Columbus NACAC Day 3!

For the closing day of NACAC I decided to go to two sessions: one about the national job outlook and one about the teenage brain.

The job outlook session was presented by the Department of Labor. While it was, admittedly, not the most lively of sessions, I did get to learn a lot about the careers that are projected to be growing rapidly in the coming years (along with those that are on the decline). Healthcare is the fastest growing sector and jobs in this field are the ones that are expanding at the fastest rates. This doesn't mean doctors though, it mostly means nurses (including nurse practitioners), home health aides, and other health support occupations. There are anticipated to be many job openings for people without formal education, but those jobs are expected to pay very very low wages. The earnings for a person with a bachelor's degree outpaces those without by more than double in terms of annual income. It is also projected that the sector of jobs with the most hiring will actually be careers that require a Master's degree - something to keep in mind for anyone concerned about the cost of college. One of the most useful things shared at the session was the website that will give state by state job predictions for different career paths. This can help show the landscape of how many openings there might be in New York in the next eight years.

http://www.projectionscentral.com/Projections/LongTerm

For a national look at job trends, you can also look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics job outlook

http://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/

The most interesting trivia is that the job with the fastest job growth in the nation is wind turbine technicians. It only represents about 4800 jobs nationally, but no other job is expanding more quickly.

The next session I went to was a talk by author and physician Dr. Frances Jensen. She presented a session called 'The Teenage (and Young Adult) Brain: Neuroscience You Can Use.' She shared that some of the behaviors that we marginalize (like risk taking and poor decision making) are actually neurologically appropriate behavior for teens. That isn't to say that unhealthy choices should be encouraged, but she encourages instead looking at it through a lens of normal human development. It turns out the brain is the last organ in the human body to fully develop. Research indicates that the brain is not fully connected and functioning until the mid to late twenties - far after college is complete. The parts to mature last are those connected with things like empathy, decision making, executive functioning, and impulse control (all located in the frontal lobe). The brain has connections within it called synapses and those synapses are insulated by a fatty substance called myelin. It takes years the the myelin to fully wrap around the connections and this it the reason teenagers can have a somewhat 'uneven' behavior and decision making. If this prognosis is feeling bleak though, it isn't. While these 'unfinished' teen brains might sometimes be thrill seeking or highly emotional, they are also at their peak in terms of learning new things, building new and strong connections faster, and being plastic. This means that the teenage years are actually a wonderful window within which one can build new (and very strong) habits. If teens can work on practicing positive behaviors, those behaviors can become second nature. 

In this same way, teens are also much more highly susceptible to addiction. Bad habits can become addiction in teens much faster and with much less exposure than adults. This is why exposure to drugs and alcohol during the teen years, while the brain is not yet fully mature, can lead to much more serious lingering issues (including not just addiction but also some mental illness.) Her comments on marijuana and alcohol were very interesting, but the one I found most enlightening is that marijuana has lingering results on synapses (aka brain connections) for about four days. So for a teen that is choosing to 'let loose' on the weekend can absolutely see lingering cognitive effects well into the school week. Her advice to help the teenage brain operate at peak function is to maximize quality sleep and minimize distraction (particularly from screens). 

Overall, I had a wonderful experience at NACAC. I got to visit three great (and very different) campuses, connect (and reconnect) with colleagues, and get essential updates on some of the things changing the most quickly within college admissions. I want to take this opportunity to thank the PTA for their generous support of my attending this conference (and the college office in general). Next year, Boston!

Turning the Tide

If you have access to the internet, have turned on a TV, or read a headline today you probably caught wind of the new Harvard Graduate School of Education Making Caring Common report entitled "Turning the Tide Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions" that was released today. In case you missed it, this is a report, endorsed by many college and university admissions folks, that attempts to address the troubling direction that college admissions is going and suggest healthier alternatives for both students and schools.

You can read the executive summary of the report here or the full report here. 

An Op-Ed by Frank Bruni was also published yesterday in anticipation of this release. 

Included in the report are recommendations, some of which, I'm pleased to say, have already been a part of the school culture that Eleanor Roosevelt High School is trying to build. However, these goals can only be accomplished with buy-in from our students, parents, and guardians, so I hope that you will read through the report and reflect on how you can be a key player in making these recommendations a reality. 

