Posts filed under 'Tips/Tricks'
The DBQ: 11 Steps to Success
Posted by Michael
Here are 11 tips that I used to ace the document-based question (DBQ) essay part of the AP US History exam.
1. Use the reading period to its full extent.
And, if you’re not done planning, spend an extra five minutes or so doing so. Planning helps to write a better (maybe shorter) essay as opposed to a longer and badly written one. Readers only have such little time to read each essay, and after reading thousands each day, they’ll look for the most clearly and well thought out to grade higher, and will frown down upon super long, unorganized essays.
2. (n/2) + 1.
This is the golden rule in terms of how many documents to use (n = number of docs). It is not important to use all the documents, just use half of them given, plus (more…)
5 comments May 19, 2007
A “duh” tip #6
Posted by Dee
When deciding on what college you should go to, talk to people that go to the schools you’re looking at!
In this day and age when there are so many ways to connect to college students (especially via the Internet… facebook anyone?) you should have no excuse about not seeking out information from students who already attend a given school.
Usually students are all about promoting the schools they go to, but they’re also usually pretty honest about any downsides they’ve experienced too — so, don’t be shy! Call them, email them, facebook/myspace message them, instant message them, whatever — just talk to students about their experiences and you may have an easier time dictating your own… especially as that statement to register is due tomorrow folks! May 1st = National Reply Date… good luck!
Add comment April 30, 2007
How “x” does academics: x = UCLA
Posted by Rotem
At first I was intimidated to come to such a large school like UCLA, but I have found that classes are not as daunting as I expected.
UCLA runs on a quarter system. Fall, winter, and spring quarters are each ten weeks long with one week for finals. Fall quarter begins in late September, and Spring quarter ends in mid-June. There are also two summer sessions that are each six weeks long. The quarter system is a great way to try out many classes you are interested in. And if you dislike a class, it goes by fast anyways!
Students need a minimum of 180 units to graduate. Unfortunately, there is also a (more…)
Add comment March 31, 2007
They told you to wait
Posted by Doreen
I know how frustrating it is to be waitlisted. I applied to six private schools last year, five of which were Ivies, and when I got the responses from the Ivy schools, two of the five had waitlisted me, one of which was one of my top choice schools.
Naturally I was frustrated — yes I had other options – I had other great schools I could go to in the fall, but being waitlisted was almost as bad as being rejected since I had little idea about where I stood! Should I wait around for their response before submitting an affirmative answer and deposit for another school? When would they make a final decision on my admission? Would they ever make a final decision or would they just leave me hanging forever? Did being waitlisted and then getting accepted make me less than my peers who were accepted first? How many other people were waitlisted? Did they rank the waiting list? How can I find out how high up I am on the list? Or… how low I am on the list?! If there is a list that is… the unanswered questions go on and on. So, here are some thoughts in retrospect.
The decision letter:
The letter they send you saying that you’re waitlisted will tell you little beyond the fact that you were put on the waiting list; they’ll probably comment that you’re a great student and that there were so many qualified students that they couldn’t have space for all of the wonderful applicants and yadda yadda. Some schools may include percentages of applicants that were waitlisted with you, but this is rare — usually they leave you in the dark on those things.
The postcard:
Usually, the school will give you the option though of staying on the waitlist or not. (more…)
1 comment March 30, 2007
As BB said, we are helpful… so add us!
Posted by Dee
BB left the comment on the post we wrote for him/her titled “Response to BB: how many years of language is enough?” saying:
“Thank you very much! By the way, I am a junior. I’ve finally decided to not take the 4th year of Spanish. I am EXTREMELY involved in Band and Journalism, and while AcDec isn’t considered AP/Honors, it will probably be one the the most rewarding classes I will ever take in high school. In addition, I hate Spanish – though i do have an A. Again, thank you. This site has been so helpful!!”
BB — I’m so glad you found AdmitSpit helpful because that’s our whole point of existing! As you can tell, we definitely don’t post daily (we’re students too ya know!) so, to get updated without checking the site everyday and getting annoyed that we haven’t posted, there’s an easy solution… add us!
On Yahoo!:
The best way to go about adding AdmitSpit to Yahoo! is to go to http://alerts.yahoo.com and sign into Yahoo!. You’ll see that right now you’re on the “Create an Alert” tab, so click on “Feed / Blog” (which right now has a yellow NEW! icon by it) which will take you to a new page. In “A. Enter the URL for a web site’s RSS feed, if you know it” type http://admitspit.wordpress.com/feed, and when it says to choose how often you want Alerts delivered, I’d recommended keeping it on “As they happen” so that you get changes immediately, but changing “Major changes” to “Just new items” (the third option in the menu) so that you only get, well, new items. Then select how you want your Alerts delivered, whether just to your email or if you also want it sent to your Y! Messenger or Mobile, if you have it. Then click the orange “Save Alert” button, and on the next page hit the orange “Done” button, and you’re all set!
