The Fat Envelope Blog

Want to flunk your college admissions interview?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:22:00 GMT

I've previously given tips about nailing your college admissions interview. Still, it appears as if a disturbingly large number of interviewees are getting off on the wrong foot. The last couple of years, Jenn and I have noticed a trend towards poor behavior among the students we have interviewed as part of our local alumni interviewing committee. Talking to other interviewers, it looks like we are not alone with this observation.

The problems have more to do with basic manners and maturity than the actual interview itself. It seems like common sense, but if an interviewer contacts you and leaves a voicemail message or sends an email, don't wait 2 weeks to reply. Try to respond as quickly as you can, preferably within 24 hours. Be courteous and polite, and be flexible about the meeting location and time. Remember, your interviewer wants to help you, but is an unpaid volunteer who is using his or her free time to talk to you. You should therefore be at accommodating as possible and respectful of your interviewer's schedule. You may think you are a busy person, but chances are you aren't nearly as busy as your interviewer!

Keep in mind that you want to communicate to your interviewer that you are mature and responsible. In fact, many colleges specifically tell their alumni interviewers to watch for these traits. So doing something as simple as calling your interviewer back right away and being courteous will go a long way towards making a good impression.

60 Minutes reports on the New York SAT cheating scandal

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:37:00 GMT

I don't know if you caught tonight's 60 Minutes piece on the recent New York SAT cheating scandal, but it shed some light on the motivations and mindset of Sam Eshaghoff, the hired gun who took the test (as well as his "clients"). If you missed it, you can watch on 60 Minutes' website.

The 60 Minutes report makes the College Board look like a bunch of bumbling oafs when it comes to test security, and the representative inteviewed offered feeble excuses at best. I suspect security policies will get tighter very quickly, and that's obviously in the best interest of the 99% of students who take the test legitimately.

But by far the most striking aspect of the piece was the interview with Eshaghoff. Remorse? Not even a little bit. He liked the cash, and he liked the thrill of getting away with it, coming across as incredibly narcissistic. For example, check out this short video 60 Minutes made of his tips for taking the SAT. Eshaghoff basically states SAT prep is a waste of time, and if you can't do well on the test you should pay someone to take it for you!

I was most amazed, though, by the rationalizing Eshaghoff did to justify the cheating. He actually states that by taking the SAT for someone, he was "saving his life." My head is still exploding! Granted, this came from the mouth of a sociopath who I'm certain used that sort of language to sell his services. He may or may not actually believe it. But his clients did. And by extension, the parents of his clients did, too. Eshaghoff speculates that his clients had to get the money to pay him from their parents, and he's almost certainly correct. He's just playing on the rampant insanity surrounding the college admissions process, and the utterly inaccurate belief that good SAT scores will guarantee future success and happiness. Sure a great college is a first step, but no one's life follows the script you think it will when you're 16.

I'm sure Eshaghoff is more than willing to blame the competitiveness of college admissions for his bad behavior, but buying into the craziness doesn't give him, or his clients, a pass. Those who cheat their way into colleges that are beyond them academically aren't doing themselves any favors. Work hard. Do your best. And look forward to college as the beginning of the rest of your life rather than the end all, be all!

How to nail your college admissions interviews

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:56:00 GMT

As the calendar heads towards 2012, we have entered that time of year in which colleges reach out to applicants to conduct admissions interviews. Typically, interviews are held in December through February, although early applicants might have theirs in November or even October. Most schools have local alumni volunteers conduct the interviews, and these alumni are usually gung-ho advocates of their alma maters. Admissions offices try as much as possible to assign applicants to alumni who live close by or have something in common with the applicant.

So, how should you handle your interview? Of course, you want to do as well as possible, keeping in mind that the interview is just one piece of the whole process. I am a volunteer interviewer for my college, and I have conducted roughly half a dozen admissions interviews a year since 1996. During that time, I have definitely seen the good, the bad, and the ugly!

