Category: International Students

5 Things Millennials Need To Understand About Money In 2017

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 Posted by: Broke Millennial®

This piece originally ran on Forbes 

We all know to pay yourself first, have an emergency fund, you can snowball or avalanche your way out of debt. There are plenty of personal finance clichés and idioms, and for good reason. For the most part, though worn out, they’re true. This list, however, is not generalities. It’s five things you – as a millennial – need to understand about money in 2017.

1. Other people will be happy to spend your money

There’s no Hallmark card to convey “Happy You’re Getting Married, But This Destination Bachelor Party and Wedding In Another State Is Too Rich For My Budget,” because it feels like bad manners to turn down such invites. So the mid-twenties to early-thirties seems like an endless cycle of birthday parties, bachelor parties, bridal showers, weddings, baby showers and not to mention Kickstarter requests, brunch dates and happy hours, which drain both your bank account and, often, vacation time.

Here’s the secret: other people are happy to spend your money for you.

It may be your best friend’s/cousin’s/college roommate’s special day that only comes along once in a life time (or so they hope), but it’s a day that will be on repeat for you. Participating in a wedding, while an an honor, can cause a slow creep towards danger zone for your bank account. This leads to either a wildly awkward conversation or ignoring the problem and just financing the expenses on a credit card.

Don’t do the latter.

2. Just using one investing or savings app isn’t sufficient

Using apps to automate your financial life, increase your savings and start investing became all the rage in the last few years. There’s nothing wrong with using apps to give your money a little boost – but you shouldn’t solely rely on them to get the job done.

Digit is one such app that works well to help save money you probably weren’t going to tuck away in the first place – but it shouldn’t be your only means of saving. Digit, which is free to use, typically pulls money from checking to Digit savings in increments of $5 to $50. Speaking from my own experience, Digit saves me an average of $110 per month. It’s not an insignificant sum, but the annual total is around $1,320. That’s a nice supplemental amount to fund a travel savings account or emergency fund buffer – but saving a percentage of a paycheck before it even hits checking (automating) should still take priority.

Update 4/11/17: Digit is no longer free to use. It now charges $2.99 per month — so just up your automated savings yourself and avoid getting charged to save your own money.  

Acorns is an app with the tagline “automatically invest life’s spare change. Anyone can grow wealth.” The app gets connected to your credit or debit card and rounds up each of your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the change into a diversified portfolio of ETFs ranging in risk based on your tolerance. Unlike Digit, there is a fee to use Acorns just like nearly any investing platform. It starts at $1 a month and increases to 0.25% per year once your portfolio hits $5,000 or more.  While it’s a strong way for a millennial to start investing if they wouldn’t otherwise be proactive, just contributing your spare change isn’t enough. You could use Acorns to set up reoccurring investments, but moving beyond the spare change program alone needs to be your goal in 2017 in order to make a real impact.

3. Yes, those small purchases are actually adding up – but not why you think

You’ve certainly heard about the latte factor by now. As a lover of lattes myself, it’s an obnoxious attack on the frothy milk and espresso beverage – but it’s not entirely wrong. However, it’s not the latte itself that invokes the wrath of personal finance gurus. It’s the act of routine, mindless spending. The easiest way to nix mindless spending is that dirty b word: budget. You can still have some of your small (or occasionally large) indulgences when factored into your budget, but big or small spending without constraint keeps you in that dreaded paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.

At the bare minimum you should know your cash flow – how much is coming in and how much is going out.

4. Physical buildings aren’t necessary for keeping your money safe

It’s nearly 2017 and we’re supposed to be digital natives and yet scores of millennials still feel anxious about using an Internet-only bank. Using a traditional brick-and-mortar bank is not going to keep your money any safer than an Internet-only bank like Ally, Charles Schwab, USAA or Capital One 360. Not to mention Internet-only banks tend to offer more competitive interest rates on savings accounts and provide lower fees on checking accounts. Wondering “how do I get my money out”? Some online banks belong to a network of ATMs like AllPoint or Star while others reimburse ATM fees you’re charged at any bank. Just be sure your bank is FDIC insured and you’ll be getting the same level of protection as a brick-and-mortar establishment. Plus, doesn’t it make logical sense that a progressive online bank would be more on top of its security game than some of the old school brick-and-mortar types that still have crappy websites? Just a thought.

