Guest Blog: The All-Important Summer Before 12th Grade

The summer before 12th grade is a high school student’s “last” opportunity to do something to impress college admission officers before those college applications are due.

Why is this important? The student’s own high school resume can speak volumes louder than his/her college application. And when the summer before applying to college is a total wash-out in terms of college application points …

For example, it’s hard to convince a college admission officer that you’re passionate about being a social worker when you’ve spent the entire previous summer in Paris studying French or working at Starbucks – without doing any social work.

I understand you want to spend a summer in Paris or earning money for your car payments. And, yes, there is a way to demonstrate you are committed to your passion and still not give up your summer plans. As I talk about often at my education and careers website, what is required is some brainstorming and planning to create opportunities for yourself.

Here are examples to get you thinking about what you might do, even this summer if you’re about to enter 12th grade:

If you are spending the summer studying French in Paris

Your summer school course is eight weeks and you plan to stay in Paris another two weeks before coming home right before the school year starts. Instead, you realize Paris will always be there, and you change your plane ticket to come home immediately after summer school ends.

And you come home to an intensive two-week volunteer social work project that you have created by email and cell phone from Paris. This change in plans clearly demonstrates a passion for doing social work.

If you are spending the summer working at Starbucks

This is an easier situation because you will have some blocks of time during each week this summer to commit to social work activities. You will still have to create these opportunities for yourself in order to accommodate your work schedule. Be prepared when contacting potential volunteer places to emphasize that this is an unpaid opportunity for which you are looking.
Doing a good job

When you have obtained such an opportunity, make sure to do a good job because you will want to ask for a letter of recommendation BEFORE your social work volunteering is over. Once you have returned to school, it is easy for someone to forget about the good work you did. You want to have a person write a letter of recommendation when your good work is right in front of him/her.

If you plan accordingly, you can have your cake and eat it too in the summer before 12th grade.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller writes on college applications, internships, jobs and careers for teens and young people. Her website <http://www.flippingburgersandbeyond.com> offers valuable free information, including how to fill out a W-4, and a work sheet for developing a college application resume.

Big News on Legal Education

Northwestern University has become the third law school in the United States (after Southwestern and the University of Dayton) to offer a two-year law school degree. Although there was a fair amount of buzz, much of it critical, when Southwestern and Dayton adopted the two-year option, Northwestern’s high profile…it is generally considered a top ten law school…is generating seemingly unprecedented discussion about the future of legal education.

The first question in everyone’s mind; if one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools legitimizes a two- year law degree, can numerous other law schools be far behind?

But, there are many other questions as well.

Will the ABA weigh in on the validity of the new degree anytime soon? How will law firms, especially the high end firms which traditionally hire top Northwestern grads, respond to Northwestern’s new degree option? Will top students be willing to take the risk that the two-year degree option may limit their professional options?

Will students who elect a two year degree program be less likely to pass the bar exam?

There is wide disagreement on virtually all of these issues.

For years, students have described law school as follows:

First year; scare you to death, second year; work you to death, third year; bore you to death.

Have some legal educators come to agree with them?

Note: Remember, we offer you lots of information on colleges, online degree programs, scholarships, and related issues on our five websites.

HBCU to Abandon Open Admissions

Texas Southern University, an HBCU that has struggled with deferred maintenance issues, extremely high student attrition, and a former President who apparently misused funds, has a new President and appears to be heading in a somewhat new direction.  TSU, long an open admissions institution, will now institute standards which will make it a (minimally) selective institution.

According to Diverse, “TSU leaves the ranks of a handful of historically Black colleges and universities that continue to operate under open admissions policies, including Wiley College, Bluefield State College, Southern Arkansas Baptist College, University of the District of Columbia and Edward Waters College.”

 

Double Depositing; How low will you go?

OK, making a final college selection can be tough.  I’ll grant you that.  And, sometimes people will postpone difficult decisions…it’s classical avoidance behavior.

So, what can you do if you are faced with the decision of choosing between two or more colleges you really like?  The simple answer is, be the responsible adult you claim to be and make a decision.