1. Dress appropriately and be on time. This advice may be self-obvious, but I once had a student show up to my law office in jeans and a t-shirt with holes in it. Nowadays I meet my interviewees at Starbucks, but it still reflects poorly if you show up looking slovenly. It tells the interviewer that you are not serious. Similarly, don't be late! Give yourself plenty of time to find the interview location (often a coffeeshop) and if you get lost, be sure to have the telephone number of your interviewer handy. I guarantee your interviewer will appreciate a call if you are lost or run into unexpected traffic.

2. Be educated. I have had countless interviewees not have a clue about even the most basic aspects of my school. In each case, it was clear to me that they applied simply for the sake of applying, which is so easy these days as a result of the common application. Therefore, do your homework! Read the school's brochures, admissions pamphlets and website so that you are familiar with the basics. I once had an interviewee tell me how much he enjoyed my school's football team's success even though the team had won one game total in the prior three seasons!

3. Be prepared with questions. At some point, your interviewer will ask if you have any questions about the school. Chances are good that if you are well-prepared, you will have some specific questions about things you are wondering about. Great topics to bring up are questions about student life, opportunities for graduates, the admissions process, etc.

4. Don't be a robot. I always tell my interviewees to act naturally and answer my questions as honestly as possible. In other words, be yourself. Do not tell your interviewer what you think he or she wants to hear because there is a good chance you will be wrong! Remember, your interviewer wants to find applicants who are enthusiastic about the school, have interesting personalities, and would contribute positively to their alma mater's student body. They do not want to talk with someone who simply spews bland answers that have been rehearsed with their guidance counselors. Unfortunately, this happens all the time, and I find myself talking to students who are scared to say anything that isn't "counselor approved." The result is an uninspiring, unmemorable interview.

5. Be confident but humble. In most cases, your interviewer will know nothing about your grades and credentials. The idea is to learn about your personality without being colored by the rest of your application. Therefore, the focus is entirely on who you are as a person. Be assertive and be confident, but don't be arrogant. I once had an interviewee tell me that he wasn't sure if college was right for him because he already knew everything about the world. Riiiigggghhhttt.

6. Don't be intimidated. Your interviewer might be a bigwig in the community or have you come to a fancy office, but at the end of the day, he or she is merely a volunteer who likes talking to students about their alma mater. Most likely, your interviewer wants to like you and help you. And there is a decent chance he or she will spend more time talking than you will since part of the job description is to be an advocate for their school. A good interview will end up being a pleasant, two-way conversation in which you feel comfortable simply chatting with your interviewer. With that said, you might end up with an interviewer who enjoys asking questions out of left field ("If you could be a vegetable, what would it be?"). In that case, remain composed and do the best you can.

7. Speak well. It might take some practice, but try to avoid using "like" and "um" as much as possible. You want to come across as mature and intelligent. Be sure to look your interviewer in the eye, don't squirm in your seat, and be polite. And definitely don't be afraid to smile or laugh!

Most students do just fine, so go in and nail your interviews!

"Study drugs" are bad news

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:07:00 GMT

I’ve seen a number of articles recently on the rising prevalence of illegal use of prescription ADHD medications. I’ve spent a lot of time with ADHD students over the years, and I can say from first hand experience, using your friend’s Ritalin to help you study is an absolutely awful idea.

It sounds like it should help. If these medications can help my ADHD friend focus, what will they be able to do for someone with normal attention? They’ll give me laser intense focus, right? Not so much.

ADHD medications like Ritalin and Strattera are stimulants. They are chemically similar to illegal drugs like amphetamines (aka speed). They help people with ADHD by revving up their brains so they can stay focused. But for people with normal brains, they are just stimulants. They will make you jittery, anxious and hyper; these are not exactly things you want to be on SAT day, when you’re likely to feel stressed and nervous already! These drugs also tend to reduce your appetite, just when you need to be fueling up with healthy protein.

