College Planning Information for the Week of 3/29/10

Did you know? Half of all college students attend a college that is less than 100 miles from their home. 88% are within 500 miles of home cooking.

College of the Week - If you are among the 22% that want to venture further from home, read on! Founded in 1888 in Boston MA, Wheelock College is a private, coeducational college with the public mission of improving the lives of children and families - and society, in general. Wheelock is known regionally as a premier institution for those seeking an undergraduate education in Education, Social Work, Juvenile Justice, Liberal Arts or Child Life/ At Wheelock, they value the importance of an intimate learning community where students are challenged and supported by faculty members who are practitioners in their fields and who are committed to teaching, learning, and mentoring.

My Schedule this Week - I will be on campus Monday 10-4, Tuesday 10-4 and Wednesday 10-5. I will not be on campus during Spring Break or Intersession but I check email regularly on days when I am not at school.

FOR JUNIORS

SAT/ACT Practice Test at TMS on Saturday 4/17 at 8:00 AM - Sign up on my door this week and indicate which test you'd like to take. If you are taking the Eureka SAT prep class here at school, you are expected to take this practice test.

Register for College Fairs - Save yourself time and agrivation and register for either the SF or Marin County College fair online. Registering before the fair will allow you to electronically exchange your contact information with colleges that you're interested in and that's a time saver and an excellent way to show you attended and were interested. Follow these links and note that The Marin School is not listed on the drop down menu (no idea why!) of high schools so you'll have to select "other" and add it.

• San Francisco Fair - Gotomyncf.com
  
• Marin County Fair - Wacaccollegefair.com
  

Upcoming SAT and ACT Registration Dates - The next SAT will be given on 5/1 (late registration deadline is 4/8) Register for the 6/12 ACT before 5/7. I recommend students take the SAT in May or June, the ACT in April or June and, if the student has over a 3.0 GPA, 2 subject tests in May or June.

FOR SENIORS

What do you have in common with titans, moguls and news makers? Well, some of them didn't get into their first choice colleges either. Here are a few things they had to say about the experience, with the benefit of hindsight, excerpted from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Warren Buffet - “The truth is, everything that has happened in my life ... that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better,” Mr. Buffett says. With the exception of health problems, he says, setbacks teach “lessons that carry you along. You learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end, it can be an opportunity.”

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger wasn't accepted to his first choice college either. His advice: Don’t let rejections control your life. To “allow other people’s assessment of you to determine your own self-assessment is a very big mistake,” he says. “The question really is, who at the end of the day is going to make the determination about what your talents are, and what your interests are? That has to be you.”

Susan
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Susan Gotshall-Maxon
College Counselor