Research Opportunities
Ralph Becker
The Importance of High School Research

Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.

The Importance of High School Research

Making Your UC Personal Statement

Making Your UC Personal Statement

For the first time in recent history, the UC Admissions site goes live on the same day as the Common Application: August 1st.

If you’re going to be a senior next year, it might not be a bad idea to celebrate by writing the first draft of your UC Personal Statement now. As the websites at most the UC campuses advise, applicants should take ample time to brainstorm, write, revise and burnish their essays. It is essential to do as good a job as possible on the personal statements as they are key components in the UC selection process at most of the campuses.

The Transformation of a College Education

The Transformation of a College Education

The world of higher education is undergoing change. At the moment the change might not be easily perceived, but it is occurring, because it must.

The primary factor behind the change is higher education’s inexorably rising costs. Over the last two decades college costs have been rising annually at 1.6% above inflation.

Using the Universal College Application (UCA)

Using the Universal College Application (UCA)

The UCA application site, https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/, went live on July 1st; feature-rich, stable, reliable, dependable and efficient—UCA launched a full month before the Common Application is scheduled to flip on the switch.

Yet before you rejoice or yawn, let’s recapitulate last year’s launch of the Common Application’s new version called CA4.

Getting Oriented—the First Year Transition

Getting Oriented—the First Year Transition

While attending orientation might seem insignificant, it can influence the friends you make, the classes you select, and, most importantly, your attitude when the classes begin in the fall.  

A lot of students get apprehensive about attending orientations; they especially fear the awkwardness of meeting future classmates, upper classmen, or faculty. It is better to think of orientation as a stress-free introduction to a new institution and its numerous departments, clubs, and resources.

Motivating College Students

Motivating College Students

Successful students are motivated and engaged students; unfortunately, on many campuses, motivation is lacking.

The book Academically Adrift cited a nationwide sampling of 2,300 students who took the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA): more than 45% found no improvement or declines in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over their undergraduate years.

ACT’s Aspire Replaces ACT’s PLAN and EXPLORE and Beyond

ACT’s Aspire Replaces ACT’s PLAN and EXPLORE and Beyond

This spring the ACT administered for the last time EXPLORE (for 8th and 9th grade assessments) and PLAN (ACT’s version of PSAT for the 10th grade); in their stead the ACT launched Aspire, its brand new entry into the world of core curriculum assessment tests.

Aspire is a suite of tests for assessing Common Core performance across English, math, reading, science, and writing, addressing students from 3rd grade through to junior year.

Soka University of America, the Newest Orange County Liberal Arts College

Soka University of America, the Newest Orange County Liberal Arts College
When first describing Soka University of America (SUA) in Aliso Viejo in Orange County it’s tempting to draw an analogy to Pepperdine in Malibu: both campuses are mere miles from the Pacific and have stunningly beautiful campuses…but then the analogy begins to falter.  

The Test Optional Alternative

The Test Optional Alternative

While many parents and students are still wrestling with the interchangeability of the ACT and the SAT; the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) released a study in February 2014 showing there is no perceptible difference in academic performance between students who do and do not submit ACT or SAT scores.

Such a statement almost seems blasphemous in the realm of college admissions, yet the evidence was culled from a study of over 123,000 students across 33 colleges with test optional policies.

The College Shopping Sheet and the Needed Transparency of Financial Aid

The College Shopping Sheet and the Needed Transparency of Financial Aid

As admissions into colleges and universities has become ever more challenging, applying for financial aid and understanding the financial aid letter once received, is an equally grueling, though often neglected, piece of the admissions process.

Many families today are making grants and scholarships instrumental in their college searches. For good reason as half of parents, according to a survey conducted by Sallie Mae (the nickname for the SLM Corporation, a publicly traded US Government corporation that originates, collects and services student loans) are not regularly putting aside savings for college.

Grove City College, a Hidden Gem

Grove City College, a Hidden Gem

On occasion people ask me where are the hidden college gems?

I have a found that the 50 Best Colleges list (www.thebestschools.org) is a pretty good source of hidden gems. The list’s primary criterion is that college is for undergraduates, not graduate students—which eliminates many of the big names, such as Harvard or Northwestern. It surveys the record of achievement among a college’s graduates to determine whether they have the skills to succeed in the real world. It also considers whether a college offers a ‘diversity of courses’ free of dogmatism, ideology or political correctness, delivers academic rigor so that students master their subjects, and watches its expenses to avoid adding an unwieldy debt load that indentures many graduates for decades to come. Grove City College (GCC) is number 18 on this list.