Some recent research also shows that college students who use prescription drugs for non-medical reasons tend to have lower grades. They also skip 21% of their classes. My guess is that these students aren’t spending enough time studying on a regular basis (maybe because they’re partying too much), so they’re using Ritalin when they cram for an exam. It’s not a healthy strategy, and it doesn’t work.

So let your friend keep his meds. If you need a pick-me-up, stick with coffee.

Great college admissions advice for parents

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:46:00 GMT

I love Twitter. Why? Because I get to meet awesome people like Nancy Berk (@nancyberk). Nancy is a Ph.D, comedian, and writer, and she’s just released a new book aimed at parents slogging through the college admissions death march. She was nice enough to send me a copy, and I want to encourage everyone to check it out. It's called College Bound and Gagged and it's lots of fun.

I just ripped though the chapter on standardized testing and laughed all the way! But between the laughs there’s plenty of solid advice, too (including a tip from yours truly). Take home message...don’t spend too much money or rely too heavily on bribery to get your kids through the SAT or ACT.

You can find College Bound and Gagged on Amazon and on Facebook.

Slimy SAT tutor - buyer beware!

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:51:00 GMT

Here's a cautionary tale about believing what you read on the internet. It just happens to be related to SAT prep, but the message applies to anything you come across online. People can and will pretend to be anything, and they'll do it with the aim of taking your money. On to the story...

An SAT tutor (and one of my Twitter colleagues), @PWNtheSAT, unearthed a press release naming one Harvey Manger-Weil the "Best SAT Tutor in America." Since he'd never heard of him, he did a little digging. Turns out Mr. Manger-Weil invented an organization which gave him a fake award. In addition to his 30 years of experience as an SAT tutor, Mr. Manger-Weil also got 30 years of experience as a wedding photographer, songwriter/musician and benefactor of an orphanage in Ethiopia. He's a veritable Renaissance man (NOT). Maybe he's done these things, but given his proven lying ability, it's more likely he hasn't. So what does he do?

Look a little farther and you'll find what his real business is...affiliate marketing. Lowest of the low. Slimiest of the slimy. And take a look at this quote from that article.

Despite charging top dollar for his services, Manger-Weil says, he’s “close being at capacity for what I can personally do” with this particular site—a fact that is prompting him to expand into video and more affiliate marketing.

It appears he got into SAT tutoring when Google clamped down on what affiliate marketers could do. Not exactly his life's work, is it? Maybe the guy is a decent tutor, but would you trust him with your future, not to mention your money?

In addition to Pwn's article linked above, here's a couple of other takes from Stacey Howe-Lott and Akil Bello. All of these tutors take their jobs seriously and are worth your SAT prep dollar. Glad I'm on their good side, too :)

How important are AP classes?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:23:00 GMT

AP (Advanced Placement) classes are indeed important if you are applying to top schools. College admissions officers like to see that you are challenging yourself with difficult subject matter. Even more importantly, a good score on an AP exam (4 or 5) shows that you mastered the material and are therefore able to handle college-level subject matter.

Don't fret if your high school only offers a limited range of AP classes - the admissions officers will understand the situation. Conversely, if your school offers a large number of AP classes, be careful not to overburden yourself. Determine the right number of AP classes so that you are challenged, but not overwhelmed. It won't do you any good to take an absurd number of AP classes if you perform poorly in them!

As a bonus, most colleges will accept scores of 4 or 5 for actual college credit, although some schools will also accept 3s for certain subjects. These credits typically won't help your college GPA since actual grades are rarely associated with the credits, but they will make your path to graduation easier since you will not need to take as many classes while in college.

"Big Test Prep:" Solid gold or wooden nickel?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:35:00 GMT

Imagine this scenario. You're a high school junior, spending a few idle minutes surfing the web looking at colleges. Every one of them is touting the average SAT scores of admitted students, and you start getting anxious about taking the test. Magically, your fairy godmother suddenly appears and says she'll pay for whatever SAT prep you desire, but you have to tell her your plan in the next ten seconds before she returns to her castle in the clouds. Yikes! What do you do?

