CollegeConsult

About Me, and Introducing Betsy

admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:27:06 +0000

TISH O’CONNOR earned a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA in 2008 and began working with students on college admission. She brings decades of experience as an editor to assist her clients in developing essays and personal statements that distinguish their college applications. Tish, who was a member of the first class of women to graduate from Dartmouth College, served 2004–2008 as the college’s District Enrollment Director for the three counties on the central coast of California. She shared that role with BETSY HEAFITZ, also a Dartmouth grad, who joins CollegeConsult this summer to offer four week-long workshops, during which they guarantee each student will complete at least one college application. After a career in marketing, and a break to raise three kids, Betsy prepared for college counseling with the same program at UCLA, which she will complete by the end of the year.

Tish remains active in organizations that promote college access: she is a volunteer for the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation and a Writing Coach for College Summit—which President Obama chose as one of the recipients of his Nobel Prize money. She is an Associate Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) and the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC), which provide opportunities for ongoing professional development.

Read on for the personal story—or not.
You might suspect that my Ivy league degree indicates that I had this whole college application thing figured out way back when. But, no, my educational journey was not a linear path, and each of the bends in the road presented valuable experiences that I bring to my practice. Here’s a short summary that highlights a few of those lessons.

I did not even apply to Dartmouth as a high school student—couldn’t have, as it did not yet accept women, but I wouldn’t have applied anyway because I was convinced that I wanted a big city school. I did have some great urban options: turned down Harvard, Penn, and Georgetown to attend the University of Chicago, sight unseen. Although Chicago can be defended as the most exciting city among those options, especially for someone who had grown up in Boston and was quite familiar with the DC-New England corridor, it was a mistake to make this decision without having seen the University of Chicago. I had rejected Barnard because I was not comfortable with the campus environs in New York, and within a few weeks of living on the South Side of Chicago, I felt vulnerable, like the 100-pound blonde that I was, rather than the successful, confident student that I also was. Lesson learned: visiting a campus before enrolling is essential. (Many schools will cover that expense for admitted students who cannot afford it on their own.)

I promised myself that the reward for enduring that year in Chicago (and getting good grades to keep transfer prospects viable) was to do whatever I wanted the following year. Probably what I had needed straight out of high school was a year to program as I saw fit, what is called a Gap Year today, but it was less popular in my day. Although my widowed mother blessed my departure with the words,”No mother sending her son to VietNam is any more upset than I am,” I devised one of the great years of my life thus far (still hoping and planning!). I rode a bike from Dublin to Athens, not a continuous journey, but taken in segments over the year, with train rides in between. I attended the Sorbonne and completed its year-long certificate program in French language and civilization, while supporting myself by keeping house for an elderly lady in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment in the heart of Paris. Clients can expect a growing library of gap-year options, which will also benefit those seeking shorter-term non-traditional educational experiences.

I only signed up for a summer term at Dartmouth, and that was just to satisfy the nagging doubts that the headmistress of my high school had raised when she commented that I didn’t belong in medical school, even if it was in France. “A born humanities type,” I could never stomach seven straight years of science courses, she opined—and she was right. The most wonderful school in the most fabulous place won’t be the right fit for a student if it does not have strength in the subjects s/he wants to study. Hence, we help our clients focus on long-term goals and visualize a future before choosing where to take the 50 or so classes that constitute a college experience.

Always happy with an intense pace, I added up the units I had taken at Dartmouth in six terms and realized that I had completed the course work I needed to graduate. There were still things I wanted to study, mainly in art history, and I had to write a thesis, which was a requirement of the honors major in Comparative Literature. Back I went to Paris, where I studied art history at the Ecole du Louvre, which offered gratis entry to most of the city’s other wonderful museums, and wrote that thesis.

Summer Workshops

admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:09:47 +0000

Summer Workshops: Writing College Applications

Two individual counseling sessions
Small-group writing workshops over five days
Individual editorial feedback daily
Useful take-away tools and post-workshop action plan

Two coaches! This summer Betsy Heafitz joins Tish O’Connor

June 17-21 ● July 8-12 ● July 29-Aug 2 ● Aug 12-16

Daily 10:00–1:00 pm, in air-conditioned wifi space downtown

The counseling sessions will:

Identify student strengths and educational goals
Evaluate colleges on application list and suggest alternatives

During the workshops, student will:

Develop a strategy for writing college applications
Complete Common App activities resume and short answers
Brainstorm topics for a comprehensive self-portrait
Implement writing tips to draft personal statement
Draft and revise UC and Common App essays with editorial feedback

All inclusive fee: $1,200

Put together a group of three and you’ll each receive a $100 discount.

