3 Tips for High School Students to Standout in the Crowd come admissions time

What stands in the way of you getting that last spot at Harvard or winning a scholarship? It might be the student sitting to you in class says high school counselors in a recent survey. A survey of 740 high school counselors conducted by Arizona State University MBA graduates asked counselors, "“What do you feel is a senior’s biggest obstacle to getting into top college programs or obtaining a scholarship?” and one of the top responses was a "competition amongst classmates". While ”Lack of initiative or starting too late in the process” and “Poor SAT/ACT testing or GPA” were the top two recorded responses, competition among classmates was recorded more than responses like, "Money" or "Family situations".

Collegeboard.com writes, "The majority of colleges indicate that they are looking for well-rounded students." Which essentially means, colleges prefer applicants who can demonstrate balance among academics, extracurricular activities, and their personal lives; however, Collegeboard.com does warn against attempting to pad your resume by joining multiple organizations or activities, "When admissions officers look at resumes, they are attempting to assess leadership, commitment, and integrity… [but] If you're an overachiever, beware. More is not necessarily better.”

So what can students do to stand out in a crowd of their peers?  Below you’ll find three suggestions from the WhatisAverage team.

• Get Involved – In Something *YOU* Like:  FastWeb.com states that “winning scholarships isn’t about having the longest list of extracurriculars. It’s about communicating who you are and what you care about through the activities you participate in and enjoy.”  While this comment is geared towards scholarships, the same holds true for college admission too. 
  
  So, what does this mean for you as a student (or as the parent of a student)?  Well, it means that it is important to get involved in extracurricular activities, volunteer work, church stuff – whatever is interesting to you, will capture your attention, and is something you’re passionate about.  The key is not to be just be involved to put it on your resume, but to enjoy it enough to talk about it in essays, in interviews, and in general.  Typically admissions officers and scholarship committees can tell if you’re just padding your resume versus being involved in something you love.
  
• Update Your Resume:  Now that you’ve been involved in activities that are meaningful to you, it’s important to update your resume to reflect this involvement… and to choose those individuals who will write references for you too.  There are a ton of different resources online that give tips to writing a resume, like “Resume Writing 101” on CollegeBoard. While these tips are typically geared towards job or internship placements, they give some general ideas that can be really helpful as you prepare your individual resume for college applications and scholarships.
  
  Your resume should highlight who you are as a student and as a person, focusing on your school activities and extracurriculars – and it should also be geared towards whatever you’re using it for.  This means that your college-admissions resume may look different than the resume for one of your scholarships… and tailoring your resume to meet the needs of each application can only help you!
  
• Choose Your References:  One of the last pieces of advice to stand out among your peers and the competitiveness of your graduating class is to carefully and purposefully choose the individuals who will write your letters of reference or recommendations.  While FastWeb.com gives an indepth review of choosing individuals for your letter of reference, ACTstudent.org gives some brief recommendations on making the most of personal references. 

• Ask people who know you and can support the recommendation well.
• Prepare a neat and legible reference form.
• Give your references plenty of time—a school counselor isn't likely to write glowing recommendations for last-minute requests! Allow at least two weeks before application deadlines. [At WhatIsAverage.com we recommend asking early – some counselors require a timeline of at least a month for a letter of recommendation!]

Your letters of recommendation should give your application more context on why you’re so great, explaining why colleges should choose you, and why you should be given scholarship money.  With this in mind, you want to choose people who can offer a well-rounded view of who you are as a student.  We’d recommend choosing someone who knows you academically and can speak to your academic merits… then choose someone who can speak to your personality and other involvements: maybe a coach, your supervisor at work, someone you volunteer with, or your leader in whatever extracurricular activity you’re involved in. 

With all of this talk of standing out among your peers and competition among classmates, it’s important to understand that you can’t just focus on extracurriculars, that your GPA and SAT/ACT scores still matter!  It doesn’t matter how purposefully involved you’ve been, if your grades are too low to be considered competitive for admission into the school of your choice, you won’t get far in the application process.  With this in mind, stay focused on the numbers too!

