Rebranding the Gap Year: A look into Global Citizen Year

For the longest time,  the gap year was assumed to be for the rich or the academically burnt out who needed a sabbatical before they embark on four years of higher education. However, the gap year is anything but a holiday. Abigail Falik, in a New York Times Article challenged us to rebrand the gap year, “When used intentionally, the year before college can be a bridge, a launch pad and a new rite of passage. It’s the students who find the courage to step off the treadmill – replacing textbooks with experience and achievement with exploration – who are best prepared for life after high school.” Many universities look at a gap in a good light. Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s undergraduate admissions dean, wrote a manifesto about the need for students to take time off before college. Rick Shaw, Stanford’s undergraduate admissions dean, now speaks about the value of non-linear paths and the learning and growth that come from risk taking and failure, as opposed to perfect records. Princeton, Tufts and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have recently developed “bridge year” programs that encourage – and pay for – students to spend a year immersed in the world before arriving on campus.

This means that students aren't using this as way to just relax, they are leaning new things, finding jobs in careers that they might want to explore in the future, and doing Service. When we look at a resume the last thing we look at is if the candidate has been involved in a service project or not. But what if that was not the case? What if a year of service could be an effective way to not only understand yourself but the people and the world around you? A lot of student have moved toward doing just that. One of the leading gap year programs in the US is Global Citizen Year, a nine month excursion into countries such as Senegal, Brazil, and India where students live in a homestay and work in meaningful places. In India students work with Teach for India and an NGO for girl child education out of Hyderabad. In Senegal, the students work in creating sustainable infrastructure. Students love the program even though it costs as much as a year in a public college (though most US citizens get financial aid). As an Indian you can apply for the program but may only be eligible for financial aid if you are a student at one of the United World Colleges. 

Apart from GCY, there are other service opportunities in India as well (U Chicago’s Delhi office runs a lot of service immersion programs). Contact us and we can guide you in the right way. 

How to Make the Most of your Gap Year

There are a lot of opportunities to explore when you take a gap year. Students, learn new languages, invent apps, work in part/ full time jobs, create companies, and most importantly travel. According to the American Gap Association (americangap.org) over 85% of gap year students (“gappers”) wanted to travel in order to see the world and experience other cultures. 

Regardless of the motivation, the time off can be helpful. Srini Pillay, M.D., Harvard psychiatrist, academic adviser, and author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused, can relate a number of advantages students may have as a result of time spent away from academia during a gap year.

In his book, he outlines exactly how time off such as a gap year can benefit the brain. Some examples include activating the default mode network of the brain – what he calls its unfocus circuit. This area of the brain increases creativity, improves memory, enhances a sense of prediction about the future, and re-energizes the brain.According to Pillay, “Time away, even when it seems irrelevant, can enhance creative solutions because the brain has time to shuttle around old memories, recombine puzzle pieces, and invent new and fresh approaches to life.”

The American Gap Association surveys alumni to gain further insight into the benefits of taking time between high school and college. The most recent reports show that:

• More than 80 percent of respondents said they would recommend a gap year to someone who was considering it.

• The most meaningful experience for the majority of respondents was being in a new and different environment.

• Also important was the increased exposure to new experiences.

• Gappers may even get better grades when they get to college. Undergraduate students who had taken a gap year before enrolling earned 0.1 to 0.4 higher GPAs than students who didn’t, according to studies conducted by Robert Claggett, former dean of Middlebury College.

Overall, gap years can be extremely fruitful if planned well. Having your parents or a gap year counsellor help you plan your year may help greatly increase your chances of making the most of your year! Contact us for more information about how to plan a gap year. 

The Increasing problem with Legacies

"The system is biased." This is a phrase synonymous with college admissions in India. Because of the ever increasing quotas, the number of vacancies for regular admission is steadily reducing. Affirmative action in India is definitely driving the more affluent students to opportunities abroad simply because of a supply and demand mismatch. In the United States, a similar wave of discontent is being observed. The most affluent (white, upper middle class) are complaining that opportunities for their children is ever reducing-- even though almost 50% (if not more) of any tier-1 college is white. In comparison only 30% of the seats in Delhi University are actually open to non minorities. Essentially there isn't much of a disparity, however the new government is finding ways to revoke Obama era affirmative action plans. 