Initiate your registration by completing the contact us form or call Betsy at 805 453-2240

Applying

admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:23:15 +0000

Get a fast start on your applications with a small-group workshop this summer! Read on, or check out Services and For Seniors tabs.

The first task in applying to college is compiling a balanced list of schools that meet the student’s goals and aspirations. “Balanced” is code for a complex formula: “fit,” or ability to meet a student’s individual skills and goals, plus range of competitiveness, or difficulty in gaining admission, and net cost, or financial aid as needed by the student, that guarantees valid options when admission decisions are rendered. This entails examining (and supplementing) the research on colleges and specific programs that the student has undertaken in the initial phase. We use focused discussions, based on statistics and thoughtful consideration of these important questions Decision time to decide whether each college belongs on the student’s final list of applications to file.

The most important thing for the student and parents to remember in this phase is that “College is not a prize to be won, but a match to be made,” in the inimitable words of the late educator Loren Pope. (Pope’s philosophy underlies the consortium of schools that he identified in his groundbreaking book, Colleges that Change Lives , which are all worthy of some consideration.)

Step two is to formulate a strategy for applying to college. This should not be an attempt to “brand” or market a student, which is an all-too-common misguided approach (often sold for mega bucks), but a plan that reconciles the individual’s performance by various means (not just standardized tests) with the admissions process of the schools under consideration. Some useful information includes the requirements of various colleges for SAT subject tests and which schools are test-optional. Mainly it entails helping the student make the best case for him/herself, using all of the phases of the application process to showcase his/her unique talents and goals.

Writing college admissions essays is a task students dread, although they should embrace it as the one point in the process over which they still have complete control. Can’t change the transcript or control the competition, but a student can shine—and completely alter prospects for admission—by acing the application process. This is where I feel totally confident in my abilities: from 25 years of working as an editor of non-fiction, I have devised effective strategies for overcoming writer’s block, and helping others communicate effectively, persuasively, and elegantly. (The latter will never apply to my son, you think? Just you wait!)

This summer I will be joined by Betsy Heafitz in conducting workshops on writing college-applications that will not only get the process rolling, we guarantee that we’ll stay with you until at least one application is complete! See the “For Seniors” tab of this website for writing tips and application resources.

For Seniors

admin — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:23:49 +0000

You’ve worked hard to reach this point in your education.
For many students, the path to the future will be revealed
by applying to college.

_______________________________________________________________________

Soul searching, talking with others about their experiences, trolling internet resources, and dedicating
sufficient time to the process are necessary to ensure that you will have the best options for personal
fulfillment and career success. A counselor can also help: as a researcher to answer questions with accurate
information; as a sounding board to test your ideas and brainstorm approaches to each application
and specific essay topics; as a critical reader to see yourself from the perspective of the admissions staff,
and help you put your best self forward, on paper and in person. CollegeConsult offers short-term, focused
counseling, that can make a big difference when the process is stalled or the student is overwhelmed.

• Where should I apply?

The first step is compiling a list of appropriate schools, which should include a mix of colleges, perhaps ten, including some (maybe, two) where you feel pretty confident of gaining admission; most of your choices (say, six) should be those where your transcript and test scores fall comfortably in the mid-50% range of admitted students; if you want to shoot for the stars with a few (again, maybe two) of the more competitive colleges, go ahead if you are capable of accepting the outcome without making it a referendum on your self-worth.

By senior year you should have established criteria for your college experience and compiled a list of schools that meet them, but it often helps to write out your criteria and then systematically evaluate each school on your list against them. I ask my clients to complete an exercise like CollegeScale, which an applicant to some of the top business schools devised, to expedite that process.

• What are my chances of admission?

Every college publishes an admitted student profile on its website; you can also get a quick statistical portrait from the SAT scores, class ranking, etc. that are included in standard guidebooks, like Fiske or Princeton Review. This website includes links to the New York Times blog, The Choice, and CollegeData because both follow a group of applicants every year, who share their GPAs and test scores, as well as their outcomes and insights in to the process. Reviewing the archives of these applicant files is a good way to measure yourself against the competition. You can also use scattergrams, found on CollegeData and elsewhere, to see how you stack up in the applicant pool.