3 Tips to Keep Students from Falling Behind this Summer

Everyone knows that the SAT/ACT can play a role in a student’s chances of getting into college, but how much importance should we put on these tests? According to a recent study of 740 high school counselors by Arizona State University MBA graduates, it is the second most important factor for a high school student looking to get into a top college behind preparing early and not waiting till it’s too late to apply or bring up their GPA.

The survey asked the question, “What do you feel is a senior’s biggest obstacle to getting into top college programs or obtaining a scholarship?” and the number one answer (22% of counselors’ response) was”Lack of initiative or starting too late in the process” and the second highest response (15% of counselors’ response) was “Poor standardized testing or GPA,” spotlighting the importance of these tests. In fact, John Baylor, President/Founder of John Baylor Test Prep, commented, “studies show that cost is the number one reason that students drop out of college, and the best way to decrease the cost of college is with higher test scores.”

So what can a high school student do this summer to keep from falling behind and be successful on the SAT or ACT?

• Study, Prepare, and Take the SAT/ACT Seriously:  It is amazing how many students don’t take the SAT/ACT test serious enough or have the misconception that you “can’t” study for either one.  Based on your budget, there are a ton of different options to prepare for the SAT/ACT. You can purchase books on Amazon starting at $15, or if your willing to spend a little more, you can take courses online at your pace starting at $200 or work directly with a tutor 1-on-1 this summer for around $700.  As boring as studying for these tests can be, many of these resources cite significant improvement with a bit of studying and the online or 1-on-1 services often offer money back guarantees and/or free-trials if you do not see the desired results!
• Know the Numbers:  Research the colleges you are thinking of applying to and see the average score from their previously admitted classes. Many colleges publish this information online and will give you a realistic picture of the standardized test scores and GPA you will need to be able to be accepted to the college. If you’re looking to save time, visit the College Potential Calculator which is a database of admission statistics for over 3,600 Universities and approximately 2,000 scholarships. It calculates not only your potential to get into a University, but also let’s you know how much you will need to improve your GPA, SAT or ACT score over the summer to have greater than an 80% chance of being accepted.
• Your Cumulative GPA Matters:  Many colleges will make admissions decisions based on your coursework through junior year, but many other colleges will also admit students contingent on the successful completion of your senior year.  Additionally some colleges will recalculate GPA’s to see your “core” classes on a 4.0 scale.  You can find a list of high school core classes online here: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/high-school/33.html.  This means that you need to take your high school classes serious – freshmen year through senior year – and don’t just take fluff coursework like office assistant and bowling!  

The College Potential Calculator at WhatisAverage.com gives both students and their families the opportunity to understand where they stand based on their GPA and SAT/ACT scores, shedding light on what students should improve to be considered competitive for the institution of their choice.  Additionally, it provides an opportunity to understand if a school is out of their reach and provides alternatives that are within their reach.  In fact, you can allow the calculator to find your potential to get into up to 20 colleges at a time based on the cost of the college, location of the college, national rank of the college, or your best chances.

3 Tips for Parents and Students Trying to Save Time Looking for Scholarships this Summer

What is a high school graduate’s biggest deterrent to getting into a top college or obtaining a scholarship? According to a recent survey of high school counselors, it is a student’s “lack of initiative or simply starting too late in the process.” In fact, 22% of the counselors surveyed reported that high school seniors are either too overwhelmed or simply don’t make the time to sit down and apply for scholarships. They think their grades either aren’t high enough or they can’t write a compelling enough story about themselves, so why waste the time?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the US Department of Education, only about 10.6% of students, or about 1 in 10, received scholarships worth an average of $2,815 in 2007-08. This leads to tight competition and let’s face it, $2,800 isn’t going to go vary far when the average annual prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board were estimated to be $11,578 at public institutions and $29,915 at private institutions for the 2007-08 school year.
So what can you do to stay competitive and attempt to reduce wasting time on scholarships that won’t pay that much? Dan Coomes, one of the surveyors and creator of The College Potential Calculator, has a few non-traditional tips for students and parents looking for an extra edge this summer:

