It may seem obvious that college is expensive and thus you should physically visit colleges to see which ones you like best before deciding which one to attend. However, this statement is devoid of specific details regarding what might be important to consider when selecting a college. In addition, this statement misses the important fact that visiting a college can increase the likelihood of being accepted, a fact even more applicable to international Chinese students.

1. How will visiting college campuses help you to select colleges that are a good match for you?

Physically touring different campuses gives you an impression and feel for the atmosphere of each campus. Additionally, when touring it is useful to take a list of criteria that are important to you so you may also explore the campuses in a methodical way.

At Hunter Programs Education Services we like to separate college selection criteria into two groups; broad criteria and preferential criteria.

Broad criteria are equally important to all applicants and are typically examined in college ranking systems. These criteria include quality of instruction, academic reputation, and potential earnings upon graduation. See http://hunterprograms.com/college-rankings-to-help-you-find-the-right-college/ for clear information about how to look at colleges from this perspective.

Preferential criteria such as weather, locality, competitiveness, and friendliness can be held in varying levels of importance from one individual to another, but these criteria are not necessarily less important than broad criteria.

We have established a comprehensive list of preferential criteria and divided these criteria into two categories; more and less tangible. This listing can be found at the bottom of this article. Although we refer to these criteria as “preferential” they can strongly affect student performance, success, and happiness.

2. How will visiting college campuses help you get into the colleges you like?

You don’t think visiting colleges is important? Think again! Here is a true story:

My son was waitlisted at a college that is just an hour drive from where we live. So we thought we should drive there to see if it would be a school he would actually like to attend. Glad we did. Even though my son and I are both technical nerds, from the moment we stepped onto the campus we noticed that the degree of nerdiness at this college was at the top of the nerdiness scale. It wasn’t until the student tour guide compared a metal sculpture in an open area to the Antlion in Half-Life that we decided this college was probably not the best match. We visited admissions and curiously inquired about why my son was waitlisted instead of accepted. They said that it was most likely because he never visited the campus. They went on to explain that because we live a short distance from this college, and my son’s qualifications were so high, they figured he would be accepted into many colleges. Their college is small and so they didn’t feel they could risk him saying, “no” to them if they accepted him.

Colleges keep a record of students that have officially visited the campus. Additionally, visiting colleges certainly gives students a strong personal voice when writing college entrance essays regarding what they are looking for in a college and why they have chosen to apply to those particular schools. Remember, you are trying to convince colleges through your experiences, and not just your words, that their college is a great match for you.

3. Why is visiting college campuses even more important for the Chinese applicant?

Consider that over one million foreign students attend college in the United States, one fourth of which are from China. It is safe to presume that the number of applications colleges receive directly from China is in the millions.

Also consider that each year many new American college students decide they are not happy at their chosen schools. The Chinese culture and the schools in China are so very different from the United States. Therefore it is easy to understand why there are far more new Chinese college students who decide that they are not happy at their chosen schools.

We can then conclude that because college rankings are determined in part by student retention rates, college admissions officers are extremely concerned with admitting students who then wish to transfer to another college. In turn, visiting college campuses provides and even stronger voice for Chinese applicants in order to convince admissions, through actions and experiences, that they will be happy attending their chosen colleges.

If you were buying a car, you would at least kick the tires and take it out for a test drive, right? College costs a great deal more than a car. It makes sense that you would want to invest the time necessary to visit colleges and ensure you end up at the right school. Choosing the college that is best for you can lead to a lifetime of happiness and success.

4. What a student should look for in a college.

Let us know if you have any important college selection criteria we should add to our list.

The post Why is visiting college campuses important to applicants? first appeared on Hunter Programs Education Services.

This is a question that is extremely important if you are a high school student who is beginning the college application process, and you are trying to determine which test is more appropriate for you.

If you have not yet experienced either test, you might think that aside from the obvious differences (such as the science section on the ACT that is absent from the SAT), that the two tests are essentially the same. After all, reading is reading and math is math, right? Not so.In actuality, the ACT and the SAT are significantly different. The ACT is a content-based test, measuring what students have learned in school, while the SAT is more of an aptitude test that focuses on critical thinking and reasoning.

