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I know some of you have already started your senior year, but for those of you who don't start until the first week of September - enjoy your last weekend of summer! Now, for some final thoughts on the senior curriculum...
*Complete a fourth year of all five core academic subjects. Those would be English, Math, Science, History, and Foreign Language. Even if you "don't like Science" - completing that fourth year of study is important.
*Take a legitimate senior science course. Like Physics, for example. Again, even if you aren't going to be a science major, the problem-solving skills you develop in this class can help you out in whatever area you do decide to go into.
*Take that fourth (or fifth) year of foreign language. Yes, this was also part of the first bullet above, but it bears repeating because language is the area where we see the most students decide not to continue with it senior year. I know that the fourth or fifth (if you started language in 8th grade) year of language can be difficult, but you will gain a lot from taking it!
I know I've already said it... a lot... but your senior year curriculum is incredibly important during the admission review process AND to properly prepare you for college-level studies! And, obviously, your performance in the curriculum you take is crucial as well - we want to see you continue to achieve in the classroom!
Best wishes as you begin your senior year!!
So, you've completed three years of high school, taken on a challenging courseload, and achieved strong grades in the classroom... so it's time to kick back and breeze through senior year, right? Ummm... wrong...
I know, I know... Your parents, your teachers, and your high school counselor have all preached to you about the importance of finishing strong, and continuing to work hard during the senior year. I know you hear it all the time and maybe sometimes it falls on deaf ears.
My advice: listen to your parents, your teachers, and your counselor! Because they're right.
As an admission counselor who personally sees over 1,000 applications per year, who sees transcripts from hundreds of different high schools, and who serves as a member of the Committee on Admission making decisions on who will be (and won't be) invited to PC, believe me when I tell you that senior year can, in many cases, make or break a student's chances of being accepted to PC (or other schools the student may be applying to).
Why is senior year important? Well, first of all, because it's the year that is most fresh in your mind when you will begin your college studies. Therefore, if a student "takes senior year off" in the classroom by taking a light schedule and/or not working to their potential, they are more than a year removed from serious academic work when they arrive on their college campus. College-level work is more intense than high school-level work in general, but when a student has taken the easy way out senior year, they are really putting themselves at a disadvantage for entering the college classroom. By finishing strong in the senior year and continuing to work hard, you will be much more prepared to handle the college workload next fall.
Why else is senior year important? Because of the competitiveness of the college admission process. Colleges and universities across the country continue to see increasingly talented applicant pools for a limited number of spaces in the freshman class. And when an admission committee has to choose from among very similar applicants in the classroom, senior year is often a way to distingush these applicants. We would much rather invite a student to PC who has continued to challenge him or herself and perform at a high level senior year, rather than a student who has let "senioritis" set in during September.
More to come on senior year academics... Come back!
*Scott
As you get ready to head back to school for your senior year, now is a great time to start thinking about which teachers you'd like to have write your letters of recommendation, if you haven't done so already...
Recommendations are an important part of the college application, and in the Office of Admission, we use recommendations to get a sense of your academic strengths and weaknesses that might not show up on your transcript, and also to get a sense of things like your work ethic, your attitude, your presentation skills, and even your personality. And that means that you shoould think carefully about who you want to ask to write your letters of recommendation.
So, who should you choose? Firstly, you want to ask teachers who know you well - they will obviously do a better job of conveying who you are in their letters of recommendation than teachers who don't know you very well. These might include teachers you have had in the classroom multiple times - a history teacher who taught your sophomore class and is now teaching your senior class, for example. They also could be teachers you have had in multiple settings (both inside and outside of the classroom) - your English teacher who is also your student newspaper advisor or your math teacher who is also your soccer coach. These teachers have seen you progress academically, and also know you as more than just a student inside of the classroom because they have worked with you as a coach, advisor, or mentor.
One other thing to keep in mind: the teacher who you received the best grades from is not necessarily the teacher you will receive the best letter of recommendation from. Let me give you an example...
A student who received a C+ in his Pre Calculus class junior year might not think that teacher would be the best to write a recommendation for him. But, even though that C+ might be the lowest grade on his transcript, it might also be the class he worked the hardest in - he really worked to bring his grade up from even lower than a C+ during the 1st quarter to the B/B- level during the second semester of the year. The student attended all of the teacher's extra help sessions, completed additional assignments, went to tutoring, and really worked during the year to improve his grade, even though Pre Calc wasn't his strongest subject. That Pre Calculus teacher could write a fantastic recommendation about this student's work ethic, drive to improve, and level of responsibility - even though the final grade doesn't necessarily show all of that. Something to keep in mind when you're thinking about who you'd like to write your recommendations...
When you do decide on the teachers you'd like to ask, remember to do so politely! Also, be sure to let them know the deadlines of the colleges you're applying to, and where they should send their recommendations when they have completed them (some high schools will have the guidance or college counseling office collect all of the teacher recommendations for a student and mail them in one packet). Finally, be sure to thank your teachers for taking the time to write recommendations on your behalf - a thank you note is always a nice gesture!
