Three Cheers for the College Fair!

Yesterday we successfully completed the 3rd Annual Unique NYC College Fair and I have to start with a huge amount of thanks to everyone involved. Mr. Saliani was able to join us to represent our school during the lunch reception for the representatives. The remarks from the principals really are a unique part of our fair, in my years working in admissions I've never seen that anywhere else. I want to thank Irene, Tess, and Orion for representing the Class of 2010 and being ambassadors for our school. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Ms. Altadonna, Mr. Joyce, and Ms. Marisol Cruz for helping to escort our students over to the fair.

I have to give the largest amount of thanks to LAB for hosting the event each year and truly putting in the long hours of preparation work that goes into planning such a large event. Our school and PTA support the fair financially and we bring our students to participate, but LAB's commitment is quite significant and I'm thrilled to be included in their company.

For me, some of the most exciting parts of yesterday included: Saying hello to reps that visited ElRo in the fall and having them tell me that they had seen Juniors that they had previously met at the ElRo Fall visit (and remembered). This is the power of the college fair! Making connections, standing out from the crowd, and showing demonstrated interest! I also had the luck of running into an old friend from my days at in graduate admissions, it was a really welcome surprise.

I wish more juniors had been able to attend, but I hope for the ones that did they were able to get something positive out of it. The college journey is a long one and college fairs are a great way to take the first few steps. I hope students took my advice from the handout that was distributed and really did push themselves to talk with at least three schools that they had not previously heard of.

I can't wait to bring the class of 2012 to the 4th Annual Fair next year!

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Top Reasons to Make a College Fair Work For You

I just sent out an email to the current 11th grade to emphasize a few of the benefits of attending college fairs. With our own fair coming up on Wednesday, I figured it is worth repeating these issues here on the blog.

1) If you feel overwhelmed with the idea of the college, a college fair is an excellent way to start the process and to learn about all of the options
2) If you are already well into the college process, making additional connections at fairs is an ideal way to show demonstrated interest. More and more colleges are tracking how many times a student connects with their office. Every card you fill out, question you ask, and conversation you have with an admissions staff member counts.
3) Attending fairs and giving your information to colleges that interest you are great ways to save money. Yes, money. Many colleges offer students on their mailing list a free application in the Fall. A little time at the fairs now can end up saving you lots of money from waived application fees in the future. Always fill out an inquiry card if you like the school and want to receive communication from them.
         **At the same time, only fill out a card if you truly are interested. Save yourself the aggravation of   having a mailbox full of unwanted college materials. Aside from the environmental impact of the wasted paper, it is not useful for yourself or the college to feign interest in a place you are sure is not right for you.
4) Everyone should be able to find at least one college that interests them at any given fair. Even if you don't, hearing about a school and not being excited about it is just as valuable as finding a perfect match.

College Fairs rate highly on the time spent vs. college goals accomplished scale. It is hard to beat 'visiting' dozens of schools and speaking to actual human beings that can actually share valuable information about the place in the span of an hour or two.

Challenge yourself to have meaningful interactions with at least three college representatives from schools you have never heard of. You never know, Kalamazoo might be just right for you!

Earth Day College Tip!

In honor of Earth Day (and next week's Unique NYC College Fair), I'd like to recommend a great way to reuse those return address labels you get for free in the mail: College Fair pre-filled out bio information! When you (or for parents, when your student) get free return address labels in the mail after getting on some pesky mailing list or as a thank you for donating to a charitable organization, bring the stickers to college fairs so all the student needs to do when they are filling out the card is peel and stick. It is a great way to keep the labels out the landfills and save time at crowded college tables. Obviously, some questions on the college inquiry cards may require some additional attention, like your intended major, graduation year and current school, but using the stickers will speed up the process. It is also a great benefit to the poor student worker back at the college that has to decipher smeared ink, messy handwriting, and so on. Win/Win!

As a reminder, students should only use the return address labels if THEIR name and address is listed. Parents should not be the ones on the mailing lists, students are the future applicants, right?

