Sunday, July 5, 2020

Wharton Correspondent Whartons Toughest Class

Wharton Correspondent: Whartons Toughest Class by: Campus Correspondent, Justine Murray (Wharton) on March 13, 2018 | 0 Comments Comments 1,322 Views March 13, 2018All Wharton students are required to take roughly nine core classes. Each of these classes serves as an introduction to a different area of business. They include — to name a few — Statistics, Finance, Management, and Marketing classes. Although these classes are listed as introductory, due to their thorough nature, some of them are still the hardest classes I have taken thus far in the university — the hardest of them being Finance 100: Corporate Finance.LEARNING FINANCIAL TERMS NEEDED FOR FUTURE INTERNSHIPS AND JOBSCorporate Finance in itself is an amazing course because it introduces its students to all the financial terms and calculations that they would need to know for any future internships or full-time positions in finance. This thoroughness however, proved to be a double-edged sword. Thou gh the content was relevant to what would eventually become my future job, I severely underestimated the depth of the class. Naturally, every class featured the introduction of new material. However, it was so often based on adding additional layers to the previous class’s content, that if one concept went misunderstood, all future learning would be compromised. I too often found myself in this position; misunderstanding one concept often due to my own failure to prepare and then finding myself lost in the subsequent classes. Although I was able to pull myself together for the midterms and finals, I learned lessons regarding surviving tough classes that year that helped me to stay afloat for the remainder of my college experience.  SURVIVAL GUIDEMy first piece of advice: prepare. I know that that is perhaps one of the most mundane and repeated phrases when it comes to giving advice about doing well, but that makes it no less relevant. Preparation is the key to success. The foundation for most of the courses that you need in order to do well can be accessed via the resources made available to you. It is just on you to utilize them.More specifically, do your assigned readings. When certain professors assign readings prior to class, they serve as an introduction to what they will address in greater depth during the in-class session. This is something that we all know as students but often times may not pay attention to. It is simpler to assume that the professor will go over the assigned material or that you will be able to intuit what was in the book, based on what is taught. My advice, even if the previous holds true, is to still read the text. There is no downside. At best, you will be over-prepared, which is not a problem. At worst, you’ll understand the background regarding class content and thus, even if confused by the lecture, be able to ask questions to clarify. By not preparing for classes, best case scenario, you’ll be able to ac quire the content easily. Worst case scenario, however, you will understand nothing and by the following class be severely behind. Therefore, there is no substitute for the combination of readings and attending in-class sessions. I know this rhetoric is an obvious one that we have probably heard repeated time and time again by our teachers and parents. Still, it is no less relevant today and if I can reiterate it once more I will gladly do so.Study groups are also key to survival. More often than not, there will be individuals in your classes that understand some of the concepts that you do not. There will also be concepts that you understand that others do not. Therefore, collaboration on this front can lead to success for everyone. One thing I have learned at Wharton is that students are more than willing to help each other when asked. Even if someone is confident of their understanding of all the content, their helping you will enable them to study for and become more proficient in the content making them even more willing to help. Long story short: make friends and build your network and, chances are, you’ll find your own grades improving as well.OTHER WHARTON STUDENTS WEIGH INCamille Calvin is another senior at Wharton, concentrating in Management and Behavioral Economics. Her advice regarding prep for Wharton’s toughest classes is simple: â€Å"Do you.† When pressed for an explanation, she explained the reality that found her during the first weeks of her freshman year. That is, we all have a unique style of learning. Some of us learn best in lecture, some learn best upon review, some learn best in study groups. Spend your first semester at school learning the method that is most comfortable for you and then stick to it. if you find that your method is not yielding the desired grades, look for another. But first and foremost, make sure that it is not forced. School was made for us to learn, but also for us to enjoy, so do your best w ith both.  Alexis Amanda Malcolm is another senior at Wharton studying Marketing and Environmental Policy and Management. Her advice is two-fold. â€Å"Do your best and always get personal takeaways,† she says. Malcolm believes that all accepted students have untapped potential seen in them by the admissions council. It then becomes our duty to simply do our best to meet this potential on a daily basis. Always ensure that there is some takeaway that you can say you surmise from each class. Even if it is hard and even if you don’t particularly enjoy it. The toughest classes were designed to give us a broad understanding of most of the areas of business. Therefore, even if your grade is not the best, make sure that you understand the overarching concepts and have done your absolute best always. From there you will be fine.DONT MISS: WHARTON CORRESPONDENT: ITS OK IF FINANCE ISNT YOUR PASSION  and  STERN CORRESPONDENT: 4 MOST BUZZED ABOUT CLASSES AT STERN Page 1 of 1 1

