College admissions: is early decision a good idea?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Susan

In my college admissions workshops, I’ve generally advised students not to go out of their way to complete early-decision applications–particularly those that require a binding early decision.

Definitions, for those of you who haven’t started on the college-applications road yet: Generally, colleges require applications to be submitted by a late winter deadline (often January or early February), and make admissions decisions in early spring. If you apply early-decision, you complete your application in November and receive word on admissions by December or January. Most early decisions are binding–the college requires you to make a firm commitment to attend, no matter what other schools may admit you later on.

(The College Board page on early decision/early action may be helpful.)

Early-decision admissions have been a contentious issue in higher ed. Early decision tends to benefit the college more than it benefits you, because it allows the school to firm up its freshman class (and the freshman financial assets) earlier in the year. This is good for the bottom line; if you have a certain number of fairly well-to-do freshman already committed to attending, you know how much financial aid you still have available for remaining applicants.

Several years ago, Harvard shook up the college app world by discontinuing early admissions, saying that it did “more harm than good.” Vanderbilt, Princeton, the University of Florida, and several other major schools followed suit. (An interesting PBS interview on the topic is found here.)

The New York Times reports this week, though, that there may be advantages in applying early decision (read the whole piece here):

A report released Wednesday by an association of guidance counselors and admissions officers could be worth a look. It provides new evidence for those who believe that applying to college early in the academic year — or, more specifically, submitting applications under binding early-decision programs — increases the likelihood of acceptance.

Nearly three of every four students who applied last year under such programs, which are offered by many of the nation’s most selective colleges, were accepted, compared with just over half who applied to the same colleges in the main application round, according to the annual report, “The State of College Admission,” by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

All told, the percentage accepted last year in the early-decision round, in which those accepted are compelled to withdraw all other applications and enroll, was 15 points higher than in the main phase. And that gap is rising, the authors said. In fall 2006, 61 percent, on average, were accepted early, compared with 53 percent in the regular pool.

Critics of early-admission programs argue that they represent a way for well-off and connected high school students to game the system. But colleges that offer them counter that the acceptance rates are often so high because the quality of students is particularly strong.

The report suggests that these figures “may rekindle debates about the effects of early-decision admission, particularly as it relates to access for underrepresented populations.”

I’m offering you the information mostly because I’ve spent a good deal of time saying that it doesn’t matter how you apply. If that’s not always the case, you (and I) should be aware of it.

Three considerations, though:

1) Statistics are never simple. I’d like to know details about how the percentage of super-high-achievers in the early decision group measured up against the percentage in the regular decision group. Kids who are so anxious to get into a particular elite university that they’re willing to make a binding early decision tend to be highly motivated academically, which means they’re more likely to have good grades, full transcripts, and impressive test scores. (“But colleges that offer them counter that the acceptance rates are often so high because the quality of students is particularly strong.”)

2) The opportunity to improve your chances by applying early decision feeds one of the unhealthiest phenomenon in higher education–the illusion that there is ONE UNIVERSITY that will give you a better education than any other. I repeat this in my workshops again and again: There are HUNDREDS of good schools out there. Don’t get fixated on a name.

Getting into one particular college is largely a matter of chance. Yes, you can improve those chances with high grades and good test scores. But particularly once you get up to the Ivy League level, admission/rejection/wait-listing can be arbitrary. Every year, Ivy League schools turn down scores of kids with perfect GPAs, almost-perfect SATs, and impressive resumes. The same is true at good state universities. You can’t predict an admissions decision; allowing a student to develop the mentality of “Getting into X College will set me on the right course for the rest of my life” is deadly.

In addition, the education you get at a “name” college isn’t necessarily better than the education you’ll get at a smaller or state school. And going into debt for the sake of a “name” degree is always a mistake.

An excellent piece on this topic by a guidance counselor is found here; read it. My favorite quote:

I tell families to stop obsessing about campuses with marquee names. I’ve visited dozens of little-known schools where professors are far more engaged in teaching than members of Ivy League faculties. Also, in this economy, I can make a strong case for going to community college, mastering a trade or taking a gap year to earn money.

Above all, I urge parents of high school juniors and seniors not to see their kids as SAT and ACT scores and G.P.A.’s, but as creative, unpredictable, unprogrammable teenagers with their own gifts.

3) Even if early decision does improve the chance of admission to a particular school, I still get hung up over the undeniable fact that early decision is better for the school than for the student. Early decision, after being given a black eye, started to make a comeback during the recession–because it helps the school’s bottom line. Check out this piece from Inside Higher Ed; the most relevant quote is below.

Most critics said that early decision favored wealthier students, who are more likely to have started the college selection process early and to be in a position to commit to a college without comparing all financial aid offers. Many admissions officers say they agree with the critics, yet can’t resist a tactic that allows them to fill a larger share of their classes earlier in the year.

Yes, it’s an advantage for the student to do whatever she can to increase the chances of admission. But I’m just temperamentally unhappy with choices that are dictated by an institution’s finances, rather than by a student’s needs and desires. (And just to play devil’s advocate to myself, here’s an opposing point of view.)

(And here’s a question that I’d love a college admissions officer to weigh in on: What actually happens to you if you make that binding early decision, and then change your mind?)

Posted in Preparing for college | 15 Comments

Writing about SOMETHING

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Susan

I ran across this piece about school reform in a recent New York Times. The reporter thinks that the piece is about school size (“4,100 Massachusetts Students Prove Small Isn’t Always Better”), but I took something else away from it.

“A decade ago,” writes Sam Dillon, “Brockton High School was a case study in failure…only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out…”

Then Susan Szachowicz and a handful of fellow teachers decided to take action. They persuaded administrators to let them organize a schoolwide campaign that involved reading and writing lessons into every class in all subjects, including gym.

Their efforts paid off quickly. In 2001 testing, more students passed the state tests after failing the year before than at any other school in Massachusetts. The gains continued. This year and last, Brockton outperformed 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools….

