One of the biggest decisions senior’s face in the waning stages of High School, is the decision of where to go to college. Some kids have dream schools, schools they have had their heart set sense the moment the concept of college was introduced. However, most kids do not really know what school they really want to go. We make lists of what schools have fun and eventful sports programs, offer the major we think we want to achieve, and look at where our friends are applying. The best advice I can give to a soon-to-be and undecided college students is to think outside the “box.” Take advantage of these 4-5 years of college and go someplace new. Look at schools in places you never though you would ever go. Life outside your hometown is different. There are many many new and different experiences that you will never experience at home. Some you may hate, and others you may love.
I went to school to a far far away place in Northern California at Davis. Even though Davis is in California, anyone who has been knows that Northern California is not the same as Southern California. Looking back I am very great full to have logged a few years up there. I love LA, and Davis is far from the coastal cities I grew up in. But I learned a lot from time I spent there. Many of the things I did for fun were things I never heard of back home. The people and food were new and different too.
So, leave home for college. Go see and live in a place totally new from what you have known growing up. When thinking of potential colleges, look at a map. Look at places you have never been but want to go to. There is a whole lot to be learned while in college outside of the classroom.
Most colleges are looking for particular students with particular sets of skills, but not all them. It is important to research what your top choices are looking for. Stanford is looking for different types of students than is Berkeley, for example. Many universities are eager to accept students that fit within a narrow range of strengths and weaknesses which means that often times, they want to see your strengths articulated into the major that you’ll be studying. If you are quite strong in a particular area, you will be showing your potential university that you are committed to that strength and show a particular passion in that field of study. At the end of the day, universities want to see dedication, diligence, and passion based on your strengths in high school. Choosing a major upon applying to a university is just one more way to “brand” yourself as a unique student with a real drive for the subject matter.
However, some statistics show that around 80% of college students change their majors, and on average, a college student will change their major THREE TIMES during the course of their college education. While this may be “normal” it is one of the main reasons college is taking students closer to five years to graduate. When we get to college each major has specific classes that we need to take, so if we have been studying Psychology for two years and switch to Marine Biology, we are going to have to take a whole new set of classes, rendering the majority of the classes we took for Psychology useless. While we may have enjoyed the classes we took, we are now two years behind in our Marine Biology coursework. So in order to get the most for our time and ourselves it is most efficient to pick something we will love to do and stick with it.
If you are not so lucky as to know what you want to study right when you get accepted, there are important strategies that can help us use our time efficiently and not waste priceless time on taking unnecessary classes. Many undecided students tend to study Psychology and Business, both very popular choices with a large range of opportunities in the future but they may not be what we really want to do. Here is one strategy that will work well:
There are two main types of classes in college, General Education and Major Specific classes. General Education classes are usually entry level and have few or no prerequisite classes (classes you need to take before you can take your major class). While Major Specific classes usually build on themselves so they take more investment time wise. If we do end up going into a major we are unsure about, it is best use of our time to take mostly General Education classes, and perhaps one major class our first semester. This way we get our General Education classes (the classes we have to take no matter what) out of the way while still getting a little taste of how we like the major.
If we pay close attention to the classes, we may find there are some major classes that overlap with General Education, these would be best to start your Freshman year with because they give us a taste of the major while also chipping away at the General Education classes we have to take anyway.
But again the number one thing you should consider before you choose your major is “What do I LOVE to do” because in the end that is what will make you happiest, and when you are happiest you will perform your best. Good Luck future of America!
Senioritis (n): a disease, primarily afflicting students that are about to graduate, that causes them to feel like they no longer need to do their work because “We’re almost outta here! Woo!”
Senioritis is an epidemic that sweeps the nation every spring. High School seniors, looking forward to the summer and, beyond that, college, are particularly susceptible to the senioritis bug. Once infected, students become lazy, and often fail to turn in their work. Many feel that, because they have already been admitted to the college of their choice, they no longer have anything to fear from High School. Their quality of work slips and, along with it, so do their grades. But these students are not, in fact, immune to bad grades. Unbeknownst to many of the afflicted, colleges do in fact pay attention to spring semester grades. Known side-effects of senioritis include reduction or loss of scholarships, getting dropped from the admissions list of their college of choice (this does happen), and even failure to graduate. The outlook for sufferers of senioritis is often grim.
Don’t let senioritis get you too! There are many ways to shield yourself from the adverse effects of the disease, but the most effective preventative measure is to stay motivated! Remember that your grades still matter right up until the last day of school! We all know that school can be tough, and boring, and that the promise of summer is already glowing brightly. But that doesn’t mean that it’s time to take a break.
