Cultivate skills and interests to demonstrate a unique talent.LEARN MORE

College Match

Achieve your Dreams

INSPIRING FIRE – Personal Triumphs

by

LIFE IN HIGH school can be tough. Yet it often happens that the young people who thrive most during and after college are those who met with adversity early on, and gained awareness and maturity as a result of it.

Every child faces adversity in one form or another, from health problems to poverty, and from discrimination to family challenges. These experiences can be very painful, but if young people can learn from misfortune and grow, they not only set themselves up for great lives ahead, they become inspirations to all whom they encounter, admissions officers included.

If your child has faced adversity in any way, first-hand or through a family or close friend, he or she can gain a profound sense of redemption, meaning, and purpose by transforming the experiences into positive action. They’ll find that colleges practically fling open their doors to young people who can learn to celebrate their identity in this way.

As you read the stories that follow, notice how the students addressed the adversity in their lives, inspired those around them, and prepared themselves for the challenges of life ahead.

Kara from San Diego, California
Sparks: Passion for science, sensitivity, generosity
Inspiring Fire: Celebrating health

While we didn’t work with Kara as a client, her story was too inspiring to pass up. Growing up, Kara watched her father and brother suffer from diabetes. After seeing loved ones suffer the ravages of the illness, she decided to dedicate herself to helping those with the disease. She excelled in biology classes her freshman year, and as a sophomore, her guidance counselors advised her to pursue further instruction at a local university program. That summer, she also worked at a hospital research lab and made time to visit with diabetes patients.  When she returned to school her junior year, she organized a diabetes-awareness group and a weeklong, school-wide forum to educate her peers on healthy eating habits and making healthy life choices. Her work garnered her recognition and entry into University of California, Berkeley with a full scholarship.
Discovered Brand: Student Leader, Public Health Activist.

Bryce from Olympia, Washington
Sparks: Language talents, good with computers Inspiring Fire: Celebrating cultural heritage

When we began working with Bryce, he told us his hope was to become a software engineer. His underlying ambition was to improve people’s lives. As we got to know Bryce’s family, we learned that his father was a member of the Cowlitz Tribe’s General Counsel and the tribe was facing significant challenges. With declining numbers, the tribe’s language was in danger of going extinct.

Bryce brainstormed ways he could help, and came up with a plan to digitize the language and store it online so that teachers, linguists, and members of the tribe could have ready access at any time. Bryce’s language digitization project combined his personal talent with cultural pride. By his senior year, a number of prestigious schools had already begun actively soliciting Bryce to their campus.
Discovered Brand: Linguist, Computer Programmer

Antoine from Oakland, California
Sparks: Love of hip-hop, writing, courage Inspiring Fire: Celebrating nonviolence

Though not a College Match client, Antoine has a story so inspiring we had to include it here. Antoine grew up in an Oakland neighborhood plagued by violence. By age twelve, he’d watched two of his closest friends get killed in neighborhood shootings. Through middle school, he himself had been in and out of trouble until he got admitted into a local outreach program called Upward Bound.

With their guidance, he became active in an after-school program that taught music production, especially socially-aware hip hop. During the summer and winter breaks, he attended anti-violence leadership conferences at a local university, and his junior year, he teamed up with other youth to write, direct, and produce an online TV series that brought a message of hope to inner-city youth across the country. Inspired to improve the plight of others in low-income areas, he gained admission to three prestigious colleges with vision and confidence in his future.
Discovered Brand: Media Producer

 


Wade from Kansas City, Missouri
Sparks: Love of computers, ingenuity, discipline
Inspiring Fire: Celebrating unique interests

Wade, 16, claimed to have no extracurricular activities. He didn’t participate in any organized activities, sports, or clubs. He spent considerable time working on his computer, and had even learned to build a computer from scraps that he recycled from discarded computers. His other hobby involved carving and painting model figures of warriors that he’d created. His ability to build computers and work diligently to create an elaborate fantasy world were impressive to us, but Wade had always thought his talents meaningless since he was relentlessly mocked and teased for his “weird” interests at school.

With our encouragement, he began taking pride in his creativity. He began inventing robots and listing his products online for sale. By his junior year, he’d started a business that was so profitable, he was able to hire several employees by the following summer. His “unpopular” interests were transformed into cool assets once he found the right community which prized his talents. The advancement of his talents and entrepreneurship won him admission to Willamette University.
Discovered Brand: Inventor

Dance after High School: Pre-Professional, Conservatory or Liberal Arts College Program?

by

college dance

Serious dancers have choices to make to pursue their passion to a professional career. The differences in these three choices primarily reflect the amount of focused study in dance to the inclusion or exclusion of other subject areas.

