We recently received a question from a parent asking about a policy change at her child’s school, the esteemed Boston Latin School.  With rampant student competition, the school has recently changed its policy to remove Honors classes from its Freshman curriculum.  With no GPA weighting for ninth grade BLS students, this curious parent wondered whether her daughter’s chance at admission to a top college would be limited.

In short, the answer is no.  Colleges are acutely aware of context when evaluating every applicant.  They know the policies and expectations of every applicant’s school of origin.  Even top colleges with exceptional applicant pools will not penalize a student with no AP courses if her school does not offer that curriculum.  As such, administrations are taking justifiable steps to throttle back over-achieving students.  Rather than creating a crucible of competition and stress, students ought to be encouraged to pursue activities and passions for long term interest and fulfillment.

Admissions offices certainly understand the virtue of academic passion but also recognize the life-shaping value of extracurricular interests.  The ability to learn and perform for the external motivation of grades is one indicator of diligence; however, the passion to pursue interests – such as music, sports, art, or volunteer work – for internal reward will get a student into college but more importantly into herself.

Therefore, every member of the Veritas Tutors staff is not only a expert teacher but an inspiring mentor.  It is our mission to improve student outcomes within and without the classroom by fostering sustainable curiosity, passion, and success for the school setting and beyond.  We help students discover their passions, whatever they may be, and guide them to excellence in that field.  When was the last time you asked yourself, “What am I passionate about?”

As always this was an informative and interesting discussion with Chris H. as we explored the intimate details of the admissions process.  For more information on College Admissions please visit the Veritas Blog.  Without further ado, here is the seminar in its entirety.

To download, follow this link: http://drop.io/HowToGetIntoHarvard/asset/how-to-get-into-your-harvard-2010-mp3

As always, we will be recording and sharing these lessons freely with the world. Without further ado, here goes:

Lesson One: Introduction to tutoring, education, and disruptive market forces
http://drop.io/VeritasHarvardGSE_1

The first choice students must generally make is between a university and a college.  For those who don’t know the difference, universities include both undergraduate and graduate programs.  Universities tend to be larger, to possess abundant resources, and to focus on research ahead of instruction.  For those self-motivated and aware undergraduates who know what they want, the university setting provides a near-infinite setting for exploration and learning.  Liberal Arts Colleges, however, focus unwaveringly on undergraduate education, providing smaller classes and focused attention and mentorship.  For bright students whose pursuits are undefined, the intimacy of a college can be far more enriching than the vast scale of the university.

Beyond that large question, there are numerous issues of personal preference – city vs. suburb, geography, proximity to home, cost, abroad opportunities, campus culture, even culinary options – to consider.  When trying to decide, the best course of action is to visit each school and mingle with the community of current and incoming students.  That’s right, if you’re considering attending a school sight-unseen, think again.  A prefrosh visit is utterly essential.  You wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans without trying them on… so don’t even consider attending a college without first seeing how it fits.

When visiting a school, the most important variable is the student body.  This is the community in which you’ll be living, working, and socializing for the next four years.  If you feel at home and happy early-on, the transition to independent and challenging academic work will be much easier.

Along that line, the best place to look for a diverse, social college experience is the dining hall.  This is the single place on campus that will showcase the entire cross-section of social life.  Everyone has to eat, and generally speaking, like-minded people tend to dine together.  If you want to understand the implicit and explicit social dynamics of a college, then take a long lunch and/or dinner and pay attention to your surroundings and even try meeting some of the people you find interesting.  As a prospective student, you will certainly be welcomed and inundated by numerous opinions about the school.  Let this be your first lesson in filtering information to suit your preferences rather than someone else’s.

Last and certainly not least, you must go to some classes in subjects you find interesting.  While the anonymity and awe of large lecture classes is appealing, also seek out smaller seminars to gauge the collegiate discussion dynamic.  Of course scholarship is going to transcend most high school curricula.  Don’t be daunted; you’ll fit right in by the end of freshman year.

Last but not least, you have to understand that there is no perfect school out there.  Every setting will have times both good and bad.  Exams and papers will be more frequent than parties as well.  The key is to place yourself in an environment conducive to success within and without the classroom.  That way you’ll get the most out of the next four formative years of your life.

In many cases, College selection is an example of the Paradox of Choice.  To learn more, check out this Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
-Socrates (470-399 BCE)

When official visits and peer enthusiasm crest in springtime, however, even the most intrepid students are persuaded to follow the ordinary path to college. Since adulthood is about successful autonomy, I never compel compliance. I do, however, endorse active self-discovery during adulthood and adolescence alike.