To look at it another way, senior year is actually the most concentrated year of your career! Due to graduation practice, yearbook signing days, AP Testing, CAHSEE tests, Senior Ditch Day, Capstone Project, and cramming in some final volunteering hours, the amount of time you actually have to study and earn points in your senior year are limited. Therefore, every moment counts, so buckle-down, suite-up, strap-in, and finish up your final year on a good note!
As anyone who has ever attempted to write an essay knows, the hardest part is always the first sentence. However, when writing your college application essays, the difficulty often does not stop there. The essays for the common application may seem trite and cliché to many students, which makes them nearly impossible to write about. Furthermore, it is incredibly difficult to write an essay that highlights your attributes without sounding feverishly self-promoting. For some schools, the supplemental essays can be even more challenging, with prompts that seem obscure or overly complex. No matter what the topic, there are a few valuable tips for mastering the college essay that can help any struggling writer.
The most important aspect of the writing process is picking a topic. To begin with, it is important that the story be true. It is almost impossible to create genuineness out of a fabricated story. Choose a story that shows improvement or perseverance, even if you have to admit to being sub-par to begin with. It is exponentially more impressive to see upward trend than stagnation. Secondly, choose a topic that demonstrates your character; while great achievement is always impressive, great achievement in the midst of strong values and ethics is more impressive. For instance, use an example in which you were forced to make a choice and show how your decision reflected your morals and priorities. However, it is worth noting that a great deal of the value of the essay is based on writing style and ability: no one assumes that people around age seventeen have had a plethora of life-altering encounters. Thus, it is certainly possible to make up for a less than flamboyant and awesome story with your ability to artfully recount the story.
The next important consideration in drafting the college essay is length. There truly is skill in conciseness. The guidelines for the common application ask for two essays totaling no more than one thousand words between them; that means stick to approximately five hundred words per essay. If you use the majority of your word allowance on one essay, you may end up shortchanging the other. Conversely, using too many words on an essay may become redundant. Part of the limitation is about showing that you can tell a brilliant story in a small number of words. Anyone can tell a story with unlimited space; it takes much greater skill to tell it quickly by choosing your words wisely.
Lastly, it is important to meticulously edit your paper. Grammatical mistakes can take a beautiful essay and reduce it to an unsavory mess. You should pay careful attention to structure and mechanics whenever writing an essay.
The college application process can be intimidating and scary for many students. However, with some simple planning, it can prove an easy task. When you get stuck, walk away for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. If you follow these steps, you will be on your way to a great essay!
Junior year is a very important year for any high school student. They learn to drive and start venturing out into the world. Academically, it is probably the most difficult of their high school careers. It is the time where they need to start seriously thinking about their future college plans. This means more than researching potential schools. The SAT and ACT are the tests that play an integral role in the college application process. What many people don’t know is that they should actually be preparing for these tests in their junior year. While they need their final SAT and ACT scores until their senior years, their junior years are the most important for actually preparing for outstanding performance. There are other benefits to early SAT and ACT preparation, including improved performance in the reading comprehension and writing and exciting scholarship opportunities.
It is common knowledge these days that the SAT and ACT are very important for getting into a good college. It is also true that college entrance has become very competitive. Students need an edge to get into their schools of choice. This can come in the form of early SAT and ACT preparation. The earlier a student starts preparing for the SAT and ACT, the more time they have to improve their scores.
As they prepare for the SAT and ACT, parents might see an unintentional bump in their kids’ English or math grades. It may come as a surprise to some that material covered on the SAT and ACT is not mutually exclusive with high school curriculum. The preparation for the SAT and ACT can also function to improve and reinforce math, writing, and reading comprehension skills.
The PSAT is administered to students in the fall of their junior year. This is a great way for students to be introduced to the style of the SAT. However, there is also the possibility of an extra bonus of receiving a National Merit Scholarship. These are rewarded to the highest performing students on the PSAT. Students who have had previous SAT and ACT preparation have a big advantage over those who have not. As a general rule of thumb, it is critically important to start preparing your child for the SAT or the ACT as early as possible, particularly in the beginning of their junior year!
Here at The Study Hut sometimes saying goodbye is a happy occasion. As the summer is coming to an end so we say goodbye to a few of our tutors. Not to worry! Their departure is not due to sub-par performance or conflicts between other tutors, but because they are once again joining the ranks of US college students or are exploring the world in hopes of expanding human knowledge.
We are happy to see one tutor off to Columbia University this fall. Jenna who has worked with us this last year came to us already with some teaching experience. She had taught and substituted for a few of the lower elementary grades after finishing school. Now she is going for her Masters degree in education. We are always happy people using their skills to teach other and help others.
