The Contest Begins
Last week I announced the Freshman 15 Contest. If you’ll recall, Study Hacks is one of 15 different student blogs that are each giving away a brand new HP Pavilion dv entertainment laptop, plus a 500 GB external hard drive, and a docking station, and a PhotoSmart printer, and lots of software, and…well, let’s just say it’s a contest worth winning.
Today, our contest begins! The official rules are below:
Innovation Confusion
Judging by reader feedback, “innovation” is the most beguiling of the Zen Valedictorian principles. If you’ll recall, it states:
Activities that are hard to explain are more impressive than activities that are hard to do.
This principle holds great appeal because hard to explain activities don’t have to be unduly demanding of your time or talent. In other words, knocking the socks off an admissions officer might not require getting to Carnegie Hall or winning a national competition.
Many students, however, have trouble applying this principle to their own life. They often ask: “how do I find an innovative activity?”
In this post, I want to offer a specific activity innovation strategy targeted for high school students. It’s just one strategy of the many possible, but I hope its concreteness will help get your own thought process rolling. I should note: it’s not my idea. It was explained to me by a student who used it to get into Princeton. After I explain the details, I’ll tell you her story…
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An Unconventional Student Steve is a student at the University of South Florida, where he studies religion and international relations. He first came to my … Read more
The SAT Debate Monday’s New York Times reported the results of a commission, “convened by some of the country’s most influential college admissions officials,” that … Read more
An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse A few weeks ago I received an interesting call from HP. They wanted help spreading the word among college students … Read more
Dated Thinking I rarely know the date that things are due. Yet I’m not disorganized. I check my calendar every morning, and it contains dozens … Read more
Imagine if a stressed out, over-committed undergraduate failed to get into his top 11 choices for law school, and then discovered a new path to … Read more
