The Associated Press reported yesterday that ACT, Inc. released a report indicating that across the country this year’s Spring ACT scores fell from those in 2009. ”Last spring’s high-school seniors averaged a composite score of 21.0 on the test’s scale of 1 to 36, down slightly from 21.1 last year and the lowest score of the last five years. ”
You can lead a horse to water, but how can you get it to study its SAT vocabulary? This is the challenge that test-prep coaches have dealt with for years. How do we motivate others? Specifically, how do we influence and motivate teenagers?
The required PSAT score to be recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist varies from state to state every year. This year, the states with the highest cutoff score of 221 were Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington, DC. The state with the lowest cutoff score was Wyoming with 201. Georgia’s cutoff score was 214.
Did your dorm have a heated pool or maid service? Mine didn’t. Then again, I didn’t pay anywhere near $10,000 a semester for room and board. I can’t say the same for many students attending colleges and university’s this fall. NPR’s Planet Money has an interesting article comparing the most expensive college dorms in the country. Maybe this is the reason college loan debt has surpassed credit card debit in America.
Almost all college-bound sophomores and juniors will take a PSAT. The PSAT is the test that qualifies students for a National Merit Scholarship, and it is also considered a preliminary SAT. Many students who take the PSAT do so to get an idea of what taking the SAT is like. And, since the SAT is a very popular test here on the East Coast, it makes sense to get as much practice in as you can. However, the ACT is gaining speed, and, more importantly EVERY college that requires admissions exams in the United States accepts either the SAT or the ACT. Equally. No difference. Love ‘em both. (read more…)
There has been a lot of hubbub over Georgia’s HOPE scholarship. On Monday, the state’s House and Senate Higher Education committees held the first of possibly many hearings to discuss a funding shortfall. According to Georgia Student Finance Commission President Tim Connell, HOPE is projected to lose $243 million during the 2011 fiscal year. The shortfall is expected to exceed $300 million for 2012′s fiscal year. Commission officials cite rising tuition and enrollment as responsible for HOPE scholarship exceeding the Georgia Lottery’s annual contributions.
I loved my college education so much that I’m still paying for it! Seriously, though, I went to Oglethorpe University, a very good, very expensive, 4-year private university in Atlanta. When I attended, tuition was about $12,000 a SEMESTER, not including room and board. The smart cookie that I am, I paid for most of my education with various scholarships, federal loans, federal grants, and work study. Additionally, for three years room and board was covered by my job as a resident assistant. I’m sure you all saw that I tried to slip federal loans in that list, hoping you wouldn’t notice. It’s true, I left school with debt just like two-thirds of my fellow graduates, according to finaid.org, an online resource for students and parents.
Six years ago I remember standing in the kitchen of my 13-year old “little brother” (I was part of a big-brother-little brother program at the time), watching him simultaneously participate in 6 IM chats on AOL. I watched in disbelief as he responded to each of his friends. How on earth could he focus on 6 conversations at once? My mind could not grasp that possibility. Was this a new kind of mind, a new type of consciousness? Suddenly I felt like my parents must feel when they call on me to help them understand some new technological development. I felt dated.
How many times do you have to lose your keys before you start playing Sudoku or tackling the daily NY Times crossword puzzle to keep your mind sharp? Just ask a baby boomer: they’ll surely have the answer. The boomers have learned to keep their aging minds honed through cognitive challenges, as well as through a host of funky sounding supplements such as Ginko Biloba and St. John’s Wort. But there are other ways to keep the mind healthy. According to the neuroscientists at the most recent Learning and the Brain conference, the most direct way to maintain the mind, and encourage higher order cognition and executive functions (e.g. planning, organizing, problem solving), may be to take better care of our physical bodies.
I’m not talking about a year of ill-fitting jeans or a part-time job selling cotton tanks and cargo pants. I am referring to taking a year “off” between high school and college. The gap year, as it is affectionately termed, is nothing new to Europeans and Australians. Students began taking a year off from academics to pursue travel and volunteering as early as the 1960s. Throughout the last four decades, interest has continued to grow, and more and more companies have emerged offering Gap Year guidance and planning.