5. Saving is important, but negotiating is critical

Personal finance articles often extoll the virtues of saving (this one already did) but this isn’t the only important money skill on the road to wealth. Your ability to negotiate has a significant impact on your lifetime earning potential. Some even claim you could be losing out on a million dollars or more over the course of your career by not learning how to negotiate early.

You don’t have to start with the biggie of walking into your annual review and asking for more money. Instead, try calling up your Internet or cable provider and negotiating to get a lower price point on your package or a perk if you stay at the same rate. Small experiences help get you prepped for not only potential rejection with little on the line, but how to counter in a negotiation.

When you prep to go into your boss’s office or get on the phone with a client, it’s important to have proof of why you deserve a raise and a specific request in mind. Don’t just accept a 3% raise to adjust for inflation. Show your boss how you’ve improved, what you’ve brought to the company, compliments you’ve received from co-workers and clients, metrics that back up your tangible contributions to the company. Also come in armed with the knowledge of how much someone in your position, living in your city, makes at your job. Then make the specific ask of how much of a raise you’d like. The worst your boss can say is no. It might ding your pride a bit, but it’s better than staying mute.

Image from Unsplash

Reference: http://brokemillennial.com/2017/02/16/5-things-millennials-need-understand-money-2017/

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Best STEM Discoveries of 2016

solar panel

At Envision we love STEM because of its potential for improving lives and solving some of our world’s biggest problems. Considering all the impressive advances made by scientists and technologists this year, it was difficult to identify just one top discovery for each STEM field. We won’t insist that our picks are the best, but they are undeniably cool.

Science

For centuries man has wondered if we’re alone in the universe. Or, if we ventured beyond our solar system, could we find a new home? This year scientists discovered a habitable planet, Proxima b, orbiting Proxima Centauri, just over 4 light-years away. This relatively “close” neighbor appears to have a surface temperature that would accommodate liquid water, and thus could potentially sustain life.

Meanwhile, physicists confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, defined by Gizmodo as, “vibrations in the fabric of the universe – light-speed ripples in spacetime.” National Geographic celebrates this discovery because, “gravitational waves can act as a new way of seeing otherwise invisible objects in the universe, such as … black holes.”

Technology

Although the cyborg stingray, an engineered marvel of metal, silicone and living tissue, swam its way into our hearts this year, our favorite technological advance is probably the high-efficiency solar panels produced by a new factory in Buffalo, NY. The factory, capable of producing a gigawatt of solar capacity per year, is expected to change the economics of residential solar power, making this alternative energy more accessible to all.

Engineering

For engineering’s top innovation, we’re intrigued by the groundbreaking scientists in Iceland who captured environmentally-harmful carbon dioxide emissions and turned them to stone, instead of releasing them into the atmosphere. What if we could use our CO2 as a building material, and help counter the greenhouse effect? We’re keeping an eye on this fascinating development.

Honorable mentions in engineering innovation go to the Tesla car that can drive itself, Shanghai’s extra-green skyscraper architectural technology, and, because we always yearn to go where no man has gone before, NASA’s Juno rocket, which has successfully achieved orbit around Jupiter.

Math and Medicine

You may not think “Math!” when it comes to milestone discoveries, but remember: Man couldn’t build a self-driving car, an eco-friendly skyscraper or a record-setting rocket without some serious math skills.

Did you know that prime numbers are essential to modern cryptography? Our pick for the coolest math discovery of 2016 is the new, largest prime number, with a whopping 22,338,618 digits. The software used in this discovery is running on a global network of CPUs peaking at 450 trillion calculations per second.

At Envision, the M in STEM is a multi-tasker, standing for Medicine as well as Math. We couldn’t write an article on the top innovations of 2016 without mentioning the genetically-engineered immune cells, now used to save the lives of cancer patients, as well as to keep food from spoiling. This year’s other amazing medical achievements include virtual reality software for med students and surgeons, interoperability between health providers, and advances in anti-aging drugs, prosthetics and artificial retinas.

To read more about the amazing discoveries of 2016, check out these great sources:

10 Amazing Scientific Discoveries from ListVerse

MIT’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies

NatGeo’s Discoveries Worth Celebrating

11 Greatest Engineering Innovations from Popsci

Top 10 Medical Technologies from Medical Futurist

Reference: https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/best-stem-discoveries-of-2016

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Is Thanksgiving an American Thing?

