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Link: canonical Link: me Link: openid.server IFrame My College Coach - 866-687-8129 Bradshaw College Consulting is your one stop solution for all your international study needs. We help students make the right choice when pursuing their college education. Get information on education in countries such as UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Malayasia, and Dubai. Achieve Your college educational dreams. Bradshaw College Consulting Call: 1-219-663-3041 Friday, November 25, 2011 Business, economics degrees differ greatly Friday, November 25, 2011 BY GERALD M. BRADSHAW gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu Bradshaw College Consulting (219) 663-3041 Dear Mr. Bradshaw: I am a college sophomore and I need to declare a major. I am thinking about majoring in business and finance or economics. I know that a few colleges like Harvard and Yale do not offer undergraduate degrees in business. Why? Can you explain the difference between a major in business and one in economics? Is one better than the other in order to get a top-paying job or admission to grad school? I am considering law school at some point in the future. --Student Business, economics degrees differ greatly - As the deadline nears for declaring a major for sophomores, you are right to be concerned about job and grad school prospects and the impact a major has in the job market. The good news is that both business and economics degrees will help you find employment even in a down economy according to recent studies by The Wall Street Journal. There is a great deal of difference between the study of business and economics as a concentration. This goes to the heart of why Harvard does not offer an undergraduate degree in business. The law school at Harvard even warns applicants that chances of admission are inversely proportional to the number of business classes taken as an undergraduate. The university considers business courses to be vocational in nature and not fitting their broad definition of a liberal arts education. Perhaps it is better to explain the difference between economics and business by saying that economics is a social science aimed primarily at understanding the social world. Economists address a variety of social science questions. Will school vouchers improve the quality of education? Do politicians manipulate the business cycle? What sort of legal system best promotes economic development? Why do cities have impoverished areas? Why do people procrastinate in saving for retirement - or in doing their homework? Economists say that business classes teach professional skills that are useful for starting and operating companies. They believe that economics and business are related, but that business is professional training aimed at making profits, while economics is a science that pursues an understanding our social world. Because many top colleges do not offer a business major to undergraduates, some students treat economics as a substitute. This has been proven to be a bad choice. According to studies, there is no evidence to suggest that concentrating in economics helps students to get better jobs after graduation. For these reasons, most economics departments strongly discourage students from majoring in economics as a substitute for something else. If you select a major with law school in mind I would recommend economics over business because the courses cover a broader subject area touching on many fields of study. I should add that I have several clients who majored in business and went to law school. They tell me they profited a great deal by their study of business as undergraduates. College Admissions Consulting Articles - Business, economics degrees differ greatly Posted by Ivy League Guru at 11:27 AM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: Admissions Consulting, business degrees, College admissions, degree in business, grad school, law school, undergraduate degrees, undergraduates Tuesday, November 8, 2011 College Admissions - Compatibility glitch has student in a panic Tuesday, November 8, 2011 BY GERALD M. BRADSHAW gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu Bradshaw College Consulting (219) 663-3041 Dear Mr. Bradshaw: I am filling out my Common Application and, when I upload my college essays, for some reason, they do not post in the display box. When I click "view document" or "print preview," all that appears is a blank page. I am in a panic. I thought it had posted because it did not show an error, until I discovered they were not visible in the display. I missed my Early Action deadline because of it. What can I do to fix the problem? Please help. -- Panicked Student Compatibility glitch has student in a panic - This will be a short answer because I want readers to understand what they have to do about this problem without digging through a lot of technical jargon. Several of my clients who uploaded their essays to the Common Application with a Macintosh have experienced this compatibility issue. If you view an application submitted on your Mac on a PC, you will be able to see your essays in the display. You have to use a PC to view them. This glitch has given students fits because they missed the Nov. 1, Early Action filing deadline. I have not seen references to this problem in the news and am unaware of any fix to date. To be on the safe side, I recommend that my clients fill out their applications on a PC and not a Mac. In the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I use an iPad and iPhone for fun, but, for my business, I use a PC, even though I am constantly under attack by viruses and malware. College Admissions Consulting Articles - Compatibility glitch has student in a panic Posted by Ivy League Guru at 12:35 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: College admissions, College Consulting, college essays, Common Application, Early Action