Resources

If you are thinking that enlisting my help is superfluous – that you can figure out this stuff on your own – go for it! This section of my website has links to some of my favorite books and web resources. Educate yourself, and enjoy! If at the end of all your reading you feel you would benefit from assistance with your unique, individual situation give me a call and we can work it out together.  Or, if you realize you or your child would gain motivation from learning about college in a group, enroll in one of my seminars or camps.

Many students would love to learn a subject, but are frustrated because that subject isn’t offered in school. Stop thinking about school as the only place to gain skills. Instead, look at the world around you. Get involved. There are web-based courses, lessons and classes of all kinds, groups forming for skill enhancement, mentorships that can be arranged, summer camps and internships, and the old stand-by, the library.

One of the fastest growing options is learning via internet, in a structured program, or in a more free-form manner. Here are some of my favorite web resources:

https://www.coursera.org/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

http://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.udacity.com/

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/

http://www.iecaonline.com/

Websites you will need:
The Common Application
College Board

College Admission Information:

Hernández, Michele A. Acing the College Application: How to Maximize Your Chances for Admission to the College of Your Choice. New York: Ballantine, 2002.

Springer, Sally P., Jon Reider, and Marion R. Franck. Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know about Getting into College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

How to write:

Bauld, Harry. On Writing the College Application Essay. New York, NY: Collins, 2005.

Cronk, Robert. Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays, 2011.

Some good essays to ponder:

Jay Allison and Dan Gediman, editors. This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, 2007

The Importance of “Soft Factors”:

Dunbar, Don, and G. F. Lichtenberg. What You Don’t Know Can Keep You out of College: a Top Consultant Explains the 13 Fatal Application Mistakes and Why Character Is the Key to College Admissions. New York, NY: Gotham, 2007.

The Match Between You And MIT | MIT Admissions

Asher, Donald. Cool Colleges for the Hyper-intelligent, Self-directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different, 2007.

Bauld, Harry. On Writing the College Application Essay, 2005.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Schneider, Barbara. Becoming Adult: How Teenagers Prepare for the World of Work, 2001.

Dunbar, Don, and G. F. Lichtenberg.  What You Don’t Know Can Keep You out of College: a Top Consultant Explains the 13 Fatal Application Mistakes and Why Character is the Key to College Admissions, 2007.

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: the New Psychology of Success, 2006.

Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness, 2007.

Harris, Judith Rich.  The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do. 2009

Newport, Cal. How to Become a Straight-A Student: the Unconventional Strategies Real College Student Use to Score High While Studying Less, 2007.

Newport, Cal. How to Be a High School Superstar: a Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out), 2007.

Pink, Daniel H. Drive: the Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, 2009.

Pope, Loren. Colleges that Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way Your Think about Colleges, 2006.

Seligman, Martin, K. Reivich, L. Jaycox, and J. Gillham.  The Optimistic Child: a Proven Program to Safeguard Children against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience, 2007.

Seligman, Martin. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, 2007.

Springer, Sally P., John Reider, and Marion R. Franck. Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know about Getting into College, 2009.

Wissner-Gross, Elizabeth. What High Schools Don’t Tel You: Create a Long-term Plan for Your 7th to 10th Grader for Getting into the Top Colleges, 2008.

Wissner-Gross, Elizabeth.  What Colleges Don’t Tell You: 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid into the Top Schools,2006.

College Guides – Fiske, Princeton Review’s 371 Colleges, College Prowler, etc.

Websites:  College Board, Naviance, CollegeConfidential.


Why should you think about getting a job?

As Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder points out in The New College Reality: Make College Work For Your Career, the end game of all this education is becoming a person with sought-after skills. What better way to see what skills are valued in the world than working in a job?

Some other reasons to work at a job are:

  1. It feels good to get paid in return for your efforts
  2. From a college admission perspective, students who have held down a summer job are assumed to have character traits like responsibility and grit.

Camps and internships:

There are of course many, many summer camps and programs out there. Many students research this on their own or go with what their friends are doing but if you want some directed guidance give me a call.

As a science aficionado, I am fond of science and math summer programs. Here are some of the many available:

  • Summer Science Program (SSP)
  • Research Science Institute (RSI)
  • Women’s Technology Program (WTP)
  • The Ross Program
  • COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science)
  • Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS)
  • Canada/USA Math Camp


Comments From Students

Nancy made a huge difference in my application to MIT. She asked me a lot of questions and helped guide me so that the application really reflected my experience and my aspirations. She has a way of figuring out what is unique about you and making sure you are communicating that. I also learned a lot from her about what to expect at MIT and she was right about all of it. It is an amazing place and she really helped me get here
Alex Blickenstaff