Year after year, parents and students come to our offices for assistance with high school and college admission planning.  While the questions vary as to the nature of the student’s needs, most often the theme of the question is what does it take to gain acceptance to a top college choice.

Parents and students want to know how college admission staffs evaluate an applicant:

• What emphasis is placed on curriculum like AP, IB, and Honors courses?
• Do admission personnel look at weighted or un-weighted GPA? How do they see class rank? What if our school does not rank?
• How many and which activities should my son or daughter participate in?
• When should the student take SAT/ACT? SAT Subject Tests?
• How should a student use the summer?
• How many service hours are sufficient?

While the answers to these questions and those like them are always customized to the particulars of the student’s profile and aspirations, we have created a framework to give a rough sketch of an ideal 4 year high school plan.  We do not suggest that following this blueprint exactly is the right solution for every student, but rather offer the document as an outline of what it takes to be admitted to a top 150 university.  Your child, family, and advisers should use the blueprint as a point of discussion and reflection in order to plan appropriately for a fruitful high school experience and a competitive application at top choice colleges. Of course, if you have questions or need assistance, you can contact us any time for help at 713-784-6610.  Click here to download our blueprint for high school and college admission success.

In-Demand Skills for a Job Market in Flux

In a recent opinion article in The New York Times, “Skills in Flux,” David Brooks lays out an essential problem for the workers of the next generation. Brooks identifies the important skills that will likely define the work of employees in the next decade or two. One of the most stand-out skills in today and tomorrow’s economy is social courage. To follow up, develop relationships, and draw out others’ ideas and feelings is invaluable in a networked world. Those with social courage not only develop contacts, they build friendships that have lasting and meaningful value as a support network and as a cloud of potential customers, colleagues, and referral partners.

Beyond social courage, opposability is another of Brooks’ top skills for the 21^st century. Opposability is to hold two conflicting ideas in mind, yet still function purposefully and efficiently on the work at hand. Employers find this skill incredibly valuable during a time of rapid, widespread change because workers who can prepare for a number of opposed options and act quickly as the ground changes are very rare. Workers who can quickly adjust from plan A to plan B as customer and cultural preferences change, even if A and B are opposed, are truly golden in today’s career marketplace.

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College Freshman Don’t Know What it Takes to Succeed

In a decade of teaching at two of America’s elite undergraduate universities, Dr. Shumsky found that a majority of students at University of Virginia and Northwestern University were deficient in their ability to quickly and efficiently master important ideas and concepts for their classes. Dr. Shumsky and his fellow professors observed that students most frequently under-performed in academics because they relied on memorization and had poorly developed skills in executive functioning basics like managing their time, organizing their materials, planning for essays and exams, and investigating the myriad of opportunities for enrichment available on campus. Most of the students at these elite institutions were accustomed to relying on their native gifts and getting by with as little effort as possible. Such students, who were A students in high school, got a rude awakening in their first year of college and frequently ended up with poor grades and injured self-esteem.

Good college students must be ruthlessly efficient in their studies and in their time-management. To appropriately keep pace with fast-moving and demanding coursework, one needs to plan effectively, know how to reduce a universe of details into digestible bits, and to separate the crucial from the secondary in importance. The same is true in extra-curricular and social domains. Good students get internships, participate in engaging activities, and have fulfilling social lives. To pose the problem in plain English, good students are excellent in the skill of prioritization, both of academic ideas and personal aspirations. Unfortunately, very few will learn these skills in high school.

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