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Which Hurts More Low Grades or Low Test Scores

HomeApplyCollege SearchWhich Hurts Your Chances More: Low Grades or Low Test Scores?This page may contain affiliate links.Oct 24, 2019Who is in the tougher situation when it comes to getting into college: the student whose high school GPA is lower than ideal or the student whose SAT and/or ACT scores are lower than ideal? Its clear that having mediocre or low college admission test scores gives students a better shot both at more colleges and at higher-quality colleges than having mediocre or low high school grades. Not everyone is a strong test taker. Some students suffer from severe anxiety when the prospect of taking a standardized test comes up. But their grades do not reflect that. While students’ test scores are still important to most top-ranked colleges, there are some colleges—including some excellent colleges—that do not put so much weight, or indeed any weight at all, on college admission test scores. If you read admission testing policies on a growing number of college websites, you will see that colleges have sometimes done their own research on their own students in order to determine whether SAT or ACT scores have any better predictive value than high school grades—or indeed any predictive value at all—for how students will do in college, including whether they will stay and graduate. Their research typically shows that admission test scores do not add enough predictive value to require that students take the tests and, thus, to risk shutting out students who do not have easy access to the tests—often lower-income students in urban settings. Test-Optional Colleges Some schools choose not to place such a heavy emphasis on test scores and ask that students show evidence of their academic abilities in other ways, Examples of this could be through essays or a portfolio of their work. Here are a few of the highly respected â€Å"test-optional† colleges that do not require SAT or ACT scores for admission, although students may submit the scores (and many do) if they feel the scores will help their application: American University Bard College Bates College Bennington College Bowdoin College Brandeis University Bryn Mawr College Fairfield University George Washington University Mount Holyoke College New Jersey Institute of Technology Pitzer College Sarah Lawrence College Smith College Wake Forest University Wesleyan University. Wofford College Hampshire College—everyone’s idea of a great school— was one of the first schools to go the test-optional route. They have taken the most extreme position of any school that we have encountered so far by saying that Hampshire does not consider admission test scores â€Å"in any way† either for admission or for financial aid awards. There are also â€Å"test-flexible† colleges. These are colleges that give students a choice of which admission and/or achievement test scores to submit during the application process. Some of these policies are more flexible than others, such as that of the University of Rochester which became test-flexible in 2011. It has recently announced that beginning with students applying for the fall of 2020, the University of Rochester will adopt a test-optional application policy. It goes on to state that this review process incorporates a variety of factors, including many kinds of academic and non-academic factors and realizes that standardized tests may not be an accurate reflection of a student’s abilities. Test-Flexible Colleges Here are a few highly respected test-flexible colleges: Colby College Colorado College Hamilton College Middlebury College New York University University of Rochester Are there any â€Å"high-school-grades-optional† or â€Å"high-school-grades-flexible† colleges? Unfortunately, there arent any of these schools that we know of out there. Colleges always look at high school grades. If there is a reason that high school grades are lower than the student is capable of earning—such as a difficult family situation or a personal health problem—that reason should be explained in a required application essay (when the topic is appropriate) or in an optional supplementary essay. Whatever the case, it is really very difficult to explain away mediocre or low high school grades. When a student has mediocre or low high school grades, it is ideal if that student happens to have high SAT or ACT scores. Then, the college can imagine that the student is bright, but perhaps had some reason for not performing as expected in high school classes. No such reason would be a great excuse, but some colleges will make an exception for such a student. However, statistically, students who have mediocre or low high school grades do not have high SAT or ACT scores. So, start telling middle school students to get ready and remind ninth graders now that there is no easy route to a great college without great high school grades.