My College Blogaversity

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:18:00 +0000

How to finish college in 3 years (with video) http://collegevideos.wordpress.com/

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:33:00 +0000

College Admission: Why Students Won't Attend Their First Choice http://collegevideos.wordpress.com/

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:37:00 +0000

College Interview Mistakes http://collegevideos.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/college-interview-beware-part-4-of-4/

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:34:00 +0000

College interview: Beware (Part 3 of 4) http://collegevideos.wordpress.com/

FAFSA: The short video that makes it easy

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:31:00 +0000

No time? Watch this 2-minute video on the easier way to fill out your 2010 FAFSA form.

Olympics = Preview Of College Admissions

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:04:00 +0000

The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics revealed something dreadful:

Sameness.

There were so many characters on stage who not only appeared the same, but performed in the same way and at the same time.

Individuality was totally absent.

It was a visual metaphor that I warn students about: sameness will make more difficult your ability to get into college.

You have to stand apart. How do you do that?

My 2-minute video says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLRNC9K4A28

6 Survival Tips For College Freshmen

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:41:00 +0000

More college freshmen will drop out of college in the first 6 weeks than at any other time this year (over 30% will drop out after the first year). But the 6 tips below have proven to work, according to Dr. R. Gilbert of Montclair State University in New Jersey:

1. Treat your roommates like they’re your best friends...even if they aren’t.

2. Never assume anything...no matter what your question. Keep asking until 2 people give you the same exact answer.

3. No matter what your problem...there is an expert on campus to help you. First, check with your Head of Residence. Then, go to the Dean of Students office.

4. Don’t be intimidated. College looks much more difficult than it really is.

5. When you think everyone else is so much smarter than you, remember this quote:

“College is a fountain of knowledge. A few come to drink, a few come to sip, and, unfortunately, the rest come to gargle.”

6. When you feel like dropping out, repeat slowly this question several times:

“Would you like fries with that?”

This last one gets a few laughs, but it’s no joke. Like the condemned man about to be executed, it forces a student to focus on what’s really important.

______________

To receive FREE weekly 2-minute videos on how to get into college and pay for it, go to this website: www.videocollegedad.com

7 College Essay Writing Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:11:00 +0000

1. Write your college application essay before your senior year begins. Senior year is very busy, and you don't need another distraction from concentrating on what's more important: your studies. Get it brainstormed, drafted, corrected and finally written before September 1.

2. Find a topic that you know better than anyone. For example, you're a dancer because you use dance as a way to express with your body what you cannot express with your vocal cords. Who knows the language of your body better than you do? Who knows more about what you say with your dance than you do? You're the expert, which is why it'll be a whole lot easier for you to communicate what you want to say. Read: your essay can be one easy task!

3. Keep it simple. By way of illustration, let's say you're standing on a street corner and you witness a car crash in front of you; you were the only one who witnessed the crash, and the police have asked you to write a description of what you saw. Why did the police ask you? Because they know you are the expert in what you experienced in that brief moment of the car crash. You could write about a brief moment in your life that had some positive impact on you because you are the expert on how that moment affected you. Keeping it simple also means using simple words, so throw away the thesaurus.

4. Make your first statement of the essay the most powerful. Readers in a college admissions office believe 80% of the essays they read are a waste of time. So make your first statement a "hook" - a pleasant surprise that catches their attention from the get-go. Here are some example first-sentences of what some of my students wrote last year:

"I was suddenly surrounded by rifles pointing at me." (theme: paintball)
"It was clear that I was completely cut off from civilization." (theme: wilderness hiking)
"I had nowhere to go but down." (theme: overachieving)
"Pain was a requirement for me to succeed." (theme: dancing/ballet)

5. Read your essay out loud. Besides your eyes use your ears to hear what you're saying. Reading out loud gives you another sense of how the essay is moving, and you'll be able to tell if it sounds right or needs improvement. Then get friends and family members to read and listen to what you're saying. Ask for comments and suggestions.