What makes Brockton High’s story surprising is that, with 4,100 students, it is an exception to what has become received wisdom in many educational circles — that small is almost always better.

The reporter goes on to explain how Brockton pulled up its scores despite its size. However…that’s not exactly the most interesting thing about the Brockton story. Consider these excerpts:

The [school restructuring] committee’s first big step was to go back to basics, and deem that reading, writing, speaking and reasoning were the most important skills to teach. They set out to recruit every educator in the building — not just English, but math, science, even guidance counselors — to teach those skills to students.

The committee put together a rubric to help teachers understand what good writing looks like, and began devoting faculty meetings to teaching department heads how to use it. The school’s 300 teachers were then trained in small groups.

Writing exercises took many forms, but encouraged students to think methodically. A science teacher, for example, had her students write out, step by step, how to make a sandwich, starting with opening the cupboard to fetch the peanut butter, through washing the knife once the sandwich was made. Other writing exercises, of course, were much more sophisticated….

Over the years, Brockton has refined its literacy curriculum. Bob Perkins, the math department chairman, used a writing lesson last week in his Introduction to Algebra II class. He wrote “3 + 72 – 6 x 3 – 11” on the board, then asked students to solve the problem in their workbooks and to explain their reasoning, step by step, in simple sentences.

“I did the exponents first and squared the 7,” wrote Sharon Peterson, a junior. “I multiplied 6 x 3. I added 3 + 49, and combined 18 and 11, because they were both negatives. I ended up with 52-29. The final answer was 23.”

Some students had more trouble, and the lesson seemed to drag a bit.

“This is taking longer than I expected, but it’s not wasted time,” Mr. Perkins said. “They’re learning math, but they’re also learning to write.”

Brockton’s performance is not as stellar in math as in English language arts, and the committee has hired an outside consultant to help develop strategies for improving math instruction, Mr. Perkins said.

[Harvard economist] Dr. Ferguson [a researcher on schools and the minority achievement gap] said Brockton High first “jumped out of the data” for him early last year. He was examining Massachusetts’ 2008 test scores in his office in Cambridge, and noticed that Brockton had done a better job than 90 percent of the state’s 350 high schools helping its students to improve their language arts scores.

It’s no small feat for a big school to turn its entire teaching staff in a new direction, but what stands out to me in this story is the method used to improve writing: write about specific subjects, across the curriculum, and focus in on expository writing.

I’ve been saying for YEARS that the trouble with most writing curricula is that 1) they focus too much on creative writing, and not enough on expository skills, and 2) they try to develop writing skills without having any particular content for the student to explore.

Those two problems are related. Writing is difficult to teach and learn because it combines a skill set (getting words down on paper in the right order) with content knowledge. Most writing curricula get around this in one of two ways: they assign the student random topics that require no particular pre-knowledge, or they concentrate on creative assignments that allow the student to come up with his or her own idea.

This is far from ideal. Random topics are just that: random, unconnected to anything the student is actually studying (or interested in). Writing exercises based on random topics are likely to produce in the student (particularly the middle-grade student) a massive eye-roll: “Why do I have to write about how peanuts are grown?”

Writing exercises based on creative assignments are of some value to students who enjoy creative writing, but after years of teaching I’m convinced that many students are simply frustrated by creative assignments. It’s my opinion that if a student isn’t “wired” for creative work, assigning creative writing tasks simply leads to tears, frustration, and a growing conviction that writing is impossible. And it’s been my observation that students who are brilliant creative writers very often act like reluctant writers when asked to work on a particular nonfiction topic in an expository way.

Expository writing is a particular, focused skill which should be separated from creative writing and taught “across the curriculum”–not as a separate “writing” class, but as a skill which is exercised in history, in science, in literature, in math, as a way of understanding that content. THIS is what improves writing skills. (Notice that Brockton’s math scores have not risen at the same rate, despite the math-centered writing assignments.)

This is a quick reaction; if you’re interested in my slightly better-developed thoughts on writing, check out the writing lectures (A Plan for Teaching Writing for Elementary, Middle, and High School Years; Writing Without Fear) mp3 downloads at Peace Hill Press. Since I’ve posted on the topic, we’ll be discounting these lectures (downloads only) from noon on Tuesday October 12 through 5 PM on Friday October 15.

Also I’ll post further thoughts in the next couple of weeks. Right now, I’m getting ready to go on a week’s WRITING retreat, so stay tune for updates once I’m back.

Posted in Reflections on education | 14 Comments

Guest post: Classical education and autism

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Susan

Learning from Books When Your Kid Could Care Less:
Classical Education and Autism

Ingrid is a homeschooling mom of three sons ages 10, 7, and 5. She blogs at http://www.renegade-scholar.com about homeschooling children with autism and homeschooling in general.

When my children (T and SC) first refused to listen to a story, let alone even look at a book, my first reaction was to give it time. “When they’re ready, they’ll allow it,” I thought.

However, time passed and they never came around. They never asked to be read to and when we would try they would squirm and struggle to get away. If we let them walk around the room while we read, they would get rowdy and it would escalate to the point where no one could hear what was being said. T was diagnosed with autism at age 4 and then two years later SC was diagnosed at age 3.

I’d always heard that autistics liked books, many of them teaching themselves how to read before the adults in their lives got around to teaching them how. However, once T turned 5, I wasn’t comfortable waiting any longer. After all I’d decided to shift from an unschooling style to a Well-Trained Mind inspired curriculum for my eldest son, K (now age 10). I had to think about how to give my barely verbal children a classical education. The key to that of course was getting them to tolerate, if not embrace, being read to, as well as to spark an interest in books themselves. Whether they would teach themselves to read or I did it, an interest in books seemed to be a prerequisite.

I basically did three things in order to encourage my children to want to look through books and like being read to. The first step was to address any sensory issues, the second was to create interest, and the third and ongoing step is to build tolerance.