Perhaps not always a year in duration, contemplation of the self is invaluable during periods of transition – geographic, academic, and occupational. That is, relaxed reflection is essential to the practice of everyday life with particular focus on the space between the signposts of success. Simply put, scenic detours engender happiness, encourage exploration, and reinforce confidence. Although it is best to start young, it is never too late to begin living the self-examined life Socrates could not live without.

Before reading on, you may also listen to a full recording of a seminar on the gap year, which was held in Spring 2010.  Feel free to listen here or download the file for later.

The Arguments Against

Fortunately, I have learned from my students’ reaction to deferred promotion and thus have a certain amount of insight into the teenage psyche. Teens, like the rest of us, are creatures of habit, whose daily environment of bells and corridors seamlessly leads intellectual growth from one level to the next. In fact, “staying back” in the K-12 system engenders perpetual promotion to college and beyond. It is this concern for continuity, which constitutes the primary student arguments against the gap year.

Why wait when I am ready for college now? This is always the first question high school students ask when confronted with the prospect of a gap year. In most cases, students are not ready for collegiate success; they merely think they are based on the immature students who have made (or are making) this transition. In truth, the student capable of simultaneously adapting to a new set of social, amorous, and academic responsibilities is rare indeed. Rather than confront all of these trials at once, it is best to tackle each of these matters over a full year without the burden of classes – and tuition.

If I take time off now, I worry I won’t go back to school. This is one of my favorite excuses, because it is simply ludicrous. If, however, a student feels this is a genuine concern, there is a sure fire solution: get a job. After a month of 40-hour workweeks, any teenager will be begging for school. The discipline of rising early for work is also an invaluable academic practice. From personal experience (albeit not until senior year), a 9-to-5 approach to school ensures excellent grades without the burden of stressful cramming or all-nighters. In fact, most students will find a full academic workload corresponds more closely to thirty than forty hours per week.

By next year, I will be too old for college. The movie, Old School, should have confirmed you are never too old for college. If, however, Frank the Tank is not a credible mentor, it is worth recognizing that college is the first step to eliminating the artifice of age from one’s consciousness. College courses, unlike those in high school, are homogeneous mixtures of lower and upperclassmen with a few graduate students mixed in. As such, the age of any college student has little import within or without the classroom.

For the most part, the social stigma of “staying back” seems to prevent many students from taking a necessary moment to pause and reflect on life and learning. As a result, social inertia pushes students along – often to places they are not ready go. While some are ready for promotion, others are much better served by a break – an opportunity for contemplation, introspection, and exploration.

The Argument in Favor

The concept of a gap year (often up to 15 months including two summers) is almost always misunderstood. Parents and students fear the onset of lethargy and mental atrophy and wonder what to do over that seemingly interminable span. To those people, I always stress a multi-faceted approach. Imagine the opportunity for personal growth inherent in the following timeline:

• June: Graduation
• July – September: Summer employment
• September – January: Travel abroad to learn a foreign language and culture
• February – June: Work, intern, take a course or two, and visit with friends
• July – September: Continue study, work, and connecting with friends

Beginning school as a freshman the following fall, a gap-year student has the distinct advantage of maturity, additional education, a rested mind, and increased social confidence. Often self-growth is the process that occurs in the background of life, while we aren’t paying attention. As a result, it tends to be ignored or devalued. The self, especially during times of transition and growth, should instead be prioritized. During adolescence, little is more important than understanding of the self in isolation as well as in worldly context.

With self-awareness and confidence comes success in academics and work. Unfortunately, other pressing priorities overwhelm this subtle necessity. It usually takes decades to fully know thyself – in fact, most people never get to that point. It’s best to begin early and practice the art of reflection often. If you do, you will have more success and less stress – while saving tuition money in the process.

If my anecdotal authority is not persuasive enough, the following excerpt from “Time out or Burn out” by William Fitzsimmons, Harvard College Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, should bolster the argument for a gap year:

For over thirty years, Harvard has recommended this option, indeed proposing it in the letter of admission. Normally a total of about fifty to seventy students defer college until the next year.

The results have been uniformly positive. Harvard’s daily student newspaper, The Crimson reported (5/19/2000) that students who had taken a year off found the experience “so valuable that they would advise all Harvard students to consider it.” Harvard’s overall graduation rate of 98% is among the highest in the nation, perhaps in part because so many students take time off. One student, noting that the majority of her friends will simply spend eight consecutive terms at Harvard, “wondered if they ever get the chance to catch their breath.”