6. Essays should be no longer than 500 words. Give the admissions reader another reason to LOVE you - keep it shorter than 500 words. The 500-word limit has been a standard for years, and the Common App now allows you to write more than 500 words. With short attention spans in a college admissions office, do you think colleges are excited that the Common App allows you to write more than they want to read? Less is more, or quality beats quantity every time.

7. Keep your essay upbeat and positive. My favorite college essay requirement comes from the College of William & Mary in Virginia where they suggest: "Surprise us!" What they're asking you to do is write something that's positive. Why? Like most colleges they're so used to reading the seven topics they don't like. Not to write about these topics would be a huge surprise.

To view free weekly videos such as the one you just watched, visit this website: http://www.videocollegedad.com/

YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, AOL Video, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh, Sclipo and Howcast

5 Benefits Of Going To College During The Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Just going to college in the summer doesn't automatically put your student on a "preferred" list at any college. You have to have a specific reason for going, such as taking a course because a scheduling conflict during your child's junior year prevented him or her from taking a needed AP or Honors course, or your student simply needs to find out if s/he really wants to go to college.

Here are 5 benefits for taking a college course during the summer between junior and senior years:

1. Colleges will be impressed that you took initiative to "make up" what you missed (translation: you didn't use the standard excuse of bad scheduling to NOT take an AP or Honors course, or that a 2nd AP course was never offered);

2. Colleges will see that you challenged yourself at a time when the beach was more appealing (translation: you demonstrated a high level of maturity and focus that are not always evident on a college application);

3. You were able to test-drive the college experience: you actually know what a college class room session is like, how professors act, and how challenging college can be. You now have a solid sense of whether you want to go to college, or you now now have a confidence level about going to college that was never known before, and the anxiety of "what's college really like?" - the fear of the unknown - is a lot less;

4. Your student earns college credit before senior year in high school, an advantage that 99.6% of competing seniors will not be able to claim; and

5. Your student's letters of recommendation will reinforce all of the above.

How Crass Can A College Get?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:40:00 +0000

A lot of press is being given to a college in South Carolina for the way they treat their students.

For approximately $36,000 a year, here's what you get for your money from High Point University if your student is looking to be treated like a rock star:

1. an ice cream truck roams the campus giving away free ice cream all day;

2. music is piped into the walkways between buildings;

3. snack kiosks are situated with an endless supply of free bananas, pretzels and drinks;

4. each student receives a birthday card signed by the president, with balloons and a Starbucks gift card inside;

5. gift baskets of snacks and drinks are dropped off at student rooms when they return from breaks;

6. to get exactly what students want, the university maintains a database of each student's preferences in movies, candy bars, and sodas; and my favorite...

7. upon request, wake-up calls in the morning and afternoon.

This is the Club Med of academia. Did I mention that there are people there who actually teach courses if your student wants to take some?

The press reports indicate that the university's passion for "customer service" is paying off. Enrollment has never been higher. Should the term "customer service" apply to an academic environment? If you don't think so, you and I are both clueless.

In May of 2006 Brown University's president told an incoming freshman class: "You are the smartest, the cutest, the savviest, most dynamic, extraordinary - I could go on and on."

As long as colleges continue to baby our kids, the less prepared they will be for the daily demands and tough expectations of real living.

This story is not an aberration. It highlights the college trend in pampering the next generation. The injustice such schools are doing to these students is incalculable.

The focus is not so much on academics, but on what can we do to make your student more self-absorbed and narcissistic. "It's all about me" in a lah-lah world that has no shame with indulging in crass commercialism while making you pay through the nose. Okay...so I'm totally clueless.

Once our students discover how the world works after graduation, they'll complain that it was a wake-up call they never requested.

Hot Chicks & Minorities

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Over 75% of college catalogs are fraudulent. Evidence is found in the photos.

Look carefully at the catalogs you get in your mailbox. How many include photos of black and Asian students? Nearly all of them.

A recent study reveals some embarrassing information that has caught colleges with their pants, well, in the lower regions of fiction. A few examples...

