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12/11/2009

Former NACAC President Honored for Service to Student Counseling

A former president of NACAC and a much lauded member of the college admission counseling community received additional accolades from local politicians in his home county in Maryland.

Joseph Monte, a counselor at Albert Einstein High School (MD), has been counseling students for over 40 years. He recently received a proclamation in honor of his services from the Montgomery County Council President, who happens to be one of his former students.

Monte received the Margaret E. Addis Service to NACAC award in 2007 for his record of leadership in the association and his commitment to ethical practices. He served as NACAC president in 1975 and also served as president of the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling.

The Admitted blog recently highlighted another longtime counselor. Use the comment box to recognize any other colleagues that deserve to be honored for their service to college counseling and admission.

Posted at 10:41 AM by Sean Nyhan | Category: College Admissions in the News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/4/2009

College of Charleston Offers a Tour Via iPhone

With help from a local interactive development company, a tour of the College of Charleston has become an application for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The free application is the first of its kind and is available at the Apple iTunes app store.

The interactive tour marks the latest attempt by admission offices to take advantage of current technological trends. Colleges are updating their Websites to include videos, blogs and podcasts and students can connect with campuses through a variety of social networking sites.

The new application from the College of Charleston takes advantage of GPS technology to feature 18 videos of the campus and nearly 60 images.

Use the comment box to share your opinion of the iPhone application or any other ways colleges are using technology in the admission process.

Posted at 12:42 PM by Sean Nyhan | Category: Technology | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

12/3/2009

What Types of Educational Sessions Do You Want to See in St. Louis?

The NACAC National Conference is considered to be the college admission counseling profession’s leading professional development event. Now is the time to submit your educational session idea through the Call for Proposals and help shape the educational content that will influence more than 5,000 admission professionals next fall.

Didn't see a session offered in Baltimore on a topic of interest to you? Want to share tips or tricks that will help your colleagues? Got interesting findings, stories or viewpoints on an issue affecting professionals’ everyday lives with students and families? Help NACAC’s Professional Development Committee broaden our offerings by submitting a topic idea.

Visit the National Conference Call for Proposals Web site for more information. Submit your session ideas through Friday, December 11, or forward this along to someone you’d like to see present.

Need more information? Contact pd@nacacnet.org.

Posted at 10:33 AM by Kristen Bourke | Category: NACAC News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/18/2009

Stressed About the Test? Relax!

The students at Williamsburg High School in Brooklyn, NY recently developed a new way to cope with standardized test taking. In a YouTube rap video called "Relax," students at the high school have combined humor with test strategies, following helpful tips with stress-relieving punch lines and pop culture references.

"I pack a watch, some water, calculator, a snack/I can’t use my phone to keep time, yo that's wack!" one student raps over a hip-hop beat that clashes with the usual notions of SAT/ACT test-taking.

"The video was supposed to alleviate anxiety, create some fun, and also provide important reminders before the SAT," said Arthur Samuels, Director of College Guidance and Culture at Williamsburg High School. Comments on the YouTube page praise the video for its use of humor and clever inclusion of real test prep tips. "These kids are lucky to have teachers like you," one commenter writes.

According to Samuels, the guidance office collaborated with several teachers to write the lyrics, record the song, and film the video. They premiered the video the night before the November SAT date during a special assemblyl for the Senior Class. Samuels said the video was part of an effort to dispel fears over standardized test taking. At the assembly, Williamsburg High School staff handed out gift bags sponsored by the school's parent council that contained a number 2 pencil, a snack, a bottle of water, and a good luck note. Students also recieved a tip sheet with reminders for the night before and the day of the test.

Samuels said his student body, which includes many first-generation and low-income students, has felt the pressure of standardized tests. "I think test anxiety and intimidation does have an effect," he said. "If this is only the first or second time you're seeing the SAT, it can be daunting and overwhelming. A lot of our kids also see the SAT as a sort of make-or-break event, when for many colleges it's only part of the puzzle."

For more information on standardized testing, visit NACAC's Standardized Testing in Admission Web page or read the State of College Admission for information on the relevance of the SAT/ACT in the admission process.

Posted at 9:47 AM by Sean Nyhan | Category: Standardized Testing | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/16/2009

Testing Commission Member Speaks to NBC New York

Randy Deike, a member of the NACAC Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission, is currently featured on the NBC New York Website. In the interview, Deike, the Vice President of Enrollment at New York University, provides information on the college admission process in uncertain economic times.

Watch the entire interview online, and hear Deike's insights on how the economy is affecting admissions, the projected decline of high school graduates during the next decade, and findings from the standardized testing commission.

Deike also speaks about test prep and private college counseling centers. "There’s really no way to know whether someone has taken advantage of test prep or not,” he said. “I’m really less concerned about that than looking at all of the credentials that a student presents, looking at the application in its entirety.”

For more information on standardized testing, view the testing commission's entire report online.

Posted at 12:38 PM by Sean Nyhan | Category: College Admissions in the News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/12/2009

NACAC Member in the News: A Lesson in Dedication

There is a great article in Today’s Washington Post about NACAC Member Lillian Orlich. She is a school counselor at Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, VA. After nearly 60 years of service, the 81-year-old counselor has no intention of retiring anytime soon!

Since her career began in 1950, she has seen half a dozen principals have come and go, and scores of her former students who now devote their days to golf or grandchildren. Yet she is still counseling teenagers and sharpening her professional skills.

"I'm not going to retire," Orlich told the Washington Post, with cropped silver hair and wearing a bright-purple quilted jacket. "I love coming to school. It keeps you young."

Orlich is the longest-serving employee in Prince William County (VA) schools and, quite possibly, the Washington, DC region.

Read the full article now.