Another way on Yahoo! to add AdmitSpit content is, if you use My Yahoo!, to add the AdmitSpit feed. Go to your My Yahoo! page, click the blue “Add Content” button, which takes you to a new page. From here, click the “Add RSS by URL” blue text in the blue “Find Content” box (the first box that is). On the next page that takes you to, type http://admitspit.wordpress.com/feed, and click the grey “ADD” button. On the next page that takes you to, click the yellow “Add to My Yahoo!” button, and you’re all set!
On Google:
Google Alerts are also a pretty good way of getting updated on AdmitSpit content, even though the Google Reader is probably better (because with Alerts on Google you may also get results about what other people are saying about AdmitSpit rather than just our content exclusively).
To get Google Alerts for AdmitSpit, go to http://blogsearch.google.com, and type AdmitSpit. You’ll get a page with a list of results, look in the left bar under the grey “Subscribe:” box, and you’ll see a link to “Blog Alerts” with a little envelope icon next to it. Click on this, and it will take you to a new page. I suggest keeping all the settings on the right as the have them; the “Search terms:” should be “admitspit” with “Type:” as “Blogs” and “How often:” as “once a day” and now, just enter your (more…)
2 comments March 29, 2007
An exclusive Q&A with Zinch.com’s Mick Hagen
Posted by Doreen
A new site, Zinch.com, founded by Princeton student Mick Hagen, is live and, might I say, pretty cool! Here’s an exclusive Q&A with Mick. If you have questions for him, leave a comment. He’s a really nice guy (see photo) and I’m sure he’s up for answering any queries you may have!
Doreen: So, Mick, Zinch.com was launched just this week. How does it feel?
Mick: Doreen, my oh my. It feels so good. No. I take that back. It feels great! After months and months of brainstorming, research, broken pencils, programming, headaches, late nights, sack lunches, and prayers… we’re finally live. Now we just gotta preach the good news of Zinch, and let the students know about it.
Doreen: So, what is Zinch? Tell us about what it does for students, and how it works on the admission officer’s side as well.
Mick: Zinch.com is a tool to level the playing field in college admissions by giving every high school student in America the opportunity to showcase themselves, communicating those talents and accomplishments that make them unique. This information is then sent to the specified college or university the student wishes (more…)
13 comments March 15, 2007
Ranking run-ins
Posted by Dee
Not unlike most years, the U.S. News and World Report 2008 college rankings are of course expected to receive controversy when published in August this year… but there’s a new something festering beneath the tidy, numerical surface this time.
Plenty have spoken out publicly against the rankings over the years, but not college administrators, who, if anything, bow down to the wondrous accuracy of the rankings in hopes of being boosted up them… I don’t call that subjective at all. But this year, it seems more college presidents are out to complain… finally!
According to an article published today in Inside Higher Ed, nearly a dozen liberal arts colleges are set to join the initiative that Sarah Lawrence College’s president, Michele Tolela Myers, began Sunday — against the revered U.S. News rankings. Apparently, Sunday Ms. Myers publicly charged the publication with making up data about Sarah Lawrence (apparently the issue is that Sarah Lawrence made the decision not to collect or use SAT scores in their admissions process so U.S. News decided to make up an average SAT score… one standard deviation lower than the SAT averages of schools similar to Sarah Lawrence!) So now, a handful (more…)
1 comment March 12, 2007
Either, or… not both?
Posted by Dee
Robin left us a comment on AdmitSpit’s About page:
“I just heard through the grapevine that students who apply to both UCLA and UC Berkeley are only admitted to one or the other but not both. I really want to go to UCLA but also applied to Berkeley even though it is not one of my top schools. Does anyone know if this is true and if I can withdraw my Berkeley app?”
Basically, I can say quite firmly that this myth is entirely untrue! I too heard this idea “through the grapevine” when I was applying last year, but alas, I was accepted to both schools, and plenty of other students I know were accepted to both too.
Keep in mind that Berkeley is slightly more competitive than UCLA, so even if you didn’t get into one of them, chances are it’d be Berkeley you would not be getting (more…)
1 comment February 19, 2007
Response to Theodore: why Princeton over Yale?
Posted by DeeTheodore commented on two of AdmitSpit’s blog posts yesterday regarding how to respond to a question about why he prefers one school over another, especially when two schools of similar status offer the same major and equally great social and learning environments. Here’s what he said on the posts titled, “Response to Edie” and “Ivy Leagues are not created equal.”
“I am nervous as usual about the encounter I will have in two days with the interviewer. My most feared question is why princeton over all the other schools; why princeton over for example Yale? Both offer majors i am interested in and lovely learning environments. I mean Yale and Princeton both offer economics and exciting environments. How can you simply decide which is “better” or what makes Princeton tick more than another?!!”
Well, Theodore, I’m really glad you came to AdmitSpit to ask this question because I think you’ll get a response you’ll be quite satisfied with!
When I had my Princeton interview last year, my interviewer was this really sweet young lady now studying at Stanford for grad school and I was the first person she had ever interviewed for Princeton. She told me that Princeton gave her and all their (more…)
1 comment January 16, 2007