Thanksgiving Day

Pilgrims, Native Americans, turkeys… these symbols of Thanksgiving are deeply ingrained in American culture. But did you know Thanksgiving is also celebrated in other countries? Many of these traditions originated long before the Pilgrims landed in Plimoth. Giving thanks for a fruitful harvest is the main purpose of most of these celebrations, but a few have interesting twists of their own.

China
The Chinese celebrate in the August timeframe – on the 15th day of their calendar’s 8th lunar month. Here the tradition dates back more than 2,500 years, and focuses on the moon, which the ancient Chinese realized was connected to seasonal change and agricultural production. Mooncakes, containing a symbolic moon-like egg yolk, are the traditional food. Women are also honored, for their connection to fertility and nurturing.

Korea
In Korea, Chu-Sok or Chuseok (“fall evening”) is the country’s biggest holiday. It lasts for 3 days in August or September, and is an opportunity to honor one’s ancestors, as well as give thanks for the earth’s bounty. “Songpyon” is the traditional Chuseok dish, made of rice, beans, sesame seeds and chestnuts.

Japan
Kinrō Kansha no Hi, which means Labor Thanksgiving Day, is celebrated in Japan on November 23. Although this holiday was derived from ancient harvest festivals, the modern version, officially created in 1948, focuses on hard work, productivity and community involvement. The original intent was to celebrate the rights of post-World War II workers. Traditions for students include creating crafts and gifts for local police officers.

Germany
Turkeys can breathe a little easier in Germany, where chickens and geese are the favorite entrée during Erntedankfest, an autumn harvest festival also celebrated in parts of Austria and Switzerland. Erntedankfest is a religious holiday, with church services as well as parades and fairs. Parade participants often wear harvest crowns made of grain, flowers and fruit.

In some countries, Thanksgiving has surprising connections to the U.S.:

Grenada
Is a military invasion something to celebrate? In Grenada the answer is yes, as residents honor the Americans who invaded in October 1983, to restore order after the death of communist leader Maurice Bishop. The American soldiers stationed in Granada were sad to be away from home at Thanksgiving, and they shared their holiday stories with the locals. In gratitude for the Americans’ efforts and sacrifice at this holiday time, the locals planned a wonderful surprise – a feast with turkey and all the fixings. Today, the tradition continues, celebrated every October 25.

Norfolk Island
Norkfolk is a tiny, remote island, near Australia. There Thanksgiving is connected to American whalers, versus soldiers or pilgrims. In the mid-1890s, an American trader named Isaac Robinson suggested that the local residents decorate their church with palm leaves and lemons, in order to attract whalers to a Thanksgiving celebration. The tradition caught on, and every November families decorate the churches with fruit, vegetables, cornstalks and fresh flowers, which are later sold to raise money for the church.

Netherlands
The Dutch Thanksgiving is directly tied to the American tradition, because approximately 40% of the original Mayflower pilgrims came from the Dutch city of Leiden. Every November, when Americans are celebrating, the people of Leiden gather in a 900-year-old church called Pieterskerk, to celebrate the endeavors of those early American colonists.

The countries mentioned here are by no means the only examples of our human desire to reflect with gratitude on the blessings in our lives and the gifts from our planet. We citizens of the Earth are joined by this common gratitude and the planet we share.

Reference: https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/is-thanksgiving-an-american-thing

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How to Finish Your Required Reading (and Enjoy the Last Days of Summer)

Summer reading is probably the last thing on your mind as you approach the last stretch of summer. However, since you can’t avoid it, why not make the most of it? Here’s some quick tips on how to finish your required reading and still have time to bask in the sunshine:

Start now. You are still at a point where you can start your summer reading without feeling overwhelmed by a lack of time. Don’t wait until the last minute where other distractions can come into play – you don’t want to start the year behind in your coursework.

Figure out how many books you have to read. If you only have one or two books to read, then the next few steps should be a breeze. However, if more than one professor gave assignments, then now is the time to put your organizational skills to good use! Figure out which books you need to read and which ones take priority.

