You have appeared for the SAT/ACT standardized testing, made the grades and now it’s the time of vibrancy – deciding which school to go to. With so many colleges and courses to choose from, it may seem forever before you can find the perfect college for you. Here is some sound advice for students and parents on how to narrow down your college choices –
1) Evaluate Your Interests: The first step in deciding on any program or college is to assess yourself and your interests. This will help you examine your goals and offer ideas on the fields of study or career you may like to pursue. There is a plethora of assorted information on latest career fields in demand, the training required for the job you want etc. Make sure to devote some time looking into it as this helps comprise a clear picture on what you would like to focus on in your college.
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Taking the SAT test is still considered an American teenage rite of passage. But despite its widespread acceptance for the past 63 years, its dominance as the must-take test for college-bound students has been slowly slipping. Not only do all four-year colleges that require a standardized test—including Harvard and Yale—let applicants choose between submitting SAT and ACT scores (the last school made the change in 2007), but a growing number of competitive institutions including Smith College, Wake Forest, American University, Bowdoin College, Bates College, and, most recently, Virginia Wesleyan, have decided to forgo standardized tests altogether.
Today, about 830 of the country’s 2,430 accredited four-year colleges do not use the SAT or ACT to admit the majority of applicants. (Some schools require a test if you have a low GPA or class rank.) “Colleges are trying to increase the number of applicants and diversify their population,” says Kristen Campbell, executive director of college-prep programs for Kaplan Test Prep.
Read More on the Newsweek.com
The idea of libraries with no bound books has been a recurring theme in conversations about the future of academe for a long time. In the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Applied Engineering and Technology Library, it is not that its on-site collection is also available electronically but it is that its on-site collection is only available electronically.
It now has the first actual bookless library. Students who stretch out in the library’s ample study spaces — which dominate the floor plan of the new building — and log on to its resource network using their laptops or the library’s 10 public computers will be able to access 425,000 e-books and 18,000 electronic journal articles. Librarians will have offices there and will be available for consultation.
Some other libraries, such as the main one at the University of California at Merced, and the engineering library at Stanford University, have drastically reduced the number of print volumes they keep in the actual library building, choosing to focus on beefing up their electronic resources. Read more on the LA Times
Its official and its out, US News & World Report have published its 27th edition of 2011 Top College Rankings. Stealing the limelight this year again is the much coveted #1 Harvard University. According to the U.S. News website, the rankings is determined by a host of factors where in data is collected from each college and is evaluated on a composite score adjudged from 16 areas of academic excellence. Schools groups are classified into categories based on its mission such as a Research University, National Universities or National Liberal Arts College for which individual rankings are then allotted.
This year Harvard University regained its foothold at the top spot Best College 2011 Rankings of National Universities. Princeton, who had a tied last year for first, fell to second in 2011 following with Yale and Columbia. Other than that, none of the top ten schools changed in rank by more than three spots. The list, as usual is dominated by Ivy League and other elite institutions. A look at the top Universities – Read more…
If you’re anything like I was before I took the SAT in high school,you’re a little anxious. It’s probably the most important test you’ve ever taken; you know how important numbers are, and while you’ve had years to work on your GPA, the SAT only takes a few hours. So you may be wondering: at what schools will your SAT scores matter the most?
Unfortunately, you’ll be hard pressed to find a school admitting that SAT scores are more important there than at other schools. Rather, they prefer to talk about how many other things they consider: leadership experience, special talents, foreign language skills, community involvement, diversity, etc. College admissions is getting less and less transparent, and emphasizing SAT scores is quite unfashionable for admissions committees nowadays. Some large public schools, such as the excellent University of California system, do make admissions calculators available that will determine your eligibility for admission based on the numbers. But eligibility is far from a guarantee of acceptance. Read more…
