“Scientific planning” lightens your future丨College Prep Workshop
On September 17th, a Sunday back to school, all the students of Grade 9 and some of their parents came to the International Lecture Hall to attend the first lecture of the new semester. The topic was “college preparation” and focused on the academic planning.
Mrs. Zhan, who is in charge of the academic planning for Junior high school, shared the preparatory work of the application for university. Mrs. Zhan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majored in school counseling. This may be a strange subject in China, but to know that in the United States, from primary school to high school, every school has several school counselors, as an important part of student support services. In addition to the academic planning we talked about today, it also includes emotional counseling, personal development counseling, character training, career planning and so on.
Hard condition of application for college
Now we are still in junior high school grade, seemingly far from the application for college. But the teacher woke us using one sentence at the beginning of the lecture: GPA, grade point average in the school is the most important hard condition of the application for college. The GPA eventually sent to the admission officers, is calculated from the Grade 9. When heard the length and very early of the GPA calculation, all the present students immediately looked nervous.
We all know that we should study hard, but we still confused about how to study hard or to which direction to work hard for the goals in heart. Today, Mrs. Zhan systematically explained many matters of the application for college. Many doubts have been answered after the whole speech and students liked to eat the mind minded pills.
Soft condition of application for college
In addition to the mandatory requirements of GPA, TOEFL IELTS, SAT / ACT and other achievements, the University admission officers are also very aware of the soft conditions of students, such as participation in the extracurricular activities with width and depth, as well as the personality and skills reflected and developed in activities. Here we simply list some points:
- Toughness, elasticity, frankly accept the failure and the make effort again;
- The courage to challenge yourself;
- Participation of activities, participation in school communities, etc.
- Leadership (for example, to establish a community);
- Social skills, contribution, and actively participate in volunteer activities (this is very important).
Tips on application of ideal college
The teacher also gave us a few suggestions on how to apply for the most suitable for ourselves and ideal college as follows:
- You can visit the University appropriately to understand the characteristics of teaching and local customs;
- Understand the elective system of different universities;
- Add your own mailbox to the email list of the college enrollment to receive the latest cutting-edge university-related information at any time.
Voice From Parents
The following is a view of one parent:
After taking part in the academic planning lecture last night, I felt a lot of benefits! Yesterday the teacher said there would be more lectures about detailed analysis and hoped parents can continue to participate with the children.
The overall idea is very clear; all the concerned points have been mentioned, although talked about generally. But because of the limit of time, we didn’t speak too deep.
Although the time was short, also let children and parents understand their goals better, not just a concept, but a clear data presentation. So that children can have a reference and intuitive contrast as well as understand how far away from their target. Seeing the gap can produce more power and understand how to work toward this goal! They also understood that this distance was not only the scores but also all aspects of ability! This kind of lecture helped the children find their targets slowly and think about how far away from their own.
The teacher helped children clear ideas, see their own gaps, which made students find the direction and motivation of their own efforts. It was very important to have the ability to correctly choose the real platform for themselves! This kind of lecture was very good. We hope to have more opportunities to do more in-depth understanding of the success of the future. We need planning and study, as well as the new trends of every institution. Let us draw a blueprint in the family of Beijing Royal School and fly in the blue sky tomorrow!
（Author：Liang Huiwen Translator：Deng Yaling ）
