Notice how this elephant’s legs are shackled to the post? She was trying to move, but couldn’t — the chain was just a few inches long.
We jumped out of our taxi to dissuade prospective customers from supporting this business and told them about protecting these beautiful (and intelligent!) animals from abusive trainers. One of my students (Shreya) gave me fliers to pass out to tourists to educate them about real eco-tourism that doesn’t saddle elephants for rides or train them to do tricks. This is her ProjectMerit!
When the elephant owners got wind of our message, we jumped back in our taxi for a quick get away!
Please spread to word about real eco tourism! Go to Elephants Retirement 9Dee Phuket for an amazing experience (I’ll post about it soon!).
What is it about Stanford students or coaches that make judges reduce sentences for criminal behavior? Vandemoer, a former Stanford sailing coach, took bribes from parents to recruit their children so they would be admitted to Stanford University. Sounds guilty – just like the dozens of others in the college admissions scandal, right? But because he spent the dirty money on team expenses and supposedly not for personal gain, Judge Rya Zobel sentenced Vandemoer to just ONE DAY in JAIL!
Seriously, one day in jail? Smells like Brock Turner… he was the infamous Stanford student who served less than 3 months for raping an unconscious student behind a dumpster. His judge, Aaron Persky (who was recalled in June 2018), claimed that a heavy sentence might ruin Brock Turner’s life. Well, isn’t that true for all college students? I wonder if the sentences would have been substantially reduced if a black or brown coach accepted a bribe or a person of color raped a girl under the same circumstances?
Instead of lying about who you are, become a better applicant. Lying or falsifying your transcript, resume, or applications will eventually catch up and destroy you. It’s never worth it; besides, do you really want to live with the constant fear that your lies will be revealed?
That’s exactly what happened with the dean of admissions at MIT. She falsified her resume to get the job by claiming that she had a doctorate degree when she didn’t. She lost her position and is now advising students about the importance of authenticity in the college admissions process.
We all know how competitive it is to get into top colleges today. This isn’t new information. Instead of fabricating lies on your application forms (or have your parents bribe coaches or pay someone to take your SATS) because you realized in your senior year that you don’t have anything remarkable to write about on your personal statement, rethink how you spend your time now.
If you know you’re college bound, then you know you’ll be asked about your passions and what you’ve done to make a difference when it comes time to apply to college. So pick a project to do throughout high school. Consider issues that bother you and need to be changed. Build a tiny house, develop an app, or engineer a device. Any of these projects will make your essays and interviews exciting because they’ll speak volumes about the real you. Colleges want to see you act on your personal interests.
If you’re struggling to get started with a project, I wrote Beat the College Admissions Game with ProjectMerit to help you brainstorm, develop, implement and complete your project!
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Colleges are beginning to offer degrees and programs that align with necessary skills that graduates need when entering the workplace. Liberal arts colleges are facing closures because many academic degrees neither prepare students with technical skills nor fundamental critical thinking skills to gain employment upon graduation.
Colleges are merging degrees and programs that can save money and time. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana and College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts now offer a 4-year degree from Holy Cross and an online master’s degree from Notre Dame. The 2 colleges partnered to ensure that students wouldn’t duplicate courses and laid out a tuition plan that allowed a seamless, and affordable, transition. These hybrid programs give students the best of both worlds – brick and mortar undergraduate and online graduate courses that meld liberal arts and advanced degrees in fields.
Glad to see that colleges are coming around to offer innovated higher education to students to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of future employment opportunities.
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When students head off to college each year, they leave their homes and move into dorms that are supposed to offer them a safe place to transition from their parents’ protective custody to a little utopia of 16-24 year old students who are monitored by resident assistants and preceptors or faculty who reside in the dorms. So why did Lauren McCluskey die from a gunshot wound on the University of Utah’s campus earlier this year?
McCluskey had dated an abusive and controlling man for a month, and then broke off the relationship when she learned that he had pled guilty of sexual assault of a teenage girl and was out on parole. The 37-year old man harassed her, peeked through her windows, attempted to extort money, and impersonated a police officer. McCluskey had reported all of this to the campus police months before her death but they didn’t recognize the possible dangers. The campus police and the state did not communicate, and there were a series of errors in reporting his parole/probation status.
College women (and some men and same-sex partners) are at high risk of dating violence. They are new to negotiating and experimenting in relationships, and they often don’t know what resources are available to them. Both counseling and police departments need better training so they can set up safe houses and protocol so that all students have safe places to go to when they feel threatened. If your children are heading off to college this fall, check with the counseling and police departments to learn about programs available for students, and share this information with your children.