Come up with a page count and set a goal for each day. You want to keep your summer reading as manageable as possible. Tally up the pages for each book and divide it by the number of days you have left before school starts, or the number of days you have for your reading goal (if you want the last few days of summer for yourself). Pick an even number of pages to keep things simple and pledge to stick to that page count each day.

Find something to appreciate about the book. You may discover you have nothing in common with the characters in the book, and the plot is less than thrilling. This is an opportunity to see the book from a different perspective. Is there something about the authors writing you find interesting? Perhaps you can research the setting of the book so when you’re reading, you can visualize it. This is your chance to learn something new, even if the book isn’t your favorite!

Take breaks, but keep a schedule. Be sure to pace yourself, and keep a journal or schedule so you can stay on track. This is a great tool for any kind of assignment and you may even get ahead of your schedule, which means more free sunny days for you.

Reward yourself. Sometimes reading can turn into a chore. Try to stretch out your reading goal for the day or stick to your regular page count but offer yourself a little incentive to stay on track. Or, you can even switch your reading assignments for a book you’re really interested in and alternate between the two.

Think ahead. Is there a fictional or real life character that you relate to? Perhaps you relate to a famous doctor, criminal lawyer, or Hollywood producer. Start looking into autobiographies to get inspired and think about stepping into their shoes with Envision’s many interactive, hands-on, summer adventure programs.

Reference: https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/how-to-finish-your-required-reading-and-enjoy-the-last-days-of-summer

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What’s It Take to Be a Video Game Designer?

video game design

How to Become a Video Game Designer

Your enthusiasm for gaming could be Step 1 toward a dream job as a video game designer. Take your passion, add some artistic, math or computer science skills, gain some solid experience, and suddenly you’re living the dream.

What’s It Like to Be a Video Game Designer?

Video game designers usually work on a team, pairing artistic vision with programming excellence. Team members, including specialists in animation, game operations, scripting language and mobile game design (IOS and Android), together create the key elements of a successful game – the concept, characters, setting, story and mechanics. Graphics, text, audio, 3D, game level design, user interface and device compatibility are all integral parts of the whole.


Before a video game design firm will approve funding for new game development, the design team will have to create a storyboard and pitch their game concept to the decision-makers – so hone your presentation skills! Project management skills are also required to put an efficient game design implementation plan in place, including product testing and distribution.

Salaries for Video Game Designers

Talented game developers can definitely earn a good living. The average annual salary for a Video Game Designer in the U.S. varies, depending on who you ask. Payscale.com said average pay is $58,253 per year, while the 2014 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed $69,410 (including averages for multimedia graphic designers and animation specialists). Sokanu.com was even more optimistic, quoting an average annual salary of $85,520, with potential up to almost $127,000.

Skills, schooling, experience and outside-the-box creativity are all factors in the kind of salary you can demand.

Key Skills for Video Game Designers

Being “into” video games is only part of the equation for becoming a game designer. To turn dreams and vision into reality, a prospective game designer needs training and skills.

  • Let’s start with creativity – that’s a given.
  • Good video game designers also know how to tell a story and work as part of a team.
  • Obviously you’ll need computer skills, too: programming languages, software programs, 3D game design, modeling, etc.
  • You must have a knack for video graphics as well as a grasp on hardware essentials.
  • Expertise with applications like Adobe Photoshop will increase your pay grade.
  • You’ll have to be comfortable sitting in front of a computer monitor for large chunks of the day (or night), and be able to work independently, with minimal supervision.

Schooling Required for Video Game Designers

Although a degree is not technically required to become a video game designer, many companies are specifically looking for candidates with a bachelor’s degree in game design, computer science or computer engineering.

The degree is especially important if you’re planning to work for a large game studio. Coursework for a game design program includes classes in 2D and 3D modeling, animation, level and interface design, storyboard rendering, drawing and scripting.

Top 10 Colleges for Game Design

The Princeton Review ranked the top 25 undergraduate and graduate programs offering game design classes.

We’ll list their top 10 here:

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  2. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
  3. DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, WA
  4. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
  5. The Art Institute of Vancouver, Canada
  6. Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
  7. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
  8. Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, OH
  9. Becker College, Worcester, MA
  10. Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Your Next Step in Becoming a Video Game Designer

So, you’ve got the passion and inspiration – how do you make it happen?