But first, don’t kid yourself: calculate your GPA the way college admissions personnel do; “weighted” grades include a lot of bloat. calculating GPA accurately

If you intend to apply to the University of California, calculate your admissions index per the posted formula: University of California – admissions index

• How can I stand out in the field of applicants?

The best thing you can do for yourself at this point—when your grades are what they are and the standardized tests have been taken—is to put in the time and energy to write your applications carefully, understanding that you are creating a composite self-portrait that is supplemented by recommendations from your teachers and counselors. Each element is important and they should synchronize, but not repeat; in the aggregate they reiterate the central truth of who you are, what you hope to gain from attending this particular college, and what you will add to the campus culture.

• Are my essays engaging? revealing? well crafted?

They had better be! This is your last best shot at your dream. Give it your all and get some help! You will be evaluated on this writing, so make the best case for yourself. This is a personal statement, and it should reveal what makes you special: your interests, values, accomplishments, and aspirations. The two prompts for the UC app ask you to: describe the world you come from and explain how that experience has shaped your dreams and goals; describe a personal attribute or accomplishment that makes you proud and show how it defines who you are. The six prompts on the Common App have not been changed for years (although it has been reported that the Essay of Your Choice option will be eliminated with the 2013-14 iteration), and each provides an opportunity for the reader to get to know the applicant. Keep a journal in which, once a week, you record your thoughts about answering each of these prompts. Then get down to work. Start early. Brainstorm, draft, let rest, read, revise, repeat.

If you haven’t had good instruction and lots of practice in short-form non-fiction writing, explore the treasure trove of personal statements that originated with Edward R Murrow in the 1950s and have been revived and augmented by NPR: www.thisIbelieve.org I volunteer as a writing coach for College Summit, a non-profit that helps create a college-going culture at inner-city schools by offering week-long bootcamps on college admissions, which includes writing seminars on personal statements; here are a few stand-out essays produced in these College Summit workshops.

I provide clients of CollegeConsult with an account on CollegeEssayOrganizer, which assembles all the prompts for supplementary essays for the colleges the student selects and creates a platform on which writer and editor/reader can exchange drafts and comments. This program allows the student to assemble a portfolio of written statements that can be altered and adapted to respond to specific prompts, making the process more efficient and creating a checklist of requirements and deadlines. It has sample essays and shows how an essay can be adapted to respond to a particular prompt.

Most colleges want to know what academic programs and other factors appeal to you at that school, or why among some 4,000 colleges and universities in the US you want to attend this school. Attached is Why this college?, a posting by a fellow counselor that I think outlines a good strategy for responding to this category of prompt.

At least have a competent editor verify that your writing is grammatically perfect, without any spelling errors. I recommend that you allow a small number of people to read and discuss your essays with you, but choose these readers carefully. An inexperienced, even if well intentioned, editor can squelch or distort the individual voice that must be heard in these statements.

Click here for an overview of the different campuses in the University of California system. This link provides some basic info on UC financial aid-fact sheet cost of attendance at a UC campus, along with a link to its net cost calculator. When you are ready to file an application, follow the instructions on this form: UCApplOnline_2013 The UC application portal opens on November 1st and closes a month later November 30, before midnight. Every year the system crashes as the deadline nears; avoid the anxiety and the crush by filing a few days (or weeks!) early.

An introduction to special programs at each of the 23 campuses of the California State University system is available here, along with information about financial aid and an online application.

The Western University Exchange (WUE) offers students in the 17 member states reduced tuition at some campuses
throughout the region, but not all programs on every campus participate in this program and some may have
special requirements or deadlines.

Also check out this list of notable colleges.

What will college cost? How do I apply for scholarships and qualify for financial aid?

Financial aid is a complex topic, but it is the one part of the process in which parents must be centrally involved or even take the lead. Before parents file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), which becomes available on January 1st each year and must be filed by March 1st, read about the various state and federal programs that use this process to establish qualification for need-based aid.

The federal government mandated that every college must have a net-cost calculator to allow prospective students to estimate their individual coast of attendance. The National Center for Educational Statistics has incorporated these new tools in its profiles of schools on College Navigator. This website also profiles breakdowns on types of aid (federal, state, institutional) and amounts; it also allows students to see how many students graduated with each major and department, which provides some measure of how the school allocates its resources. It is likely that this first generation of calculators will be refined as time passes; this article describes some of the problems with these first prototypes.