deadline Friday, October 28, 2011 Graduate in 4 years and save Dear Mr. Bradshaw - How much will my college education cost? My parents have tried to plan for my education, but the financial part is hard to quantify. We hope you can tell us what expenses we should expect. - Student Dear Student - One of the best ways to cut the cost of college is to graduate in four years. If that sounds obvious, it doesn't seem to register with many students who take five to six years to graduate. Nationally, only 58 percent of full-time students graduate in six years, and three out of four part-time students fail to earn a bachelor's degree within eight years. Many colleges are not motivated to advertise their graduation rates, but they are easy to find by visiting College Results Online (www.collegeresults.org). CRO is an interactive, user-friendly tool used to provide parents and students with information about college graduation rates for most four-year colleges or universities in the country. One useful feature is the ability to compare graduation rates for colleges serving similar students. This information reveals that some colleges do a much better job of graduating students than others. For example, Indiana University in Bloomington has a four-year graduation rate of 52.5 percent, and Purdue University in West Lafayette has a 37.5 percent four-year graduation rate. Compare that to the University of Chicago (85.7) and Notre Dame (90.1). These results show the best graduation rates are at private schools, and these numbers are representative of universities nationwide. Clearly, a few colleges benefit by making a lot of money on the perpetual-student syndrome. But colleges alone are not entirely responsible for prolonging a student's education. Parents must take some responsibility because they allow their children to start college without a firm goal in mind. Many will say a student needs time to grow and experiment by taking classes in different areas before declaring a major. However, if we compare graduation rates among most top public and private universities, we find that nearly 90 percent of students at private schools entered their freshmen year with a declared major. Fewer than 20 percent changed their majors before graduation. Because most of the classes taken by these students apply to their degrees, it shortens graduation time. Most of my clients have a very clear goal in mind when they apply. Even if they change their minds midway through their course work, it is generally from something like chemistry to biology to pre-med, where many classes fulfill both degree requirements. Similar results apply if the student changes majors from applied math to economics or from history to political science. Radical changes to different majors add two to three years to what should be a four-year degree program. With college costs soaring each year faster than the rate of inflation, graduating in four years is the surest way to save money on your education. Simply put, plan ahead. I suggest parents start talking about career goals when their children reach eighth grade. That way, they can start planning their high school curriculum with that goal in mind. College Admissions Consulting Articles - Graduate in 4 years and save Posted by Ivy League Guru at 2:41 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: College Admissions Consulting, College Results Online, four-year degree, four-year degree program, four-year graduation rate, graduation rates, private universities Monday, October 17, 2011 Consultant an asset for top school Dear Mr. Bradshaw: I am considering hiring a college consultant to help me with the admissions process. My parents and I agree that applying to top colleges is a real challenge, and we would like to know how a college consultant could help make things easier. --Student Dear Student: If you are applying to a top college, a consultant can be a real asset, and the benefits are wide-ranging. Although little is published on the subject, student surveys indicate that at least 40 percent of the applicants who were admitted to Harvard and Yale last year used consultants. Even if your parents graduated from a top college and are familiar with the application process through an alumni network, hiring a top college consultant can help level the playing field in the admissions area. So where should you start? I recommend you Google "college consultants" and examine their websites. Pick a few consultants who focus on top schools and call them with a set of prepared questions. Ask how much they charge, what services they include, if assistance with scholarship essays is a part of the package, and so on. I highly suggest hiring a consultant who is a graduate of a top college because without these credentials, it is unlikely the consultant will be current with the admissions practices of exclusive schools. Keep in mind that consultants who were admitted to top colleges will have scores and grades similar to yours. Ask them why they think they got in. Obviously, they were able to separate themselves from other applicants, and you are looking to them to help guide you along the same path. Assuming you are near the top of your class and have scored in the top 10 percent on the SAT or ACT and on at least two SAT II subject tests, your next hurdle will be the essays required for the common application and individual schools. Typically, top students apply to 10 colleges, which means writing 40 to 60 essays during the admissions process. The essays are designed to tell colleges something special about you, and each is given a score. Do not be fooled into thinking that the shorter ones don't count and that only the longer ones matter. You will find some of the essays can be downright silly (from my point of view), but they still reveal something about how you handle off-the-wall questions like, "What does `blue' mean to you?" Answering these questions is always difficult, as