Addressing the Sensory Issues

When dealing with a child who doesn’t like books and/or being read to, first look at the possible sensory reasons for the dislike. For instance, a child with sensory issues that manifest visually may be over stimulated with bright colorful visuals; in this case, you would need to focus on books with less colorful or more pastel illustrations. A child who tends to be under stimulated visually, on the other hand, will need books with brightly colored illustrations. With both my children it appeared that they were over-sensitive to sound- especially the sound of the human voice. T (now age 7) was so sensitive to it that he shied away whenever spoken to- especially when the voice was high-pitched.

Once I realized that my children were over-sensitive to sound, I read with a deeper, less animated voice and found that they ran off less. However, their attention span with books was still very low, and they would still get rowdy and fidgety while I read.

The next step was to implement calming techniques so that the children could be more regulated and more willing to sit still to look at the book. Some ideas I found useful were brushing the skin with the Wilbarger Brushing Technique, and using a weighted blanket/lap pad or weighted vest. There is also a “nubby” seat for kids who have trouble sitting in a chair, as well as a hug vest. Some kids are more calm if they can feel the deep pressure of something tight against their bodies. Some children get very organized (able to attend and with a more even arousal level) with the help of swinging as well. I use the brushing technique and the hug vest with SC (now age 5) at the start of any seatwork and find that his attention and patience for listening are much higher.

Sensory issues are basically determined through observation. The Out of Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction by Carol Stock Kranowitz is a good resource for determining what a child’s sensory issues may be; it also provides guidance on how to adapt the learning environment to suit the child’s needs.

Creating Interest

Once you’ve addressed the sensory issues, you are able to move on to the “creating interest” stage.

A useful tool for me was More Than Words: Helping Parents Promote Communication and Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Fern Sussman. With it, you determine your child’s communication stage from among 4 categories- the Own Agenda stage, the Requester stage, the Early Communicator stage, and the Partner stage. Determining this stage will help you decide what kinds of communication goals you are aiming for when reading with your child. For instance, if your child is in the Early Communicator stage, you can expect your child to learn to point to or label pictures, answer yes/no questions about the pictures in the book, and follow a story with a simple plot.

I noticed that my children really didn’t care for drawings or cartoons on paper, even if the cartoons featured were from some of their favorite movies. What my kids did show a lot of interest in were actual photographs. I also determined that they were at the Own Agenda stage when it came to books. The main goals at this stage are to hold the book correctly (upside up etc…), open and close the book, look at one or two pictures, and finally to grasp that pictures represent real things (Sussman p. 344). Based on the suggestions in More than Words for this stage, I made a simple 8 page book featuring photos of some of my kids’ favorite things. I put one large picture on each page with the label for the picture right underneath. We would then read this book. We would look at the picture, label it and I would run my finger under the word while reading it. The homemade book worked wonderfully. After that my children started pulling picture books off the shelf and flipping through the pages. Their attention was still rather fleeting at first but we made progress as time went on.

Borrowing an idea from Before 5 In a Row by Jane C. Lambert, I made animal classification cards for the books I had planned on reading with them. To make animal classification cards you find pictures of the animals named in the book then cut them out and glue them onto index cards. You write the name of the animal on the back of it. I laminated our cards because T could get really rough with paper, and I wanted the cards to outlast him so that I could use them with SC. I would also write what kingdom, genus and species the animal belonged to as well as its scientific name. I did this for my eldest’s benefit. If I was going though the trouble of laminating these, I might as well make it useful for an older child as well. K is a visual person so the cards were useful when we were studying the animal kingdom.

The animal classification cards seemed to add interest to the books we were reading. When we came across the animal in the book, I would show them the corresponding card. Later I would ask the child to give me the card for the animal that the book was talking about. Depending on how extensive your collection is, these cards can help the student sort animals into different categories.

I continue to carry this idea of a “realistic” visual to other aspects of school too, such as when sharing poems and songs.

Building Tolerance

The last phase to implement when you are getting into books is building tolerance.

If your kids are like mine, you need to build tolerance for sitting still and listening. I couldn’t expect to read every single word on the page or I would lose them. I’ve had to shorten stories, skip words and sometimes I’ve had to be satisfied with just labeling one item on the page.

Another tolerance building tool had to do with reinforcers. When I first began structured schooling with T and SC, I had to make it worth their while to sit next to me at the table and allow me to direct an activity. First I had to create a signal for the space that meant it was time to sit down and work with me. I did this because we homeschool in the same room we eat, play with toys and watch TV in. I put hooks in the ceiling and hung a sheet that I’d stuck grommets to around the table where we would be working. The sheet served as a partition around the school area keeping us in an enclosed space and minimizing possible distractions. I made sure to use a light colored sheet so that natural light could pass through it.

Using a picture schedule works too.

The first activity we began with I called “The Token Game.” I put poker chips in a basket and handed it to my child. I would then ask for a token. When he would hand me a token, I would give him back an M&M until all the tokens were exchanged. Once they got the hang of that I started some simple ABA style exercises from Behavioral Intervention for Young Children With Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals by Catherine Maurice, in which I reward them with a token for doing what I asked. For instance, one program we do asks them to imitate my gross motor movements; another has them touch a body part on command. At the end of the exercise, we would exchange tokens for M&Ms. These exercises got them used to listening to my voice in order to get information about what is expected from them.

After the children seemed to understand the concept of listening for information, I started adding activities to do before the token game. My kids loved The Token Game, so when they saw me hanging up the school curtain they very quickly went to their seats and waited to do work. Since the school curtain and the token game were associated, they tolerated doing a sit down activity before playing the token game. A simple, “We do the tokens after we read this book,” sufficed.

