Inside look at disability services for college
July 9th, 2018
We hope everyone enjoyed the holiday week – Independence Day provides an opportunity to reflect on our country’s founding tenets and can be quite stirring. Of course, fireworks and cookouts are stirring in their own right!
Heading off to college is a time to establish independence, too, and this new-found self-reliance can be a major adjustment for both parents and students. Students with disabilities have an even bigger responsibility of managing how they will request and utilize services to help them achieve success in their studies. Throughout the K-12 years parents have played that role, but now it’s time for students to become their own advocate as parents take a back seat and give encouragement along the way.
The purpose of accommodations in college is to give equal access and opportunity to all students. It’s important to take advantage of this and understand what options are available to you if you’ve been receiving accommodations in high school. The link we share below leads to a wonderful guide to the college accommodations process from the Office of Disability Resources at Carnegie Mellon University.
As a bonus, the videos linked here (www.youtube/channel) are terrific short clips modeling appropriate behavior for students when navigating this task.
We want all students to experience success in their new educational homes. With the right attitude and initiative, we know that everyone can!
Article referenced below from Carnegie Mellon Disability Services
You and your student are embarking on an incredibly exciting, yet challenging chapter of their life. Going away to college is a wonderful opportunity and accomplishment for students. here at CMU, we pride ourselves in offering an academically rigorous, student-centered environment where students’ hearts are in the work they do. We welcome students with disabilities and provide responsive and reasonable accommodations that allow them to do their best work.
For students with disabilities and their families, the transition to any college often presents unique challenges and opportunities. Students become responsible for arranging their own accommodations and communicating their needs to university faculty and staff. Parents or guardians’ roles change from advocating for their K-12 children’s needs to providing support as their college-aged adult children advocate for themselves. The laws underpinning the provision of disability accommodations change from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. While accommodations available in the college setting are often similar to those a student received in high school, a greater level of independence is expected of college students, and college-based accommodations may not be identical to those offered in the K-12 setting.
Read more at Carnegie Mellon >>Tagged: College, Disability services
Summer splash: diving into college applications
June 25th, 2018
In the world of college admissions, all summers are important for high school students but we see a special opportunity for rising seniors. In between your structured activities, summer is the perfect time to make major progress on your college applications. And for rising juniors, setting up a Common App account now gives you the opportunity to add activities and honors over time.
As you approach the Common App with great thoughtfulness, you really want to consider what the reader wants to know. When I sat on college admission committees, the applications that stood out most gave me a sense that the student was sitting right next to me and I could engage in conversation with him or her. The way you describe yourself should be compelling, while giving an accurate description of your interests and accomplishments. I encourage all students to approach their work in this way.
A few things to consider when composing your application…
- Sometimes the activities line does not give you enough space; use the “additional information” portion of the writing section to add important details.
- The essay prompts used for fall 2018 entry will remain the same for students beginning their applications now. The choice of which prompt to address is less important than the story to tell – the essay should provide a window into your life.
- The Common App will be offline from July 27 (midday) to July 31 in preparation to launch the 2018-2019 application on August 1.
During this time, colleges’ questions are updated and the previous year’s applicants are stored.- Account Rollover retains an active applicant’s college list and the seven sections of the ‘Common App’ tab: Profile, Family, Education, Testing, Activities, Writing, and Courses & Grades.
- After August 1, students may log on with the same username and password, respond to a few questions and find their previous work intact.
- College supplements, however, will be refreshed and any work on those would be deleted – so while it is okay to peek at last year’s questions, do not tackle college supplements in your Common App until after the Rollover period.
- Some colleges will place new essay and short answer prompts on their admission sites ahead of the Rollover so it can be wise to check each college’s website for a head-start on institution-specific questions.
Many of our students already have opened their Common App accounts. If not, please go to www.commonapp.org to get started today!
Tagged: Applications, College, Essays
How does your personality impact success?
June 11th, 2018
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test has been used for over 75 years and is often applied as a screening process by businesses to determine success in the workplace. Many psychologists believe that this particular test which categorizes people into 16 different personality types is outdated.
In today’s blog post, we are sharing an article from the BBC, in which psychologists Ian McRae and Adrian Furnham have developed a “new and improved” way to determine success across all areas of the workplace. Their new test called the High Potential Trait Inventory includes 6 traits. Not only is this type of test helpful in the workplace but also great for high school students to utilize when considering future career choices. Either test is a great way for students and really all people to get to know themselves and how they can choose a successful path to go down.
Article referenced below from BBC
Published on May 9, 2018 by David Robson
Are you curious, conscientious and competitive? Do you also have the more mysterious qualities of “high adjustment”, “ambiguity acceptance” and “risk approach”? If so, congratulations! According to new psychological research, these six traits constitute a “high potential” personality that will take you far in life.
The truth, of course, is a little more nuanced. It turns out the same traits, in excess, may also impede your performance, and the real secret to success may be to know exactly where you fall on each spectrum, and how to make the most of your strengths and account for your weaknesses. But this new approach promises to be an important step forward in our bid to understand the complex ways our personality affects our working life.
Read more at BBC >>
Tagged: Boarding school, Career, College, High school
Reward your hard work with a thoughtful summer book list
May 29th, 2018Over the next several weeks, millions of high school seniors will don their caps and gowns and receive a diploma they have been working towards for the last 4 years. Here in Kentucky, they’ve already started! I am truly proud of each and every one of the ShropEd graduates and I know major accomplishments are to come. If you are graduating high school, middle school or college this is the time to celebrate!
The school year is filled with projects, homework, sports and many other commitments. Now, warmer temperatures have finally arrived and the days are longer; with the hustle and bustle of the school year behind us, summer seems to be the perfect time to encourage both reading and mindfulness.
Today, I want to share with you a list of books put together by college admissions officers and college advisors. The theme of this list is mindfulness and in this busy world we live in, I hope by reading some of the books from this list we will gain mindfulness and live a more thoughtful (and less stress-filled) life.
Article referenced below published June 14, 2017 from The Washington Post
Each summer I publish a summer edition of great reading with recommendations from college admissions counselors and deans, compiled by Brennan Barnard, director of college counseling at the Derryfield School in Manchester, N.H., and a contributor to this blog. Here is a unique list of 50 fiction and nonfiction books with some titles that can appeal to just about everybody.
Read more at The Washington Post >>Tagged: Boarding school, College, Graduation, High school, Summer
