Tag Archives: Insight Education

The Art of College Admissions

Discover what it REALLY takes to get into college from professional admissions experts.

Getting into college is a long and often challenging process. Students are trying to figure out how to present themselves as “unique” on their college applications all while keeping up their grades in school, extra-curricular activities, social lives and more.

So, how do families go about beginning to plan for college admissions? The first step for many is gathering as much information as possible! A great way to do this is by attending a college admissions information seminar.  

Join Insight Education at the Hyatt Place Fremont on Saturday, July 21 for our free community seminar on The Art of College Admissions. The 2-hour seminar covers a range topics including recent admissions trends, standardized testing, what ‘holistic admissions’ really means, what you can do to maximize your changes of admissions and an overall look at how the college admissions landscape has changed- and continues to do so! We will also have plenty of time for questions from the audience and time for you to talk with our team of professional college admissions counselors.

Insight Education have been working with families for more than 18 years to guide students through the complex admissions landscape. We firmly believe that high school should be about more than just preparing for college admissions, and as such work alongside students to help shape these important 4-years into experiences that you will enjoy and treasure.  

Make sure to register your seat at the seminar by visiting Eventbrite HERE. The seminar will be capped at 60 people so we have a chance to interact with you one-on-one and share advice specific to your students. Check in is at 9:40am for a prompt presentation start time of 10.00am!

We look forward to seeing you there and if you have any questions before hand, please feel free to reach out to holly@insight-education.net

 

The Secret Code: How to Study Computer Science without Majoring in Computer Science

It’s no secret that computer science is one of the hottest (and hardest to get into majors!) around these days. Here are some recent examples of how difficult undergraduate CS admissions is becoming:

As Computer Science grows more competitive, candidates for the major are being held to an increasingly high standard.

That said if, you’re a student who’s interested in computer science (but not 100% sure if it’s the right major!) or want to maximize your chances of admission to a top-tier university, you may want to consider some of these alternative majors instead.

But just how big of a difference is there between the admit rates for CS majors and ‘sister’ majors?

Well, among admitted UCLA transfer students for Fall 2016, requirements were considerably more forgiving for students studying alternative majors to CS.

ADMIT
RATE		 25TH %
ADMITS		 75TH %ADMITS
COMPUTER SCIENCE 5% 3.81 4.00
COMPUTATIONAL AND SYSTEMS BIOLOGY, PRE 6% 3.53 3.53
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 29% 3.81 4.00
LINGUISTICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE 68% 3.56 3.78
MATHEMATICS, APPLIED, PRE 45% 3.63 3.91

Applying to an alternate major can give students a complementary skill set, and often increase their odds of acceptance to universities where CS spots are limited. However, before you commit to an alternate major, consider the following:

  1. What percent/how many CS classes do students take with this major?
  2. What are the career prospects for this major- and how do they differ from a traditional CS degree?
  3. Will you be attending a school where you can minor in CS?

Discovering the best alternative major only takes two simple steps:

  1. Really examine: what draws you to computer science? Do you live to code, or are you simply generally fascinated by all STEM subjects?

Making this distinction is helpful. If you’re a true CS whiz and studying anything less wouldn’t cut it, then own this – and let that certainty guide your college search. And if not, you’ll have many excellent options to learn all about computers and technology without being a traditional CS major.

  1. Tap into you other passions! By choosing a major that combines CS with your other passions, you can greatly expand your major options.

Ultimately, by thinking outside the box and considering alternative majors, you’ll gain even more exciting and unique opportunities in a rapidly evolving field.

Dealing with Rejection from your Top College Choice

You’ve opened the letter, read the email, visited the portal. The response is not what you were hoping for. You’re disappointed, and this is a very fair reaction.

Applying for colleges is a long and hard process, one that takes up a lot of your time both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, a lot students feel that not getting in to the top college of their choice is embarrassing or a reflection on them as a person. We want to make sure you know right away:

That is not the case.

The number of students applying to colleges is skyrocketing. UCLA had a 5.7% increase in freshman fall 2018 applications this year, and those numbers are similar across many college admissions departments. Colleges have a very tough job selecting students to join to their campus, and the hard truth is that they will have to send rejection letters to thousands of very deserving students.

Do you know what the great news is?

You will get into plenty of other schools. You probably already have! You will get to open acceptance letters to some other truly great colleges and decide which of those is the best fit for you. It is important to remember that you still have some big decisions to make, and that come time to start at your new college, you will still feel just as excited stepping foot on to the campus you get to call home for the next little while.

For now, take some time to feel disappointed. Dealing with rejection is an important part of life as we grow up, and it is natural to feel sad when things don’t go the way you wanted. Give yourself a few days to feel those emotions, but make sure to talk it out with someone you trust (parents, siblings, friends or your guidance counselor are all great options).

Most importantly, don’t dwell.

After a few days, it is important that you get back on track. You will be getting acceptance news, and when you do you will need to decide how you want to make your acceptance decisions. This will be a wonderful time and one that you have earned with all your hard work, so enjoy it and treasure the moment!