Our long-standing relationship with TutorVista means we’re able to share some special stuff with the U Sphere Community. So here goes:

For a limited time, if you visit the Facebook Fan Page, you can pull down the coupon code for TutorVista and save 20 percent on any tutoring package.

It’s not hidden on the page, but you need to go there first to find out what’s up!

Any subject, any time – TutorVista can help with an affordable tutoring package.

Thanks for visiting this site. Right now, we’re focusing on different services and industries — you can visit the team at Area 224 and Real SMM.

We’ll be back in touch with you soon, and we invite you to check us out on Twitter too.

Area 224 is strategic communications advisors to emerging brands.

Social Media Realty Pro is a joint venture helping real estate people connect with social media tools.

U Sphere is going underground for a little while.  No excuses — time to take a break and re-tool for next fall.

We hope to be back in late summer; a new management team will take the reins and roll from there.

If you’re looking for the guy behind this launch, visit Area 224.

See you this fall!

Enjoy!

Choosing a College? Relax.
It’s open season on the rankings again. Parents of high school seniors know the ones: the books, put out by large magazines or SAT test-prep companies. The ones that tell you that this college or university is better than that school because of some such reason – like better alumni or a better reputation.

Or more selective enrollment; or higher yield: those are two stats that any high-performing high-schooler knows well.

We’ve got an estimated 1.5 million high school seniors who will apply to a college or university in America this year. And, for a lot of them, the rankings serve their purpose. It’s nice to know that the school you thought you wanted to go to really is highly ranked in business, or engineering, or animal husbandry. It’s great to get into a top program at a top school.

I’m not going to suggest doing away with these rankings, as I am delighted to see people talking about choosing a college or university to spend the next four years. And if these rankings make your kid feel better, or more organized, or whatever, great. (I know, though, that the rankings are all about the Joneses being able to surpass each other with better window stickers.)

From my own experience (running a company that’s shaking up this college admissions process), I would say it’s tough for students to really fumble this selection thing as long as they trust their gut and remember these three words: Just go somewhere.

Sorry, Mom and Dad, if you think I’m trivializing what is probably a high-stress time. But I’m actually doing this for your benefit.

I can give you a couple real-world examples, from my own pre-entrepreneurial life as a Fortune 500 PR guy. My last boss had a degree from the University of Southern California. He took over for a guy who went to Virginia Commonwealth. Before that, I reported into a Holy Cross grad (the one in Worcester), and before him a Purdue-Calumet grad (the school’s satellite campus in Northwest Indiana).

They all worked at a company that is now headed up by a guy who did his undergrad in Manhattan. The other Manhattan: Kansas State University.

I’ve got a brother who’s doing fine work in IT, after getting a degree in business from Tri-State University (Angola, Indiana). I married into a family with three graduates of Illinois State University – fine women who got a great education and didn’t break the bank in the process.

I’ve worked for grads of Western Illinois and Mizzou. I’ve been at companies headed by people who went to Arkansas State, where my Mom was once offered a tiny scholarship.

Are you seeing a pattern here? No? Neither am I.

I’m not at all dismissing Ivies. Or selective liberal arts schools. And heck, I went to a school for three reasons – it is the cradle of sportscasters, it had a good basketball team, and I wanted to be Bob Costas. (For the uninitiated, the school is Syracuse, and I highly recommend it for the right kind of kid.)

I’m also not dismissing the rankings: I love the guidebooks, I love the books that dismiss the guidebooks. I love seeing where Montana-Western is (literally, it’s in Dillon, MT; figuratively, it’s a small liberal arts campus that’s a hidden gem and it’s really good in animal husbandry). I love this whole early decision vs. early action vs. open admission vs. wait list vs. double deposit discussion.

I just don’t like where it’s taking our highly stressed-out kids.

Instead, I’d offer a collective chill pill, in the form of this three-step plan:

1. Test-drive, early and often, all types of campuses and a bunch of different experiences. This means that you should (borrowing from my own experience again) attend Shakespeare plays at Notre Dame and spend three weeks out of your summer at Indiana State, even if you’re doing it to prove that you wouldn’t fit in there.

2. Ignore all that advice about having x number of reach schools and making sure that your safeties are still safe. One of the ranking books talks about some girl who filled out 31 applications. She’s my hero, but that’s probably overkill. You should pick whatever number of schools and apply to them for all the reasons that make sense for you. (I applied early, went one-for-one, and called it a day.) Is five or six too many? Too few? Who cares? Do what makes sense.

