What Are My Chances?

I want to share a couple of resources for students that may help them gauge how likely they are to be admitted to a particular school, based on the courses they've taken in high school, their standardized test scores and their GPA.

On College Board's web site, you can search for colleges of interest and then click on the "How Do I Stack Up?" link.  From there the student enters his/her high school classes (number of years of English, math, etc.), SAT scores and GPA and then receives a report showing how they "stack up to students who got in and enrolled".

Another resource is a free web site called Cappex.  Students need to create an account first, and then they can get similar feedback as what the College Board tool provides.  (I wrote about Cappex here in an earlier post.)  Cappex also allows schools to contact students via the Cappex web site when there might be a good fit.

Summer and Gap Year Opportunities: Rustic Pathways

An organization called Rustic Pathways made a presentation to the high school students today during advisory.  You can visit their web site at www.rusticpathways.com.  They offer both summer programs for high school students as well as a gap year program for high school graduates.  Programs include community service as well as adventure and travel experiences.

About Rustic Pathways:

Rustic Pathways offers travel programs for high school students, families, groups and college students. Summer programs are available for students from 12 years of age. Rustic Pathways also offers scheduled family adventures and customized family trips, as well as organized overseas programs for school, universities, groups, and clubs of all kinds. The company runs programs year round to Australia, New Zealand, The Fiji Islands, Tanzania, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, China, India, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Mongolia, Transylvania Mongolia and the United States. Rustic Pathways summer programs are suitable for most students.

Gap Year Option - Thinking Beyond Borders

This program offers a gap semester in Ecuador as well as a gap year (8 month program that includes extended living, service learning, and academic study in Ecuador, China, India, and South Africa).

About Thinking Beyond Borders:
Thinking Beyond Borders is a growing community committed to changing the world by translating learning into action. Our Gap Year programs are designed for students to explore international development through global service learning and academic study.

For more information visit http://thinkingbeyondborders.org/program/index.html.

Rotary Club of Ojai Scholarships

I have the paperwork for the Rotary Club of Ojai's scholarships.  The deadline for this scholarship is March 25th.  There are 8 college scholarship grants, 3 career and technical education grants (and 1 grant specifically for a Nordhoff cross country runner).

If you are interested please have your student get a copy of the application from me; time is of the essence!

This link has plenty of information and links for downloading forms:
http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/SitePages/SitePage.aspx?accountid=2843&pid=56291