The next activity we began was a counting puzzle. After some time I added reading a book to them (following Sussman’s tips for each child’s developmental level). Over time I kept adding an activity, always leaving The Token Game for the end. Because they really wanted those M&Ms they would tolerate the activities that preceded the token game. If they gave up on seat work before the token game was played, the school time was over and there would be no M&Ms. This payoff was extremely motivating for them and so their tolerance kept growing. Now, reading a book is an anticipated part of seat work and they enthusiastically pay attention to the books, labeling things they see and pointing to things in answer to something asked.

Going through all of these steps is a significant time investment (think of it as a “Pre pre-school”) but quite worth it when you realize that your child is gaining the skills needed to extract knowledge and entertainment from books.

Posted in Guest posts | 7 Comments

What not to look for in an academic department

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Susan

Here’s a composite email, representing a kind of question that the office gets frequently–and which generally gets passed on to me.

Dear Dr. Bauer,

My high school junior is applying to colleges. He’s a strong reader and an excellent writer, and he’d like to study literature or possibly philosophy at a good school.

Could you help me identify some universities that aren’t completely dominated by liberal faculty and their agendas? We would like him to be in a department that emphasizes reading and writing and discussion but that doesn’t take a politically correct/feminist/postmodernist approach.

We are heartened to see that you are teaching at William & Mary. Would that be a good place for him to apply? Thank you for any help you can offer.

Sincerely,

Worried Parent

I dread these emails, because I can’t really answer the question that’s being asked.

I should say right off that I’m sympathetic to the underlying concern, which is: I don’t want to send my child off to a place where he will be mocked and made fun of for beliefs which may be out of step with those of the majority of his classmates. I’m getting ready to pack my oldest off to college this fall. I too have parental worries.

But this particular way of expressing that concern has three major problems with it that I’d like to point out.

1. Failure to understand the nature of academic departments.

Academic departments, particularly in the humanities, are hardly ever homogeneous. (I’m talking here about medium to large departments at secular, or for-all-practical-purposes secular, schools; the most homogeneous departments around are those at smaller religious schools that require adherence to a confession or creed, but those aren’t generally the schools I’m being asked about.)

Your typical good-sized department will probably contain one or two observant Catholics, two or three observant Episcopalians, a handful of nominal Presbyterians and Baptists who are for all practical purposes secularists, a couple of militant left-wingers out to make converts, one or two ex-hippies, the odd evangelical, and an array of folks who have never had a religious thought in their lives. In any university, you’re likely to find sympathetic faculty and hostile faculty, Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians, gay faculty and straight faculty, faculty with kids and faculty without kids. Universities are kind of like real life in that way (if in very few others). There will be many different voices and many chances to hear them.

2. Failure to understand the terms.

What does “liberal” mean? Votes Democrat? Has different views on sexual morality? Doesn’t go to church? Will advise your child to ignore his parents from here on out?

These terms (liberal/ politically correct/ feminist/ postmodernist) tend to be used as general scare-words, not as representations of particular points of view. “Liberal” and “conservative” are almost empty terms at this point; they’ve got to be defined. Particularly in certain homeschooling circles, “feminist” FAR too often means “Everything that’s wrong with the twenty-first century in my opinion.”

(Hint, people: that’s not what the word means.)

Perhaps you have a particularly definition in mind. You may indeed find it worrisome that your child will be taught by Democrats. (See Point #3.) Fine; you’re entitled to your worries. Just be sure that you define those terms clearly for yourself if you’re going to throw them around.

3. Failure to understand the purpose of higher education.

Eighteen and nineteen-year-olds should be mature enough to take classes from faculty they disagree with–or else they’re not mature enough to be at university.

Higher education isn’t just about absorbing information; it’s also about learning how to listen to someone with whom you largely disagree, pick out what’s valuable, and figure out how to respond to the rest. It is also –and this is even more important–about allowing yourself to be challenged. If you go into university unwilling to even listen to opposing perspectives, you’re not likely to benefit a great deal. You’ll be so busy defending yourself that you won’t be able to entertain the possibility that, in some areas, you might be wrong.

I myself have had a very frustrating time teaching students who come into William & Mary primed to resist the lies of “liberal faculty.” (That includes a lot of home educated students, who register for for my classes because they think I’m safe.) Every time I say something that strikes them as possibly “liberal,” all of their defenses go up and they tune me out. I can’t play devil’s advocate or dialogue with them–they immediately put me on the list of untrustworthy professors and stop listening.

And at that point they become unteachable.

I’m often asked how home educated students stack up against others in my classes. My overwhelming impression is that they’re more fragile. They’ve got little resilience; I can’t push at their presuppositions even a little bit. Maybe they’re afraid those presuppositions will shatter.

See why I can’t answer the questions in those emails?

What should these parents be asking instead? How about: How can my student find a group of likeminded peers, a religious community, a church, to support them as they study? In my opinion, that’s far more important than finding faculty that agree with you. How can I find a Dean of Students office that thinks parents should be partners in education, rather than telling them to bug off and leave eighteen-year-olds to their own devices? I think the most destructive attitude to encounter in university staff and faculty is the one that says: They’re grown-ups. Pay your tuition and get out of their lives. Do you know of a faculty member in literature/philosophy/biology/history who is thoughtful and trustworthy and willing to mentor? One or two close relationships are important; a whole faculty that agrees with your entire belief system is not.

As always, thoughts and comments are welcome.

Posted in Preparing for college | 47 Comments

Guest post: Christopher’s gap year trip

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Susan

My oldest son, Christopher, came back from his gap year trip a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him to put down a few thoughts on the experience. He’ll be entering UVA as a freshman this fall.

My first idea was that I was going to take an entire year between high school and college, go live in in Australia, and work. Through a serious of both fortunate and unfortunate events, that original idea mutated into me visiting five different countries for five and a half months. Just as an overview, I spent four weeks in South Africa working to rehabilitate Vervet monkeys, a week in Egypt visiting friends, eight weeks in India doing teaching/community work, six weeks in China learning martial arts, and then four weeks in Australia working at a zoo. It was all volunteer work, which is code for “you’re working as hard as anyone with a regular job but instead of getting paid, you’re paying to do it.”