• Know what your intended field of study is going to be: Most students, parents, and counselors I’ve talked to believe that minority status or being able to demonstrate financial need is the biggest factor in obtaining a scholarship. While being able to demonstrate need is an important factor, a student’s minority status is only applicable to approximately 9% of the scholarships listed in our Calculator. That means there’s 1,800 other scholarships out there that don’t have a minority status requirement. Selecting a field of study and being able to write about it is far more important than minority status, representing approximately 48% of the scholarships in the College Potential Calculator. Engineering and engineering technology is one of the most represented intended fields of study, capturing about 33% of scholarships that require an intended field of study to be eligible to apply. A few others that had good representation were biological and physical sciences, business/management/administration, and trade and industry. Conversely, liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies, English and literature, foreign languages, and area and ethnic studies were all intended fields of study that were not widely represented with available scholarships.
• Join an organization: Approximately 11% of scholarships require that you are apart of some organization to be eligible to apply. The American Legion is the most widely represented organization, representing over 25% of the scholarships that require an affiliation with an organization. The American Legion is for current or past active duty military personnel, but there eligibility can be extended within divisions of the Legion for sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, wives, and other family members.
• Look at what your current state of residence or the state where you are looking to attend college has to offer: Fifty percent of the Scholarships listed in the College Potential Calculator are based on the state you currently reside in or the state you intend to attend College in. You can cut the time down on your scholarship search by simply looking at scholarships registered in your state. For instance, Googling, “Scholarships in Texas,” will yield an alphabetical list of all scholarships for Texas residents.

A fun feature of the College Potential Calculator is the ability to look at more than just one college. In fact, you can allow the calculator to find your potential to get into up to 20 colleges at a time based on the cost of the college, location of the college, national rank of the college, or your best chances. For instance, let’s look at a high school student who lives on the east coast but wants to go to school on the west coast. All she has to do is simply enter in the city and state on the west coast she wants to be near, her SAT or ACT scores and GPA, and then click calculate. Based on her preference, she can sort the results of the 20 colleges by the least expensive colleges near the area, the closest colleges to the area, the colleges with the highest national rank in the area, or by the colleges she has the best chances of getting accepted to near the area.
The College Potential Calculator is designed for students, parents, and counselors who want to gauge a student’s potential to get into any one college or obtain a scholarship based on their GPA, SAT or ACT score. The tool looks at the past 1 – 5 years of admission statistics for 3,600 universities and approximately 2,000 scholarships. You can watch a quick demo of the College Potential Calculator on WhatisAverage.com.

The Decline of Text Messaging?

I received this written message from a friend of mine on my iPhone, "Wanna go to the Saucer and grab a beer?" This is a standard message I'm sure many people see quite often, but this came through the messaging system on Words with Friends (a popular iPhone app). While responding to his rhetorical question with another rhetorical question, "Is the Pope Catholic?" I pondered the future of text messaging. Text messaging, also known as SMS or short messaging service, is described in wikipedia as "most often used between private mobile phone users, as a substitute for voice calls in situations where voice communication is impossible or undesirable."

Since the first quarter of 2008, Americans as a whole were sending and receiving more text messages a day than phone calls, I guess meaning there are a lot of situations in life where voice communication is impossible or undesirable. In 2008, the total text messages sent by Americans was reported to be 1 trillion or a little over 13 messages per day per wireless customer. This is up from 363 billion messages sent a year prior. Text Messaging accounted for $32 billion in revenue for wireless carriers in 2008, but this latest message from a friend of mine had me wondering if text messaging had hit it's peak and will we see a slow decline with the advent of social media networks, emails, and messaging systems on apps?

This was not the first time I had pondered this and I have to give all the credit to my step-father who postulated the idea a year earlier in a conversation over a tobacco pipe and beer on the back porch together (most of my great conversations happen over a pipe and beer I've found). He had one of the first generation iPhones and did not have a text messaging plan. When asked why he didn't, he responded with, "What do I need it for? I receive emails just as fast as I would receive a text message and I can put everything and more into an email that I can into a text message." He's right.

