bias, mississippi valley state university
Where are all of the College Men in Canada?
In Canada, universities are noticing the reverse of trends in years past. There is an extreme gender gap. Men aren't overtaking the education system, tossing their leftovers at women--which is how many perceived the system 100 years ago. Rather, some schools are battling extreme ratios, with women absolutely dominating. Indeed, it's so extreme now that schools are afraid it's going to start hurting their admissions rates--more young women want to go to colleges with other young men. Indeed women's colleges have been falling out of favor because women would prefer to attend co-ed colleges.
This Globe and Mail article illustrates the gravity of the situation in Canada, where 80% of the students at the Ontario Veterinary College are women and female, minority university leaders are bluntly saying "I am going to be an advocate for young white men."
Women have not had this degree of supremacy in education for very long, but it's painting a dire picture for young men. For decades special attention has been given to women to ensure they succeed while largely letting guys off the hook. Well, that strategy has worked really well for women, too well. One concern that some women have comes in finding an equal mate. The truth is, a highly educated woman probably doesn't want a guy that just got through high school. For the guys that make it to college of course, they could consider this an absolute jackpot.
What's your take on the issue? Should we make it easier for guys to get into schools to balance things out or should we maintain the same standards come hell or high water?
Honestly, I don't know. Because the involvement of women in higher ed has also changed the agenda for the content taught. I'm a grad student within the engineering college, I don't see many female students. But in any humanities class the tables are turned. So please share your feelings, opinions, and ideas!
Tags: getting in, canadian universities, canada, ontario veterinary school, university of alberta, gender bias
From Prison to Foggy Bottom
I wanted to keep things light. It's been a good weekend here in Maryland and I hope everyone out there on the internet is feeling fine. It is the beginning of the holidays, I hope most of you are done with your applications, and I hope that you all start getting your acceptance letters!
So what makes Mario Rocha not your average freshman at George Washington University in Washington, DC?
Try ten years in prison for first-degree murder. It is nothing short of inspiring how this once wrongly-convicted man was wasting away in prison has made it to one of the most selective universities in the country.
If anything this story goes to show that if he can do it, any of you certainly can make it into college and succeed, regardless of the perceived obstacles.
Check out his story on the Washington Post.
Tags: getting in, mario rocha, admissions, washington dc, george washington university, obstacles to admission, gwu