It probably goes without saying that I had an amazing time. I also feel like the trip prepared me for real life a little more than I would have been otherwise, and it has definitely given me a clear idea of what I want to do with myself for, well, the rest of my life. So if you’re looking for something to think about, work experience, maturity, and an idea of what direction you want to head with your life in general, I can’t recommend enough taking time to travel. What follows here are my tips for those of you who have decided you want to take a gap year.

TIP NO. 1: Be Aware of How Much Everything Costs
I used a company called Realgap to do all my travels, and in retrospect I could have done a lot better. I’m not criticizing them per se, but they did cost a *lot* more than I would have paid if I had booked through someone else or even just booked the projects directly. If you want to do a project in a foreign country, search around before you decide whether you want to go by yourself–or, if you’re going with a travel company, which travel company to go with. Play the field a little and see what you can find.

Also, look for reviews posted by people who have already used the company. Again, in my opinion, Realgap isn’t terrible. They did help me out some, and it was nice to know I had some support, but they didn’t really do that much for me that I couldn’t have done through the projects directly. Realgap also has a lot of bad reviews online, although if you ask them about this you’ll get an email that says something along the lines of “Grumble…mutter…trolls….troublemakers…mutter mutter…..”

Had I booked directly through the projects I could have saved a few thousand dollars, possibly as much as $5,000. Realgap takes a lot off the top. One thing you can do is look at the programs they offer, then search the internet for the names of those projects and see if there’s anywhere else you can book them through–or if you can book them direct. My first project, for example, was Riverside Rehabilitation Center in South Africa. Had I searched their name, I would have found their website, on which they have an application form.

If you want to use a travel company, again, search the internet! One of the girls who was in South Africa used a company called Bush Direct that I believe does several other Africa programs as well as the one I was on…the woman who runs the company actually came out and checked on the girl. It’s small, but it won’t charge you much more than you would pay to book the program yourself. And don’t make the same mistake I did; read reviews of the travel company before you book with it.

If you want to get some basic ideas of what it would be like to travel in certain countries, what companies to use, and the experiences of those who have gone before, check out http://www.travellersconnected.com/.

TIP NO. 2: Decide Whether to Go Alone or Not

I went traveling by myself, and I did projects, so in essence I had stuff to do and people to do it with in every country. I have a feeling that if I had traveled by myself and just done touristy things I would have been driven completely insane by boredom. So to sum up; if you want to travel by yourself, you should sign up for programs. If you want to travel with a friend, it’s still a fine idea for both of you to sign up for projects and programs, but it’s easier to just travel around without stopping in any one place too long if you have a friend to keep you from going nuts.

If you want to find good projects and programs, google is your best friend. Get an idea of what kind of thing you might want to do and search for it. If you don’t know, you can always go look at Realgap’s websites for ideas, and then try to find a cheaper alternative to using them. But let me just say again, they’re not the worst company you could use, just expensive.

TIP NO. 3: Be Careful

Aside from the obvious rules (don’t go to dangerous looking places, avoid social faux pas, don’t get in the unmarked white van with “Free Candy” written on the side in Hindi), watch out for friendly people who come up and start talking to you. They will rarely get to the point right away, but the point is almost always….no, in fact, there’s no “almost” about it….that they want your money and will go to almost any lengths to get it.

If you’re going to be a world traveler, especially in third world countries, you have to learn to be firm with people, and sometimes just downright rude. If you’re basically a nice person this can be a little jarring, but it’s a vital survival skill.

A good rule of thumb is this; if the person you’re talking to is (beyond a shadow of a doubt) another traveler, all is well. If the person is from the country you’re in, be very, very careful, especially if you’re an obvious tourist in a third world country. No matter how friendly they seem, do not agree to go anywhere or do anything with them, unless you’re specifically told it’s alright by your guide if you have one.

TIP NO. 4: Take Every Available Opportunity

Taking a gap year is an opportunity for personal growth and amazing experiences, but you’re not going to experience any if you spend it doing the same thing you would be doing at home in foreign countries. Take every opportunity, even if it seems scary or costs extra money. You won’t ever regret it.

Despite being a little low on money, I paid extra in Africa to take a trip to Kruger National Park, and I would have been a real moron not to. I also took some time off my project in China and went, by myself, on a 26 hour train ride to Beijing, where I hiked the Great Wall and saw Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Doing things like that–taking a week’s trip with no kind of backup–helped me develop more of a sense of how to cope with difficulties, although I did in that week develop the concept of something which I call a “Chinese Morning” which is when you set out with the specific goal of doing something and are foiled at every turn until you’re ready to become a hermit and live alone in the Alps for the rest of your life by about noon.

TIP NO. 5: You Are An American…..I Assume….

If you’re American, you’re going to get even more attention from locals of developing/third world countries than people from other first world countries would. It may also mean that you’re going to be considered a little slow on the uptake or arrogant before people even get to know you. Don’t take it personally, just do your best to show them it’s not the case. Unless you are stupid or arrogant, in which case you’re just out of luck.

And to all you Canadians reading this…..go away.

Just kidding. Everybody likes Canadians.

So those are my top five tips for travelers. And I’ll say it again; I had an amazing trip and would recommend the experience to anybody. Get out there. Have some real life before college.

Good luck on your travels.

Posted in Guest posts, Preparing for college | 17 Comments

Having a bit of a summer break…

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Susan

…both from home schooling and from blogging about it. In the meantime, if you haven’t already seen them, check out our new YouTube question-and-answer sessions about dictation and vocabulary.

In the meantime, just for entertainment: here’s a sentence I ran across at the beginning of a review of the Canadian film Growing Op:

Home-schooling and homegrown marijuana are two fertile areas to spawn youth-oriented comedy…

That is seriously the first time I have seen THAT particular pairing.

Regular posts will resume shortly…

Posted in Susan's Video Question and Answer Sessions | 1 Comment

College: online or not?

