Extracurricular Planning in the Time of COVID-19

You’ll still be juggling your extracurriculars… but maybe in a new way.

In a recent discussion, when asked about the role of extracurriculars in evaluating pandemic applicants, a college admission dean quipped, “Doing nothing isn’t an option.”

We couldn’t agree more!

For some students, doing something means helping keep their household running: watching younger siblings or aging grandparents while their parents are at work, making meals, or working to help supplement family income. But many students are fortunate to have had minimal disruptions to their way of life. Now, I’m not minimizing the loss of time with friends, cancellations of athletics and clubs, and increased anxiety about the future. Those are certainly real!

But we’ve found that the students that are thriving in this time have adopted the outlook that in loss there is opportunity. They are taking control of an uncontrollable situation through action. Doing what, you ask? Here are a few ideas:

• Adopt a grandparent. Our seniors are suffering from the same isolation that you are!

• Volunteer at your local food pantry. The pandemic has only exacerbated food insecurity for many.

• Get out the vote. Or make phone calls for your favorite politician.

• Help out at a local community garden or adopt a nature trail for upkeep.

• Get involved in crowdsourcing. Lots of researchers rely on community volunteers.

• Tutor a neighborhood kid who is struggling.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Still stumped as to what to do, give us a call! We’re here to help!

College Essays... No Peeking!

Every year toward the end of the summer, the New York Times publishes sample college essays.  I assume that they are looking to inspire rising seniors to begin writing their college essays if they haven’t already started; maybe reading others’ work provides a nudge to get going.  Other colleges, like Tufts University, Johns Hopkins, and Connecticut College, post essays on their websites from prior application cycles that they have found especially compelling.  Honestly, if you were to google “sample college essays,” you would probably find an endless supply of personal stories at your fingertips.  Why not take a look for inspiration?  

 What we have discovered is the very act of reading other essays for inspiration often inhibits a student’s creativity.  They consciously or subconsciously replicate what they have seen.  It isn’t that they are necessarily copying an idea or plagiarizing text, but they tend to fit their idea into a structure, format, or theme that they have already read.  After all, we are often patternmakers.  Once we see something, we cannot unsee it.  In the admissions process, the last thing you want to be is a carbon copy of anyone else.  So, I encourage you to trust your own creativity and turn a blind eye to the “essay that worked.”  

NCAA Makes Significant Update to Eligibility

The NCAA recently made a major decision to no longer require a standardized test to become NCAA eligible for the 2021-22 academic year. Per NCAA.org, here are some other updates to eligibility:

“Student-athletes enrolling in a Division I school during the 2021-22 academic year will be academically eligible by earning a 2.3 grade-point average in 16 NCAA-approved core courses, with 10 core courses (seven in English, math and science) completed by the start of their seventh semester in high school (prior to senior year).

Student-athletes enrolling in a Division II school during the 2021-22 academic year will be academically eligible by earning a 2.2 grade-point average in 16 NCAA-approved core courses.”

The decision came after students and parents cited significant challenges in securing test dates and managing test cancellations due to COVID-19. Be sure to keep up with our emails and our blog for the most up-to-date information on testing.

"I Never Check My Email": A Cautionary Tale

“I never check my email!” is a refrain we hear all too often from students.  They generally use social media and texting to communicate with family and friends.  However, it’s essential to know that colleges will use email to communicate with prospective applicants and accepted students!  They will use email to track and gauge a prospective student’s interest in their institution.  Has the student opened the emails sent by the college? When and how often? They will use email to communicate if anything is missing to complete a student’s application.  They will notify students of valuable information about events, registration, housing, financial aid, and a multitude of other things via email.  They may even inform their applicants of acceptance, deferral, or denial by email.

So, here’s some advice:  high school students should set up an email by junior year to use for all college-related communication.  Don’t use a school email as there are often security firewalls that may prevent messages from getting through.  Additionally, students won’t have access to their school emails after they graduate.  If possible, choose an email that incorporates the student’s name, and that is appropriate for the young adult world of colleges, internships, and job searches, one to use for many years to come.  Ditch the one that refers to a personal trait or cute nickname.

And then start getting in the habit of checking that email often!

Helpful Steps to Improve Your Test (and Other) Performances

The College Matters team recently attended the virtual conference for the Independent Educational Consultants Association. The conference had dozens of interesting topics, and one that particularly stuck out to us was a lecture from performance coach Dr. Ben Bernstein on how students can curb their anxiety to perform their best. We often listen to students say they are particularly anxious for important exams, games, or performances. While Bernstein says some anxiousness can be beneficial for people to perform their best, being overanxious can have a significant impact on performance even when a person is totally capable of doing well.

According to Bernstein, you should think of your performance as a three-legged stool. He calls these legs the Pillars for Performance. When one leg is unstable, the whole stool becomes unstable. When all three legs are working, the stool (your performance) becomes very sturdy. The first pillar is being Calm. Have you ever noticed when you’re stressed that you get shortness of breath or even forget to keep breathing? This is your body going into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Bernstein says consistent and deliberate breathing during a performance is one of the easiest ways students can stay calm. Students should also stay grounded. Have your feet connected to the floor and let gravity push you down. We tend to tense up our bodies and our shoulders when we’re stressed instead of relaxing and staying grounded. The third way to stay calm is to do what Bernstein calls sensing. Let your eyes rest for a few seconds. Engage your other senses. You should always be using at least two of your senses so that you can tune out of your head and tune into where you are.