  • Your first assignment: Play games!
  • Get familiar with the latest video game design trends and the advanced underlying technology.
  • Look for ways to improve existing games, and jot down design concepts for your own game.
  • Envision your plot, characters and action; then create a storyboard.

Of course, passion and basic game familiarity won’t guarantee you a good job. As you’ve probably heard more than once: it’s hard to get a job without experience. So start gaining that experience!

Sign up for video game design and programming classes or summer camps. We’ve got a good one for you: the Mason Game & Technology Academy (MGTA). This game design camp, held on the campus of George Mason University near Washington D.C., will:

  • Teach you animation, video game graphics, IOS, Android and 3D game design
  • Provide insight into entrepreneurship and the game design industry

You can attend for one week or multiple weeks, to get the level of design experience you want, in the gaming areas that are most interesting to you.

Other tips:

  • Join a video game design club
  • Get some free or inexpensive video game design software
  • Enter video game design competitions
  • Continue to increase your level of design sophistication; soon you’ll have a portfolio of design experience!

As you take these steps, you’ll develop a more concrete vision for a video game design career path and area of focus. Are you a game animation designer? A level designer? A graphics artist? Or a programmer? Talk to your school career counselor, who’ll help you put a step-by-step plan in place.

Other Resources for Video Game Design

Reference: https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/whats-it-take-to-be-a-video-game-designer

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Book Review: They Don’t Teach Corporate in College

Book Review: They Don’t Teach Corporate in College

Author: Alexandra Levit

Length: 240 pages

Intent/Focus: A must-have guide to success in the corporate world, for college students, recent grads and twenty-somethings readying themselves for career success.

What You Will Learn: Tips for traversing the corporate world with professionalism and panache – and coming out on top.

Why We Recommend It: They Don’t Teach Corporate in College aligns with Envision’s mission to provide students with the resources for college and career success. This book helps high school students better understand the corporate environment as they prepare to make their career aspirations a reality.

Summary: This most recent edition of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College reflects the unique needs and challenges of new grads and twenty-somethings who want to make a difference right now, but need deeper insight into making it happen. Published in September 2004, this book is currently used as a text in corporations and universities across the country.

The 10 chapters in this book cover a wide range of important guidelines for inexperienced job-seekers as well as any young person focused on career management. The title of the book summarizes its value, since, as the author points out, the corporate world is nothing like academia. “You come up against rules no one ever told us about.” Written from the perspective of a wise older sister who doesn’t want you to learn the hard way, the book provides personal anecdotes and specific tips for success.

Here is a quick summary of the chapter contents:

Chapter 1: Find Yourself. Find a Paycheck – finding occupations that match your skills and interests
Chapter 2: Congratulations. You’re Hired – creating a good first impression at your new company
Chapter 3: Working the Crowd – work relationships, mentorships and office politics
Chapter 4: Be the Master of Your Plan – goal-setting and showcasing your accomplishments
Chapter 5: The Purposeful Workday – managing your workload and business communications
Chapter 6: Check Your Attitude at the Door – combating negativism and staying motivated
Chapter 7: People Management – getting along with coworkers
Chapter 8: Moving Up in the World – scheduling and maximizing performance reviews
Chapter 9: You’re the Boss Now! – how to be a good manager
Chapter 10: Exit Stage Left – how to leave your current employer without burning bridges

Other sage advice found in the book:

  • Landing your dream job by avoiding the HR black hole
  • Developing your professional image and reputation
  • Becoming your own public-relations machine
  • Learning the real meaning behind corporate lingo
  • Dealing with corporate reorganizations
  • Navigating the office social scene and practicing cringe-free networking
  • Combating negativity and coping with difficult personalities

The Reviews

In his article in Quintessential Careers, educator and Ph.D. Randall S. Hansen said, “The book is well organized, written with a breezy style, and packed with some great advice. I also love the many vignettes from younger job-seekers who have faced the many challenges Levit highlights in the book.

Daniel H. Pink, author of another recommended book, Drive, said, “They Don’t Teach Corporate in College is too good to be given only to the twenty-somethings. Anyone who’s feeling lost and overwhelmed in cubicle country can benefit from reading this eminently practical book.”