Merit aid is a more discretionary form of scholarship, which some of the most competitive colleges in the country have voluntarily restricted from the admissions process (although these same well endowed schools may lavish funds on admitted students, just not use them to attract students to apply). San Diego counselor Lynn O’Shaughnessy has become the go-to blog on financial aid. She walks through the process of finding the schools that are the most generous with merit aid and meet the largest percentage of need with grants, not loans, in the highlighted post above.

Notable colleges

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:57:48 +0000

Associations and consortia of colleges

Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities

California

California State college system

University of California System

Private Colleges

Pacific Northwest

Private, Oregon

Public, Oregon

Private, Washington

Public, Washington

East Coast, private colleges

The first recorded usage of the term “Ivy League,” by a sportswriter in 1933, was a general reference to the older, and therefore “ivy covered,” schools in the Northeast. The Ivy League athletic association was formally established in 1954 and now comprises eight schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale.

New England

Connecticut

Maine

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

Middle Atlantic

District of Columbia

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

Writing programs

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:46:04 +0000

Boston University has a large and impressive faculty teaching in its English Dept, which may explain why it attracts 400+ majors. Although only a master’s in creative writing is offered, undergraduates can take some courses. The School of Communications at BU offers other avenues, from film to a specialty in science and journalism.

Among women’s colleges, Wellesley in greater Boston has an excellent English department that includes creative writing, on one of the most beautiful campuses in the U.S.

Likewise, Smith, among the five colleges in Amherst MA area, has a strong literary tradition. The admissions rate at women’s schools is much higher than at coeducational schools of similar caliber: 35% at Wellesley, 48% at Smith vs. 19% at Amherst. Note the links to English courses within the five-college consortium, which are all available to Smith students.

Wesleyan in Middletown, CT, is an interesting school, especially for creative types. See the new Schapiro Writing Program in this academic sampler.

The University of Pennsylvania has created a nexus for nurturing writers at the Kelly Writers House, which supports the broad range of courses in English, writing, and film offered by this Ivy League school.

The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins have a wonderful tradition and includes some cross-departmental courses that link to JHU’s extremely strong science programs.

The School of Communication at American University in D.C. has great strength in applied writing and filmmaking. It offers workshops in investigative reporting and using digital technologies for interactive journalism. One program I found intriguing was the interdisciplinary BA in foreign language and communication media.

A little further afield, Sewanee in Tennessee is famous for its literary magazine and has become a center for professional writers to convene and recharge, thanks to funding from Tennessee Williams. A summer Young Writers Seminar (with possible emphasis on screenwriting) is an alternative to summer courses for high school students at Barnard and the University of Iowa, which all offer an opportunity to test drive the school.

Steve Antonoff, one of my professors at UCLA and a guru in college counseling, compiles some lists at CollegeXpress.com (although I think those who pay to sponsor the site may get attention they don’t warrant). It lists several of the above schools for Creative Writing as well as schools in other parts of the country, including the following:

Bard
Bennington
Carnegie Mellon
Colorado College
Franklin and Marshall
Hamilton
Kenyon
Lewis & Clark
Middlebury
Univ No Carolina
Oberlin
Sarah Lawrence
Univ of Iowa
Univ of Puget Sound
Univ of Redlands

http://writingseminars.jhu.edu/about.html

Theater programs with focus on costume design

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:41:59 +0000

DePaul is a very good suggestion, although its program and degree (Design Tech in Theatre Studies) is not as focused on costume as some others. Chicago is a vibrant theater center.

Boston University does offer a BFA in Costume Design in its School of Theatre and its renowned School of Communications includes television and film studies, as well. The school program is the professional staff for a few troupes on campus and in the city, which means a lot of hands-on experience. BU is centrally located in Boston, right on the river but with a trolley stop on campus linking students to all the city has to offer. Emerson is another option in Boston, which you should also look into. Try to figure out the different emphases of the programs.

CalArts also offers both a BFA and MFA in Costume Design, and has innovative theater, puppetry, and performance art programs. Student productions are well represented at the RED Cat space at Disney Hall in downtown LA, and the school maintains strong contacts with the local entertainment industry. I noticed that the head of costume design in the Design and Technical Theatre program at San Francisco State had earned his MFA at CalArts, which is another measure of its stature.