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Susan

I was driving my sixteen-year-old son into Williamsburg tonight (actually, being driven by him, a different and altogether more terrifying experience) when I heard this story on Marketplace:

KAI RYSSDAL: Last year, we reported, along with ProPublica, on some of the high-pressure recruiting tactics that are being used at for-profit colleges, like at the biggest one, the University of Phoenix.

BRANDON BURKE: One thing we would be told to do is call up a student who was on the fence and say, “All right, I’ve only got one seat left. I need to know right now if you need me to save this for you.” Well, that wasn’t true.

It turns out the federal government been looking into recruiting and student debt loads at some of those for-profit schools as well.

Oddly enough, I had just spent a frustrating hour on the University of Phoenix website, trying to figure out how to garner a little more information on its offerings without actually registering for a “Would you like more information?” sales pitch. (More on that shortly.) I’d also paid virtual visits to Kaplan University, Ashford University, Westwood University, FloridaTechOnline, and a handful of others.

There were two reasons for this–I was looking for a meteorology course for my thirteen-year-old and was striking out on the high school level, so I thought I’d try introductory college courses instead. (Not much luck, incidentally, so if you have suggestions, please post them.) Also, I’d just the previous week given my Preparing for College workshop in Richmond–and had fielded a bunch of inquiries later about online college. Wasn’t this a great option for home educators? Isn’t it a natural extension of the home education experience?

I’m not anti-technology in the slightest. I am the proud owner of four websites, three Macs, two blogs, and a Kindle. But I’m not a fan of the online college option. There are six pieces of advice I’d give to anyone considering online higher education, and if you take them I think you’re likely to decide against this option for your high school senior.

1. Look for accreditation.

Any online school that takes tuition in exchange for college credit should be accredited through Middle States, the Southern Association, the Western Association, or another of the six regional accreditation associations.

Not all bricks-and-mortar schools that recruit home schoolers are accredited either, but I’d make this an absolute non-negotiable if I were picking a school for my kid.

Why does accreditation matter? aren’t we educational rebels, after all?

Not when I’m writing a check for $10,000+, I’m not. I’m sure great education can happen in unaccredited classrooms, but if I’m shelling out that amount of tuition, I want my kid to have a fighting chance of transferring those credits or attending grad school–and that’s not going to happen with an unaccredited transcript.

2. Distinguish for-profit schools from online branches of established universities.

For-profit schools such as Kaplan, Phoenix, DeVry and others were founded for the sole purpose of earning money. That doesn’t mean the education is automatically worse–but it does mean that its representatives are far more likely to be overselling the quality that’s present. A for-profit school doesn’t turn down unqualified students; it collects their tuition. Classes full of unqualified students tend towards the mean. I speak as an instructor: when you have a higher percentage of unprepared student, the intellectual level of the entire class drops.

These schools have also been garning a reputation as ruthless marketers. Another Marketplace piece highlighted the problem, quoting a few prospective students:

KATHERINE CLARK: They were very persistent.

TERESA BARRON: She called me every day.

DANIEL RAY: I legitimately got three or four calls a day for about two weeks until I finally talked to him.

Katherine Clark, Teresa Barron, and Daniel Ray are just three of the many students around the country who tell a similar story. They’ve been hounded by enrollment counselors from for-profit colleges. Anyone familiar with the sales profession will recognize some of their hard-sell tactics.

That’s the experience I had; last year, I filled out “more information” cards for several for-profit online schools, just trying to find out what the process was like since I’d gotten inquiries from parents of home-educated teens. They emailed, wrote, and called at night, on Sunday morning, during dinner. I seriously thought I was going to have to change my phone number. Or enter the Witness Protection Program.

3. Remember that online schools are cash cows for the established universities as well.

While established universities aren’t nearly as bad about hunting down possible enrollees, they still don’t apply the same standards to online students as to regular on-campus students. My cautions about the level of difficulty are the same.

4. Realize that most online schools are professional colleges, not liberal arts institutions.

Marketplace calls these schools “career colleges,” and it’s a good name; they offer very specific, limited narrow training in particular skills. There’s a place for that sort of education, of course, but I think it is better suited to older students who need a degree to progress further in the career they’ve already chosen–or older students who’ve already had life and work experience and know what they want to do. Younger students should be given the opportunity to take a wider spectrum of classes and spend more time in exploration and discover.

5. Consider the value of an intellectual community.

I’ve always thought college-at-home was a poor option for one major reason: you don’t develop an intellectual community. Much of the value of a college education comes as you interact with the ideas and experiences of others–both your peers and your professors. A college education is intended to introduce you to a whole new world. When you stay at home, you may glance through the window at a whole new world, but you don’t ever join it.

Which is related to my last point…

6. Don’t overprotect.

At-home and online college education is an extension of the home education experience…but home education should also come to a natural end. Isn’t our goal to raise adults who will leave that experience and strike out on their own?

Experiences or thoughts to share? Please do.

Posted in Preparing for college | 21 Comments

College debt

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Susan

I’ve been saying this in my lectures about college admissions for the last five years. Read the entire article here. WELL worth your time.

“Placing the Blame as Students Are Buried in Debt”
By Ron Lieber

Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it….Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she’s been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments.

This is not a long-term solution, because the interest on the loans continues to pile up. So in an eerie echo of the mortgage crisis, tens of thousands of people like Ms. Munna are facing a reckoning. They and their families made borrowing decisions based more on emotion than reason, much as subprime borrowers assumed the value of their houses would always go up.

Meanwhile, universities like N.Y.U. enrolled students without asking many questions about whether they could afford a $50,000 annual tuition bill. Then the colleges introduced the students to lenders who underwrote big loans without any idea of what the students might earn someday — just like the mortgage lenders who didn’t ask borrowers to verify their incomes…..