(insert 10 second pause here)

So what did you say? I would bet money that nine out of ten of you shouted "Kaplan" or "Princeton Review" before two seconds had passed. Despite the wealth of SAT prep resources out there, from books to websites to tutors, most students and parents default to these household names that dominate the test prep market. Why? Marketing, of course. The big guys make sure they're the first thing that comes to mind.

If you're a student, Kaplan has probably been advertising in your school newspaper and yearbook. They're offering free diagnostic "SAT" tests and your high school may even have provided them with space to offer classes on site. Your friends are taking Kaplan, and your older brother did, too. Kaplan's everywhere and for once, making a decision related to college admissions is easy.

If you're a parent, you took the SAT back in the dark ages, and SAT prep didn't really exist. You have no idea what's on the test these days, and you know your child needs outside help to score high. You're hoping for admission to a great school with extra scholarship money from your kid's high SAT scores. Other parents are sending their kids to Kaplan, and even though you wonder if there are better options out there, you don't know where to look or what questions to ask. Kaplan is your default, so you whip out your credit card and wipe your hands of the whole thing.

In the interest of disclosure, I should tell you I was a Kaplan SAT and ACT instructor off and on for several years. I've also taught for a small local prep company, been a private tutor, and led the continuing education GRE course at Southern Methodist University. In other words, I've seen and done it all when it comes to SAT prep. I'm fairly well qualified to make the following statement. Don't waste your test prep budget on Kaplan or any of its ilk.

But before I go any further with that line of thought, let's focus on the things that any quality prep course should do. It should review (or teach if necessary) the skills required to take the test. It should present tried-and-true test taking strategies and prepare students for all aspects of test day. It should provide ample high quality practice questions. It should hold students accountable for their own learning. And finally, it should make students feel confident and ready to do their best.

Kaplan does review the necessary skills, teach strategies and give students access to an instructor. But it doesn't do these things all that well. Instructors are expected to cram a lot of material into each session. Our job was to sell the Kaplan system, even though I had my doubts about it from the start. The students were far from motivated, and they rarely completed homework. They seemed to be in SAT class because they were "supposed" to take one, but didn't know how any of it related to their futures. We were all going through the motions, and it wasn't good.

As for my other criteria, Kaplan does nothing to teach new, or poorly learned, skills to students who need remediation. And unfortunately, most of them do need remediation! Kaplan also writes all of its own practice questions rather than using the gold standard of SAT prep, The College Board's Offical SAT Study Guide. Because the questions are unofficial, student's results on practice tests didn't necessarily reflect their actual scores.

Finally, Kaplan's approach is all about instilling fear, not confidence. There is an implicit suggestion thoughout that the only way to score well on the SAT is to essentially "game the system." Out of necessity, Kaplan can't tailor it's classes to individual needs, so it relies on teaching tricks and strategies, rather than showing students how to actually DO the math, etc. Students get the mindset that the SAT is a video game, and Kaplan will give you the cheat codes! The test is out to get them. Is it any wonder kids are so stressed out on test day?! They're hardly building confidence.

You may be wondering what to do now that I've convinced you (hopefully!) to look beyond the usual suspects when it comes to SAT prep. I'll answer that in another post in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Google, google, googol

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:03:00 GMT

Since I don't want you to forget you're dealing with a serious nerd, I'm sharing with you the information garnered from a few minutes of "research" I completed yesterday. Something made me ask myself if "google" had made it into the dictionary yet. As in "I googled Justin Bieber's hair," or "I couldn't remember the real name of Screech on 'Saved by the Bell,' so I googled it."

Turns out "google" is an official word. That's not surprising given how Google has invaded our collective consciousness. The interesting thing is that Google was initially opposed to the idea. It seems they thought it would dilute the brand in the same way that Kleenex and Band-Aid have become generic terms. But the dictionaries carried the day, and "google" entered the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2006.