During her year off, the student quoted above toured South America with an ice-skating company and later took a trip to Russia. Another interviewed in the article worked with a growing e-commerce company (in which the staff grew from ten to a hundred during the year) and backpacked around Europe for six months.

[http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/time_off/timeoff.html]

Rather than dwell on the potential downside of a year spent exploring the path less traveled, we should all consider its benefits. So, once you’ve finished the getting into college, do yourself a favor and pause to consider setting aside some time for getting into yourself. You’ll be happier that you did.

If you don’t believe me, listen to Stefan Sagmeister’s argument for “time off”:

First off, I should reiterate that extra-curriculars should never come before academic obligations.  They are, as the word implies, “extra.”  So students should not lobby to replace homework with the Call of Duty 3.  Also, I’m not suggesting students wile away all of their free time with a Wii-mote in their hands.  Rather, if a student is going to make a case for video games as a genuine extra-curricular, the activity should be treated as if it were a sport or musical instrument.  That is, hours of mindless play should be replaced by focused practice, thorough evaluation, and meaningful competition.

If you don’t believe me, here’s an excellent TED Talk by Jane McGonigal, video game expert and believer in the power of video games to enable collaborative problem solving and change the world:

Play is not practice.  Practice is not play.

As with any other activity, genuine improvement comes from practice with measurable results.  If you were a basketball player, drills, training, and repetition of simple tasks would be as important to improvement as game experience.  Video games are no different.  If you want to improve your skills, you have to focus your efforts on individual skills and track your progress accordingly.

As with any game in real life, video games have various facets – strategy, offense, defense, shooting, maneuvering, etc. – over which certain players have varying degrees of mastery.  If you want to be the best, you’ve got to systematically practice each micro-skill and apply those skills to a game setting.

The most famous name in professional is Johnathan Wendel.  He has earned over $100,000 in a single year of competition.  Jonathan, however, admits that such success requires no less than eight hours of practice every day.

It’s all in your head

Without a genuine physical component to video games (though consoles are evolving), the key to being a successful video game player is not only the dexterity of your thumbs but also  your brain.  That means video games can’t be about shutting off your brain.  Instead, you’ve got to employ all of your cognitive capacity when at play.  Rather than zoning out to the point of catatonic drooling, you need to remain conscious of your activity, incorporating frequent breaks for analysis.

While playing a sport, musical instrument, or video game, breaks are essential.  They allow you to gather your focus and give thoughtful consideration to your progress and mistakes.  Most of all disciplined and frequent breaks allow you to maintain control over your activity rather than the other way around.  In short, video game addiction is real; genuine and productive involvement requires careful time management to prevent being overwhelmed as happens in South Korea.  A policy of requiring 30 minutes of off-line time for every hour of gaming is an essential practice for managing one’s self.

Compete against the best

In any extra-curricular activity, regional, national, and international recognition are essential measures of success.  Moreover, competing against the best raises your personal expectations and performance.  Playing against the best brings out the best in you.  Some international competitions include the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and the Electronic Sports World Cup.

As always, dedication to a single activity – be it video games or violin – must not force other activities to the margin.  Adolescent maturation requires balance and exploration of several interests.  In conclusion, video gaming can be a valid activity if conducted with discipline, dedication, and competition.  In our changing landscape, digital natives will be essential actors in the economy and society of the future.  But managing online and real-life performance is essential for a happy and balanced life.  Here’s a fascinating Frontline episode that investigates our evolving digital culture.

Having worked with many teenage boys, and judging by my own experience, this is sometimes an unavoidable problem. It’s not permanent – most people grow out of it. I did about three years into my time at Harvard, and really shed the bad habits when I had to start running a business. But, for some reason, it can often be absolutely unavoidable for the teenage years. Maybe it’s the wiring, or the hormones. Whatever the cause, teenage male disorganization can be academically debilitating.

What’s the solution? Yelling? Screaming? 3-Hole Punching? These all work occasionally, but the best solution I’ve found is tutoring.  Having a once-a-week homework-help check-in with an experienced tutor gives students someone to lean on for help. Simple activities like weekly binder cleanups, planning in advance for homework and larger projects, and discussing and implementing simple time management techniques can work miracles. Often students have no one with whom to discuss these sorts of things: peers are equally inept, teachers only care about their class and are strapped for time, parents are too embroiled.