Some examples:

• The report recommends ". . that students engage in forms of service that are authentically chosen—that emerge from a student’s particular passions and interests— that are consistent and well-structured, and that provide opportunity for reflection both individually and with peers and adults."As you are all aware, ElRo asks students to submit 20 hours of community service per year to demonstrate their connection with the community around them. We have a designated Community Service and Internship liaison (Ms. Genova-Hall) to help support students that feel they need extra guidance in accessing opportunities. I've said many times in multiple forums that our aim is for students to engage in their world. The requirement of community service aims to push students past the point of just going through the motions to complete service hours and instead help them find ways to use their passions as jumping off points for building up year after year of meaningful and authentic connections in their local, regional, national, or even international community. While things like raising money or participating in awareness campaigns are a start, a better way to demonstrate caring is for students to engage directly with those that are impacted. Raising money for breast cancer research is good, serving as a patient escort for individuals seeking breast cancer treatment is even better. Making posters about recycling is good, becoming a Central Park teen park ranger is better.
•  The report recommends "Colleges should tell students that taking the [standardized] test more than twice is very unlikely to meaningfully improve students’ scores." It has always been my recommendation that students sit for either the ACT or the SAT twice and taking the test more than that is not a useful or productive way to spend their time. Twenty years from now, you won't look back on endless sessions with a tutor as an experience that shaped your personality. Using that time to volunteer, or read classic literature, or get an internship at a museum very well could have a lasting impact on your life trajectory. 
•  The report recommends "Admissions offices should convey to students that simply taking large numbers of AP or IB courses per year is often not as valuable as sustained achievement in a limited number of areas." At ElRo, we make a conscious effort to be transparent about our policy to limit AP enrollment. 10th graders can take up to one AP course and 11th and 12th grade students are typically limited to two AP courses. This long time policy is in place to help students both manage their mental/emotional health and to help students make the connection between sincere academic interest and advanced coursework. We have been long time resistors of the "AP Arms Race" and I'm happy to see this report will encourage a continuation of those policies. 
• The report recommends "Admissions officers and guidance counselors should challenge the misconception that there are only a handful of excellent colleges and that only a handful of colleges create networks that are vital to job success." I make a concerted effort to help re-frame the idea of what makes a 'good' college. I'm constantly recommending places like the schools found in the 'Colleges That Change Lives' network and a common refrain in my meetings with students is to encourage a well balanced list of reach, target, and likely schools. The name on your college diploma that matters most is your name, not the college's. You control much of your success via your drive, tenacity, ambition, and willingness to trust in your own ability. 

The content of this report is enough to fill hours of philosophical discussion and entry after entry on a blog like this one. I present these highlights and links to encourage you to think about these things in your own family and reflect honestly about if you are part of the identified problem or (hopefully) part of the solution. 
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PTA Meeting - College Essay

Many thanks to the PTA for arranging for Harry Bauld to be the guest speaker at last night's PTA meeting. He presented on the topic of the college essay--something he has literally written the book on (See: On Writing the College Application Essay). I had previously read an older edition of the book but was happy to listen to his presentation and have the chance to hear his advice directly from the horse's mouth.

For a full description of all of his advice, the best thing to do is buy the book. But I will highlight here a few of the key takeaways that I encourage students to do when writing the essay:

1) Be authentic. Trying to fit a formula or over-manufacture an essay defeats the purpose. Write about a memory from your life, include details, tell a story that only you can tell.

2) Remember that these essays are being read at a very quick pace. If you repeat a topic that has already been seen 30 times that day, you risk the chance of boring the reader. Frequent trap topics include: 'the trip that changed my life,' 'through participating in X, I learned Y,'  my resume and autobiography in chronological order, and the 'Jock Essay' (aka The Big Game).

3) Be prepared for multiple revisions. If you know how you want your essay to conclude when you start it, you are probably doing it wrong. See where the writing takes you. See where your memories take you. Use writing strategies found in fiction to tell your true story - moments in time from your life.

4) Personal narrative writing is NOT like the writing you already do in school. Trying to think about the essay as a school assignment is taking the wrong approach.

5) Don't disregard the supplemental essay. Don't use it as a place to repeat information you've pulled from their glossy brochure. Do critically think about why that specific college is asking you this question and what will show them that you understand their mission and how you will be a strong fit for their campus.

Another big caveat to help keep this all in perspective is that the college essay is absolutely a significant part of the application process, but the kind of essay this book is focused on is really directed toward more selective colleges. There are a large number of colleges that really do have a numbers driven admission process and stressing over the minutiae of the essay will not have much impact on the end result. The majority of essays that students write are just fine and don't have a huge impact on a final decision. The places where it matters most though are usually at the reach schools and that is why understanding how to maximize the impact of the essay is essential.

Thanks to Mr. Bauld for a great evening!

Dear Seniors (and your Parents/Guardians) . . .

In the next two weeks, over 650 unknown application decisions will reveal themselves. Each year, I repost a link to this blog entry that I wrote way back when I first started making posts here. I wrote it because I wanted to offer nuggets of wisdom both to students who were crestfallen AND those who were on cloud nine.

