Daeil Overseas Studies Program (DOSP)

I get this question quite a bit, here is one source you can refer to get some more tips. A lot of these I’ve been stressing in class.

Life Hack: 10 Steps to Better Writing

Here is an outline of the post, but I strongly encourage that you go to their website and look at their information.

• Pace yourself
• Plan, than write
• Start in the middle
• Write crappy first drafts
• Don’t plagiarize
• Use directions wisely
• Avoid wikipedia
• Focus on communicating your purpose
• Proofread
• Conclude something

I hope you can continually improve your writing and perhaps in the future we’ll see you on the bestsellers list.

For all of you who have been curious about CEO compensation. You can find a lot of how they are specifically paid here at this website.

As for a brief quote, I thought the following was most interesting:

2006 CEO Compensation (millions)

The Top 10 CEO compensation packages of 2006 follow:

1. Steven P. Jobs, Apple - 646.60
2. Ray R Irani, Occidental Petroleum - 321.64
3. Barry Diller, IAC/InterActiveCorp - 295.14
4. William P Foley II, Fidelity National Finl - 179.56
5. Terry S Semel, Yahoo - 174.20
7. Angelo R Mozilo, Countrywide Financial - 141.98
8. Michael S Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch - 114.64
9. Kenneth D Lewis, Bank of America - 99.80
10. Henry C Duques, First Data - 98.21

I don’t know if it is fair or not, but that is just how the world seems to work. If you want to make that hundreds or tens of millions you need to read about how they got there- instead of just drooling about the dollar signs.

This is probably one of the hardest or easiest things you can do while preparing for universities. CBS News provides one way to pick college lists. You can find the whole article here. Here are the subtitles for your quick view pleasure.

STEP 1 — Don’t get bogged down in where you “should” apply.

STEP 2 — Know thyself.

STEP 3 — Identify a place to live.

STEP 4 — Information, please.

STEP 5 — Be realistic while maintaining perspective.

For me all you need to do is the following: Come up a list of 10 schools, 5 dream schools,  3 reach schools, and 2 safety schools and include a short reason why you want to go to those schools.

Dream schools are like the Ivy League and Stanford, those with less than 20% acceptance rates is a good gauge. For reach schools are those where your scores and GPA falls in that people will most likely accept you. Depending on the student about 30%-50% acceptance rate. The safety school are the ones you are absolutely sure they will accept you with your current grades/scores.

Remember each application for international students costs anywhere from $80-$100.

I came up with the parental recommendation from a podcast or book or somewhere. I can’t quite remember, but it is important for me and you never the less.

Here are the purposes of the parental recommendation in my mind:

• You see your parents perspective of you- hopefully it is a positive one
• They may shed some additional insight you do not know of
• Can be a reliable source of who you are

I’m sure there are a few others, but this should cover them.

A good structure would be:

• Brief introduction of your parent
• Your child’s strengths
• Things your child can improve on
• Insights or good stories about your child

Pretending that your parent would write for an admissions officer would be a good frame of mind to be in. Remember to keep it to a page double space, with the normal letter formalities.

You can learn so much through the Dumb Little Man has a lot of good information I’ll be adding them to our RSS feed reader to the right.

You can check out the full article here.

Yesterday in the Joongang Newspaper there was an interesting article about foreign degrees are not good enough.

I don’t think it was wise in the first place for people to just rely on name brand alone when hiring. It should just be one indicator, not the deciding factor. I’m glad people are getting wiser and figuring out that just college degree from anywhere alone is enough to get you a job- networking on the other hand is a different beast.

Here are is a brief notes:

“Gone are the days when a graduate certificate from a foreign college guaranteed a job here,” Kwon said.
With a growing number of students carrying diplomas from foreign schools and fierce competition for jobs here, more and more overseas Korean students are seeking to pad their resumes through internships.

You can find the rest of the article here.

Notes from Jihae L.

• Started preparing since middle school
• Took difficult classes all the time
• Highly self-motivated and committed
• Participated in many competitive events
• Believes in quality vs. quantity
• Recommends in being an active student in class and show interest

• In the essay- Show it don’t say it
• Write about something you care about
• Thought about essay topics since freshman year

She didn’t take SAT prep classes

Recommendations for preparing for the SAT

• Read a lot, check vocabulary, and take practice tests
• Take a test a year

I know in Korea it is very difficult to get a job, while studying at school, hakwons, and what not, but perhaps you can open you and your parents’ eyes in the from the following article.

The article is titled “Teens trade lazy summer days for jobs - Work experience seen improving college prospects”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/22/MNGDKR2ORM1.DTL

Here are some highlights of the article:

Admissions deans are loath to suggest that certain types of experiences are better than others, and say they do not hold a lack of paid work against applicants. Still, deans at several elite schools said they are taking more notice when students have unglamorous jobs.

“The people who typically would’ve worked a fish and chips stand or scooped ice cream are gone,” Coffin said. “When we read an (application) folder with work experience we usually comment on it in a very favorable way. If he works 20 hours a week at Stop & Shop, we’ll say, ‘That’s really refreshing and old-fashioned. Good for him.’”

The most important thing is that teenagers do something productive and meaningful, admissions officers said. But they do not give as much credit to a fancy summer activity if it seems more like padding than passion. And, in an age of high anxiety over competition to get into college, that is more and more common.”

“We see essays that say, ‘I spent two weeks in a Chinese orphanage and it changed my life,’ ” said Debra Shaver, director of admission at Smith College. “But where is the pattern showing interest in community service?”

Summer travel and study can make students more worldly or civic-minded, but often fail to teach how to persevere through boredom, take orders, or work with people from different backgrounds, admissions deans say.

Deans of admissions are not stupid. They know if you are trying to pad your resume and/or your application. Be honest and genuine that’s the best way to go. At the same time look for things that excite and interest you. If they don’t accept you at the university it just wasn’t meant to be and move on with your life.

I wrote earlier about lying, cheating, and stealing, it seems to happen quite a bit here in Korea. I don’t know if it is because the country is so small that we hear much more about it or that Koreans are just liars! (Just joking about that last part). I’m sure there is plenty of lying, cheating, and stealing going on all over the world.

This time it is an popular English teacher. It should have been fine except she lied. If she told the people at the beginning that she was just a high school graduate this problem would have never have happened.

Remember the world has natural laws in place for these things to always be shed light upon, sooner or later. I was lucky and I didn’t get into too much trouble, but I shouldn’t have cheated, lied, or stole. I do my best not to continue any of those practices. I encourage you to do the same and abstain from these practices.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878263

Here is an excerpt:

First it was disgraced art curator Shin Jeong-ah. Now comes a popular English lecturer saying she lied about a master’s degree that she claimed to have earned in the United Kingdom.
Lee Ji-young, 38, hostess of Korea Broadcasting System’s radio show, Good Morning Pops, told the Chosun Ilbo Wednesday that she is just a high school graduate.
“I finished elementary, middle and high schools in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province,” Lee told the newspaper.
“I registered at Sunchon National University but did not go to the school.”
Lee resigned from her radio job yesterday.

RSS is the future in some ways for the internet. I strongly encourage you to watch the video below and learn this technology.