SF State’s program offers a BA in Theatre Arts; compare it with the programs at San Diego State U, which I thought were stronger, in part because SDSU has a combined “School of Theatre, Television, and Film.” It offers programs with “emphasis in design and technology” for both Theater and Film and Television, which gives you more breadth and flexibility if a student’s interests and/or career orientation shift during college. But these are “impacted” programs, to which one can only apply after having satisfied prereqs w/grades of 2.4-2.7.

UC Irvine has a well-regarded (and it seems, funded) Theatre school and offers a BA in Drama with Honors in Design that puts a lot of emphasis on costume.

Unlike the programs above, which are centered in a liberal arts education, most fashion design courses are fairly one-dimensional and pre-professional. In NYC, Pratt, which you mentioned, has no theatre department; Parsons is part of the New School, but it focuses almost exclusively on fashion: there are 650 students majoring in fashion. Parsons does offer both a certificate program in fashion design and continuing ed courses, which I think would be better to supplement a more traditional BA, if you chose to study in that area of the country.

Fordham is a Jesuit university that has a residential campus for its Theatre school right at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Those students who major in Design and Production, pick one of four “concentrations,” with costume as an option, along with set, lighting and stage management. Fordham’s internship programs are rated one of the most extensive of any college in the country. You could enroll in the certificate program in fashion design at Parsons, while also earning a BA degree at Fordham, if you felt that to do so would really give you a better foundation in sketching, construction, fabrication.

Another excellent liberal arts college with a strong theatre department is Purchase College, in the SUNY system. Its campus is located in suburban Westchester County, near the Connecticut border, with commuter service into NYC. Among its facilities is a 1,500-seat performing arts center that offers 600 productions each year and draws regional audiences of 200,000 annually. It lists both costume design and costume technology among its degree programs.

Finally, the Western University Exchange is a program that extends reciprocal tuition discounts to students within member states, so a student from CA can attend a college in one of 17 western states at close to in-state tuition rates. The University of Hawaii at Manoa has a theater department that reflects the multicultural nature of Honolulu, with programs in both Asian and Western Theatre, along with Environmental Performance and Dance, and Youth Theatre. Students in the Design program may elect Costume as their focus, but they will explore that focus in all four aspects of theater that are studied at U Hawaii.

Pacific NW College Tour

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:20:33 +0000

Lewis & Clark College

I visited some of the better colleges in this area on a tour organized by the Independent Educational Consultants Association, just before the NACAC conference in Seattle in fall 2008.Because the Pacific Northwest offers some interesting options for California students, I share my notes in this report.

The gorgeous estate that a department store magnate deeded to the college, rather than to his estranged wife in a bitter divorce, is the nucleus of the Lewis & Clark campus in a residential area on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. A shuttle bus whisks students into Portland hourly (7:00 a.m.-midnight or 2:00 a.m. on weekends), making urban delights accessible, while “College Outdoors” connects students with the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, organizing 75 trips each year, including weekly ski trips in season, to 14 wilderness areas within a three hour drive from Portland.

Roughly 2,000 students choose this “private college with a public conscience, a residential campus with global reach,” with women outnumbering men at 60: 40 percent. Lewis & Clark offers a test-optional path to admissions, inviting students to present a portfolio of writing samples and other work, although most applicants rely on the standard formula of SATs (mid-50% 590-700) and GPAs. Two-thirds of its students receive financial aid, both need-based and merit programs, including some in music and debate.

International affairs, psychology, biology and environmental studies are among the most popular majors and are supported by strong academic initiatives. A 3/2 program in Engineering allows students to complete a master’s at USC, Washington University in St. Louis, or Columbia. Lewis & Clark students can earn a J.D. degree in a 3/3 program with its own law school, which is recognized for leadership in environmental law or a 4/1 Masters in Teaching from its graduate school of Education and Counseling.

Competency in a foreign language is a requirement for a Lewis & Clark degree and more than half of the students satisfy it by studying abroad. “Where in the world do you want to study?” was the topic of its supplement to the Common App. Beyond the freshman seminar, requirements are broadly defined to allow students to choose their own path while graduating with a shared core of knowledge. If the small class size and close interaction with professors is not sufficient to engage students, attendance is required and factored into grades; Lewis & Clark also offers a range of support services that help students improve their academic skills.