It is utterly depressing that there are so many people like her facing decades of payments, limited capacity to buy a home and a debt burden that can repel potential life partners. For starters, it’s a shared failure of parenting and loan underwriting.

But perhaps the biggest share lies with colleges and universities because they have the most knowledge of the financial aid process….

Ms. Munna started college at age 17 and borrowed as much money as she could under the federal loan program. To make up the difference between her grants and work study money and the total cost of attending, her mother co-signed two private loans with Sallie Mae totaling about $20,000.

When they applied for a third loan, however, Sallie Mae rejected the application….So before Cortney’s junior year, N.Y.U. recommended that she apply for a private student loan on her own with Citibank.

Over the course of the next two years, starting when she was still a teenager, she borrowed about $40,000 from Citibank without thinking much about how she would pay it back. How could her mother have let her run up that debt, and why didn’t she try to make her daughter transfer to, say, the best school in the much cheaper state university system in New York? “All I could see was college, and a good college and how proud I was of her,” [her mother] Cathryn said. “All we needed to do was get this education and get the good job. This is the thing that eats away at me, the naïveté on my part.”

Pause for one minute while I insert my own opinion. Maybe–possibly–it was worth going into debt for an Ivy League (or equivalent) college thirty or forty years ago, when such an education actually did make you a member of an old-boys’ network that would provide you with contacts and the inside track towards an enormously profitable career; maybe, thirty or forty years ago, the investment had a chance of paying off.

If that was ever true, it isn’t now.

…[W]hat was Citi thinking, handing over $40,000 to an undergraduate who had already amassed debt well into the five figures?

Er, interest???

….Today, someone like Ms. Munna might not qualify for the $40,000 she borrowed. But as the economy rebounds, there is little doubt that plenty of lenders will step forward to roll the dice on desperate students, especially because the students generally can’t get rid of the debt in bankruptcy court.

The financial aid office often has the best picture of what students like Ms. Munna are up against, because they see their families’ financial situation splayed out on the federal financial aid form. So why didn’t N.Y.U. tell Ms. Munna that she simply did not belong there once she’d passed, say, $60,000 in total debt?

“Had somebody called me and said, ‘Do you have a clue where this is all headed?’, it would have been a slap in the face, but a slap in the face that I needed,” said Cathryn Munna. “When financial aid told her that they could get her $2,000 more in loans, they should have been saying ‘You are in deep doo-doo, little girl.’ ”

That’s not a role that the university wants to take on, though. “I think that would be completely inappropriate,” said Randall Deike, the vice president of enrollment management for N.Y.U., who oversees admissions and financial aid. “Some families will do whatever it takes for their son or daughter to be not just at N.Y.U., but any first-choice college. I’m not sure that’s always the best decision, but it’s one that they really have to make themselves.”

….Urging students to attend a cheaper college or leave altogether suggests a lack of confidence about the earning potential of alumni. Nobody wants to admit that. And once a university starts encouraging middle-class students to go elsewhere, it must fill its classes with more children of the wealthy and a much smaller number of low-income students to whom it can afford to offer enormous scholarships. That’s hardly an ideal outcome either.

Finally, universities exist to enroll students, not turn them away. “Aid administrators want to keep their jobs,” said Joan H. Crissman, interim president and chief executive of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “If the administration finds out that you’re encouraging students to go to a cheaper school just because you don’t think they can handle the debt load, I don’t think that’s going to mesh very well.”

That doesn’t change the fact, however, that the financial aid office is still in the best position to see trouble coming and do something to stop it. University officials should take on this obligation, even if they aren’t willing to advise students to attend another college.

Amen to that.

…[Ms. Munna] recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It’s the highest salary she’s earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month. Rent runs $750, and the full monthly payments on her student loans would be about $700 if they weren’t being deferred, which would not leave a lot left over.

She may finally be earning enough to barely scrape by while still making the payments for the first time since she graduated, at least until interest rates rise and the payments on her loans with variable rates spiral up. And while her job requires her to work nights and weekends sometimes, she probably should find a flexible second job to try to bring in a few extra hundred dollars a month.

Ms. Munna understands this tough love, buck up, buckle-down advice. But she also badly wants to call a do-over on the last decade. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back,” she said. “It feels wrong to me.”

I say this to parents all the time, and I’ll say it now: if you’re well-intentioned and conscientious, there aren’t too many things you can do that will permanently damage your child. Kids are resilient. But allowing a child to take on thousands and thousands of dollars in college debt…yep, that will do it.

My husband and I are in our forties (late and early, respectively). We have many, many friends who are still paying off college loans. The need to make those payments has dictated where they live, what they do, and how they spend their time. For the last two decades.

There are many, many good colleges out there–affordable, if non-Ivy League, colleges that will give your child a perfectly good education without saddling them with twenty years’ worth of debt.

It is not worth it.

I only paid for one of my four degrees. None of those are from Ivy League schools. (In at least one case, WAY far from it.) I love what I do, and I have the freedom to do it because I’m not in debt. And never have been.

Will post shortly on our own college decisions once I get permission from my son (currently in transit between China and Australia, so not immediately available.)

In the meantime, read the article.

Posted in Preparing for college | 37 Comments

Guest post: Staci Thomas on science, technology, and girls

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Susan

What Bias?
By Staci Thomas, P.E.

Staci Thomas is a licensed professional engineer who works part time and home educates her four daughters.

Recently, The New York Times ran a story about a report titled “Why So Few?” The report, released by the American Association of University Women, summarized the extensive research on women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The report indicates that discrimination women encounter is to blame for the low the numbers of women in STEM fields. Lack of mathematical ability for females as compared to their male peers was not the cause of the low numbers. “Why So Few?” goes on to recommend that the solution to increasing the number of women in STEM fields is to provide role models and mentoring programs for young women.

As a woman involved in a STEM field for nearly 20 years, I found the conclusion and the solution of this report surprising.