3. Negotiate. With your parents. For a car, or a trip, or something. Dad offered me a car if I got a full ride somewhere. I didn’t, and it wasn’t until after I got out of school that I realized that HE would have gotten the better end of the deal.

This is a time for Seniors to assert themselves. That could mean getting into a school that only admits 10% of its applicants and has a yield of above 80%, if that’s what’s important. Or it could mean loading up the brand-new Toyota and heading for State U, knowing that, 4 years later, the car will still be running, and there’s more money in the bank.

You’ll of course need that money to buy my book on the Top Graduate Schools for You. (To be published in the fall of 2010.)

We promised to share the response from Northeastern University, and it comes in two forms…First, the Twitter response:

@usphere Dean Seamus Harreys blogs re: the value of a private college education & concerns about anticipated costs http://tinyurl.com/6e8qe4

Then, I applaud Northeastern’s Dean for starting with information that is EXACTLY what people are wondering about right now (even if they are not directly saying it): “Will my son or daughter be able to get a job because they get a degree from Northeastern?”

In fact, right now all indications are that the job outlook for our seniors is stronger than expected, with many reporting offers from existing co-op employers. Our Career Servicesteam, recently ranked #1 by Princeton Review, is working closely with more than 2000 of companies recruiting Northeastern students for full-time positions.  Our graduate programs are seeing an increase in applications and we have offered current seniors tuition discounts, through the new Double Husky program, should they choose to enroll in a graduate program due to the economic outlook. Additionally, 99 percent of the nearly 3,000 students eligible for co-op during this past cycle were employed. As we enter this upcoming cycle the University is pursuing several avenues to strengthen the more than 2,000 employer relationships we have existing, as well as developing new options for our students across the globe.

So…

Well, let the debate continue.  Northeastern vs. UConn: you decide.

 

USphere: USphere might not offer as much information as a site like Princeton Review, but it’s still worth consulting for students looking for colleges. The site provides information on thousands of colleges and universities in the States for free, but when students sign up, more information is made available to them, including in-depth data on schools, student information, and more. It’s worth trying out.

Thanks, CNET, for the write-up as one of the college admissions tools you can use right now!

We have removed any last names and addresses from the letter.  The rest is left in.

Robert NAME

Alexander  NAME

Massachusetts, USA

April 12, 2009

 

Admissions Person

Northeastern University

Boston, MA  02115

 

Dear Admissions Person:

First, let me open by saying thank you on behalf of Alex for his acceptance to Northeastern University – clearly an outstanding university.  Next, I wanted to let you know that he will not be attending Northeastern, having chosen to attend the University of Connecticut instead.  The main reason for his decision is one of economics – approximately $20K per year total cost at UCONN vs. $47K per year total cost at Northeastern. 

 Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that private universities such as Northeastern are pricing the middle class out of attending their schools.  With the rising cost of tuition and room and board far outstripping increases in cost of living you are basically closing the doors to all but the wealthy, who have no problem paying the total cost of attending college no matter what that cost is, or the underprivileged students who have achieved academically, yet have no way to pay for a college education.  The main question is could we afford to pay for Alex to attend Northeastern having been offered very little to no financial aid?  The answer is yes IF we chose to take thousands of dollars in loans, tap into our retirement funds and use the equity that we’ve built in our home.  All completely unreasonable expectations by universities such as yours.  The next question: Is an undergraduate degree from Northeastern worth (4 X $27K) $108K more than an undergraduate degree from UCONN?  The answer clearly is absolutely not.  In fact, the general population is now beginning to see more clearly that where the undergrad degree is earned, provided that it’s from an accredited institution, is not really as critical as institutions of higher learning want them to believe.  Also, the major marketing effort (mailings, calls) that Northeastern has engaged in with accepted students leads me to believe that your admissions rate may be lower than you expected this academic year. 

 So, with little financial aid from Northeastern to bring your costs in line with what Alex has been offered by UCONN, and based on his decision that your costs are far too high, he has decided to accept admission to UCONN majoring in Physiology and Neurobiology for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Sincerely,

Robert NAME

Bear in mind this is not the YouTube EDU portal — we like YouTube, but their mission is more mass-market videos.  So here you’ll find videos that fit in with the niche programs in the U Sphere Network.