It is perhaps even more important that students have someone safe to whom they can be held accountable.  The relationship that forms between a good tutor and student is safe from the threatening, grade-bestowing teacher, the hyper-involved parent, and the judgement of peers. It’s a haven where the student can open up, ask for academic advice, be themselves, and also learn to look up to someone for their intellect and academic excellence. In this haven, tutors can inspire and motivate teenage boys, or any student for that matter, to try just a bit harder to keep everything together.

At Veritas we have seen a number of students who benefit from organizational help. And often just a bit goes a long way. Also, we have seen a strong trend toward independence with these students as well. The tutoring serves as training wheels of sorts for students to learn how to manage their own work in a stressful, demanding environment. Tutoring, in this case, is akin to training wheels on a bike. Once a student masters their organizational and time management skills, they no longer need the tutoring and are far better prepared for success as they move forward in their academic careers.

Our student sits down to work on a term paper that she knows should require between two and three hours of focused effort.  Rather than focusing on the task at hand, she grasps at anything to distract herself: chatting online with friends, browsing the web, even cleaning her room.  While this multitasking might yield a robust facebook profile and a cleaner room, it also extends her writing time to five hours instead of three.

Furthermore, this tendency to multitask afflicts our well-intentioned scholar even when she’s not working.  Just as her leisure infringed upon her work, her work always seems to creep into mind during ordinary times of relaxation and fun.  As a result, she is in a constant state of worry about the work looming overhead.

In an ideal world, this student would summon discipline for work and play alike, maintaining a firm boundary between the two.  Given that same five-hour block, you could imagine discipline helping to enable the following sequence of events: thirty minute paper brainstorm and outline, ninety minutes of writing, thirty minutes on Facebook to socialize and clear the mind, an hour of revision, and finally an hour and a half of pure freedom to follow.

Though the adage “life is short” has some virtue, I like to think of life as a very long time… far too long to make yourself miserable.  Therefore, I always strive to balance my daily responsibility with my outside passions and need for leisure.  In essence, the separation of work and play serves as a sort of existential feng shui – i.e. the alignment and balance of energy to ensure health and fortune.

By batching responsibility and focusing to complete the tasks at hand, the disciplined student is left with a pile of excess minutes to appropriate for socializing, sleep, or best of all a passionate extracurricular interest.  When an admissions officer eventually reads that student’s application and asks, how did she do it all – school, sports, music, and still manage to have fun – the answer is discipline.  So remember the key to general success in life is to have the discipline to work hard while making sure, at times, to hardly work at all.  If you maintain this balance, you’ll achieve success and happiness alike.

For an example of a happy and successful person, listen to Stefan Sagmeister describe how he successfully batched  work and play on a grand scale with discipline as the organizing principle:

Nonetheless, it is still valuable to investigate one’s activities through the lens of the application process.  Though often reserved for the eleventh hour – after real change is feasible – self-reflection is a vital facet of undergraduate and graduate admissions.  This article is therefore meant to raise those same life questions we often postpone until someone else demands an answer.  As usual, a little introspection now will go a long way later.

Upon meeting any student, I always ask the cardinal questions about life: where have you been; where are you now; and, where are you going?  These, of course, are questions we should each ask ourselves all the time.  Unfortunately, obligation and stress often distract from essential reflection.  As a result, problems of planning and fulfillment inevitably arise.

Most adults, for instance, remain unsure what they want to be when they grow up.  So, it should not come as a surprise when short-sighted teenagers lack future goals as well.  Though existential malaise is the affliction of our era, it is not incurable.  The essential first step is to discover one’s passion(s) in life.

When considering passions, there is never a wrong answer.  Your passions are personal, and no one can rightly judge or rank their importance for you.  There is only one prerequisite to determining your passions: introspection.  If upon genuine consideration you determine your passion is writing, sailing, skydiving, or video games – yes, even video games – you should pursue that interest with unadulterated effort.  Your goal, no matter the focus should always be excellence, and excellence is assured through one method in particular: discipline.

In short, discovering your primary passion(s) in life is an essential first step to satisfaction and success today and tomorrow.  Spend time exploring and experimenting.  If something catches your attention, pursue it with fervor.  Even if you find you don’t like a particular field or activity, that is valuable information for the future.  No matter what, continue to explore and never stop learning.

For some perspective on the process of finding personal happiness and satisfaction, watch this great lecture by Dan Gilbert of Harvard University:

I’ve also come across a fantastic Ted Talk by Dave Eggers regarding his 826 Valencia project.  Hopefully it’s only a matter of time before Veritas expands its volunteer offerings to this level…  But what kind of faux retail store to open with it?  Please share your ideas.