For students that may not have pre-existing extra return address labels sitting in a drawer at home, don't dismay. You can go to any office supply store and buy labels for you to type the information on ahead of time (try Microsoft Word Label Wizard). You can even add that other additional information I mentioned some schools may request (like our school code 333648, your birthday, intended major and graduation year). If you have the option of choosing your own size label, try and choose one a little bit on the larger size so you can use a slightly more reader friendly font.

I look forward to the fair next Wednesday with the 11th grade students. We will be leaving ElRo to head to LAB after school on Wednesday. All juniors are expected to attend unless they have a job, have childcare responsibilities or have a sports practice. While parents cannot attend the Unique NYC College fair, they can go to the NACAC fair this Sunday at the Javits Center.

The Start of Something New

Today marks the first day of the final marking period of the 2009-2010 school year. As an annualized school, this final marking period will be the last 1/4 of a student's final annual grade. The annualized grading system provides a unique situation where students are given a final 2 months to impact the direction of their final grade. It also happens to be the final 2 months where students are more likely to be tired, burnt out, and tempted by the warm weather to spend less time studying and more time soaking in the joy that is New York City in spring.

To the Seniors: Resist every temptation to let your work ethic and interest in academics to go out the window. This last marking period should be just as important as every other marking period you have had at ElRo. In fact, it should be more important because this is the one marking period that could affect your ability to both walk at graduation and matriculate into the college where you are in the process of depositing. Every day still counts. We are bound as a school to the Chancellor's regulations which require students to earn both a passing grade AND seat time in the courses where they are earning credit. Coming in late or not coming at all are not viable options. In addition, schools can still revoke your acceptances, even though you have deposited, if your grades show a dramatic shift. Save everyone the drama and just make it happen.

To the Juniors: This will be the final marking period where you can change the final grades you receive for the 2009-10 school year. These will be the grades that will be at the top of your transcript when you apply to college in the fall. You get to decide if the path your transcript takes is an upward trend or a high plateau (grades that started high and ended high). These two paths are highly preferable to the mid to low plateau or even more dreaded: the downward trend. Dig deep and pull out grades that are even one or two points higher than you thought you could. The benefits will far outweigh the sacrifices.

9th and 10th graders: The work you do now is the legacy that will follow you on your applications (and will be the memories your teachers have when writing you recommendations). In the words of Tim Gunn: Make it work.

Lastly, should you be in need of a little motivation watch this, probably one of my all time favorite Shakespeare scenes. Ever.

Tell Us How We Are Doing!

Both Parent/Guardians and Students are asked to submit a NYC School Survey - if you have not already completed this, please click here to fill one out. The surveys help us know what we are doing well and what needs to be better. We also get credit based on our school community participation so help us reach 100%! Surveys must be completed by April 23.

Thanks Macaulay!

This morning I attended a wonderful session at CUNY's Macaulay Honors College where they shared with guidance counselors from around the city all of the exciting things going on with this fantastic program. My beliefs about the strengths of the CUNY system were only confirmed by the things they had to say. The graduating senior from Baruch we heard from was on par with the Wharton student I heard from at Penn this past Fall.

Don't make any mistake about it, Macaulay is fiercely competitive (They only take about 20% of applicants and the average GPA/SAT is 93/1400+ on the first two sections) but anyone considering Columbia, Barnard, and NYU should also add this to the list.

Oh, and did I mention it is tuition free and they provide all students with a Mac laptop?

Pop Dee Ba Do Dop

Congratulations to our two Seinfeld Scholars Hallie Stotler and Luis Vargas! This is just one example of all the things at ElRo we have to be proud of!

The Stuff Great Essays Are Made Of . . .

I read this article a few weeks back and couldn't help but tear up. It is about a young woman, her father and their quest to read aloud together every day. (Before you think it seems weird, keep in mind her father is a librarian). You'll be hooked a few paragraphs in, I promise.

Not that a good college essay needs to make the reader cry, but this type of story is a great example of how the subject of a college essay could come from something other than a trip that changed your life or a big game. We learn a lot about this young woman's life and personality. Outside of being a possible topic for an essay, this is also just a wonderful story for parents and children alike. Enjoy. Click Here for the full article: NYTimes Photo: Ryan Collard for NY Times