Posts Tagged adult

What Your Admissions Essay Absolutely Must Be About!

Over the years when I’ve helped students with their writing and their preparation for college one of the things that has always amazed me is that many students have no idea what their college admission essay should be about. Simply put the essay is about YOU. No matter what the question you are writing about is, no matter how strangely or obliquely the question is phrased YOU MUST WRITE ABOUT YOU.

Although the admissions essay is becoming more important every year, it still is NOT the most important part of your application packet. For the vast majority of colleges and universities, the admissions office will use the essay as a tiebreaker. If two students are very close in grades, character, recommendations, and test scores, the student with the better essay has a better chance of being admitted. The admission official is looking for something that will push the applications over into the pile he or she will recommend for acceptance.

However, rarely, if ever is an admissions essay going to gain admittance with a weak academic record, lack of participation in high school activities, and poor test scores. So don’t bank on your admissions essay to carry the ball for you. A well-written essay that isn’t backed by academic records and test scores indicate that someone else wrote the student’s admission essay.

Take a moment and think about how the admissions official will use your essay and what he or she wants. He or she wants to know something about you. He or she wants to know what makes you more worthy of admission than someone else.When you are writing your essay make it personal. Make it about you!

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When Teaching, Multiplication Just Doesn’t Add Up

Teaching multiplication is a case in point, this is because it involves merging new information and ability with the knowledge the children have previously acquired (in particular, addition skills).

We will look at two studies that observed developmental changes in the understanding of mathematics then teaching multiplication. These are the changes in the children’s comprehension of mathematics between single-digit addition and simple multiplication.

The first study dealt with teaching multiplication to third-graders, fifth-graders, and adults. The subjects performed simple addition or multiplication in mixed- and blocked-operations formats. There were substantial interfering effects from related knowledge found at all age levels, believe it or not. However, these problems were much more apparent in the younger children tested.

From this we can conclude that in the early stages of teaching multiplication, one consequence of learning something new is trying to separate the newer skill from an earlier, related skill, less recently studied. In teaching multiplication we considered error tendencies that supported the problem we addressed—the problem of integrating operations. This is definitely a prominent issue even in the early stages.

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What are the Price Considerations of Online Degrees

With over 600,000 students enrolled in online colleges, online degrees are gaining more and more recognition. And why shouldn’t they? In most instances, those that are earning online degrees are extremely motivated working adults. These working adults are seen as having that extra oomph as they have to efficiently manage their time to keep up with the demands of both work and school and in some cases, a family. When Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electrics, was asked about people who earned online degrees (Business Week, January 14, 2008), he stated, “…they’re hungry to break open new possibilities in their careers…. People working all day and studying online all night have the kind of ‘grr’ most companies could use.” Do you have the “grr?” If so, make sure to ask these questions to make sure the online college is right for you.

Is the online college accredited and if so, by which accrediting agency?
Diploma mills, as defined by Wikipedia, are organizations that award degrees with little to no study and are not recognized by accrediting agencies. Employers or colleagues do not respect degrees from diploma mills so make sure the online colleges you look into are accredited. The ed.gov site is a great resource for a list of accrediting agencies.

If you have college units, can you transfer your units over?
Most accredited online colleges will allow you to transfer any credit you have earned at another college towards an online degree depending on the degree requirements. To make sure, if there is a specific online college you are interested, call a counselor to see if the credits you have earned can be transferred. This can shorten the amount of time it will take you to complete your online degree.

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Your College Application Essay – Managing the Feedback

Once you’ve completed your college application essay, it’s always a good idea to get feedback from other people. But who those people are, and how you manage their feedback, can often be the difference between a good essay and a great one. Here are six ways to manage that feedback, and use it to your greatest advantage.

1. Be sure you are reasonably happy with the essay before you show it to anyone. This doesn’t mean that you think it’s perfect and won’t be open to making changes. Instead, it assures that you will be able to analyze feedback from a position of strength, not insecurity, thus maximizing its benefits.

2. Be very careful about whose opinions you seek, Many people consider themselves accomplished writers or editors and, although their intentions may be good, they simply aren’t. Even worse, they don’t fully understand what makes a successful college application essay. This won’t stop them from offering an opinion if asked so please, choose wisely. Remember, not all opinions are equal.

If possible, ask for feedback from people familiar with the application process, teachers or tutors, professional writers, college students who are attending good schools, or someone whose perspective you highly respect. These readers will offer more perceptive, valuable, and ultimately more achievable input about your essay.

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The Transition From High School to College

The transition from high school to college reflects a major lifestyle change as well as a symbolic passage into the responsibilities of adulthood. No longer is your educational direction dictated by others or mandated by law. No longer will your teacher kindly remind you that you neglected to turn in homework assignment #4. The transition to college from high school brings with it numerous opportunities disguised as challenges, and persevering when faced with these challenges will open the door to the abundance of opportunities afforded by a college education.

You have probably followed essentially the same routine from kindergarten through graduating high school – arriving early in the morning, attending class throughout the day and being dismissed in the afternoon. College classes, on the contrary, are often two to three days per week, for varying lengths of time, beginning at practically any time of the day. With the guidance of an advisor, you will be responsible for dictating which classes you take and when, and managing your schedule throughout your college career. While at first glance your college schedule may appear less grueling than in high school, be aware that college demands much more time out of class which you must manage effectively and consistently in order to succeed.

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