April 28, 2018
Greetings from College Counseling! We hope all our students and their fathers are enjoying a lovely time during this Father/Daughter Weekend. We wish our seniors, in particular, the joyful celebration they deserve as they reflect on how far they have come during their years here, and we join with their proud fathers in looking ahead to the next exciting chapter in their lives.
Juniors
Please remember that once you have made your appointments with us to get our advice on recruiting recommendation writers, you still need to show your teachers the courtesy of making a formal, in-person request to write for you. Our teachers are reliably enthusiastic about advocating for you, but it is up to you to close the deal.
Cameron Impact Scholarship
The Bryan Cameron Education Foundation is a private, family foundation which was established by the Bay Area philanthropist, Bryan Cameron, in 2015 on the principle of making an impact. This merit-based scholarship is available to individuals who seek to use their gifts and talents to make a positive impact in their communities and society at large in all areas of study and in their intended career paths. The Cameron Impact Scholarship will be awarded annually to 10-15 high school students. It covers the full educational expenses at the recipient's chosen college. Recipients have complete freedom in their choice of school and area of study. However, the foundation reserves 25% of their annual awards for those who have a stated goal of public service. For more information on this great opportunity, see here.
Horan-Langley Scholarship
The Cal Alumni Club of the Monterey Peninsula established the Larry Horan-Jim Langley Scholarship Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County in 2014 in honor of two outstanding Cal alumni who made significant contributions to the community. This $2,500 award is granted annually to a graduating high school student residing in Monterey County who will be enrolling at UC Berkeley. The applicant must have demonstrated excellence in some or all of the categories of leadership, scholarship, athletics and other extracurricular activities, and community service. The applicant's financial need will also be a consideration. For more information, see the Monterey Cal Alumni Club's website.
Studying in England Night at Saint Francis High School
If you are considering going to school in England, you may wish to attend the presentation that will be offered by several English universities at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View this coming Monday, April 30, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Opportunities to have all your preliminary questions about costs, logistics, and courses of study will be provided. For more information on this event, see here, and for a map of the Saint Francis campus, see here.
WACAC College Fair in Monterey
In conjunction with their annual conference, the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC), will he holding a college fair for students and their families on Wednesday, May 30, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Monterey Conference Center. This is a tremendous opportunity to meet representatives from colleges across the country, and we strongly encourage anyone who can make it to attend. For details, see this flyer.
Why Getting Into College Is Like Dating
An analogy from our friends at Collegewise:
"We tell our students that getting into college is a lot like dating. In dating, desperation is never attractive. It's always better to be quietly confident. Show someone you're interested, but project the confidence that you'll still be happy and confident and perfectly OK if the interest isn't returned.
"Colleges feel the same way about student suitors.
"The kid who constantly laments that her life will be over if Stanford doesn't accept her isn't really showing as much confidence (or perspective) as the student who may love Stanford but knows she will be successful no matter where she goes, who knows that she's going to learn and have fun at any college lucky enough to get her.
"Your worth as a human being is not determined by a GPA, a test score or an admissions decision from any particular college. Acting like it is just makes you look meek, weak and, well, desperate. So stand up tall. Be confident. And remember that you, not your college alone, are the one who will ultimately make you successful."
When Your Parents Oppose Your Dreams
By way of a trigger warning: Michelle Kuo's recent op-ed in The New York Times, "How to Disobey Your Tiger Parents, in 14 Easy Steps," may initially offend readers who, not without reason, will suspect it plays too unapologetically with a stereotype brought to national attention by Amy Chua's 2011 memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. That said, we have to admit being won over by Kuo's wisdom, compassion, and mordant sense of humor. (We liked Amy Chua's memoir, too, by the way!) Particularly in reminding young mavericks that they need to be prepared to take full responsibility for the outcomes of their choices, and that they need to sympathize with parents whose upbringings may have been very different from their own, Kuo makes it clear that her goal is not to be divisive, but to lend a genuinely helping hand when students feel called to pursue dreams that their parents understandably reject.
Treat a College Visit like You're Vacationing
Washington Post writer Jay Mathews offers up a good dose of sanity for the potentially stressful prospect of visiting college campuses. Some students will willingly turn their college visits into note-taking, class-visiting, deep-researching ordeals that resemble investigative reporting more than they do a visit to a college they might want to attend, but any who want to look back on their journeys to college fondly will remember that they can find the right college path by just being sensible.
Daring Approaches to Getting Noticed
Every year, we hear a story or two about students who take seemingly insane risks when applying to the country's most selective colleges but, nonetheless, get exactly what they are after. A highly publicized example would be the student last year who simply wrote "#BlackLivesMatter" 100 times on an essay for Stanford and got accepted. This year, we have learned of a Des Moines, Iowa high school senior who submitted a video explaining the history of calculus on an Etch A Sketch when applying to some of the country's top engineering and technology schools. That student recently learned he had been accepted to MIT and Caltech. Of course, both students had several key factors working in their favor, whatever their propensity for risk-taking, and you can rest assured that we counsel our own students to be a bit less cavalier, but we also hope you can join us in a sporting salute to these rare individuals on their astonishing success.
Standardized Tests and the Art of Thinking
Our colleague Gabi McColgan at Castilleja has alerted us to a thought-provoking documentary you may wish to see, The Test and the Art of Thinking, which, as the filmmakers put it, "traces the history and evolution of the SAT/ACT as a major player on the pathway to higher education in America, and it documents its current power in our culture. In so doing, it strives to support individuals who are embarking on the road to college, by examining what the SAT/ACT measures and means, and asking a range of educational leaders, admissions professionals and stakeholders in the test—from students to parents to tutors —to grapple with the test's use, ramifications and future." See here for a review from The New York Times.
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