Here's another interesting tidbit. I always wondered if Google had based its name on the mathematical term "googol." If you're not up on your esoteric math words, a googol is a one followed by one hundred zeroes. And yes, Google's name is a play on googol. Google's founders certainly exhibited a degree of hubris in choosing the name, implying that their search engine would eventually index such a huge number of web pages. But given Google's amazing success, the name really does seem to fit.

SAT under attack - again

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:38:00 GMT

Here is a very interesting column by Linda Chavez about the SAT being under attack. The column has been syndicated to a number of major newspapers over the last week or so.

Lots to chew on, including some discussion about racial bias in the SAT (the standard argument from anyone who wants the SAT abolished) and the revelation that schools that make the SAT optional have the ulterior motive of increasing their U.S. News ranking.

The 2012 U.S. News college rankings are out (and are as random as ever)

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:42:00 GMT

Delayed for a few weeks this year, here are the new U.S. News college rankings. Of course, the rankings have the normal arbitrary "shakeups" since U.S. News wants to sell magazines. I've posted previously about my distaste for the rankings, and my thoughts from last year remain true this year.

If you are a high school senior starting the college admission process, please do not take the rankings as gospel. Schools don't become "better" or "worse" over a few months, and they should definitely not be taken too seriously. Use the lists as a resource, with the understanding that the rankings are nothing more than a general guideline as to a school's overall reputation.

It's football season. Time for vocab?

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:24:00 GMT

I don't suppose many of you think that football and vocabulary go together. But this writer at Sports Illustrated does! Turns out some serious SAT vocabulary rolls of the tongues of commentators everywhere. Can you say "encroachment?" Then use is it in a sentence that doesn't refer to linemen.

Don't panic, EXERCISE!

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:23:00 GMT

I know, I know. You've heard enough advice about exercising already. You know it's good for your heart, your lungs, your muscles and your bones. But it's also great for your brain! It makes you sharper, keeps your brain healthy as it ages, and even grows new brain cells! Wow, right? But I just came across another great reason to the hit the gym. Exercise is great for warding off feelings of panic.

Wait!, you say. I don't have panic attacks. How does this apply to me? Remember that anxiety comes in many forms, and I bet many of you can relate to the term "test anxiety." The SAT is a really important test, and it's amazing how common it is for students to feel nervous enough about it to trigger heart palpitations, sweaty palms, and bouncy-knee syndrome. But the physical manifestations of anxiety pale in comparison to the cognitive ones. Anxiety sends your ability to concentrate straight down the drain. You're so focused on the implications of the test and the fear of doing badly that you can't do your best. Clearly, it's a good thing to keep the anxiety in check.

So back to exercise and how it can help. The authors of the study I linked to earlier don't go into WHY they think exercise reduces panic, but I've got some theories that will probably make sense to you. First, exercise fatigues and relaxes your body, so you'll feel relaxed, too. It's hard to get yourself worked up into a state of high anxiety when you've just burned off all your excess energy, right? Next, I suspect since exercise produces a lot of the same physical manifestations of anxiety, like sweat and a pounding heart, you and your body get used to experiencing these sensations so they stop generating an anxiety response. Finally, exercise can build your self-confidence. Running your first 5K without a break can make you feel like the king of the world. That confidence will seep into the rest of your life, as well. You'll feel more assured while your doing your test prep, and you'll go into test day knowing that you'll do your best. There may be a host of positive effects of exercise on the chemical balance of your brain as well.

I hope I've convinced you to get off the couch and into the gym. Exercise is good for your life not only now, but for all the years ahead of you. So just do it.

SAT Vocab Song (and video)

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:22:00 GMT

Being a nerd, I always love a good student-created, SAT-themed song or video. Check out Loverboy & Ash doing the "SAT Vocab Song." It's a couple of years old, but the work still holds up!

Scrabble is NOT a good way to build vocabulary

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:25:00 GMT

"Play Scrabble to build vocabulary." This advice seems to pop up anywhere and everywhere. It's been championed for GRE takers, English language learners, and CEO's. Even Thai kids are playing Scrabble in school to practice English. It's insanity!