Pre-professional programs (sometimes called trainee or apprentice program) at a professional ballet company school, for instance, will usually comprise a day beginning with ballet technique classes followed by rehearsals either with a second company or the main company in the corps or ensemble roles. Classes in partnering, variations, modern, jazz, choreography, etc. may also be included. Students are generally in their last few years of high school (and work to finish their high school courses) or just graduated from high school. Training and performance is emphasized and the opportunity to be seen by and perform with professionals leading to the possibility of being hired. It may be advisable to go through the college application process and then defer admittance to pursue this path for a year or two. It is very important to know the focus of the program/company in terms of repertoire and style and how the faculty teach technique class as study will generally be with only 2-3 teachers. There is generally a high level of competition to be accepted into these programs.

Advantages:

  • Maximizing training hours in the company studios and onstage at a younger age
  • Exposure to and total focus on dancing at a high level with possibility of being hired by that company
  • Experiencing and witnessing what it is like to work professionally and having an opportunity to perform with professionals
  • Costs much less than college and oftentimes includes a stipend and help with housing
  • Possibility of more focused attention from the fewer number of teachers who get to know their students well
  • Relatively small faculty and small peer group.

Conservatory programs offer BFA degrees (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and focus strongly on dance and related arts with relatively few required courses in academic, non-arts. These are generally self-contained institutions such at The Juilliard School or North Carolina School of the Arts where all the students art studying one art form very seriously with exposure to and study of the other art forms. There is often the opportunity for students to study composition and choreograph. The faculty is generally comprised of professionals who work/worked extensively in their field. There is generally a high level of competition to be accepted into the premiere programs.

Liberal Arts College programs offer BA and sometimes BFA and MA/MFA degree programs in dance. The focus is on providing a liberal arts education through a required core curriculum of academics with a focus on dance. The first 2-3 semesters (depending on AP credits from high school) include these core academics alongside dance and arts requirements. While there are a few programs with distinct major programs in a Ballet and a Modern Dance Department, most colleges and universities have one Dance Department and offer training in both ballet and modern and other dance forms as well as related arts. Many programs offer related majors, minors or certifications such as in Arts Administration or Pilates; there is generally a wide array of elective courses within the department and performing arts to pursue a secondary interest. There is usually the possibility to study composition and choreograph as well as study pedagogy and student teach. There is the possibility at most programs to double major or minor in either a related art or an academic area although a double major is generally extremely demanding and often discouraged. Most but not all departments require an audition and the competitiveness to be accepted varies widely. The focus, training, faculty background and size, course offerings, performance opportunities, guest artists, and facilities also vary widely. It is very important to research and understand these factors at each department you are considering in relation to your goals.

In summary, there are more choices than ever to pursue dance beyond high school. It may be helpful to seek the advice of a professional college counselor and a professional in the dance field to help guide you. High School counselors, except at Performing Arts High Schools, and parents, unless they are in the arts profession, do not feel qualified with enough information to advise their students/children on their dance education and career. Because it is such a specialized field, it is wise to get specialized advice, assessment and assistance from a expert performing arts counselor or a dance professional.

-Diane Coburn Bruning
Choreographer
Dance and Performing Arts Consultant, College Match

Diane is a nationally-recognized choreographer working with professional dance, opera and theatre companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. She has been a guest artist at over 25 universities, conservatories and professional schools. She is a graduate of Butler University and NYU in Dance with post-graduate study at Yale School of Drama. If you have questions, you may write her at [email protected]

College Match Discusses “Growth” Mindset and Success at Stanford Business School

by

David at Stanford

College Match admissions strategist David Montesano discussed student resiliency recently before the World Presidents Organization, in a forum at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Stanford Men’s tennis coach Dick Gould moderated the event; the keynote speaker was Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford, is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation. Her research has focused on why certain people succeed and how to foster success through “growth” rather than a “closed” mindset.

 

Waiting on the Waitlist?

by

250px-RhodesHouseOxford20040909_CopyrightKaihsuTai

Waiting on the Wait List? While doing so, be sure to place your deposit with a college where you have already been accepted. Waitlists can be unpredictable, and you will likely not hear back untilafter the May 1st deposit deadline. It can’t hurt to give yourself and your family peace of mind by reserving your place at a school where you can attend in the fall if the waitlist doesn’t work out!