Here’s what you don’t do…you don’t send enrollment deposits to more than one college.  It’s dishonest.  And, it’s not a victimless “crime”.   Here’s why. 

Every student who sends enrollment deposits to more than one college is reserving a place that is then not available to a student who may really want it, a student who may have to attend a college he/she does not like as much as a result.  

And, when a student sends in a deposit, many colleges “lock up” financial aid for him/her, aid which may not be freed up in time to be given to other students who need it. 

Then, there is the issue of housing.  A double deposited student often has a housing reservation, resulting in one fewer place in a residence hall for a student who needs it.

Any student who submits deposits to more than one college or university is hurting others.  There is no justification, and no other reasonable way to look at it.

College Still Admitting Students

If, for any reason, you are still looking for a college or university in which to enroll in the fall, you probably have more options than you think.  Beginning on May 6th,  you can go to the National Association of College Admissions Counselors website and find a list of colleges and universities with fall openings for freshmen and/or transfer students.   You can also find out which colleges and universities have space available in their residence halls, and which are still awarding financial aid.

Of course, not all colleges with openings will be listed on the NACAC site, so don’t assume that colleges not on the list are filled.  In fact, you have nothing to lose by contacting individual colleges to see if they might still consider your application.   Remember  that you can find college and university  telephone numbers  on the  Colleges, Scholarships, and  Online Degrees website.

Oklahoma…Not OK

Not to be outdone by the morons in the Utah and Arizona legislatures, State Representative Jason Murphey has introduced a bill which would make it legal for some folks to carry guns on Oklahoma’s college and university campuses. And, the Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved the bill by a vote of nearly 2 to 1. Some in the Sooner State, it seems, would sooner have weapons in classrooms than not. Who elected these morons? What can be done?

Everyone who works at a college or university in Oklahoma and everyone who attends one should immediately email the Governor and State Senators demanding that the bill be defeated. And, they should work to defeat Murphey and those who helped him pass the bill in the House. In addition, students at Oklahoma colleges, universities and colleges in Utah, and Arizona colleges and universities, should consider having a one day “strike”during which they hold demonstrations at the offices of the politicians who have been responsible for supporting legislation allowing firearms on campuses. And, their friends and family members should join them.

Our bet is that college and university Presidents and faculty will not only support such a “strike”,  but that they will address and/or join the student demonstrators. It would be irresponsible of them not to.

Can For- Profit Colleges be Trusted?

Can for-profit colleges be trusted? Do they care about quality education or is profit their only concern? Are schools and colleges which are publicly held under so much pressure to drive up earnings and stock prices that they are willing to admit any prospective students who apply for admission?

Three past employees of Kaplan College have accused their former employers of offering admissions personnel illegal incentives to enroll students and of pressuring faculty to give students inflated grades in order to retain them. Kaplan has denied the allegations, and labeled the three…two of whom were fired…as disgruntled. Whether these particular allegations are truthful or not…that will be decide by the courts… there have been similar accusations, many upheld, against a number of for- profit schools and colleges.

The truth is, the for- profit education industry has been extremely profitable. The Kaplan schools and colleges, in addition to the tuition students pay out of pocket, receive approximately $500 million a year in federal financial aid dollars. The University of Phoenix, American International University, Keller Graduate School, and others also take in significant federal funds. There is nothing wrong with that, per se. Many students have attended these institutions, and others like them, and have been very satisfied.

However, it is extremely important that the appropriate government agencies carefully monitor all institutions which receive federal financial aid dollars to be certain that:

1. they offer sound educational programs.

2. they admit only students prepared to benefit from the programs they offer.

3. they hold faculty and students to appropriate academic standards.

To do otherwise is unfair to both students and taxpayers.

Is the Answer to Campus Violence More Guns?

I don’t claim to have the answer to campus violence, but I do know one thing.  It is an important enough issue to merit the attention of our best minds.

Instead, folks like Arizona Senator Karen Johnson are stepping forward with their proposed solutions.   Johnson is not one of our best minds.  Don’t expect to find her shooting rockets into space during her spare time.  But, you might find her shooting, because she carries a gun.  That’s her right, I guess, but it makes me think we need to administer IQ tests to folks who wish to walk among us with weapons.  If we did, Johnson might not have her gun.