Here are a few of the key differences:

1)    The ACT contains a science reasoning section, and the SAT does not. However, the ACT does not require extensive scientific knowledge retained from the classroom. The test consists of seven passages focusing biology, chemistry, earth/space sciences and physics, and asks students to evaluate the information using the paragraphs, charts, tables and diagrams that are provided. If your school has a strong science program, you will do fine with the ACT science reasoning material. Your only challenge then will be getting through all the science passages within the time limit –which is one of the design parameters of most standardized exams.

2)    The SAT has a stronger emphasis on vocabulary, and includes reading comprehension questions for which there can be several correct answers. A student’s task is to select the “best” correct answer. As hard as some students try, they can never develop a kind of feel for which is the best correct answer. This can be even more challenging for international students. As a result of this, many students prefer the ACT simply because they feel that the test is more straightforward.

3)    The ACT tests more advanced math concepts. The math on the SAT involves much more critical reasoning and requires less knowledge of rules and facts. Here is an example: On the SAT, you might be given a rectangular coordinate system with five lines on it, four of which are tilted upward at different rates from left to right, and one which tilts downward at a much steeper rate than the others. You might then be asked to select the line with the greatest slope. The line that slopes downward from left to right is the steepest, but the slope is negative and therefor the smallest. The answer choice “the steepest line has the smallest slope” is incorrect, and yet a great many students will select it. The ACT, however, might give students two ordered pairs, (2,3) and (-1,6) and ask them to calculate the slope of a line passing through both the points.

4)    The SAT has a guessing penalty, whereas the ACT does not. The sole purpose of the ACT is not to find out what you know, but instead it is to find out how much you know and how you can perform relative to your peers taking the same test. Since no one is penalized for guessing, and you are competing against everyone else, there is no advantage to guessing and only a disadvantage if you forget to bubble in random answers for all the questions you don’t know.

In California, the ACT is gaining popularity, although the SAT is still the dominant exam. One of the main reasons for this is that the University of California schools were the very first client of the College Board (the guys who create and administer the SAT), and to this day the University of California schools remain the biggest client. In the Midwest on the other hand, the ACT is by far the dominant test. However, overall there are now more students taking the ACT than taking the SAT in the United States.

Here at Hunter Programs, we can help students assess which test is better suited to their strengths, and work with them to ensure that they achieve the best scores possible.

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For additional reliable perspectives and more detailed facts about the ACT and SAT, select from the links below:

New York Times to further help you decide which test is best for you.

Washington Post for an incredibly interesting perspective on these two tests.

ACT for a sheet of interesting ACT facts directly from the creators of the ACT.

CollegeBoard for important SAT facts directly from the writers of the SAT.

CollegeBoard for SAT statistics.

The post ACT versus SAT first appeared on Hunter Programs Education Services.

Hunter Programs in the U.S. and Guiyang Hunter Programs in China are honored to have been included as one of the organizers of the 2012 Sino-American Juvenile International Energy Alliance Environment Conference, which took place on June 15, 2012 in Guiyang, China. The conference was held at No. 1 High School whose leaders were also organizers and very graciously held the event on their beautiful and very impressive campus.

This is the consecutive third summer Hunter Programs has brought a group of American students to China for environment events. The first was for the original Sino-American environment conference, which was organized in part by Hunter Programs. The second was an for an energy urban planning study Hunter Programs organized in Shanghai, which included HPP Architects, Tongji University, and various energy consultants.

Conference attendees included American high school and college students, Chinese high school and college students, teachers, professors, government officials and professionals. According to Raymond Hunter, CEO of Hunter Programs, who attended, “This is an event I will always remember, since it was uplifting to see so many young students so very interested in energy and the environment. It was a wonderful experience for all who participated and attended.”

This was an all day event which began with introductions of the participants, followed by a speech on nuclear power plant safety by Professor Meshkati of the University of Southern California. Following this were speeches from college professors and government officials. Prior to the lunch break, there was an opportunity for the audience to address questions to Professor Meshkati together with the Mayor of Guiyang. Following lunch, the conference resumed with speeches from students, and questions for the afternoon speakers. Although the main speaking point was “energy” the speakers were not limited to only this topic.

There were many school and corporate sponsors for this event with funds being raised in part by the International Energy Alliance, also one of the organizers of this conference. This event was covered by many difference media outlets. You may read these press releases by selecting the links at the bottom of this post.

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