Another tutor will also be leaving not just us, the whole United States. Jenny, after a few years helping kids in our Redondo office, is packing up and leaving for Australia. A marine-bio major, Jenny spent time studying sharks while in school. Now she plans on continuing that hobby/love. She will be camping out on the remote coast of Australia tracking, recording, and studying the local shark behavior. After a few months she will then be attending graduate school in Australia.
We wish Jenna and Jenny the best of luck on their new adventures.
It’s summer time! The much anticipated vacation time, where school becomes a distant memory, and the beach and the sun the relevant priority! While vacation time is extremely important in rejuvenating the academic soul, a total abandonment of study and study skill practice can prove harmful when the first day of school arrives. Over the summer, it is highly recommended that a basic study routine be established to keep up the academic brain. If you know you have a difficult subject encroaching the following school year such as chemistry or physics, setting a designated time aside each day to familiarize yourself with the content before class actually begins can give you a head start when school begins. Here at Study Hut we can help you maintain and continue developing your study skills through individual one on one sessions where one of our expert tutors can help design an introductory approach to any academic subject that will be taken the following school year. Summer time is also an excellent time to brush up on literacy skills, especially for those in the younger academic grades. Regular scheduled reading, as well as vocabulary cards, created to memorize and understand newly introduced Summer relaxation is important in maintaining a healthy balance in the pursuit of rigorous academic endeavors, however, it’s important to always keep the study mindset sharp!
Summer is halfway through, has your brain turned to mush? Are you forgetting how to
do basic math? This is normal when you aren’t using your brain like you do during the
school year. Just like any other muscle, your brain needs regular exercise to stay fit!
While taking a rest once in a while to recharge is important, it’s also important to
keep your mental fitness during the summer so you are ready to tackle school come
September. A great way to do this is to work on subjects you struggled with in the
previous year to stay caught up, or start learning material in advance so you don’t feel like
you’ve been thrown in the deep end of the pool once school starts up again.
While things are quieter at the Study Hut during the summer, we still have great tutors
here ready to help out with any and all subjects you may need help with this summer.
Math tripping you up? Spanish giving you dolor de cabeza? Chemistry confusing you?
Think of the Study Hut as summer camp for your brain!
Need to get some schoolwork done but don’t want to sit inside? Well The Study Hut in El Segundo has something new and it’s very exciting! What is it you ask? A TIKI HUT! The Tiki Hut was hand built by SP, Justin, Taylor, Adam, and Sam. It’s located on the North Patio of the Hut and is a perfect studying atmosphere for the students! For those that enjoy being outdoors, the hut is a great opportunity to enjoy being outside and still getting that wonderful beachy feel. The students at the El Segundo Study Hut are truly enjoying this one of a kind creation. The Tiki Hut is also a great place for students to take a break from their work and be able to hang out with the other students. When you enter the Tiki Hut, you can feel the tropics at your fingertips. Having the Hut on El Segundo’s Patio is like taking a mini vacation on a regular old study break. This new addition was lit up last weekend with tiki torches and and welcomed with a limbo contest. If you have not had the chance to see the Tiki Hut, you can’t miss it. This creation was a perfect match for the El Segundo Study Hut and truly gives it that relaxing tropical feeling. The Tiki Hut is a positive impact for the Study Hut and hopefully is around for a long time.
Study Hut offers Spanish and French tutoring and, of course, English; Chinese was, up until recently, a rough subject for tutors and students alike, ranking itself as, in all righteousness, one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn and acquire.
I am, although Chinese in nature, unfortunately, not a native Chinese speaker; ergo, I was initially uncomfortable — hesitant — with tutoring such a complex language. With this gracelessness notwithstanding, I sat down with Middle School enthusiast, Rees, and began what I would categorize as an extremely productive session where we went through the fundamentals of common Chinese dialogue. Writing Chinese characters was, surprisingly, a “cinche”, and Rees and I sped through a decent amount of material in a relatively short amount of time. Whereas I distinctly remember Chinese being rather abstract and difficult to comprehend, I was pleasantly taken aback by the current academic approach to Chinese as a foreign language, a consequence of crossing the cultural divide — integration at its best — globalizing and simplifying a language crucial to the growing world economy.
Chinese still lacks the omnipresence and fluency of English, ergo, making America the dominating country in the world, but this ancient language is steadily growing into a universal medium for commercial communication. Therefore, it is with great joy that Study Hut now offers Chinese as one of our subjects. We are extremely excited to support our students with this new systemic development!