In that same vein of 'must read' ruminations, I hope you've all already seen Frank Bruni's New York Times Op-Ed 'How to Survive the College Admissions Madness.' If you haven't, open a new browser tab and go read it immediately. 

Parents/Guardians: I observe that sometimes your children conflate their academic performance and college outcomes with your love and approval. Even if you think you are already doing a good job of separating the two, have a direct and concrete conversation with your child to make sure they hear you say the words "I'm proud of you just as you are."

Students: You may get the news you want to hear in the next few days. You may not get the news you want to hear in the next few days. Either way, the only thing keeping you from your goals and aspirations is you. I went to an Ivy League* graduate school and had classmates who started at community college. The seal on your diploma doesn't dictate your destiny. Your individual work ethic, your personal value system, your motivation, your creativity, and your talents are what will take you where you want to go.

This is an exciting time. I celebrate with you when you get good news! I'm so sorry when you are denied admission or put on a waitlist when your heart was set on going to that school. But you'll get through it. Don't let a little bit of bad news cloud the rest of the great news that you have to share. I'll regularly speak with parents or students who are dwelling on not getting into one place, but don't acknowledge the six or seven acceptances they do have. Remember in the fall when we talked about how you have to like your likely? That was only a few months ago and you liked the school then.

Brace yourselves for the decisions coming out. Prepare for the worst while you hope for the best. But remember that I'm proud of you just as you are.

*But, didn't I just tell the 8th graders that Ivy League schools aren't all they are cracked up to be? I did! And it wasn't! ;)

Image by Ben Wiseman NYTimes

Indianapolis NACAC Day 2

Day two got off to an early start with a public colleges of Virginia breakfast this morning. You might remember my experience visiting VCU two summers ago, and that helped push me over the edge to arrive early today to hear about the other public options in Virginia. As with most states, I think the attention gets placed on one or two (usually land grant) universities and it can be easy to forget just how diverse the public options are across the country. The breakfast was a good reminder that there are options beyond just the things you've heard of. Thanks to the public colleges of Virginia for hosting!

My first session this morning was the Common Application session - one that in year's past has been packed and fully of passionate debate. This year's session was surprisingly empty, perhaps a sign that the issues and apologies from last year are in the past. Admittedly, I would have preferred the presentation focus a bit more on showing us the inside of the application, particularly new updates, but there was an opportunity to share ideas with the CEO and other key CA players.

Second, I attended the "Closer Look at Early Action Admissions: Inside the College Admissions Office," an inside look at the Early programs at Boston College, University of Michigan, MIT, and Notre Dame. One theme seemed to be that highly selective schools are erring more and more on the side of caution, being cautious about filling too much of the class through Early Action. At two of the three schools that provided data, the yield was significantly higher (about 10 points) for EA applicants. But it was also stressed that while statistically odds of admission in early can be higher, the profile of admitted EA students is consistent with that of students admitted in the regular round. The issue of deferring EA students was defended as a necessary evil, as EA applicants are 'tightly bunched' making it near impossible to predict who will be admissible in the general pool. For all schools that provided data, there were students deferred and then later admitted, confirming that defer really does not automatically mean deny.

My last session of the day was actually a departure for me, instead of attending an educational session I attended a featured speaker presentation by Madeline Levine. Levine is an author and psychologist who specializes in issues facing students of affluent families. She wrote a book called "The Price of Privilege" and spoke about the increased chance of students from wealthy communities facing mental health issues. She is particularly interested in looking at the pressures that parents place on their children and a recent trend of pressures student place on themselves. The golden ticket is seen to be an Ivy League education, but 17% of Ivy League students are going back to their rooms and self injuring. How can we teach kids to have successful failures? How can we use the opportunities life provides to have kids cope with developmentally appropriate responses to stress? Only 7% of parents think that their children use drugs or alcohol to cope with stress - when asked 73% of kids reported using drugs and alcohol to cope with stress (with the largest stressor being academics). Instead of wanting kids who are perfect at everything, parents should embrace the natural strengths in their kids. A recent study suggests that to reach top executive corporate levels, individuals only need be experts in 3 out of 16 competencies. No one is perfect and no one needs to be. Levine says that affluent communities want to live in a world where average doesn’t exist. But that isn’t real life and, with thought, people will see that they are actually average at most things. And that is ok. Her final slide summarized it well in saying “While we all hope that our children will do well in school, we hope with even greater fervor that they will do well in life.” Levine was a lovely speaker and I plan to read her book after hearing her speak. 

I look forward to the final day tomorrow (and my final volunteer shift at the conference social). 

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