1. Although 7.9% of college students are black, college catalogs convey a 12.4% impression.

2. Colleges are defining diversity - brace yourself - with photographs of students with a different skin color. And you thought diversity of thought was the standard. Always with colleges, appearances trump substance. Because colleges are superb marketing machines, they truly believe that your perceptions are more important than their reality. If photos make you conclude their college is "diverse," then it's true.

3. Colleges justify their misrepresentations as, "What we're really saying is that you're welcome here." Cynics would add, "...although you don't qualify to be here."

4. The old 80/20 rule probably applies: 80% of the truth-in-advertising lies with a little more than 20% of the college catalogs. Translation: to find the truth you have some real digging to do.

A student who helped put this study together concluded that the catalogs portray nothing more than "hot chicks and minorities." Colleges want you to believe they want more male students (who are more apt to drop out, thereby being an economic liability) and minorities (7.9% is a dismal representation of blacks, but it's a reality colleges accepted a long time ago).

Also, attorneys general in more than 40 states last year investigated colleges for their highly questionable relationships with private loan companies, where exotic trips and kick-backs to financial aid officers were commonplace. In effect students ended up paying higher interest rates on their loans.

The catalog photos are now the indicting visuals of college fraud.

Parents are rightfully being forced into this mindset: Buyer beware.

What To Do On A College Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Here are 4 objectives of a first college visit. This will assume you will be impressed with the results of your visit, which will require a second visit with a different strategy. Parents should stay away from the admission office so the student can impress the admission people by your NOT being there.

1. The student - not the parent - should show up at the admissions office unannounced. You want to witness first-hand how flexible and accommodating admission people can be so that your gut instincts will help determine your first impressions. It'll also tell you how hard the college works on making good first impressions.

2. The student should ask for the name of the admissions person who handles your geographical area. This is your contact person for future phone conversations. Try to meet that person, introduce yourself, and get a business card. It would be wicked cool to trade business cards, so I would get one created with only your name, address, email address, and phone number. And no cutesy designs.

If the college doesn't assign admissions people on a geographical basis, ask for a business card from one of them and make that person your contact.

3. Either the parent or student should ask about the school’s retention rate: “What percentage of freshmen return after the freshman year?” When you get home, look on the school’s website to see if the figure matches what you heard. If the answer is a high retention rate, you want to ask a follow-up question: “Is it because of a proactive college policy to recruit a diverse student body that includes non-A students, or does the school focus on the A students who almost always account for a high retention rate?”

These 2 questions will give you a sense of the school’s orientation or philosophy of recruitment. If you’re not comfortable with the answer, move on to another campus.

4. Either the parent or student should ask a question that will be most difficult to answer, but as a parent you have a moral obligation to ask it. If the school is going to ask you to spend thousands of dollars, you absolutely want the answer to this question: “Because campus safety is in the news all the time, how and when can I get access to the campus police’s records of crime on this campus for the past 12 months?”

This could be a real curve ball question, and listen carefully to how your question is answered. If the answer sounds too practiced or too routine, such as, “Any incidents or crimes on campus are public record. You can call the local police to get that information.” If you hear this answer, you’re being lied to. The local police do not record all the campus’s incidents because the college wants to keep any real crimes quiet if they can. The most convenient reason to have a campus police force is to hide any potential public relations or image problems that could damage the school’s effort to recruit if disclosure of all crimes is made.

Unconfortable Fact: Colleges are a business, and image is everything.

Student tour directors are programmed to tell you what you want to hear. Which is why I detest planned tours. You get far better information from students sitting at a dining hall table. But if you take a tour with a young and enthusiastic robotic speaker, you need to ask questions they don’t hear; however, do not be surprised to hear other parents ask these 3 mind-boggling questions:

1. How’s the food here?
2. What are laundry facilities like?
3. Do students get enough sleep?

Colleges witness parents asking what they view as really dumb questions. These are the equivalent of asking, “Do you have running water?”

If you’re touring a college that requires $40,000 a year, you need to ask tough questions. If you don’t get the satisfactory answers WITH FOLLOW-UP research, perhaps another college will be glad to help you.