My parents raised me somewhat unconventionally in that they did not ask the typical “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question. Instead, they told me what I was going to be when I grew up. When I was an aspiring figure skater, oboe player, and pianist, my father would often drive me to lessons. I remember him saying repeatedly during those drives, “You can’t put food on the table playing the oboe, the piano, or ice skating. You should be an engineer.”

The type of engineer was my choice. My father, a health physicist, knew that a Bachelor’s Degree in engineering would provide job security and a nice salary that would put the proverbial food on the table. My mother, who sacrificed a career to stay at home with her children, also had frequent discussions with me about engineering. She talked at length about people we knew who were in STEM fields and she would explain what kind of work those people were doing. She practically memorized the college admission handbooks and their recommendations for quality engineering schools.

Both parents were consistent in reminding me that it did not matter that most of my peers were seeking a liberal arts education. They instilled a confidence that it was just fine to be different. By the time I was in high school, it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to be an engineer. Four years later, my parents repeated this process with my brother.

I was not a math or science genius. Reading and analyzing literature was my preference, but majoring in English was not an option in my house. Engineering was it, whether I struggled with physics or not. Throughout high school, my parents embraced my academic challenges with constant encouragement and endless help. Together, the three of us worked toward my future with excitement, despite the challenges that my parents always approached positively.

I made it through a challenging Honors College Preparatory High School Program, and while I did teach my incompetent AP Calculus teacher calculus, I certainly did not ace the AP Physics Exam. My SAT’s were not stellar, but sufficient to get me into a several highly ranked engineering schools.

My college engineering classes were tough for me, to say the least. I did not engage in the typical social activities that so many college students do; there was simply too much studying to do. And again, while I did not graduate with a 4.0, I graduated in four years with three job offers waiting for me.

During my time at college where most of the engineering faculty was male (I remember only one female professor), I sought the helpful professors for additional assistance. The professors that weren’t very helpful I dismissed as being simply not helpful. It never occurred to me that they might welcome a young man into their office minutes after they had dismissed me. I had a goal and I was going to do everything I could to meet it, despite the people who weren’t willing to help.

This attitude is not a result of my personality; it was ingrained in me at a young age by my parents. If bias was there by instructors or peers, I didn’t see it.

As I went on to the workplace, I found myself in a male dominated field. I barely noticed. Over the course of 17 years, I have worked alongside only a handful of female engineers. One would think that I would have experienced some bias or discrimination, and yet never once did I feel that bias. Did it exist?

“Why So Few?” says it did. I missed it, and I attribute this to the fact that my parents guided and directed me in such a way that it did not matter what any human being – male or female – thought of what I was doing.

The most surprising thing about the “Why So Few?” report is proposed solution to the problem of why more women aren’t in STEM fields. Female mentors and role models are that proposed solution.

It is obvious that my mentors were in my own house. Teachers and professors weren’t necessarily going out of their way to encourage me in my engineering pursuits; that came solely from my parents. It seems obvious that parents would be the first step in encouraging daughters to enter STEM fields.

People often ask me how I became an engineer. When I recount my story, they are usually shocked with my parents’ guidance. Many parents have told me that they wish they had done more of what my parents did. Others ask me how they did it. What follows are some recommendations for encouraging children, both male and female to enter STEM fields:

• Talk about STEM fields with your children. Talk about the careers of the adults they know, especially those in math, science, or engineering fields. Discuss how those careers impact society. As you see the impact of those careers in every day life, point them out to your children. This may involve educating yourself a bit.

• Encourage your children to persevere when math and science seem tough. The “Why So Few?” report showed that math ability might improve with practice. A child struggling with math should not be labeled as “not a math kid”. Parents who are home educating their children can easily combat this attitude with encouragement, practice, and third-party help if necessary. Helping children persevere through challenging academic work will give them the confidence for future academic and life challenges.

• Eliminate gender bias at home. My parents did not assume that my brother was going to be better in math and science because he was a boy. Neither did they assume that I would be a better writer than my brother because I was a girl. While male and female brains are different, academic ability is not solely based on gender. Home educating parents should guard against perpetuating these biases.

• Encourage interests even though they may not lead to a career. Even though my parents were guiding me into engineering, they did not discourage my figure skating and musical pursuits. In fact, they encouraged them, counseling that those things would be something I could do for enjoyment the rest of my life. Their counsel that I was not going to make a decent living skating or playing was correct; I am not an Olympic level figure skater, nor am I a world-class musician. However, I still enjoy those skills today and the time spent learning them was worthwhile.

• Flood your house with math and science materials. Subscribe to science magazines. Point out technology news. Read books about math. If you are a non-STEM parent, don’t avoid math and science books, movies, and magazines. I am a STEM parent and I make an extra effort to talk and learn about history, as it was the weakest component of my education. Don’t avoid what you don’t know. Decide to learn about it with your children.

• Guide your children to dismiss bias they do encounter. If your daughter experiences discrimination, point out the folly of looking to a person’s gender for academic ability.

Even if you think that my parents’ unconventional career counsel of their daughter was a bit extreme, don’t wait for a special female mentor to show up and encourage your daughter to think about a math or science related career. Open the doors of math and science opportunities to your daughters by talking and exposing. Or, you may choose to follow the lead of my father, who now often asks my four daughters what kind of engineer they are going to be when they grow up.

If you’d like to submit a guest post, please email the webmaster at welltrainedmind.com!

Posted in Guest posts | 33 Comments

The home school resource center booklet

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Susan

Last year, I asked my readers what they’d like to see their local bookstore do for home educators. I got a host of wonderful suggestions. So I’m happy to announce that Peace Hill Press has now published a booklet for bookstore owners and managers. We’re hoping it will help more and more local stores serve the home schooling population.

You can read the booklet online by clicking here. But if you’d like print copies to hand to your favorite bookstore manager, all you have to do is let us know. Email Jackie (order at welltrainedmind.com) and tell her how many you’d like and where to send them.

Posted in Resource roundup | 6 Comments