And, if Arizona legislators had to achieve minimal IQ scores, perhaps Johnson’s recent guns-on-campus bill would never have gotten out of committee.  But, it did.  Four Republicans voted “yes”, three Democrats voted “no”.  If the bill becomes law, everyone with a permit could carry a gun on any college campus in Arizona.

That, Johnson and others believe, will make our campuses safer.  Could anyone make this up?

As you might expect, the police chiefs on the three Arizona public university campuses oppose Johnson’s bill.

By the way, Johnson’s original bill would have allowed weapons in public schools as well.  According to The Arizona Republic, Johnson is not fully satisfied with her now modified bill because she thinks, “our kindergarteners are still sitting there as sitting ducks”.

The Vice President of the Arizona Defense League, another person not destined for a career at NASA, is quoted by The Arizona Republic as saying, “By limiting the bill to colleges and universities, it says that school-age children aren’t as valuable as college students”.

I hope everyone reading this who has a friend or family member on a college campus anywhere will email the Arizona governor and urge her to veto Senate Bill 1214 if it survives the legislative process.

Then, you might contact the governor of Utah, a state that already has the kind of law being proposed in Arizona.

The only ones who will benefit from more guns on campus are the online colleges and the weapons manufacturers.

Maybe, as some believe, educational communities are a microcosm of society, and everything that occurs off campus will inevitably occur on-campus.  Maybe the problem of campus violence is more complicated.

New Page Lists & Links to Historically Black Colleges

The Colleges, Scholarships, and Online Degrees website has just added a page which lists and links to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  Anybody want to guess which state has the most HBCU’s?

It’s North Carolina, with 11.  Want to know which 3 states are tied for 2nd place with 8 HBCU’s?  Visit the new page and see for yourself.

The Fisk Univiersity Court Case; More Important than You Might Think

Fisk University, like many other Historically Black Colleges and Universities, has had significant financial problems for nearly a half century. There are many factors (and at least a few individuals) to blame. If you are interested in learning more about Fisk and its economic history, a simple search will yield a wealth of well-researched articles. There is no need to repeat their conclusions here.

Instead, we will spend a few moments considering Fisk’s plan to sell donated art, an upcoming court case related to that plan, and the possible repercussions.

Fisk’s current financial crisis is real…there is no argument about that. Now millions of dollars in debt, the University is having to struggle to try to provide a high quality education to its students. And, because of those struggles, Fisk is in imminent danger of being stripped of its accreditation. Without accreditation, Fisk is almost certainly finished. In fact, barring a quick change of economic fortune, Fisk’s future is at great risk even if it manages to retain its accreditation.

As you would expect, Fisk’s administrators and trustees are determined to save it. I hope they can. Everyone will be better off if Fisk and institutions like it continue to educate our citizens.

However, if the courts allow Fisk to finance its survival by selling art donated to it for exhibition, it will set a precedent that may greatly limit the ability of colleges, universities and other institutions to generate gifts and gift income. Donors give colleges all kinds of gifts; money, securities, land, yachts, computer equipment, laboratory equipment, solar powered cars, and art, to name a few. The ideal gift, from the viewpoint of a college or university, is a so-called unrestrictive gift…a gift the institution can use as it wishes.

But, many gifts are restricted. Money may be donated to help construct or restore a particular building, create a specific program of study, endow a scholarship for students majoring in chemistry, or enhance a university’s athletic program. The art that Fisk now wishes to sell was donated so that Fisk could exhibit it…so it could be enjoyed by students, faculty, and visitors. So it could enhance Fisk’s prestige.

It was not donated to be sold to pay down Fisk’s debt or finance its operating expenses.

Thus, if the courts allow Fisk to sell the art in question despite its now deceased donor’s intention, it would suggest that donor agreements can be breached if the receiving institution decides its perceived needs mean more than its promise to a donor.  And that could trigger a major decline in giving to colleges, universities, museums, and other institutions that, just like Fisk, deserve and require donor support.