Daeil Overseas Studies Program (DOSP)

If you look on the common application there is a huge section for Extracurricular, Personal, and Volunteer activities.

I strongly encourage you to find something that you are interested in and volunteer. Remember consistency is more important than trying many different things. Ideally you want to do one or two things for three years and a few random ones just for experience.

From these activities you need to show what you learned and experienced.

You can always do a search on the internet, listed below are a few that came to mind when I was surfing the internet.

http://www.actsofkindness.org/

http://www.redcross.or.kr/www/eng/index.jsp

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/ -This is one of my favorite I want to try it some day, here’s video below:

You can find a lot of different activities on the internet. My only recommendation is to do your DUE DILIGENCE- meaning make sure it’s not a scam or something really bad.

I have no idea why many of you are in DOSP or want to go to college in the United States.

I hope it’s not completely for money, because you shouldn’t JUST focus on money. If you are that motivation will not help you in the long run.

According the the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics here are top paying jobs that do not require a degree.

The following are a few interesting ones:

• Air Traffic Controller
• Dental Hygienist
• Construction Mgr
  
• CEO
• CIS Mgr
• Airline Pilots

You can find the complete list here: http://www.citytowninfo.com/studies/best-careers-degree-not-required.html

I think there are a lot of corollaries between freelancing and being a student.

I encourage all of you to take the next step in your student out and think outside the box. In doing so you’ll make yourself more marketable to the universities you want to apply for.

In this article “10 Essential Steps To Get To The Top Of Your Field “ from Free Lance Switch dot Com. I encourage you to read through the whole article, but here is a brief summary:

Be the best, and someday others will be emulating you.

• Learn from the best. This means you can learn from the pros that you want to become or imitate those that are doing well in that particular subject.
• Read up. Reading and learning from others is vital if you want to be the best.
• Practice. The best way to get better, because actual experience is the best teacher.
• Get feedback. Ask for feedback, even if it’s hard to hear, get it- clear out the emotional stuff and look for genuine ways to improve.
• Analyze. Analyze yourself, but don’t over do it.
• Practice some more. Keep on working and trucking away one day you will persevere.
• Edit. It’s very important that you edit your wor, after all it’s a reflection of yourself.
• Focus. Focus on the task at hand, multi-tasking is paradox and completely ineffective.
• Experiment. Step outside and be different, who knows you may change the world.
• Reflect. Spend some time each day and figure out what you have learned and see what you can improve and where to focus.

I encourage you to write down and reflect on what you read if you want to absorb the information and learn from it. Now go read the real article.

You want to go to the United States and study. Why not get ahead with an online distance education course? If you don’t want to pay $10,000 to fly the US for a summer school program why not consider paying $600-1500 to study through the internet.

Benefits include:

• Study at prestigious universities with their professors and instructors
• Experience the rigor of the curriculum and collegiate education
• Start your college transcript while you are in high school

I would argue this may be better than taking Advanced Placement exams, although there are pros and cons for each.

Here are some of the places you can study at:

• Harvard Extension Distance Education
• (UCB) University of California at Berkeley Extension
• (SUNY) State University of New York Online

If you don’t want to pay but listen to college courses online for free you can always check here.

Note: Just because you can enroll in their online courses does not mean you can get admitted to their schools for undergraduate degrees.

Please feel free to come speak with me if you are interested in doing this. Also if you happen to know any more first tier distance education courses for credit please comment below.

I strongly encourage reading. You should preferably read something you are interested in. It doesn’t matter what you read, just read something! Eventually you’ll learn how to filter out the noise and focus on the small nuggets of gold in the books you read.

If you don’t have time to go to the library or the bookstore and you don’t mind reading on your computer or printing it out.

You can go here to get free pdf ebooks.

You can find such classics as:

•  Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
• Aesop’s Fables -Aesop
• Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
• Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne

And much, much more.

The SAT Subject Test (formerly known as: SAT IIs) is a test to measure your knowledge and application of the subject.

• You need to check if the specific college you are applying requires them.
• The prestigious universities generally require two to three.
• Some universities require certain specific subject tests (e.g. Mathematics).
• You must find out and take the subject tests accordingly to your potential universities. You can do the research for each individual university on your own. Sometimes you don’t have to take any subject tests.
• The SAT Subject tests are graded on a curve.

In regards for taking the Korean SAT Subject test, I highly advise against it unless you are non-native speaker of Korean. You want to demonstrate your ability to learn new material, not rehash or flaunt your native Korean ability.

If you have any questions always feel free to email me.

As the SAT Supervisor at our school. I’d like to inform our students to quickly register for the November test at our school.

Remember to take initiative and register quickly.

Space is limited and October is already full. If you wait too late, you will not have an opportunity to take the SAT exams.

In one of my RSS feeds. I’ll need to make a post on how to manage them.

I read an entrepreneurial website called Mind Petals. I’ve mentioned it before. David Askaripour makes an interesting post about Robots vs Entrepreneurs.

Here is a snippet:

Go to school.
Listen to every word that your teacher tells you. God forbid you disagree with them!
Get perfect straight A’s.
Get into a top college.
Listen to all your professors.
Allow them to train you to be obedient workers.
Work for your employer for 40 years.
Make sure not to disrupt the chain of command.
Keep your mouth shut and don’t express your true ideas.
Retire.
Allow the government to (try) take care of you.
Die.

In my opinion you shouldn’t follow some of these.

This is targeted for the seniors, but it may be good for you to look at it now.

The counselor recommendation can be an asset to your college application because it is the opportunity to state information that is not included anywhere else in your application for admissions. In order for your recommendation to be thorough and also a fair representation of who you are, it will be helpful for me to me if you answer the questions below. I will use this information along with information from other sources to compose your college recommendation. Please remember to provide DETAILED information.

1.    What personal characteristics do you possess that distinguish you from others? (Remember that you should be comparing yourself to US students of your age)
2.    What unusual personal experiences have you had compared to other people your age?
3.    What are you goals for yourself during the next 10 years?
4.    Please give specific and detailed examples of your extracurricular activities since last spring. List any offices or other leadership activities that you are now or have been involved in. Include summer activities also.
5.    Describe the extent and nature of your international experiences. What have you gained/learned from your overseas experiences?
6.    Other information about yourself that you think I should know.
7.    What areas of study have you enjoyed in school so far?
8.    Which high school courses have been difficult and why?
9.    Are your grades an accurate reflection of your abilities? If not, why?
10.    What do you enjoy doing during the school day?
11.    What are your greatest strengths? (Academics as well as personal qualities)
12.    What are your weaknesses? (Academics as well as personal qualities)
13.    List five adjectives that describe who you are.

I’ve adapted this from a college counselor at Korea International School (Thanks Keith).

In my classes I try to use a consistent standard for grading papers and essays. Due to the fact that I need to help my students score well on the writing section of the SAT. I try to use a similar metric to what the teachers who grade the essays would use. The SAT essay is scored by two teachers on a 1-6 scale, meaning a total of 12. There are several other critiera out there but this is the one I am currently using:

If you look at the score you get and divide it by two, that’s my prediction on what you would get on the SAT writing essay.