I dislike quirky questions that don't have a logical base in my thinking. What I would like to say and what a responsible answer might be often are different animals. I advise students how to approach these questions and turn the answers to their advantage. A consultant will help keep you on track in the admissions process and provide a sounding board for you and your family. Making sure you meet deadlines, coaching you as you approach your scholarship essays, and cutting through the admissions clutter are some of the services a consultant provides. College Admissions Consulting Articles - Consultant an asset for top school Posted by Ivy League Guru at 9:43 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: ACT, admissions process, alumni network, applying to top colleges, College Consultant, freshman at Harvard, SAT, scholarship essays, top colleges, Yale Thursday, October 13, 2011 SAT Scandal Raises Questions About High School Pressure Sam Eshaghoff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Emory University, was arrested for allegedly accepting cash payments to take the SAT for six students at his alma mater, Great Neck North High School - one of the top-rated high schools in the nation. Great Neck North officials said they were appalled and reminded the public that all cheaters will face serious consequences while applauding the decision to hold the accused students legally accountable. Having graduated from a top-rated, overly competitive, private high school only two years ago, I sympathize with the six accused Great Neck North students. While the media will undoubtedly portray these students as slackers who tried to cheat their way into top colleges, I will know the truth: These students just could not take the pressure any longer and cracked. I have met a large number of students at the University of Southern California who were only one of fifteen students who somehow managed to graduate from an overcrowded public high school and attend a non-community college. I always hear about how few kids even consider going to college an option at these kinds of schools. It never gets any easier to hide my surprise when I hear about these stories. Understand, in my graduating high school class of 140 students, 139 went to non-community colleges and universities, with about 40 of them ending up at `ranked' top 20 schools. Sophomore year on, I had at least one daily conversation with teachers and advisors about what schools I wanted to attend. Not going to college was never an option. In order to get into one of the colleges I talked about wanting to attend on a daily basis, though, I needed to do well on the dreaded SAT exam. Hours upon days upon weeks were devoted to SAT practice exams and classes. I never needed to truly understand the material on the test, but at least know it well enough to get the answers right on the standardized exam. At the beginning of junior year, the U.S. News & World Report annual college rankings became my bible. I had the top-30 schools memorized back and forth. More importantly, I knew the scores I needed to get in. Read More: SAT Scandal Raises Questions About High School Pressure | Neon Tommy Posted by Ivy League Guru at 7:37 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: college rankings, Great Neck North High School, private high school, SAT exams, SAT Scandal, University of Southern California Thursday, September 29, 2011 Prepare for the job recruiting season Thursday, September 29, 2011 BY GERALD M. BRADSHAW gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu Bradshaw College Consulting (219) 663-3041 Dear Mr. Bradshaw: I am a senior at Northwestern University and it is the beginning of job recruiting season. Several top companies will be represented on campus and they all seem to look for the same qualities in a job candidate: Top grades and copies of your SAT scores. I can hold my own in both departments with a 3.6 GPA in economics and 2200 SATs. I'm more concerned about the intangibles. This many sound silly but how should I dress for the interviews? And what questions should I be expected to answer in the interview? Signed: Student Prepare for the job recruiting season Dear Student: You will need top grades as well as a record of participation in campus activities and prior work or internship experiences to get your foot in the door in today's job market. Corporate human resources people also tell me that in order to make a great first impression you should research the company and know about the markets the company competes in. That is easy to do with Google's ability to do a word search in milliseconds on just about any subject. I would suggest that you take your iPad with you and Google for any late-breaking news about the company before meeting your interviewer. Business casual dress is acceptable at most companies. A sport coat and collared shirt without tie for men and a tailored dress or pantsuit for women is appropriate. This is not the time to show off that great tan that you worked on over the summer. Proper footwear is a must. You need a firm handshake because you don't want to give the impression that you are a dead fish. On the other hand no high fives or knuckle touches if the conversation went well. Don't forget to thank the interviewer, and make sure that you get their contact information. A thank-you email would be a nice touch. Avoid buzzwords such as "Hiring me is a win-win situation going forward, proactive matrixes are my skill-set, and I bring lots of synergy to the table." Use plain language and try to educate the interviewer on your important strengths. You should bring copies of your resume and be prepared to walk the interviewer through it. This is your opportunity to shine. Make your resume tell a story rather than relate a series of unconnected events. Focus on upward progression - previous internships, student advisory committees, and special research projects. Keep your "walk through" to five minutes, and don't spend all of your time in one area. For example, don't dwell on your college experience to the detriment of actual work experience. Be prepared to respond to this: "Forget that I read your application, and tell me about yourself." Rehearse your response to this query over and over prior to the interview. You know you're going to get some kind of question that is specific to you and to your story, so practice. If you have one minute what are you going to tell someone about yourself? Stay focused on specifics in your answers. Employer interviewers expect applicants to state their answers tersely and not ramble. You need to be able to convey your thought process in three bulleted points. Staying focused with your answers is the best way to show an interviewer that you are the right candidate for the job. If asked about a major decision that you have made, tell them about why you selected your major. The employer interview is all about assessing how well you might work together for the greater good of the company. Keep that in mind as you prepare for the interview. Posted by Ivy League Guru at 7:04 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: interview, job recruiting, Northwestern University, SAT scores, SATs. Tuesday, September 13, 2011 Advice for avoiding freshman jitters Tuesday, September 13, 2011 BY GERALD M. BRADSHAW gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu Bradshaw College Consulting (219) 663-3041 [IMG] As an adult it has always been difficult for me to understand why perfectly smart young people who are admitted to the very best colleges and universities fear their first experiences on campus. These students talk intelligently, scored off the board on admissions tests and are ranked at the top of their high school classes. Why then, do they freak out at being on their own for the first time? Here is one way to avoid the freshman jitters and have fun doing it. I take as my guide the helpful experiences of a perfectly normal freshman at Harvard who wrote about her experience in an alumni newsletter. Let's call her Carol. Carol's first weeks at Harvard were packed full of activities. Placement tests, proctor meetings, dorm socials, losing her cell phone and finding it, she says, picking classes and feeling lost, overwhelmed and homesick. These comments pretty much summarize the experiences that most freshmen have during their first weeks on campus. To add to Carol's stress, she ran around frantically auditioning for a number of different singing groups. She was accepted by several and then faced the "agonizing" decision of which one to choose. As fate and good fortune would have it something happened that made her selection obvious and easy. It was called a "sing-in." As Carol told it, one Sunday night, two students knocked on her door, blindfolded her and guided her down four flights of stairs and outside, where they removed her blindfold. In front of her were 60 students holding candles and singing Claude Goudimel's "O Combien est Plaisant." They then walked to a reception for more singing. Carol returned to her dorm that night knowing she would join the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. The "sing-in" was only the beginning. She met a wonderful group of friends and decided to live with some of them her sophomore year. She became involved with the Collegium Executive Committee and later auditioned for and joined the Chamber Singers, a 12-person subset of Collegium. The point is that it is easy to get lost in the whirlwind of first-week college activities and intimidating, brilliant colleagues not to mention the universal difficulty of making a transition to college life. To any incoming freshman Carol has this sound advice: "find something you love doing and can wholeheartedly devote yourself to." Immersing herself so completely in Collegium provided relief from the stress of academic work, insights into the field of music administration and a possible career path. Most of all she met a wonderful group of friends and found her place at Harvard. Posted by Ivy League Guru at 9:39 PM 0 comments [IMG] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: freshman at Harvard, freshman jitters, Harvard, Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, incoming freshman Older Posts Home Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Useful Resources * College Search Advisor * Ivy League Admissions Guru * World College Rankings [IMG] Bradshaw College Consulting Ivy League Guru GET INTO THE IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL OF YOUR CHOICE: Harvard, Yale, Penn, Wharton, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, Amherst, Northwestern, Chicago, Oxford (U.K.), Johns Hopkins, Duke, Washington University in St. Louis, Emory, USC, Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, Wesleyan, Boston College, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Tulane, BU, Miami, etc. Call: 866-687-8129 View my complete profile [IMG] [IMG] Networked Blogs NetworkedBlogs Blog: My College Coach - 866-687-8129 Topics: College Coach, Ivy League, College Consulting Follow my blog [IMG] Blog Archive * Dt 2011 (27) * Dt November (2) * Business, economics degrees differ greatly * College Admissions - Compatibility glitch has stud... * PR October (3) * Graduate in 4 years and save * Consultant an asset for top school * SAT Scandal Raises Questions About High School Pre... * PR September (3) * Prepare for the job recruiting season * Advice for avoiding freshman jitters * Second-tier colleges `The New Ivies' * PR August (3) * Twins go from GEDs to Columbia University * College admission needs strategy * Take time choosing college major * PR July (4) * Advice for avoiding freshman jitters * College application timeline for high schoolers - ... * High grads, Ivy Leaguers, share insight to success... * SAT or ACT? 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