Posted at 3:24 PM by Kristen Bourke | Category: College Admissions in the News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/5/2009

Online Calculator Will Estimate Price of College

Within the next two years, institutions participating in the Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs will be required to install a net price calculator on their Websites. The National Center for Education Statistics and the Office of Postsecondary Education introduced the new tool this week, which will allow prospective students to calculate an estimated net price of enrollment at an institution. The calculator was a mandate of the Higher Education Act of 2008.

The new template for the calculator is available online, and colleges and universities looking to add the Web application to their site can perform the installation through the Department of Education Website. The calculator is required to appear on college Websites before the Oct. 29, 2011 deadline. Colleges have the option of using the department's template or developing a custom calculator, provided that it contains the same components as the federal template.

According to a news release from the Institute of Education Sciences, specifications for the calculator were developed from discussions of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System's Technical Review Panel last January. The panel consisted of representatives from postsecondary institutions and educational associations, which included NACAC.

The calculations will be based on the basic formula of price of attendance minus grant aid. The calculator will generate an estimate based on the student's unique information and what similar students paid in the previous year. The estimate generated from the calculator, the release notes, will not represent a final determination of the institution's cost.

Posted at 12:38 PM by Sean Nyhan | Category: Cost of College | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/3/2009

Stuck in the Middle with Youth

Shearwaters absolutely fascinate me. Have you seen these birds in action underwater? Take a look. Go on, I’ll wait…

Marvelous. Imagine how terrified young shearwaters must be the first time they find themselves diving into the water, a world so far from what they recognize as solid ground. Nevertheless, the need to thrive prevails. Of course, as they develop, shearwaters get help along the way. Before learning to fly underwater for fish they have to learn to fly in the more conventional sense, and this sometimes takes a push from a parent (even very early on), or the fear of being left behind. While learning to fly, shearwaters are babies; but once they dive into that water, they begin leaving adolescence behind.

Sometimes their fishing pools are shark-infested. And while the ground offers a springboard for even the most embarrassing of crash-landings, they are on their own underwater and must launch themselves back up. The demand placed upon them to thrive compels the divers to be as independent as they’ve ever been.

When we first partner with our students to help them navigate the complexities of the college search process, they do seem quite young in our eyes. So how often do you find yourself referring to your 16, 17 and 18 year old students as “kids?” The prevailing concept of “kidhood” is a complex formula which separates those with experience from those with less. I’m not saying that harm is necessarily done when we refer to our students as “kids” as a term of endearment out of ear-shot, but I am intrigued with this mindset and wonder about the effect it has on us and our students.

The work I did with adolescent health education in graduate school led me to discover a movement that encourages practitioners to view older adolescents less like children and more like adults in terms of decision-making. In transitioning into the world of college admission counseling, I was struck by how many of us refer to our students as “kids”—while in tension with this is our desire to compel them to maturely make significant life-choices. It confuses us and our students.

If we are indeed preparing our budding shearwaters to dive in and be as independent as they’ve ever been, then perhaps we ought to consider the influence our word choices have on the way we consciously and subconsciously view our students and what role we assign them in the admissions process.

Our students are still developing and that’s exactly my point. Maturation doesn’t happen spontaneously; it’s a process, of course. It’s worth reminding ourselves that our job is to help them along with this by, I think, more consistently viewing them with a forward-looking gaze, not a backward one. To refer to a student as a “young adult” is to welcome them into the role and challenge them to live up to it.

Posted at 2:50 PM by Angela Kornman | Category: Principles and Practice | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/2/2009

Civil Rights Commission to Investigate Role of Gender in Admission Process

An inquiry started by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will attempt to gauge the prevalence of female discrimination in the admissions process, Inside Higher Education reports. According to the article, some liberal arts colleges have been suspected of practicing questionable enrollment strategies to prevent gender imbalances.

Scott Jaschik, the author of the article, noted that the commission does not have the authority to order policy changes, but it can create an awareness of certain trends.

"Nothing in the proposal suggests any interest in challenging the legal right of private colleges to consider gender in admissions, although the proposal expressed interest in documenting whether this discrimination is in fact widespread," Jaschik writes.

The article also quotes the commission's proposal:

"Specifically, the accusation is that women applicants are being discriminated against in order to prevent the schools from becoming 'too female.' Indeed, some commentators have called this an 'open secret' and suggested the same may be occurring at state schools too (where it would be illegal)."

Read the entire article online, and use the comment box below to share your insights on the commission's proposal.

Posted at 10:46 AM by Sean Nyhan | Category: College Admissions in the News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

10/29/2009

NACAC Is Taking Action - You Can, Too!

The Pathways to College Act Affiliate Challenge is in full swing!

NACAC members are urging their members of Congress to join three Senators and nine Representatives who have indicated their support for the Pathways to College Act. The legislation help hire, train, and equip college counseling professionals to improve college access for America’s neediest students.

NACAC has endorsed this bill, which it helped draft. Now is the time to invite members of Congress to show their support by signing on to cosponsor the bill.

The NACAC Government Relations Committee established the goal of sending 15,000 messages to federal legislators urging cosponsorship. So far, NACAC members have sent 4,587 messages.

The affiliates whose advocacy efforts result in the most messages sent in relation to their NACAC membership will be publicly recognized. Check out your affiliate’s goal and progress at NACAC’s Affiliate Challenge page.

As of this morning, the first affiliate to achieve its action alert message goal is Michigan! Way to go, Michigan ACAC!

You can share your support for this important legislation and compete for your affiliate by taking one minute to send messages to your members of Congress urging them to cosponsor the Pathways to College Act. If you have not done so already, visit the NACAC's Legislative Action Center. Encourage your colleagues, friends, and family to participate in the action alert, as well.

Which affiliate will be next to reach its goal?

Posted at 12:37 PM by Amanda Modar | Category: Advocacy | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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