Comfortable Fact: There are over 4,000 colleges and universities out there, and you are in the driver’s seat to choose, not the colleges. They know it, but they won’t tell you that they know it.

It’s a game - a game you can win.

______________________

Get free videos on college admissions: http://www.freevideos4college.com/

Why US News College Edition Is Useless

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:55:00 +0000

US News & World Report has just announced its forthcoming edition of America's Best Colleges, due out in August. Instead of running to the nearest newsstand to pick up your copy, I suggest you remain at the beach reading something that has a lot more credibility, like how cow flatulance is going to ruin the quality of the air we breathe unless we kill all the cows.

1. From the announcement: "College presidents, provosts, and admission deans were asked to nominate up to 10 colleges that are making improvements in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity, and facilities."

US News actually believes that these people have nothing else to do and all the objectivity worthy of a traffic court judge to offer objective assessments on their competition. Colleges are a business, and in business there is always pressure to beat the other guy. US News knows they have to beat Time and Newsweek, and they would NEVER answer a survey truthfully that asked them to judge fairly what Time and Newsweek are doing to get better readers, as in, "What are colleges doing to get better students?"

Dumb gets a better name when you see the next gem of incredulity.

2. "We believe strongly that the opinions that high schools counselors, who play a key role in the college admission process, have about the merits of the nation's leading colleges will provide a very valuable source of information for prospective students, their parents, and our readers."

The ratio of guidance counselors to students is at least 350-to-1, and this publication would have you believe what a great impact guidance counselors have with their unique ability to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of at least 350 students at one time. That's with teens who have no family problems at home, or no adolescent problems at school. That would mean the counselors are totally undistracted and totally focused on undistracted and hormornally-driven teens who all seek real guidance in getting into college.

I wonder how focused and undistracted the students and guidance counselors are at Gloucester High School....

It's no wonder that US News is totally irrelvant to high school students and parents who need real information on the college admission process. Enjoy your summer vacation without the distraction of something totally useless for choosing your college. You might start here.

Fun Approach To The Most Common Student Loan

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:53:00 +0000

Click on anyone of these sites for my FUN video on Stafford loans. Just 2 minutes in length.

Please forward this email to friends, family, and co-workers who have students in high school.

Yahoo, MySpace, Google, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Howcast

2 reasons to apply for college work-study

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:07:00 +0000

http://www.freevideos4college.com Jobs on-campus for students and their advantages. Two big tips on college work-study. Free college admissions advice from college marketer, Paul Lloyd Hemphill

Tax Exempt Status For 9 MA Colleges With Billion Dollar Endowments

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:27:00 +0000

The dirty little secret is out: private foundations, which receive a tax exemption, are required to spend 5% of their endowment yearly, but 9 Massachusetts colleges with endowments that exceed one BILLION dollars face no such requirement. They are: Amherst, BC, BU, Harvard, MIT, Smith, Tufts, Wellesley, and Williams.

With these huge fortunes just sitting there earning vast amounts of interest daily, these are colleges which, on a student's appeal for more financial aid, will respond by saying that there are "not enough funds available." When it comes to discussing finances, these colleges have no credibility as their public remarks boggle the mind.

Here's an example:

Boston College justified raising its tuition last year on the basis that their employee health care costs and energy costs were rising. To add insult to the injury of increasing tuition costs, a BC official was quoted in a Boston Globe article: "Excellence is an expensive proposition." Not to be outdone in the elitism department, when the president of BC, Rev. William Leahy, was asked about the school's BILLION dollar endowment, and if it would mean rising tuitions would stop at BC, his response was: "A billion dollars is a great deal of money, but it by no means eliminates all the pressure."

Pressure? The Boston Globe reported that BC was able to outbid for a purchase of real estate near its campus for nearly 100 million dollars "with cash up front." That's how BC defines pressure - having to bid with 100 million dollars in cash up front. I'm probably naive for suggesting this, but maybe their tax exemption is helping to relieve some of that pressure. Do you think?

Derek Bok, former president of Harvard, said in a recent book: "Universities share one characteristic with compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty: there is never enough money to satisfy their desires."