Its emphasis on the liberal arts and on developing global awareness attracts free-minded, competent students who create an egalitarian culture on the beautiful campus. There are no fraternities or sororities; the nine residence halls are separated from the academic buildings by a tree-filled ravine laced with bike trails. The arts and a student-run activities fund account for many events on-campus; participation in sports also involves many students. Lewis & Clark graduates staff the Peace Corps and Teach for America at impressive rates, and 20 percent go directly into graduate programs.

Reed College, Portland, Oregon

Across town, Reed College has an equally beautiful suburban campus and distinctive traditions. The first president to lead Reed College a century ago was a former professor from Bates and Bowdoin in Maine, who espoused a non-sectarian, coeducational school that eschewed varsity sports, along with fraternities and social clubs, which he felt detracted from the Ivy League model. Although the campus culture celebrates academic achievement above all else—American Nerd: The History of My People was written by a Reed grad—Reed does have a p.e. requirement that promises “life-enhancing skills.” The Reed Outing Club and its Backpack Coop (which provides equipment for free), also help students get off campus—perhaps to the college’s cabin on 15 acres at Mt Hood—and schedule trips over semester breaks as well as weekends. Exploring the Pacific Northwest is an adventure for most students, as only 12 percent hail from Oregon and another 12 percent from Washington.

“Reed provides one of the nation’s most intellectually rigorous undergraduate experiences, with a highly structured academic program balancing broad distribution requirements and in-depth study in a chosen academic discipline,” according to the college’s own website. The 350 freshmen are initiated into its “quirky brand of intellectualism” (per Fiske) with a required yearlong humanities course with readings from the Great Books and lectures by various faculty on the culture of classical Greece and imperial Rome. All seniors must complete a written thesis, which Fiske speculates is one reason why less than 75 percent of students earn a Reed degree within six years of enrolling for the first time. A weekly column in a student newspaper is entitled “Postcards from Thesis Hell,” and, although bound copies of each graduate’s thesis are filed in the library, a bonfire of this student work kicks off graduation weekend.

Freshmen are assigned to an advisor based on the academic interests expressed in their applications and meet with that faculty member before registering for classes each semester. By junior year students must take qualifying exams for their intended major and, upon acceptance, will choose an advisor from that department who will supervise the development and execution of their senior thesis. Despite the close-knit collegial learning model, the academic pressure can be overwhelming: one student reported (to The Insiders Guide), “At Reed we say that you can have only three of the following five: good academic performance, a relationship, a good group of friends, extracurricular activities, or sleep.” The first seems always to be privileged by Reed students, which may be why this small college ranks third in the nation by the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. Its graduates’ success in winning such academic awards as the Fulbright, Guggenheim, Watson scholarships is impressive; the number who are awarded National Science Foundation Fellowships is testament to its strength in the sciences.

Freshmen are guaranteed on-campus housing; a lottery in spring determines which older students will be assigned to the remaining 600 rooms in 26 dorms. All campus residents must purchase a meal plan, which students say provides good quality and choices. Equal numbers occupy the red brick Old Dorm Block and the Cross-Canyon Dorms; the newest residence halls are LEED-certified; two apartment buildings and three houses in the campus-adjacent neighborhood and language-theme houses are other alternatives. Some 2,000 towering trees, representing 125 species, surround buildings in the original Tudor Gothic style and define its green spaces. A graded expository essay or research paper, along with an essay explaining why the student feels “Reed would be an appropriate place, both academically and socially, to continue your education” is required of Reed applicants. Only need-based financial aid is offered, and half of the students receive such funding.

Evergreen State College

Along with Reed, Evergreen State College shares the distinction of being identified as one of the “Colleges that Change Lives,” in the eponymous book by the late, great educator, Loren Pope. Located on 1,000 forested acres on the southern tip of Puget Sound, Evergreen is midway between Portland and Seattle, in Olympia, the state capital of Washington. I (mistakenly) thought that geography was why this school was included on the IECA tour, but it has a lot more to recommend it than a good rest stop on the route from Portland to Seattle.

Evergreen is unique in its academic structure. Students elect a single interdisciplinary program as their primary academic module each quarter, although many will span the three quarters of the academic year. This subject is team taught, usually by three faculty members, to a self-selected group of about 65 students who become an integrated learning community. Assignments never conflict and schedules can easily be altered to accommodate field studies. Faculty enjoy the collaboration with their peers and reinventing their curriculum, not falling into the same old rut. They write thoughtful evaluations of student learning, rather than deliver a summary letter grade.