It seems logical. Word games must build your vocabulary since you've got to know a lot of words to win. Au contraire, mon frêre! Researchers at the University of Calgary conducted a study on competitive Scrabble players. Their findings indicate that Scrabble is good for building word recognition, but does absolutely nothing toward adding words to your usable vocabulary. In other words, Scrabble (or Words With Friends) players may recognize that a word is a word, but they aren't more likely to know what the word means. For example, "qi" is a useful word to know if you're a serious Scrabble player. But Scrabble doesn't require you to know what the word means. And some of the more useful Scrabble words are some of the most obscure in the English language. Not so great for building your SAT vocabulary, right?

So, it's nice to know a word is a word when you see it. But for the SAT, you can rest assured that all of the tough words on the test are real words. Word recognition isn't going to help you one bit. Want proof? Take this tidbit from the above article on Scrabble-playing Thai kids:

Mr. Techus said the vocabulary he picked up playing Scrabble would not likely
result in a higher grade on his university entrance examination. "It is different.
I don't think this can be used to prepare for the entrance exam, but it is a fun
and relaxing form of brain exercise for me," he said.

See? Even the kids know it's not really helpful.

I hope I'm not coming across as anti-Scrabble. I love playing it (and Words With Friends). I do pick up a new word here and there. I play with some real word nerds and I frequently see words I don't know in the course of a game. So what do I do? Look them up! If you take the time to pull out your dictionary, Scrabble can improve your vocabulary. Just be sure to take on challenging opponents. Play your parents, your teachers, your brother's college friends and so on. But never play without a dictionary handy!

*As an aside, I do recommend crossword puzzles for building vocabulary. The clues usually give you the definition of words. I'll never forget that "sere" means "dry," because it comes up so often on crosswords!

Summer college admissions and SAT/PSAT topics

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:18:00 GMT

We're in the middle of the doldrums of a hot summer, with not much happening on the college admissions and SAT/PSAT calendar. But the new school year will be here before you know it, and the new senior class with be thrown into the college admissions vortex. Meanwhile, juniors will be taking the PSAT in October - just a little more than 2 months away.

Here are some of our most popular prior posts on the topics of SAT/PSAT prep and college admissions. Of course, we have many more posts on these topics throughout the blog, so feel free to scroll through our archives (listed on the right rail), as these older posts are still relevant.

SAT/PSAT prep:

College admissions:

There's a reason you have trouble learning anything from SAT prep

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:47:00 GMT

What I'm about to say is a tiny bit blasphemous coming from someone in the test prep industry. SAT courses can be a giant waste of your brain power. The format of "big test prep" classes just isn't conducive to learning. These courses try to cram a ton of material into a very short amount of class time. I've been an instructor, and it's pretty typical to combine a little reading, writing and 'rithmetic in each session (which I always guessed was to force kids who really want to prep in math to show up every day, but that's a topic for another time). While their bodies may be there, and they may be diligently paying attention, their poor brains are fried by the end of class. Why? Because human brains just can't process too much new information at once. We need time to process new stuff, which means that math review at the beginning of class has been overwritten by the reading at the end. And until now, there didn't seem to be any way to get around this problem with our wiring.

Bear with me if this next statement seems far-fetched. Scientists have been able to impede our brains from overwriting recently learned information by attaching electrodes to people's heads! It's true. This is pretty amazing stuff. Essentially, scientists used magnets to stimulate specific parts of the brain associated with learning. Subjects' memories for an earlier task were better twelve hours after receiving treatment, compared to their memories for the same tasks prior to the painless treatment. Of course, there's no evidence yet that retention is better over the long term, and the study needs to be expanded and replicated, but is this cool or what? Classrooms of the future may be full of electrode helmets. OK, maybe not, but it's fun to think about.

So given that none of us are going to be stimulating our brains with magnets any time soon, what can students do now to help their memories? First, use breaks during class to review the information just covered. I know your first instinct is to grab your phone and text about how boring class is, but don't give in to the urge. Using those few minutes to let the stuff you just learned sink in will help you remember it later. Second, when you're doing your course homework and reviewing your notes, stick to one topic per session, and keep your sessions short. Finally, consider using a tutor instead of signing up for class so you can work at your own pace.