His second pillar is Confidence. To be confident, you first need to confide in yourself. Be honest with yourself—what is it that you’re truly feeling negative about in relation to this performance? Once your problem is out in the open, it’s time to squash your doubt. Reflect and state a true positive success that you’ve had in this area. For example, if you’re taking the SAT and feeling anxious about a particular math section, reflect on a time where you worked on these exact same problems and were successful. If you did it then, you can do it now. Now that you know you can do it, envision in your mind the small steps you’ll need to take to go from a negative state to a positive state. Envision yourself being successful and that will breed confidence.

Bernstein’s third pillar is Focus. To focus, you should have a goal or target. This goal should be yours and no one else’s. Why are you doing what you’re doing right now? What are potential distractions on the way to this goal? Envision yourself trying to reach your goal with those distractions. Ask yourself, will those distractions help you reach your goal? The answer is always no. Then stop the distractions right then and there and start listening to the voice inside you that will tell you exactly what you need to do to get on track. See yourself listening to those directions. Push yourself to take those directions that you know are good for you.

So there you have it. The three Pillars for Performance are Calm, Confidence, and Focus. If you’ve done the proper practice and preparation leading up to your performance, you can perform up to your potential. This means not only doing the practice problems/exercises/run-throughs but also practicing these three pillars again and again so it becomes natural in crunch time. These strategies can certainly help in many areas outside of testing and games to help us feel better. Remember it’s good to be a little anxious. It means you care about what you’re doing. When it gets to be too much, make sure you’re aware of that and use Bernstein’s tools to get on the right track.

IECA Statement on Standardized Testing: Enough is Enough

Our College Matters counselors are proud members of IECA. This past week, IECA’s Board of Directors (of which Betsy Morgan is a Vice President) made a statement on standardized testing:

CALLING ON COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO PERMANENTLY ADOPT TEST OPTIONAL ADMISSIONS POLICIES

We support congratulate IECA for taking a strong stand in support of all students and families.

Here is a snippet:

“Enough is enough.

IECA is calling on colleges and universities to embrace this opportunity to become more equitable and reduce barriers by becoming test-optional on a permanent basis for admissions consideration and in the awarding of merit aid, thereby increasing fair and equal access to higher education for all students. IECA is further calling on colleges and universities to allow self-reporting of test scores in order to reduce the financial burden on students.  

The time is now to remove barriers, not just for the high school Class of 2021, but for all future college applicants.”

Federal Student Loan Rates Decrease

Good news for borrowers! Federal student loan rates have dropped for the upcoming year.

For student loans dispersed between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the interest rate on Federal Direct Loans (subsidized and unsubsidized) for undergraduates dropped to 2.75% down from 4.53% for the prior year. The interest rate on federal direct loans for graduate school students dropped to 4.3% down from 6.08% the year prior and the interest rate on the Parent PLUS loan fell to 5.3% down from 7.08%.

Seek the Right School, Not the "Good" School

There is such a wide range of colleges in America. There are schools with 1,000 people and those with 30,000 people. There are schools in rural, urban, and suburban places. There are traditions and campus cultures for just about every type of person. However, as a society, we fail to recognize that our students are just as unique as the colleges from which they can choose. We automatically pin the valedictorian as “Ivy-bound” without thinking about whether they really want to attend an Ivy League school to begin with.

The reward isn’t being able to go to what society deems as a good college. The reward is having more options to attend the right school for you. Every college-bound student has a list of schools where they think they would fit in really well. When high school students work hard to develop socially, practice their skills, master subjects, and figure out their interests, they put themselves in a much better position to be selected by their school of choice. They won’t have to stress as much about going after those schools. Those schools will go after them.

Students Still Want the Real College Experience

There is so much uncertainty in the time of COVID-19 and news outlets are proclaiming the end of college as we know it. But the reality is that most families are still committed to the traditional college experience for their students. They understand the benefits of on-campus learning: the connections you make, the confidence you gain, the learning that takes place outside of the classroom.

So don’t panic! Things will return to normalcy. There may very well be some corrections (less money spent on lazy rivers and climbing walls would be OK with me), but corrections can be a good thing.

Online college is OK. But real college still matters!

Is Getting a Job Really the End Goal?

The message often received in high school is that you have to work hard to get a job. The problem is, I’ve seen plenty of people get jobs, but then what? Is that it? Of course not. I know people in the working world who can’t manage multiple tasks. I know teachers who struggle to communicate with their students. I know people who are in leadership positions and fail to lead. All these people have high school diplomas and college degrees. So what’s the problem?

Many high school students see the diploma and the job as the final destination. The truth is the diploma and job are just the beginning of a lifetime of learning. Most people end up getting that first job, but many don’t do the job well or don’t enjoy the work. They feel confused about which city to live in, how to make friends in that city, and whether living in that city really makes financial sense. Climbing up the academic ladder is a series of planned out steps. You take the SAT and climb up a rung. You get into college and climb up another. You graduate from high school. Your professors give you assignments and exams. With each one you complete, you make your way to the top of that ladder until graduation day. Now you’re at the top of the tree when all of a sudden, the ladder gets removed from under you, and you have to figure out a way to get down. There are no more rungs laid out for you. There’s no next graduation or homework assignment. There’s no moving on to the next grade. Professors and advisors aren’t telling you what to do anymore.

That’s where those skills from school—critical thinking, organization, communication, grit, self-reflection—come in. They help people to keep learning and to figure out what the next best steps for them are. People have to get truthful with themselves and think about what actually gets them excited and motivated. They have to create the path for themselves for the first time instead of letting others create it for them. They do this process again and again for years and decades. To say the end goal is the first job is foolish because it’s actually when the real learning begins.