The world is the campus for Evergreen, starting with its beautiful location on Puget Sound and a satellite campus in the Grand Canyon. Many classes include segments of study abroad, although language acquisition is not particularly well supported by this format of learning. The campus itself is a distinctive home base: a Native American long house is a cultural center, with movable walls that can configure to two auditoriums or five lecture halls of 300 seats each. The 1,000 acres of forest front a half-mile beach; gardens produce 40 percent of the food consumed on campus, and students can rent a plot for a nominal fee. A farmers’ market is held weekly on “Red Square,” the brick-paved center of the campus buildings. The newest construction is LEED certified, flexible and innovative, in sync with the zeitgeist of the place.

Evergreen admits more than 90 percent of its applicants, a stat that reflects that this is a self-selecting group: Evergreen is the first or second choice for 85 percent of the students who apply. They may not all be ready for the experimental style: the retention rate is 70 percent from freshman to sophomore years. Building on-campus housing has not been a priority as the supply of inexpensive rentals in the area meets the needs of many of Evergreen’s 4,300 students. Although Evergreen does not participate in WUE, it offers a $3,000 tuition waiver to all out-of-state students who maintain a GPA above 3.0, renewable each year. One of our guides hailed from San Jose and had chosen Evergreen over UC Davis. She loves her experience and in comparing notes with friends attending colleges in the UC system, she values even more the small classes and close intellectual bonds that Evergreen promotes.

Protected: Assessments

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:51:02 +0000

Game design programs

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:41:42 +0000

These traditional colleges offer undergraduate programs, some more specialized than others, that are beneficial to developing a career in game design.

Arizona State University offers an undergraduate degree in Graphic Information Technology; as a participating school in the Western University Exchange, it offers reduced out-of-state tuition to California students who apply and qualify.

Boston University, Center for Digital Imaging Arts, has campuses in greater Boston and in Washington, DC. The hands-0n phase of its program assigns students to non-profits to develop media campaigns. A two-week summer program allows high schoolers to test drive this career concept.

DePaul University in Chicago is a large Jesuit university that offers many career-focused majors and programs, including a new major in Game Development.

Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, offers one of the most well-developed Co-op programs among major American universities. In a co-op program, students alternate phases of traditional classroom learning with paid professional internships. Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design offers a range of programs in digital media, along with film and video, entertainment and arts management. Interaction with the Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies provides a wealth of related on-campus opportunities, including programming its own TV station.

One of the great engineering colleges, Purdue University in Indiana is developing a full range of degree programs in its Computer Graphics Technology department. For over a decade the summer program for high school students offers a great orientation to the programs that are evolving along with the technology.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, another of the top technological schools in the U.S., is ranked fifth by Princeton Review for Game Design. The HASS school at Rensselaer, in Troy, NY, was born at about the same time as today’s college applicants; its enrollment has grown ten-fold as it has developed many cross-departmental programs.

Rochester Institute of Technology, also in NY and long a leader in tech education, has an information-rich portal regarding various initiatives in Interactive Games and Media. Other degree programs that are less technical may be found in RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.

The University of Colorado at its Colorado Springs campus offers a “family of degrees” under the trademarked title, Bachelor of Innovation. The InnoGame will engage students in figuring out if this program is right for them. And a summer camp for prospective college students will be held on campus in July.

University of Denver offers both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree in Game Design.

USC, Interactive Media Division, also tops Princeton Review’s list of best game design programs. It offers a major and minor in game design, as well as MFA programs.

Cal Poly, in both Pomona and San Luis Obispo, and CSU campuses at Channel Islands and Fullerton offer majors that can be used in developing a career in game design, although they are more broadly defined.

Within the UC system, the Irvine campus offers a major in Film and Media Studies.

Serious Game Design is the name of the relatively new program at Santa Barbara City College.

Art schools have also developed programs in game design, but I would recommend this route only to students who would otherwise consider attending an art school, as it is a specialized approach. Many more schools can be added in this category.

Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles

Here are a few resources to get you started on exploring education and other options in game design.

Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg, PA, offers graduate training at its Entertainment Technology Center.

San Diego State also has a master’s program.

These two that are full-length articles (40 pages) that you should be able to find w/URL.

gdmag_career_guide_feature.pdf

game_design_edu_ieeecomputer_june06.pdf

Read about this program that allows students to attend the game design conference held annually in San Francisco, for free, in exchange for 20 hours of volunteer service.