But when I think of emails, I think of something more formal than a text. To me an email is something a little more professional, but he did spark my interest with the idea. What exactly does a text message provide? Using the standard iPhone platform, I think everyone would agree that a text message is a quick, easy, and informal way to compose a message to one or a few friends. The message can be a quick question, invitation, status update, and accompanied by a picture or popular picture icon from services like emoji.

I, like many other people, have a facebook, linkedin, myspace, and twitter user name. To add to that, I have a business email, personal email, and junk email address. Some people may have more than these and some may have less, but the fact remains there are many ways to communicate with my friends other than a text message. And all of these give me greater flexibility and ability to reach a larger audience than a text.

There has to be an incentive for people to stop using text messaging, and the one I'd like to point out is the financial one. For my wife and I, the unlimited family text plan costs $30/month with AT&T. The data plan which I would use for everything (minus texting) costs an additional $30/month. If we were to give up texting, we would save $360 a year. My prediction is that as more and more of these grow, the less and less popular text messaging will become. I don't see it happening this year, but if a tight economy continues, look for innovative ways of consumers to cut costs on duplicated services in 2011.

Remembering the Military During Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is named after two among of the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide (second only to Christmas), but it is not just an American holiday. In fact, Norfolk celebrates Jack Valentine, in Denmark and Norway Valentine's Day is known as Valentinsdag, and in Turkey it is called Sevgililer Günü, which translates into "Sweethearts' Day".

Valentine's Day marks a time when some civilians may be proposing, others celebrating anniversaries in romantic places, and even more using the date as an excuse to finally ask out a special someone, but not all many couples will have a chance to celebrate together. There are men and women who will be separated from their loved ones because of serving their country overseas or perhaps have lost their life due to service. This Valentine's Day, WhatisAverage.com would like to say thank you to these men and women and the organizations that support this cause.



Spotlighting organizations serving those who serve

We owe this ability to freely celebrate almost any event in our lives to the service men and women who have given their lives or are currently serving overseas to protect that freedom. An organization I'd like to spotlight in our first philanthropic initiative of 2010 is The Gold Star Wives of America (GSW). The GSW is a non-profit organization of military widows/widowers whose spouse died while on active duty or from service connected disabilities.  This military survivors organization has been serving war widows from all conflicts and service connected disabilities since it was founded in 1945. I recently spoke with representatives of the south central region chapter and they explained that they have noticed a lack of awareness among the Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans and are excited to be spotlighted in hopes of spreading the word to our Veteran families.

Promotion for participants

In addition to the Veterans who have given their lives to service, WhatisAverage.com would like to help couples currently separated due to service of their country a little less painful this February 14th by bringing memories of family to them. I spoke with the same group of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in Baghdad, Iraq from my previous initiative to get some good initial ideas for this month's featured survey, "What are some good gifts for couples that will be separated during Valentine's Day?" Please visit the survey and provide input while spreading the word to other Veterans' families who are affected. All proceeds from this survey will go The Gold Star Wives of America and you can donate directly to their organization by clicking here.

To encourage participation and show our appreciation for these families, WhatisAverage.com is giving away the top recommended product to two randomly selected families who are registered on the site and who will be separated due to service to their county on Valentine's Day. Our hope is that we can make this separation a little less painful by giving them gifts like a digital photo frame, a pre-paid cell phone, or a flip video camcorder. We will also randomly select another registered member to receive the top recommended product on Valentine's Day.  To kick off this initiative, we will be randomly selecting registered members daily to receive free iTune's gift cards from WhatisAverage.com from February 1st through the 14th.  You must be a registered member of WhatisAverage.com and a US citizen to participate. No purchase necessary, please see complete details on the site.

Thanks again to the service men and women of this Country. You can help spread the message by posting a link to this story on Facebook, Twitter or your own personal blog. Contact Dan at Dan.Coomes@WhatisAverage.com if you or your business would like get involved.