In the many 5-star reviews from readers, we see quotes such as:

“[The author] gives the reader confidence and a new outlook because she does not just provide comforting words. She elucidates her point with concrete examples.”

“This is a great resource for anyone entering Corporate America… One might think the information is ‘common sense’, but too often we don’t use common sense until someone makes the ‘light bulb’ go off. Alexandra does this beautifully!”

From a college professor:

“Alexandra Levit is right on the mark with this book. I have incorporated this book into my class discussions and the students will be more prepared for the corporate world because of it!”

About the Author

Alexandra Levit is a former nationally-syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a current writer for the New York Times, as well as the author of several books. She consults on leadership development and career and workplace trends on behalf of American Express, Deloitte, DeVry University, Intuit and PepsiCo, among others. An American Management Association Top Business Leader for 2014, she was named Money Magazine‘s Online Career Expert of the Year.

Reference: https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/book-review-they-dont-teach-corporate-in-college-for-students

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101 books for college-bound kids

Recommeded-booklist
Sharing the classics with your child is an activity you’ll both treasure.

by:

Take a respite from the rush and chatter of modern life and spend time with a masterpiece. Even better: entice your teen to join you. Choose a book together and take turns reading it aloud, or track down the audio version and listen to it during your next road trip. This book list, compiled by the CollegeBoard, includes classics your student should read before (or during) college. But don’t use the “s” word! Instead, let your child know that these aren’t just classics, they are tales of romance, war, adventure, and courage, and that — while they won’t love every story — a few are sure to become beloved lifelong companions. As author Italo Calvino wrote: “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”

Middle school books
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
London, Jack The Call of the Wild
Miller, Arthur The Crucible
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O’Neill, Eugene Long Day’s Journey into Night
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Poe, Edgar Allen Selected Tales
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver’s Travels
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Welty, Eudora Collected Stories
Wright, Richard Native Son

 

High school books
Author Title
——- Beowulf
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austin, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March
Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert The Stranger
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Dante Inferno
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Homer The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll’s House
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
O’Connor, Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Proust, Marcel Swann’s Way
Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49
Roth, Henry Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Hamlet
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles Antigone
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons
Voltaire Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse
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Do Colleges Examine Your Online Presence?

Do Colleges Examine Your Online Presence?

Elizabeth Hoyt

You should undoubtedly clean up your social media presence, but how much do colleges really look at your posts?

You should undoubtedly clean up your social media presence, but how much do colleges really look at your posts?

You’ll be relieved to learn they don’t – at least not in the usual circumstances.

In fact, fewer than one in three admissions officers say they check applicant’s social media posts and/or Google them when evaluating their applications, according to a Kaplan survey conducted in 2014.

The survey found that “over a third (35%) of college admissions officers have visited an applicant’s social media page to learn more about them, according to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2014 survey of college admissions officers.”

However, they’ve been tracking this college admissions factor since 2008 and back then it was one in ten admissions officers. Then, that number was one in five – so don’t count out the possibility entirely. This is the highest percentage since tracking this – so the number is likely even higher now.

A Moral Dilemma

For the most part, admissions officers felt it was an invasion of the student’s privacy. The majority of admissions officers were “appalled” at the practice of looking into a student’s private online presence.

“I just think it’s wrong to do,” said Richard Shaw, dean of admissions at Stanford University.

But, then again, you never know.

The Numbers

In addition to the morality of the issue, admissions officers also say there are far too many prospective students to Google or search on social media platforms for each individual.

Consider a small school – the admissions officers would have to evaluate thousands of profiles online, assuming they were looking into each student.

Also, because they want to remain consistent, most officers feel that it’s unfair to Google a portion of the applicants, so it’s all or nothing when it comes to looking at a student’s online presence.

Do You Want Them to Look?

This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your particular situation.

For example, if you’re constantly tweeting about issues that matter, trying to start-up social initiatives and have been featured in the local paper as a hero, you may want to be Googled.

Inversely, if your social media presence isn’t so family-friendly, you probably would breathe a sigh of relief at learning your social media posts are not likely to be examined – but you should probably clean up your act, just in case.

When Asked…

If you specifically ask a college to look at something you’re proud of on the internet, they are more likely to do so, assuming the admissions officer has time.