This focus on affirmative action is taking from another quota in the American system-- Legacy Students. Legacy students (or legacies) are candidates who are given bonus points because their parents went to the same college. According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) said colleges shouldn’t consider an applicant’s race. Yet they were more evenly divided over legacies. While 52 percent said colleges shouldn’t consider whether an applicant’s parents are alumni, 46 percent said that should be a factor. There are definitely both sides to the coin. A sustained partnership with a school should be rewarded but should it be prized over a student who might be a better fit to the college? While some larger public universities such as Georgia State understand this issue and have reduced the number of legacy admissions, some of the more prestigious private colleges still run on the legacy membership model. 

No matter where you stand on this debate, I find there to be some optimism here. At the end of the day, if you do get rejected from a college, it may not be that you were qualified for the college, it could just be that you didn't fit exactly what they were looking for and that's fine. Not every Harvard alum becomes a millionaire but a great education will always get you to your dreams. 

Review: ZeeMee, a video based alternative to supplemental college applications

Apart from test scores and transcript the foremost thing that colleges in the United States look for in a candidate is You. They search for your brand, what you bring to the college, and most importantly if you are a good fit for the college. Creating a brand is the challenge, especially if admissions officers can't meet you and put a face to a name. This is where ZeeMee comes in. The free phone app started as a venture to train students on how to create a personal brand through a series of webinars. Soon, it began collaborating with universities as an alternative to a supplemental essay for college applications. Instead of providing a 300 word essay, students could answer specific questions in a 26 second video. This both increases the empathetic and visual connect for the college counsellor between the dematerialized college application and the student. 

ZeeMee was rolled out in 2014 to charter schools, specifically with students that lived in remote places and didn't have the funds to take a college road trip. Since then the app has reached viral fame raising millions of dollars and teeming up with over 200 American universities, most of which are historically black and liberal arts colleges (though some Ivy Plus colleges such as Carnegie Mellon were early adopters as well). If you are a non-traditional thinker and believe that you can sell yourself better through video then ZeeMee might just be for you. Over 20,000 students from 150 countries are currently creating a personal brand. Check it out here. A word of caution - be sure to put effort in creating a honest profile on ZeeMee. Your audience is watching you and it's easy to spot a lie!

How to Interview like a Pro

These couple of months are when a majority of college admissions representatives would be visiting India and meeting with interested students which means that preparing a solid interview strategy would be very helpful. 

Here are some things that you should know about the nature of these interviews: 

1. These interviews are built to add a face to the application which helps greatly. Additionally, there is a high chance that the person interviewing you would also be the one reading your admissions application
2. This is as much as an interview for you as it is a sales pitch for the institution: Colleges take this as an opportunity to really sell their college and would try to weave a narrative based on the your responses to their questions
3. A bad interview (for the most part) does not jeopardize your chances of getting into the college, but a great interview can leave a lasting impression on an admissions counsellor

What questions to expect at such an interview: 

1. What classes are you taking? 
2. What are the things you do outside the classroom?
3. If asked, what would your school teachers tell me about you?
4. What is it that you would like to do in college?
5. Why this college? 
6. Are there any questions for me? (most important question) 

Things to do before the interview: 

1. Research: Know as much as you can about the college. Read up reviews and come into the interview with at least 6 questions
2. Dress well: Most students choose to dress casually but be business casual at the least. It shows that you are serious and have come here with a plan 

During the interview: 

1. Meet interviewers with a smile and introduce yourself well
2. Enunciate and talk like you are passionate about the things that you are doing (think of this like a first date. You cannot unravel all your flaws but this doesn't mean that you lie) 
3. Each interview is allotted 30 minutes but if you just answer all the questions, the interview will only last for 10. Get comfortable as quickly as possible and be conversant. Again, remember: A bad interview does not jeopardize your chances of getting into the college, but a great interview can leave a lasting impression on an admissions counsellor

We hope this was helpful. Contact us if you would like to schedule mock interviews or if you would just like to know more Ed Brand!  

What Happens When a College Admits Too Many Students?

Every year college admissions go through a very interesting phase called the summer melt- a time when a percentage of students drop out even after paying the enrollment deposits. A recent study found that most students that do drop realize that they can't pay for college, or that their scholarship didn't go through making it impossible to attend. Colleges are well aware about this phenomenon and factor that percentage in when they send out applications. But what happens when everyone that you accepted plans to come? 

This is the horror that UC Riverside faced this year. A surplus of over 1,200 students accepted their offer to the California based university out of which 499 students' acceptances were rescinded. This is largely unusual but a rising trend. As incomes are fluctuating, and acceptance rates are rising, students are choosing to stay in their safety and reach schools because of the financial burden it promises to reduce. UC Riverside has issued an apology even though it still has a surplus of over 800 for its 7,000 student freshman class. This isn't the only university that has overestimated the number of students it can take. Carnegie Mellon did it in 2015, Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health the following year, as well as UC San Diego. 