What is an "Ivy League" school?

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:38:00 GMT

School is out for the summer, and rising seniors are starting to think about the college application and admissions process. In this context, you often hear about the pressure for top students to be accepted at an "Ivy League" school. But what on earth is the Ivy League?

Technically, the Ivy League is a group of affiliated schools in the northeast that play each other in sports, share resources, etc. There are eight colleges in the Ivy League: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmourth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale. All are excellent schools, of course, with strong reputations.

However, often people generically use the term "Ivy League" when referring to the top echelon of schools in general. There are many excellent colleges that are not part of the Ivy League that are on a par with the actual Ivy League schools, such as M.I.T., Stanford, Duke, Cal Tech, Rice, Northwestern, etc. So don't be hung up on attending an actual Ivy League school, as there are plenty of other schools with comparable standing and reputations.

Of course, we've often talked about looking beyong the rankings and finding the college that is the best fit for YOU. And your life is most definitely not over if you are rejected from the school of your dreams. As we've repeatedly preached, college is just a step on a long journey. Being admitted into an Ivy League (or similar) school does not guarantee happiness or success, and being rejected does not guarantee unhappiness or failure.

Jane Austen, a gasogene and how I learned to love my Kindle

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:35:00 GMT

I recently had the good fortune to receive an Amazon Kindle as a gift (big shout-out to my mother-in-law). Gary is a true believer in paper, and he was pretty against the Kindle. Admittedly, I was pretty skeptical, too, when the Kindle was first released. But over time, I became a convert. After taking eight books on our last extended vacation, and dragging said books on the plane, the idea of the light-weight Kindle got a lot more appealing.

So now that I've had my Kindle for a couple of months, and have read a few books using it, my final decision is....the Kindle rocks! It's easy to read laying down (I challenge anyone to hold an iPad over their heads to read in bed), and it's glare-resistant so reading outdoors is no problem. The battery lasts forever, too, so unless you're on a really long trip, there's no need to bring along the charger. My only real quibble was that flight attendants don't seem to get that the screen is inert so you can't really turn it "off." Got chided for reading during landing, despite the fact that it's not using power (hence the long battery life)!

For fun, I downloaded a few classic (and free!) books which I knew would have some heavy duty, archaic vocab. I opted to start with Jane Austen's Emma and Sir Arthur Conan Doyles's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Kindle not only has a built-in dictionary, but the dictionary was fully capable of handling some pretty esoteric 19th century terms, ranging from "St. Vitus' Dance" to "fuller's earth." The only word I encountered it couldn't handle was "gasogene." Even better, you can highlight any words you need to add to your study list, then download it as a text file to your computer.

I'm still hoping the price of Kindle books is going to come down. Right now, the paper version tends to be the cheaper option most of the time. It's completely counterintuitive, and I have to believe the market will eventually drive the price down since no trees are needed to produce a Kindle book! The good news for students is that many of the classics your teachers assign are in the public domain, and public domain equals free! Here's a few sites for free Kindle books, but don't miss the Project Gutenberg Australia site. Australia's definition of public domain differs from the U.S., and they've got more recent books available for download.

While I've been preaching the Kindle gospel, there are competing e-readers which I'm sure are equally useful. Of course, the iPad makes an acceptable e-reader, too, if you're someone lucky enough to own one. But, I found the iPad too heavy and awkward for comfort, and glare makes it impossible to read outside. The Kindle, and others, are designed for reading and they are definitely superior for their specalized use.

So if you have the means, go get an e-reader. I'm so happy I did...and my suitcases can go back to being filled with clothes instead of books.

SAT advice when English is your second language

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:21:00 GMT

The SAT is hard enough when English is your first language, but what about when English is your second language? Our friends at onlineschools.com have been kind enough to post a Q&A with us on this topic. Check out our advice!