Personal Statement Examples

A lot of students get stressed when it comes time to write a personal statement to complete their college applications. After all, personal statements play a key role in the admissions process. The toughest part about writing a personal statement is getting stated.

A personal statement should give the admissions committee insight into your personality – your goals, dreams, ambitions, and major accomplishments.

Below, I’ll provide you with some personal statement examples to help you get started.

Personal Statement Examples (1 of 5) – Court Reporter

“There was a day when my mom, who is hearing impaired and has to watch television with the closed captioning on, came to me with an article about closed captioning as a career. She mentioned something about learning court reporting, and using those skills to move into captioning.  I initially dismissed the idea, but as I continued to research careers, I decided to humor her and check it out.  To my surprise, the career sounded too good to be true, and everything I was looking for.

Another reason I became so interested in the field is that I was in a car accident two years ago, and severed my brachial artery.  This injury rendered me unable to move my thumb.  This was very frustrating, but after six months of no motion in my thumb, it began to move.  A few weeks after that, I had full use of it again.  Having played guitar for many years, I greatly enjoy using my fingers.  The idea that could find a good, stable career using my fingers appealed to me greatly.

I researched court reporting and closed captioning, which ultimately led me to enroll in the College of Court Reporting in Hobart, Indiana. My experience there has been nothing short of phenomenal, and I can feel that this is the career path that I’m meant to take.”

*Courtesy of Tennessee Court Reporters Association*

Click here to view the remaining essays: personal statement examples.

Marine Biology Colleges

Are You Interested In Marine Biology Colleges?

Students who want to analyze beings that live in marine bodies of water may decide to explore marine biology colleges.  Most of these colleges are situated close to big bodies of water so that students can apply the water as their research laboratory to accumulate working experience in the field.

Marine biology degrees can be acquired on all levels: bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. Students who want to execute autonomous research right after getting their bachelors degree from one of the marine biology colleges, must continue their studies until they obtain their Ph.D.  If you are a student who is not interested in getting your Ph.D., then you must take some moments to find out if this field is truly for you.

If the college is almost certainly one of the marine biology colleges, then it will most likely offer a degree specifically in marine biology. Even so, some marine biology colleges permit students to gain a degree in biology then let students to earn a certification specifically in marine biology.

Students who major in marine biology must expect to pick out courses of instruction similar to the following: physics, chemistry, marine botany, geology, aquatic pollution biology, oceanography, microbiology, and animal physiology.

Below is a list of Marine Biology Colleges:

The following is a list of 20 Marine Biology Colleges.  They are organized by student enrollment.

1. Florida International University – 38,759 Students (4-year, Public)

2. Florida State University – 38,682 Students (4-year, Public)

3. University of California-Los Angeles – 38,220 Students (4-year, Public)

4. California State University-Long Beach – 37,891 Students (4-year, Public)

5. Rutgers University-New Brunswick – 36,041 Students (4-year, Public)

6. University of Georgia – 34,180 Students (4-year, Public)

7. University of Southern California – 33,747 Students (4-year, Private not-for-profit)

8. San Jose State University – 32,746 Students (4-year, Public)

9. Boston University – 31,766 Students (4-year, Private, not-for-profit)

10. San Francisco State University – 30,014 Students (4-year, Public)

11. Nova Southeastern University – 28,378 Students (4-year, Private not-for-profit)

12. Troy University – 28,303 Students (4-year, Public)

13. University of California-San Diego – 27,520 Students (4-year, Public)

14. University of South Carolina-Columbia – 27,488 Students (4-year, Public)

15. The University of Alabama -27,014 Students (4-year, Public)

16. Northeastern University – 25,837 Students (4-year, Private not-for-profit)

17. Auburn University Main Campus – 24,530 Students (4-year, Public)

18. University of Connecticut – 24,273 Students (4-year, Public)

19. Stony Brook University – 23,991 Students (4-year, Public)

20. University of California-Santa Barbara – 21,868 Students (4-year, Public)

*For more information on these marine biology colleges, visit each school’s website directly.

How To Calculate GPA

In order to keep track of how well you are doing in school, you must learn how to calculate GPA (or Grade Point Average).  This is especially important for college-bound high school students.  GPA is one of the most important factors on any college application.  Your high school GPA will tell the college admissions committee how committed you are to your education and how prepared you are for college-level course work.

A lot of emphasis is placed on what GPA is needed to get into college, however first students need to learn how to calculate GPA.  In this post I’ll give you the tools that you need to keep track of your GPA on an ongoing basis.

Basically, every letter grade that you receive in school is worth a certain amount of points.  Your GPA is calculated by taking the number of points you earned divided by the number of total points possible.  This can get a little confusing, so the best way for me to describe it is by looking at an example.

