The Dunce's Cap
Dear Junior:
Somewhere in the dark recesses of college and university admission offices people are preparing to send you an avalanche of mailings about their academic offerings and student activities. The institutions which already have you on their mailings lists have a planned "campaign" to get you to apply and later to enroll in their college.
If you have written to them earlier, filled out a card at a college night program, belong to a denomination that sends names to their affiliated colleges, or have been spotted by an alumnus as a likely candidate, you will start receiving tons of mail from colleges. OK, so THE DUNCE exaggerates some, but by the time the last piece of mail has hit your mail box just before you leave for college, you will feel snowed under by all the mail you got.
What to do with this mail? Several suggestions. The first is recycle the unwanted pieces. Second, pass some of it off to your friends to impress them with the colleges and universities seeking you out. Third, share it with your guidance counselor, especially from those out of the way, back woods colleges they would not normally know about. And the colleges that interest you, put their information in a place for ready reference.
THE DUNCE has a fun job. I just sit back and pretend I'm a PC Magazine editor and choose the best of the bunch. February's POP are three institutions in the same Virginia city, Lexington:
Just in case February is not dull enough, THE DUNCE is going to make it duller by boring you with college jargon and definitions. THE DUNCE gets these terms from reading the indexes of college catalogs for entertainment instead of watching TV. Here are the latest candidates for the Academic Jargon Hall of Fame.
Adult students And you thought you were an adult! Colleges use the term "adult students" to mean older adults who are either beginning or completing their college education. "Older" usually means over 25. One college uses the term "mature students." And you thought you were mature!
CLEP College Level Examination Program is a way to evaluate college level knowledge you already have. This test is administered by the College Board, the same friendly folk who offered the SAT. Each college has its own rules about whether it will accept CLEP credits and how many.
Concurrent enrollment When a student is enrolled in two colleges at the same time, it's called concurrent enrollment. Both colleges will have to approve this arrangement.
Core requirements No, they are not courses with a hole in them but those courses needed to complete the basic academic component required of all students for graduation. Again, each college has its own core.
Course load Colleges vary also in how many courses or credits a student can take at one time. This limit, when it exists, is called course load. Look for colleges that do not place course loads and you may be able to take enough courses to graduate early.
Course numbering College level courses carry a numerical prefix to designate the year they are normally taken in. For example, 100 level courses are for the freshman year. Courses that end in -01 are normally introductory course for a given subject and -02 classes are normally the sequels to -01 classes. These -01 and -02 classes are ones you may be able to test out of or get into because you took advanced-level courses in high school.
Endowed scholarships Colleges and universities have moneys given to them to keep in trust (called an endowment) and the income from those funds is used to award scholarships. These endowed scholarships normally carry the name of the donor or someone the donor is honoring. Named or endowed scholarships may carry an academic distinction as well.
ESL English as a Second Language courses are normally available to assist international students to improve their English skills. Sometimes you may wish you had started there instead of English 101.
GE courses Nope, these course do not prepare you to work for General Electric after you graduate. GE stands for "general education" and is the same as "core requirements."
Prescribed courses These are courses you must take as prescribed by a doctor. In this case, however, the "doctor" is a Doctor of Philosophy who sometimes masquerades as an academic advisor. Believe THE DUNCE , when this doctor prescribes a course you will take it until you have completed it.
Satisfactory academic progress This term crops up in relation to financial aid. In order to continue financial aid awards into the second year, your grade point average (GPA) will have to be at a certain level. Each college has the "numbers" for satisfactory academic achievement. Some are brave enough to publish them in their catalogs.
Testing out This is not a test to see if you've learned enough to graduate from the college. Unfortunately. Instead, it's another way to describe the CLEP, except some colleges will offer their own tests in particular academic courses at the elementary level. Sometimes you will have to pay the tuition for courses you test out of, sometimes not.
Well, that's about all I have to share this week. But I'll be back next week.
THE DUNCE
HOMEWORK Reminder
This week:
Make an appointment with your guidance counselor to assess your academic
qualifications for college. Ask for suggested colleges to consider.
Homework calendar
(http://www.usmall.com/college/newsletter/jrhomework.html)
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