Members of the Massachusetts legislature are now considering eliminating the tax exemption. They're looking to impose a paltry 2.5% tax, half of what private foundations are required to pay. But my guess is that these colleges are not worried. They won't even bother sending their lobbyists to protest the proposed tax. If it happens, the colleges will do what you can already predict: raise tutions and fees.

With good intentions mixed with lots of pandering, Massachusetts politicians will likely enact this tax and parents who send their kids to these schools will pay more.

Now you know why such colleges as these don't care what you think about what they charge. As long as the demand to get into these schools far exceeds the supply of seats, colleges will continue to corner the market on arrogance, or, biting the hands that feed them.

AfterThought: Harvard is attempting to be the exception: students whose parents make less than $60,000 a year get free tuition. But how many exceptionally bright students who meet Harvard's requirements come from homes earning less than $60,000 a year? Not surprisingly Harvard doesn't say. Could it be that Harvard's own press releases want us all to think that it doesn't want any child left behind? My cynicism must be showing....

Financial Aid for College - A Mind-Blowing Video!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:04:00 +0000

College financial aid is a headache. This no-nonsense video demonstrates that the college student can contribute at least $32,000 in cutting college costs for parents. Part of a weekly video series.

Save $32,000 In College Costs (Part 1 of 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:20:00 +0000

Here's how a student can be a finacial aid "asset," thereby saving parents at least $32,000, in this 3-part series. Plus college admissions videos. Visit http://www.freevideos4college.com

More Dishonesty From Colleges: Dropping The SAT Requirement

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:11:00 +0000

A college's ideal press release will suggest their compassion and understanding for the student, particularly for those who "don't test well."

Baloney. Pure. Extra Virgin.

It's part of the PC mentality that runs amok on colleges campuses everywhere. Two examples are illustrated in today's NY Times: Smith College & Wake Forest.

From Wake Forest University: “By making the SAT and ACT optional, we hope to broaden the applicant pool and increase access at Wake Forest for groups of students who are currently underrepresented (italics added) at selective universities,” Martha Allman, director of admissions at Wake Forest, told the Times.

Did you get the gobbledigook in this statement? "Underrepresented" what? Are they dummies whose test scores don't meet the school's "extraordinary" standards?

Here's the veiled truth in the Times article that gets missed: "Applicants to both schools will have the option to submit their test scores." Read: we colleges want to use these test scores as a tie-breaker with equally competiting students. Plus, if truth be told, we want to make our decisions easier, our jobs easier, not more difficult.

If colleges could be accused of trying to monopolize dishonesty, this is a validating example.

To demonstrate the success of such a press release, this one was issued 2 years ago by Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA), which asked this question: "Why would a student submit standardized test scores if they don't have to?" Their answer: "A student might decide that his or her test score gives a more competitive picture of academic achievements and potential."

Replace the word "student" with the word "college" in the above statement and you have Truth in Advertising. Like most elitist colleges, Holy Cross likes to engage in feel-good Oprah babble to make us all feel warm and fuzzy about what they represent, or more accurately, how they market their image. After all, these colleges are a business whose strategy is to design, package, market, and sell their image. They've attended expensive marketing seminars where they have learned that perception is reality, and reality is what they want parents and students to perceive, not actually what is.

So far roughly 70% of students who apply to colleges that require no standardized test scores submit their SAT and ACT scores anyway. Talk about being competitive.

If you were working in the admissions office, what would you be thinking of those applications that did NOT come with their SAT scores? "Hmmmm...does this student have something to hide?" How's that for reality?

Bottom Line: If these colleges were honest and forthright, they would require that their applicants not submit their standardized test scores. When the first college in the United States makes non-submittal of test scores a requirement in its application process, watch for this TV news headline: "Hell freezes over. Film at eleven."

The dishonesty of "non-SAT" colleges is astounding, proving once again that marketing their image trumps the truth we parents deserve.