First, you’ll need to convert your letter grades into numbers.  Here’ what each letter grade is worth:

A=4; B=3; C=2; D=1=; F=0

Second, you’ll need to gather your grades; let’s use these as an example:

Math = B; Science = C; Art = A; History = A; Spanish = B

So…Math = 3; Science = 2; Art = 4; History = 4; Spanish = 3

Third, you’ll need to add all these together:

3+2+4+4+3 = 16

Fourth, you’ll need to divide this number by the total number of classes you’re currently taking:

Since you’re currently taking 5 classes, you would take 16 divided by 5 –

16/5 = 3.2

Your current GPA is 3.2

Every student must learn how to calculate GPA.  If you use the tools outlined above, you will have no problem keeping track of your GPA from now on.

Good luck!

Tuition Pay

Bottom line, college costs a lot of money!  Most students’ main concern about college is cost.  Parents who find a way to afford their child’s college tuition pay a lot of money.  As junior year approaches, most college-bound high school students are frantically seeking funding for college.  This leaves a lot of students going straight to Google’s website and typing in this simple phrase “tuition pay.”  What are they looking for?  Suggestions on how to afford their college tuition!

Well, have no fear.  The good news is that college can be affordable to just about anyone.  Here are some suggestions on how you can receive federal student aid.

The first step is to fill out the FAFSA form.  The FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  This form will allow you to apply for federal and state grants, work-study programs, and loans.  It’s important that you fill out this form as soon as possible – the sooner you fill it out, the greater your chances are at receiving a lot of financial aid.  You can complete the FAFSA form online at: fafsa.ed.gov

Here are some common mistakes that you should avoid when filling out your FAFSA form: applying too late, failing to read instructions, not fully completing the application, failing to use the correct SSN, not having your parent’s completed tax forms.

For more information on this topic, click the following link — Tuition Pay.

College Major Quiz

What should I major in?  If you are a college-bound high school student then you’ve probably asked yourself and others around you this question a million times.

Yes, I know…the college application process is daunting enough, but it is just as important for you to start thinking about what you want your college major to be.  It’s a fact that most students change their major at least once during their college career.  This can leave students in college for an additional 1-2 years!

The best thing that you can do is to evaluate your options before applying (if possible).  Lucky for you, I’ve got some tools here to help you with this process…it’s called the College Major Quiz.

Are you ready? That’s good, now let’s get started with the College Major Quiz:

1) Which areas of study interest you? (Circle Top 3 Choices)

• Business
• Science & Medicine
• Arts, Music, Theatre & Dance
• Liberal Arts & Science
• Law
• Athletics & Sports

2) For the areas you selected above, circle the majors that interest you.

Business

• Accounting
• Economics
• Management
• International Studies

Science & Medicine

• Biochemistry
• Biological Sciences (Biology)
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Medical Fields
• Physics
• Nursing
• Environmental Science
• Computer Science

Arts, Music, Theatre & Dance

• Art
• Dance
• Music
• Theatre

Liberal Arts & Science

• English
• Math
• Communications
• History
• Foreign Language
• Psychology
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Religion

Law

• Political Science
• Criminal Justice

Athletics & Sports

• Exercise Science

3) Take a moment to answer the following questions.

• What do you already know about the areas you circled above?
• What do you want to know about the areas you circled above?

4) Explore the information provided below for each major that interests you.

*** To access  the additional information for each major that interests you, along with a FREE report that will tell you exactly what you can do with a degree in each of the areas listed above CLICK HERE.

I hope this College Major Quiz was helpful!

SAT Scoring

The SAT scoring process can be quite confusing.  Although there is a lot of emphasis on scoring high on the exam, not a lot of people understand how the exam itself is scored.  In this post, I’m going to attempt to make the SAT scoring process more clear.

You can think of the SAT scoring process as 3 separate steps: (1) Calculate Raw Score (2) Equate Raw Score (3) Scaled Score or Final Score.

The raw score determine how well the student answered the multiple choice question.  If you get the answer correct, you’re awarded 1 point.  If you don’t get the answer correct, then you get .25 points subtracted from your score.  If you don’t answer the question at all, then you get 0 points.

Next, the score is equated.  This involves performing a complex statistical analysis on the results of your exam.  This process makes sure that your final exam score will reflect your actual skills by taking into account the difficulty level of the exam you took compared to the difficulty level of the exams that all the other students took.

Once the equating process is done, your raw score is then converted to your scaled score or final score.  The highest possible scaled score that you can receive is 2400 (since each section is worth a total of 800 points and there are 3 sections: Reading, Math, & Writing).

This is precisely how the SAT scoring process working.  For more information on the SAT exam, CLICK HERE.

College Essay Topics

College entrance essays are an important part of the college admissions process.  It is also the part of the college admissions process that causes students a lot of stress.  Aside from worrying about writing a great essay that makes you stand out amongst the other applicants, a lot of college-bound seniors have a difficult time coming up with good college essay topics.