For Riverside, the next steps would be to find ways to accommodate so many students. An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education said that the university plans to invite students to spend their freshman year abroad, find local students to commute to school instead of staying in dorms, and even send students to community college for a year with a promise that the subsequent three years will be at Riverside. These are problems for large public schools no matter how prestigious and something that high school students should factor in when choosing colleges. 

Green Card in the US: New immigration bill may make it easier for educated Indians to stay

While the US is tightening up its borders with increasing security, travel bans, and reduced H1-B work visa offers- a new bill in known as Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act might be changing the residency situation for Indian students studying in the United States. The act wants to begin a point based system much like the Canadian Permanent Residency (PR) program where young, educated, skilled, and english speaking immigrants would be preferred over people who claim residency because of their family. 

While its only a bill, the new point system would greatly help Indian students planning to study in the US with getting a green card. Here are some points criteria that seem beneficial: 

1.  Good undergrad education: An applicant with a US high school diploma or the foreign equivalent gets one point; a foreign bachelor's degree earns five points, while a US bachelor's degree earns six points.
2. Further Studies: A foreign master's degree in STEM fields earns seven points while a US master's earns eight points. A foreign professional degree or doctorate earns 10 points and a US equivalent earns 13.
3. Age: Those aged 18 through 21 gets six points, ages 22 through 25 gets eight points, and ages 26 through 30 get 10 points.
4. English Proficiency: Points are also given out for English proficiency, as determined by standardized English test. Anyone with less than a 60th percentile proficiency gets no points, those between 60th and 80th percentile get six points, someone in the 80th to 90th percentile range earns 10 points, those with a 90th percentile proficiency or above earns 11 points, and someone in the 100th percentile range earns 12 points.
5. Job offer: Five points are awarded if an applicant has a job offer that will pay at least 150% of median household income in the state where he or she will be employed; eight points if pay is 200% of median income, and 13 points if it's 300% the median.

IF (which is a big if) this bill passes, A young Indian between the age 26 to 30 who has just wrapped up a Ph.D in U.S, is proficient in English, and who has a job offer of about $ 160,000 per year or more (approximately three times the national median income) would be a shoo-in for one of the 140,000 employment-based Green Cards the U.S issues annually. This bill does seem like it will help both the US economy, save Trump's message of foreigners taking away jobs, and most importantly be an amazing return on investment for an education from the US. 

Ishnoor Singh, Creating Affordable Home Automation Technology

When I think of home automation, I'm reminded of Tony Stark's house with light sensitive blinds, glass interface system, and an artificial intelligence bot running the whole show. However, when Ishnoor Singh thinks of home automation- he thinks of finding ways to improve the safety and accessibility of his grandparents. The 17 year old Gurgaon student found that most home automation systems are very expensive and embarked on creating his own system with the simple idea of controlling lights in the house. What started as a small home project became huge when he took to a crowdfunding website to fund some prototypes. He asked for 45,000 rupees but raised over 70,000 in ten days. Turns out there was a much larger demand for the invention that he had imagined! 

We are all very proud of Ishnoor and are excited for his prototypes to come to fruition. HIndustan Times featured him along with other young innovators. Here is the link.

Ishnoor was also facilitated by the Ashoka Youth Venture team recent.

Guiding Students through a thoughtful College List: session at IACAC 2017

For many international students applying to U.S. universities, rankings and reputation can take on an outsized role when crafting a final college list. This is often a detriment not only to the student’s success in the application process, but also their sense of purpose. This session helped counselors cut through overly influential factors and build lists based not on prestige or marketing, but the student’s personal needs and goals. 

Presenters for this session are: 

• Arun Ponnusamy, Collegewise
• Marie Whalen, Whitworth University
• Wendy Bigler, International School of Asia, Karuizawa

I'll be adding my takeaways soon. 

Navigating the Arts School Application Process : IACAC Session

Students seeking a degree in the visual arts often face some unique options and challenges during their college search. In this informative exchange, representatives from four U.S. art and design schools will provide counselors with an understanding of the differences in art school degrees and curriculum; tips and tools for aiding students with portfolio preparation and submission; information on pre-college programs and why they matter so much; and data to support the arts as a viable career path.

Presenters for this session are: 

• Angela Jones, Tufts University
• Jolynn Vallejo, California College of the Arts 
• Yaritza Pena, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
• Jackson Moore, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

I'll be adding my takeaways in the comment section.