How To Impress Colleges

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:12:00 +0000

Still Wait-Listed? Go For The Gold!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:31:00 +0000

For years colleges have been saying that there's no money left to give out in student aid by the time a student is taken off a wait-list. You wouldn't know it this year. And a recent notice indicated that there are plenty of colleges who haven't filled all their seats because accepted students didn't send in their required deposits. This presents a huge headache for the colleges, and it's your opportunity to make their headache bigger.

One of my students was awarded $5,000 in grants from his # 1 college, but his # 2 college, which wait-listed him, called him after the dreaded May 1 deposit deadline to say they had awarded him $20,000 in grants if he would come. That represented a total difference of $60,000 over 4 years. Read: $60,000 of less debt for the student after graduation.

If you have a college that still has your student on a wait-list, I suggest you rethink your financial aid strategy in the following steps:

(1) Have your student call the wait-list school and express how much s/he still wants to attend that college. Colleges like to hear the "love" over the phone to help them decide who's getting off the wait-list first. For the student to call is a big plus (okay...if you don't like the wait-listed school, you're engaged in a lie; if you do like it, you're engaged in a strategy).

(2) If the college notifies you that your student's been taken off the wait-list, be sure to ask for their financial aid package. If it doesn't exceed the amount of your # 1 college, notify them in writing that "another college" offered a larger package, as if to suggest that your student would still like to attend, but reality's face looks like 20 miles of bad road. If they ask for a copy of the other school's offer, send it happily. If they come back with an offer that now exceeds the # 1 college's offer, do this:

(3) use the wait-listed college's new offer to ask for more money from your # 1 choice. Tell # 1 that you may have to break their heart because you received a larger offer elsewhere and that, after all, a larger debt is not something you regard as part of your "award" for working hard, being committed, and achieving all through high school.

(4) You can keep this ping-pong game going until September. How long you want to keep it going is up to you. It's your money that's at stake, and the colleges will take every dime if you let them. Don't give in, and don't give up until your gut tells you that you've gone as far as you're going to go.

Huge Tip: No college will ever rescind an offer due to a student's persistent requests for more money. It would be a catastrophic public relations nightmare for the college to do so, and I have a $1,000 cash reward offer for any student who can produce any letter that says such a thing.

Go ahead...call the college that wait-listed your student. There could be a pile of money waiting for you from 2 schools.

Is This The Dumbest Generation?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:49:00 +0000

In a fascinating article on Boston.com this past Sunday, there was an 8-point article to demonstrate a theme in a new book, The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein, a teacher at Emory University. Instead of writing about it, I thought you ought to read the article verbatim.

1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targets
Bauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. ... They are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond -- friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.''

2. They don't read books -- and don't want to, either
"It's a new attitude, this brazen disregard of books and reading. Earlier generations resented homework assignments, of course, and only a small segment of each dove into the intellectual currents of the time, but no generation trumpeted aliteracy ... as a valid behavior of their peers.''

3. They can't spell
Lack of capitalization and IM codes dominate online writing. Without spellcheck, folks are toast.

4. They get ridiculed for original thought, good writing
"On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, 'buddies' will make fun of you,'' Bauerlein says. Wikipedia writing is clean and factual, but colorless and judgment-free. Often the most clever students, with flashes of disorganized brilliance on MySpace, switch to dull Wiki-writing formats for school papers, he says. "If we could combine the style and imagination of MySpace with the content of Wikipedia, we might get good stuff."

5. Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.
The stats tell the story here. First week's sales: $500 million. The sales of GTA dwarf movie premieres, CD sales, or, Bauerlein notes, book sales. All that video use, Bauerlein says, has hurt in the classroom, too. Thousands of Massachusetts public school graduates are ending up in remedial reading and writing classes in college, according to a Globe story.

6. They don't store the information
"For digital immigrants, people who are 40 years old who spent their college time in the library acquiring information, the Internet is really a miraculous source of knowledge,'' Bauerlein says. "Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.''

7. Because their teachers don't tell them so
Or because their parents don't check their bedrooms at midnight to halt the instant messaging..."Kids are drowning in teen stuff delivered 24/7 by the tools, and adult realities can't penetrate," Bauerlein says. Another factor: "It's the era of child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading.''