Even though colleges will consider your standardized test scores, GPA, volunteer experience, and extracurricular activities, admissions committees nowadays are focusing more and more on each college applicant’s writing ability. You may be intelligent in the classroom, but what about your written communication skills?  Can you express yourself well on paper?

So, not only are college-bound students worried about writing good college entrance essays, they are having trouble coming up with good college essay topics.  Since that’s the case, in this post I’ll give you 3 college essay topics that you can use to get started on your college admissions essays.

Life Altering Events – Everyone has a story, so what’s yours?  What do I mean by this?  Good question.  What I mean is…everyone has overcome some obstacle or difficult situation in their life.  In fact, it’s what shaped who you are today. Consider using “your story” as one of your college essay topics.

Heroes – We all have people in our lives that we admire, our own personal “heroes.”  Who’s your hero?  Maybe it’s your high school band teacher, your school counselor, your grandparents, etc.  Or maybe it’s not even someone who you know personally.  Maybe it’s a political figure or professional athlete.  What is it about this person that you admire?  Consider using this subject for one of your college essay topics.

Books or Poems – We all have a favorite book or poem that speaks to us in a special way each and every time we read it.  What’s your favorite book or poem?  Would it be a good candidate for one of your college essay topics?  Take some time to think about why your favorite book or poem impacts you the way that it does.  You may find that this subject is a good candidate for one of your college essay topics.

If you take these 3 college essay topics into consideration, I’m sure you’ll have a draft of your first college entrance essay in not time.  Good luck!

SAT Scores for Colleges

Just got your SAT scores back in the mail or online and wondering how they stack up against some of the nation’s top public colleges and universities? 

Below are the average SAT scores for colleges and universities that are public.  I’ve only listed 5 here, but there are tons of public colleges and universities.  The purpose of this list is to give you a flavor for the average SAT scores for college and universities of this caliber.

Top Public Colleges and Universities

1.     College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Reading: 620-730

Math: 620-720

Writing: 610-710

2.     Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Georgia)

Reading: 600-690

Math: 650-730

Writing: 590-680

3.     UCLA (Los Angeles, California)

Reading: 560-680

Math: 590-720

Writing: 580-700

4.     University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Reading: 590-690

Math: 640-740

Writing: Not Available

5.     UNC (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

Reading: 590-690

Math: 620-700

Writing: 590-690

Want to see the average SAT scores for colleges and universities that are private or considered Ivy League?  CLICK HERE…to visit my website.

SAT Test Registration

The SAT test registration process is managed through the College Board.  The College Board is a not-for-profit organization that owns, develops, and publishes the SAT exam.  Therefore, in order to sign up for the exam, you have to log-on to their website and create a user name and password.  Although this process is FREE, it can be a little tricky…to get started visit: sat.collegeboard.com/register

SAT Test Registration Dates for 2011*

1.     January 22, 2011

• Test Offered – SAT & SAT Subject Tests
• Regular Registration Closes – December 23, 2010
• Late Registration Closes – January 7, 2011
• Scores Available via Internet – February 11, 2011

2.     March 12, 2011

• Test Offered – SAT Subject Tests ONLY
• Regular Registration Closes – February 11, 2011
• Late Registration Closes – February 25, 2011
• Scores Available via Internet – April 1, 2011

3.     May 7, 2011

• Test Offered – SAT & SAT Subject Tests
• Regular Registration Closes – April 8, 2011
• Late Registration Closes – April 22, 2011
• Scores Available via Internet – May 27, 2011

4.     June 4, 2011

• Test Offered – SAT & SAT Subject Tests
• Regular Registration Closes – May 6, 2011
• Late Registration Closes – May 20, 2011
• Scores Available via Internet – June 24, 2011

*For the most up-to-date information regarding SAT test registration dates, etc., please visit the College Board website directly.

Average SAT Score

The SAT exam is one of those topics that cause high school seniors a lot of stress.  Whether we like it or not, standardized test scores are a large part of the college admissions process.  Colleges and universities like to use these scores to gain insight into your ability to do well in college-level courses.

With that being said, a lot of high school seniors are wondering what average SAT score do students typically earn on the exam.

If we take into consideration all of the students who take the SAT exam in a year, the average SAT score would be somewhere around 1500.  If your score is somewhere in the area of 1500, then it’s safe to assume that 50% or half of the students who took the exam scored better than you, while the other half scored worse.

So what exactly does all this mean?  Well, each school has its own admissions requirements, so it’s hard to guarantee that you’ll be accepted to your chosen college or university with an average score of 1500.  Further, a lot of college are reluctant to pick a number and clearly state that they will not accept a students who scores below it.

CLICK HERE to see the average ACT scores from five of the nation’s best colleges and universities.