A few more things to keep in mind when writing your college essay:
*Write the essay about YOU! No matter which essay question you choose from the Common Application, it is important that your essay shows the admission staff who you are, and that when we put your essay down, we have a better sense of what is important to you, what you are passionate about, and hopefully even a sense of your personality. Each year, we receive essays from students about a certain topic that are well-written, but that don't tell us anything about the student. Here's an example: a student uses essay prompt #3, and writes his essay about his grandfather, and all of the wonderful things his grandfather did during his life. But when we reach the end of the essay, the student hasn't brought the essay back around to how his grandfather influenced him. This essay has shown us a great picture of Grandpa Charlie, but Grandpa's not applying to Providence College. Here's the actual essay question: "Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence." No matter which essay topic you decide upon, don't forget the part of the question about your topic's impact or influence on you - that's what admission counselors want to read about!
*Spelling and grammar count! In our office, we refer to the application essay as "the first college assignment." That's important to keep in mind when you are writing it - make sure that you are spelling words correctly, capitalizing letters at the beginning of sentences, and using proper punctuation. As a liberal arts college, your writing ability is an important consideration in the application review process for us. Even if you're not an English major, you will be writing essays as part of our core curriculum and specifically the Development of Western Civilization program, and it's important that we see strong writing in your college essay.
*Remember, your college essay is a formal piece of writing! In other words, you are not writing an e-mail, an instant message, or posting on your friend's Facebook wall. The application essay should be written like you would write an essay for your high school English class - to put it simply, it should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
*Don't mention other colleges or universities! This one's self-explanatory, and seemingly an easy mistake not to make - but it happens all the time. A student wants to personalize each essay to the seven different schools he or she is applying to... and forgets to change the school in each of the essays. Oops.
*Have your essay proofread! Your computer spell-checker isn't going to catch everything. Have a teacher, a counselor, your parents, or your friends read your essay over to catch any little mistakes you may have in there. And read it over yourself, too! Don't send the essay without reading it from beginning to end yourself!
*Start the essay early! If you haven't already started at least a rough draft of your essay, please take some time to do that before you head back to school this fall. It's a lot easier to write without the added pressure of an approaching application deadline.
Still have questions about writing your essay? Feel free to post them in the Comments section- and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Good luck with your writing!
Ahhh the college application essay... nothing brings about writer's block quite like this, right? This week, we're going to spend some time talking about the essay, and hopefully make it a little less intimidating...
While the essay is many students' least favorite part of the application, it is actually the favorite part for many admission counselors (not less intimidating yet? Hang on...). Why is that? Well, the essay is the one piece of the application that you have complete control over at the moment you're writing it, and you have the opportunity to let your personality shine through. As an admission counselor, I really want to get to know YOU - to move beyond the "numbers" part of your application and get a sense of what's important to you, and what you are passionate about.
So, let's begin with the college essay topic - what should you write about? First of all, PC is a member of the Common Application group, and you have six different essay questions to choose from (and the last one is "topic of your choice" - so you can write about whatever you so choose). Unfortunately, I am not going to give you a specific answer here... and that's because there isn't one. There is no specific subject or topic we're looking for as admission counselors... we have no preference as to which common app. question you answer or if you choose your own topic... simply put, there is no "magic formula" to writing the perfect college admission essay. The best essays that we read each year are personal - in other words, when we have finished reading the 500-word, two page double-spaced essay, we know something more about the student and maybe even have a sense of that student's personality.
In choosing a topic, think about the people, places, and things that are important to YOU. You should not try to pick a topic that you think a college admission counselor would like to read about (I don't know what that topic would be - and I AM an admission counselor!). Instead, choose something you feel comfortable writing about and you feel will show us who you are as a person. As I mentioned above, the essay helps admission counselors to move beyond the "numbers" of your application (such as your GPA, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores) and gives us the opportunity to get to know the "real you" (cliched, I know... but also true!).
That should at least get you started - I'll let you digest that, with more to come on the essay later this week!
With the arrival of August, I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome any and all new blog readers, and fill you in on what we have planned for these pages during the upcoming year!
First, by way of introduction, my name is Scott Seseske and I am one of 15 admission counselors at PC. We spend our summer welcoming prospective students and their families to campus, our fall traveling across the country and around the world to tell the PC story, and our winter and spring thoroughly reviewing each application we receive and ultimately enrolling the freshman class. My role as a blogger is simple - to serve as a resource for prospective students who are considering Providence College in their college search. Throughout the year, I hope to take some of the mystery out of the admission process, and bring you over to our side of the desk to show you how we make admission decisions.
I am always available to answer any questions you have about Providence College, the admission process at PC, the college application process in general, or any other topic you're interested in asking about! The best way to send questions to me is to post them in the "Comments" section of my blog postings - that way, when I answer your question, it will also be available for other students to see (because chances are, if you ask the question, someone else is also wondering the same thing!).
In addition to learning about the admission side of things with me, we also invite you to take an inside-look at our student experience by visiting the pages of our student bloggers. We are currently in the process of adding some incoming freshmen to our blogging family, to give you a sense of the first-year experience - their pages will be added in early September. You will also have the opportunity to read blogs written by our returning student bloggers, who have moved beyond their freshman year and who will continue to tell their own PC stories on these pages as well. All of our student bloggers will be writing in full force during early September - keep an eye out for them!
During the month of August, I will be posting some entries about the college application process; tips on writing the college essay, which teachers to ask for recommendations, the importance of senior year, and other topics... This blog is most beneficial, however, if it is a conversation - so please do post your own questions and comments and I will focus my blog entries on the topics you are most interested in.
Hopefully, our blogs will give you a sense of who we are at Providence College - in the Admission Office, in the classrooms, and beyond. Thanks for taking the time to check out our blogs, and we hope that you'll continue to be part of the conversation throughout the year!
*Scott
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