According to Christine Brown, executive director of K12 and college prep programs for Kaplan Test Prep, “There’s no doubt social media has become increasingly a part of the admissions process, but students should recognize that it still plays only a peripheral role. The majority of admissions officers are not looking at Facebook for applicant information, and even those who are typically do so as an anomaly — because they were flagged, either positively or negatively, to particular applicants.”

“Admissions chances are still overwhelmingly decided by the traditional factors of high school GPA, standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, personal essays and extracurricular activities. Applicants’ online personas are really a wild card in the admissions process: the bottom line for students is that what you post online likely won’t get you into college, but it just might keep you out,” said Brown.

Safety First

Many students become more cautious of their web presence when submitting applications. Rightfully so: clean up your posts, just in case, because you never know who’s looking!

Increasing the Odds

Once you get into smaller numbers like, say, becoming a finalist for a scholarship or internship, the likelihood of your personal online presence will increase.

So, a basic rule to follow is: the more you put yourself out there, the less you should put yourself out there online. Unless of course you want to put yourself out there and be noticed for positive reasons.

To learn more about what you should or should not post online, check out these social media do’s and don’ts for students.

What’s your social media policy?

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Getting into College with Bad Grades

Getting into College with Bad Grades

Elizabeth Hoyt

The number one rule to follow in college admissions? Don’t give up!

Have bad grades? Believe it or not, it’s not always the end-all, be-all in terms of gaining entry into the college of your dreams. Don’t give up!

Attempt to combat your admissions struggle by considering these helpful tips:

Submit an explanation (in certain cases) –

First, consider why your grades were, um, less than stellar. College admissions officers don’t want to hear excuses unless the circumstances were absolutely out of your control. If that’s the case, submit a brief but thorough explanation of the circumstances. Again, only submit an explanation regarding your grades if the circumstances were completely, utterly, nothing-on-earth-you-could-have-done-to-avoid-it, one hundred percent out of your control.

What falls under this? An illness or injury that impacted your cognitive abilities (head trauma, dyslexia diagnosed later in your high school career, etc.), a death within your immediate family (sorry, grandma and your third cousin don’t count, no matter how difficult it was) and, perhaps but not always included are moving and switching schools mid-year or a poor domestic situation that was out of the norm, like a messy parental divorce.

Remember, excuses like breaking up with you high school significant other, not getting along with or claiming a teacher was unfair and other stresses typical in high school won’t work. In fact, they will work against you because it comes across as placing blame on others (no matter how real or true they are). Anything that a typical high school student experiences is likely a poor excuse.

Also, make sure your grade or grades are really bad, if you’re submitting an explanation. Explaining the lone “B” amongst your straight A’s will likely just irritate the admissions counselor.

Apply regular admission rather than early –

Your odds of being accepted during regular admission are far better than the selective process of early admission. Early decision/early admission is meant for students that not only are sure of the school they want to go to, but also confident in their ability to get into that school.

Consider community college –

Why not consider attending a community college for a year (or two), getting your grades up and then applying to the four-year college you originally wanted to attend.

Look at schools with conditional acceptance programs –

If you’re on the cusp, there are plenty of schools out that that give students the opportunity to attend the school on conditional basis. This is ideal for those who have lower grades but are great applicants otherwise. Many schools will offer conditional admission and the student must keep their grade point average at a certain point to remain enrolled within the school. If you had a bad run in high school but feel you can improve in college, this may be a route to consider.

Plan your comeback –

It’s never too late to improve- the time is now to boost your academics and show that you’re making progress in a positive direction. Get extra help or a tutor if you’re still struggling and poor grades weren’t just in the past. Sure, you may not boost them enough to get into your top choice, but it will make a difference in whether or not you’re accepted to any school.

Play up your strengths –

Schools look at more than grades alone. They also want students who will enhance campus life and that participate in school and extracurricular activities. Think about your strengths: do you volunteer a lot? Play on several sports teams? All of these activities are important factors in addition to your grades, so make sure you detail all of your strengths, too!

Get recognized –

Perhaps your grades are poor in math but you’re the next Hemingway. Show off whatever talent you have by getting recognized outside of school. Get an article or poem published locally. Submit artwork in to a local show. Enter science competitions. No matter where your talent lies, there are ways to gain recognition academically to include on your application.