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My hat’s off to Palo Alto High School (aka Paly) for stopping the demeaning “End-of-the-School-Year Map” in their high school paper The Campanile this year. This map pointed out which colleges each senior planned to attend the following year accompanied by a list of students’ names with their respective colleges. Ouch! As if it wasn’t bad enough that all of the seniors knew which colleges you didn’t get into; but to have an official list in the school paper was tortuous to many students.
With Stanford University just up the street, many Paly students are children of professors or Silicon Valley executives. Palo Alto students receive top-notch education in their public schools – better than many private schools in the area. There’s a lot of pressure on these students to take excessive amounts of AP classes and engage in extracurricular activities. When SAT or ACT scores are released, everyone knows who got perfect scores. I remember meeting with one of my clients just 20 minutes after the SAT scores were released. She walked into my office sobbing – so I assumed she bombed the SAT – but was taken aback when she told me she got a 2380 (out of 2400). Apparently everyone shared their scores within minutes and she learned that 7 other students at her school received a perfect 2400. Imagine being upset with a 2380?
I find it disturbing that there is an air of arrogance by both parents and students towards students who choose to go to community college and transfer to a 4-year university. Parents often force students to choose more prestigious schools even though they’re not a perfect fit. One parent told me that her daughter wanted to go to UC Santa Barbara but she insisted that she attend UC Berkeley because it’s more prestigious. Wow. Another student selected UC Santa Barbara only to find out later that it didn’t offer business marketing – and she later dropped out. Choose colleges because they offer great programs in your areas of interest, not based on image.
Just this year, one of my clients got into Columbia University but didn’t receive much by way of scholarships. His mother had just lost her job and there was no way his parents could pay the $275,000 tuition for an undergraduate degree. After many tears and stressful conversations, they decided that the student would go to UC Berkeley instead. Sadly, other parents showed disdain for the parents because they believed that families should do whatever is necessary so their children can get into the best colleges.
Choosing your college path is personal. Many students need to factor in the cost of their entire academic plan so they can stretch their funds to include grad school. They might do 2 years at a community college, 2 years at a state college, and complete their education with a master’s degree at a private university. Others consider programs offered and choose colleges because of the training and exposure they’ll receive. Isn’t this why students go to college?
As a college advisor, I tell my clients NOT to share their SAT/ACT scores, GPA, or college lists with anyone. Why? It’s nobody’s business, and it’s awkward and painful to hear how well everyone else did and to have to answer relentless questions about scores and admissions decisions from nosy people. I hope other high schools follow in Paly’s footsteps by dropping the End-of-the-School-Year Map and lists of who is going to which college. That way, students (and parents) won’t have to deal with judgmental comments and gossip.
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Imagine if the best students got into the best colleges — and that these entering freshman classes represented the real American population? That’d be in an ideal world. But we know the truth… that highly selective colleges admit white and wealthy students, and these privileged students have access to private college advisors, SAT/ACT prep classes, private schools, and professional opportunities that poor students don’t.
But there may be hope!
New America is proposing an overhaul of the college admissions process by removing the huge wealth gaps so students will NOT be admitted simply because they’re privileged. With this new plan, colleges and universities that give admission preferences to alumni children or offer Early Decision applications will lose federal aid programs (MONEY for students) and federal research grants (MONEY for research). Colleges need these programs and grants, and they tend to pay attention when they’ll lose funding.
New America recommends that all applicants have minimum GPA and SAT/ACT scores to ensure that all applicants will be successful if accepted. Then the applicants would all be placed in a lottery where there would be no preferential treatment for legacies, ethnicities and even athletes. After all, college admissions should be based on meritocracy where everyone has a fair chance of getting into top colleges.
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What is the most efficient way to hire?
For now, a college degree is still the ticket to a good-paying job. It is the easiest way to get a sense for the applicant’s general academic foundation. But employers recognize that a bachelor’s degree does not guarantee breadth or depth of knowledge in the field, experience and skills, or passion and drive.
In the next 10 years, microcredentials (degrees that specialize in a specific area) may become more valuable than a general 4-year degree. Employers want enthusiastic people with expertise in specific areas to meet their unique needs.
With the high cost of onboarding new employees who may look good on paper but tank in the job, many companies are giving pre-hire assessment tests to job candidates. This can determine the gap between a prospective employee’s competencies and the employer’s needs. While there may be some legal challenges in setting up pre-hiring assessments that don’t cause discrimination issues, these pre-hire assessments look like they will become part of the new hiring protocol.
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