8. Because they're young
Do you remember how stupid you were when you were a teen-ager? Or all that you didn't know -- and thought you did? And the skills you gained by holding back on foolish comments? Oh, the now-old guy [now an old rock star] in this picture? He once wrote: "I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now.''
____________

With contempt for matters academic in general, and a total lack of interest in American history in particular, this generation presents us with a disturbing national security problem: we cannot depend on them to defend what they don't know.

Give me a dedicated American history teacher and I'll give you an army division.

Helpful Information On Student Loans

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:49:00 +0000

In spite of all the confusing information about student loans, I've found nothing better than this source: basic recommendations for shopping for a loan

Buyer Beware: The College Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:53:00 +0000

Parents are paying through the nose to send their children into this kind of environment, as described by this paragraph in the news today:

"Individuals were arrested on charges ranging from possessing marijuana to selling cocaine. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported that evidence seized includes four pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana, 48 hydroponic marijuana plants, 350 ecstasy pills, psilocybin (mushrooms), 30 vials of hash oil, methamphetamine, a variety of illicit prescription drugs, one shotgun, three semiautomatic pistols, three brass knuckles and $60,000 in cash."

The "individuals" described are 75 San Diego State University students. But they could have been on any campus.

In March of 2007, Columbia University released a study indicating that 49% (read: HALF) of ALL college students are either drug abusers or bindge drinkers. "Bindge drinkers" is defined as 5 drinks in a row for guys and 4 drinks in a row for girls. And the girls abuse more than the guys.
Gutless college presidents and their administrators repel at the thought that they should police the behavior of its students, since drug abuse and drinking represents a perverted version of free speech rights in a so-called adolscent's "right of passage." It's a blind toleration of unacceptable behavior that good behaving students are forced to endure.

And if you as a parent don't like it, college officials believe, send your student somewhere else. The signature arrogance of these colleges knows no bounds.

The problem of drug abuse and wanton drunkenness will continue on campuses across the land as long as college officials continue to look the other way as they remain dedicated to increasing your cost for this environment on an average of 6 percent a year.

The old standard of "party school" as a way of selecting a college is naive. They're ALL party schools. With a full resevoir of hope, maybe your student doesn't show up to the parties, and then the school isn't a party school.

The awful reality is this: when we send our kids off to college, we have to worry about them getting shot, getting mugged, getting drugs, and getting drunk. And to top it off, we parents are getting gouged to pay for it.

What we have in today's news story is just more evidence that higher education is getting lower.

A College's Bait & Switch

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Hemphill) — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:45:00 +0000

Your child was accepted to a college which offered a financial aid package. And chances are good that the last paragraph of the award notice stated that the offer was good for all 4 years if a certain minimum GPA is maintained.

So far, so good. Everyone is clear on what is expected.

CAUTION: Some colleges do NOT write in this last paragraph for a reason: money. Their money. Money they don't want to give away next year.

If your student's award letter has no mention of maintaining a minimum GPA all four years of college, call the college and ask for the Director of Financial Aid. Ask if the award amount you received is guaranteed all 4 years. If the answer is "Yes," but you don't see it in the letter, it's possible that it's stated in the school's financial aid policy statement. "Possible" means you'd better find out soon.

If you have access to the college's policy statement on financial aid, but you see no mention of a guarantee for all 4 years based on a minimum GPA, ask for an email confirmation of the director's "Yes" to be sent as soon as you conclude the conversation. If you don't receive the confirmation within 5 days, call back the same person and discretely and gently ask for the email confirmation again. The email acts as a legal document in case you need it later.

I bet you see where this is going. Protect yourself against the possibility that the school is pulling a fast one. Most colleges don't use this tactic, but if you don't notice it, what will be your explanation to your child next year if there's not enough financial aid coming from the school in the second year? What will be your recourse if the school says that they have a policy of not guaranteeing a similar aid package based on a minimum GPA, and that it isn't their fault if you didn't notice?

The devil is in the details.