Make your essay epic –

If you have poor grades and a terrible essay, why even apply? There is absolutely no excuse to have a terrible essay, since you have time to work on it and have people around you that can help you edit, proofread and structure your wording!

Ace your college entrance exams –

To be fair, this is easier said than done. By “ace,” we mean prepare to the best of your ability through studying, utilizing practice questions, working with tutors (often times, you can get free help!) and taking preparation courses (either enroll, if you can afford it or find free preparation courses online).

Review your options with a counselor –

When in doubt, you can always go over strategies and options with a counselor, teacher or admissions officer. They’re there to help you throughout the process and want your application to reflect the “real” you.

Need money to pay for college?

Every semester, Fastweb helps thousands of students pay for school by matching them to scholarships, grants and awards for which they actually qualify. Sign up today to get started. You’ll find scholarships like the $2,000 “No Essay” Scholarship from Niche, a scholarship open to all U.S. students and those planning on enrolling within 12 months.

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3 Ways to Set Your College Application Apart

3 Ways to Set Your College Application Apart

By Tiffany Sorensen, Varsity Tutors’ Contributor

Take on these three tasks to help set your college application apart from the crowd.

Statistics reveal that college admissions officers are receiving more and more applications each year. Because of this trend, it is more imperative than ever to make your application stick out from all the rest.

This is how to avoid being just another name: perfect your application essay, try a new after-school activity, and attend a college interview.

Get details on the best ways you can approach these tasks below:

1. Write a solid, unique essay

How can you make your essay different from all the other thousands of essays that admissions officers read? And how can you avoid making it sound like just a list of your academic accomplishments?Many would agree that the most captivating essays are those with a unified theme or an extended metaphor—for example, nature, colors, travel, etc. A well-chosen theme or metaphor can tie your essay together while giving it a whimsical literary feel. In a sense, your essay should read somewhat like a story—it should have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

With your essay, you should aim to achieve two things: entertain college admissions officers and show them something special about yourself. The college application essay is not meant to solely showcase your many skills and endeavors; that is what your resume serves to do.

2. Step outside your comfort zone

If a stranger looked at your academic credentials, he or she might notice a pattern. A high grade in Calculus and involvement in the Math Honors Society indicate an affinity for mathematics. Volunteer work at a hospital and tutoring in biology suggest a student may want to study medicine.There is nothing wrong with demonstrating development or interest in one particular area. However, admissions counselors look for evidence of a well-rounded personality. You should participate in a range of activities that will stimulate and cultivate various aspects of life.

If you are only involved in activities related to science, why not join a theater group or an intramural sports team to mix things up? Instead of focusing merely on English, consider learning a foreign language or joining the debate team. Universities want students who have comprehensive knowledge and a broad outlook. One of the ways to achieve this is by stepping outside one’s comfort zone. Do what you excel in, but also branch out by trying something new and interesting. You will thank yourself later!

3. Impress at the college interview

One of the sure-fire ways to leave a great impression on admissions officers is by nailing the college interview. Given the abundance of paperwork that admissions officers must sort through, a dynamic in-person encounter can help make you a more memorable applicant. Admissions officers look for students who are enthusiastic, respectful, and knowledgeable about the university.Although a great interview cannot guarantee your acceptance to a school, it can have a positive effect on your application. A stellar interview can sometimes be enough to “tip the scale” in your favor if admissions officers are unsure about you.

On the other hand, coming across as impolite or apathetic during the interview can certainly work against you. Failing to attend or refusing a request for an interview can also diminish your odds of acceptance.

The college interview is a precious chance to be more than just another application. If possible, schedule a college interview and use it to your advantage. A remarkable personality can only give you bonus points. Just be sure to research the college beforehand!

By now, you should have noticed a motif: for an extraordinary application, you need to show off some personality. You can let your personality shine through with an imaginative essay, a distinctive extracurricular activity, and a private interview. To get noticed, you have to be bold and different!

Tiffany Sorensen is a professional tutor and contributing writer with Varsity Tutors, a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement.

Need money to pay for college?

Every semester, Fastweb helps thousands of students pay for school by matching them to scholarships, grants and awards for which they actually qualify. Sign up today to get started. You’ll find scholarships like the $2,000 “No Essay” Scholarship from Niche, a scholarship open to all U.S. students and those planning on enrolling within 12 months.

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