Touring in the Time of Coronavirus

In a world without COVID-19, spring would be the perfect time to visit colleges—the sun is shining, the frisbees are flying, and there’s buzz and excitement in the air. But now that campuses are closed and a significant portion of the country is sheltering in place, how can you get a sense for what a school is actually like, without physically being there? In this post, we’ll offer some tips for exploring what colleges have to offer—all without breaking quarantine.

First up is You Visit, a popular site that features virtual campus tours in both “360 degrees” and VR formats. You can explore the Dartmouth Green or take a stroll down Locust Walk, led by the same student tour guides you’d encounter IRL. Some schools even offer different itineraries based on your interests. For example, after you’ve soaked up the highlights of the Johns Hopkins campus, you can take detours into Athletics & Recreation and Student Life.

Once you’ve gotten a feel for the campuses, it’s time to dig into the numbers. At most schools, admissions pages link to facts and figures about size, student-faculty ratios, and the scores and grades you need to get in. They also tell you something that’s harder to quantify: the values of the institution. Take Michigan, for instance. Based on the stats, the Wolverines are clearly serious about research, affordability, and athletics—not to mention being a top ten college town. After running the numbers at Tulane, however, the best data scientists all agree: nothing much gets done during Mardi Gras.

Beyond the 1s and 0s, there’s a lot of online content that will help you explore what it’s like to attend classes. MOOC platforms like Coursera and EdX offer courses taught by the same faculty you’ll encounter in the classrooms of the top schools in the country, including BU and Berkeley, Georgetown and Duke. Looking for even more? Visit departmental websites to check out course lists, download faculty CVs, and explore undergraduate research opportunities. Got a (newly developed) interest in epidemiology? Tufts has got you covered. Suddenly inspired to build a social simulation video game? Don’t miss out on USC.

Outside the classroom, be sure to dive into student clubs and organizations. There’s everything from MIT’s Assassin’s Guild to Columbia’s Gosh Yarn It. To dig even deeper into campus culture, take a look at student-run newspapers. The Stanford Daily will give you the lowdown on all things Cardinal, connect you to student podcasts, and even give you 19 things to do during self-quarantine. Similarly, the articles, podcasts, and videos at The Daily Northwestern give insight into social life, the opinions of student Op-Ed writers, and events around Evanston. No subscription required.

Of course, the best way to get to know a school is to talk to those who have actually experienced it. So, if you know any current students or recent alumni, reach out! Even if they’re only acquaintances, friends of friends, cousins of neighbors, &c., they’ll probably be more than happy to give you their take. After all, most people love repping their alma maters—and these days, they’ll probably be extra eager for some social un-distancing.

Happy (virtual) visiting and stay safe. 

— Colin G.

Sign up for our College Application Crash Course, in which Colin breaks down the college application process into its four main categories: Search & Selection; Tests; Recommendations & Transcripts; and Essays, Activities & Portfolios. Click for more information.

Colin is Head College Process Strategist at Intelligentsia. He received his BA in English and History from the University of Pennsylvania, his MA in History and MA in Humanities from Stanford University, and his MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston. He specializes in College Process, History, Literature, Writing, German, and Standardized Tests with 20 years of experience tutoring and teaching at the high school, college, and graduate levels.

Remote Learning Support & Navigating COVID-19

Many parents, myself included, are looking for ways to make this time out of school as manageable as possible and, hopefully, constructive. I know that the journey ahead is a long one. With that in mind, I want to let our community know how Intelligentsia can help during these uncertain and unscheduled times.

In addition to moving our regular tutoring to remote services, we’re introducing two online seminars focused on the college application process; offering meaningful discounts on daytime remote learning support; and announcing a partnership with Test Innovators, a fantastic online test prep platform.

As a company, we have always incorporated distance learning and video sessions into our standard work with students and feel confident that we can help make time spent learning online more efficient and more impactful.

Read on for a full suite of remote learning services offered and take care of your families during this time.

– Hilda Seidman, LP, Founder & President

I. College Application Seminars

For students…

Writing Yourself: The Personal Essay and Why it Matters // $350 for five weeks, beginning July 7, 2020 at 11 a.m. ET.

Geared towards high schoolers, this seminar will introduce students to the fundamentals of writing a personal essay. The ultimate goal of this course is to have students think about themselves and their experiences in terms of narrative, and reflect deeply on the best way to render those narratives on the page. The skills garnered during this seminar will be examined in the broader context of the College Application and we will pay close attention to how a keen grasp of writing fundamentals puts you at a significant advantage when applying to schools.

Meets once a week for two hours and will include assignments.

::: SIGN UP HERE :::

For families…

College Application Crash Course // $400 for four weeks, beginning July 29, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Join Intelligentsia’s head college process strategist, Colin Garretson, as he breaks down the college application process into its four main categories: 

1. Search & Selection: crafting thoughtful school lists & how to visit colleges remotely 

2. Tests, Recommendations & Transcripts 

3. Essays, Activities & Portfolios

4. Navigating the Common App & Submitting Your Application 

A great survey course for any family interested in learning more about the application process as a whole, particularly amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Meets once a week for 90 minutes.

::: SIGN UP HERE :::

II. Test Prep

Intelligentsia is fortunate to have recently partnered with Test Innovators, an online test prep platform that gives our tutors the ability to administer full-length mock tests for the SSAT, ISEE, PSAT, SAT & ACT remotely, in addition to providing: 

• Core reports with highly accurate stanines and percentiles, placing them in the context of target schools.

• Diagnostic tools categorizing questions by subject type and difficulty to quickly identify areas for improvement.

• Practice monitoring and strengthening test-taking skills, such as time management.

• Personalized Prep Plans, recommending the best next steps as you prepare for test day and targeted practice based on your actual test results.

Intelligentsia clients who sign up for test prep utilizing Test Innovators will receive a 20% discount on their Test Innovators membership.

Additionally, Intelligentsia is offering 20% off all Test Prep tutoring bundles for a limited time, whether using Test Innovators or not. Contact us to learn more or to sign up!

III. Remote Learning Support 

Intelligentsia is offering support to help structure or supplement your home learning environment. With this new learning environment, we’re offering special rates throughout the shutdown on a variety of services:

• Assistance keeping learning on track and schedules regulated 

  • Setting up and monitoring home school schedules

  • Designing custom curricula

  • Consulting on best practices for effective home learning environments 

  • Remote cultural enrichment 

• Academic subject tutoring & homework help

  • Focus on executive functioning 

  • One-on-one lesson explication

• Extracurricular Expansion & Enrichment

  • Virtual music instruction  

  • Instruction in coding, graphic design, physical fitness, and more

Special rates will apply during “school hours,” 9 AM to 3 PM, Monday through Friday, and we are offering the first hour of consultation and assessment at no cost. Contact us for more information on specific offerings and pricing.

Lessons Learned from a Community College Transfer

You get out what you put in. That principle has always been true for me, and it’s one especially resonant in the field of learning. In this NY Times piece, Laura Pappano sheds an interesting light on the evolving relationship between four-year universities and two-year community college transfers. The slant of her writing is true. Students at community colleges have been unfairly overlooked by four-year universities in the past, and the expansion of their recruitment efforts to include community colleges is a welcome development. One of the reasons that Pappano points to for the recent evolution is that four-year institutions are finding that community college transfers firmly understand the input-output relationship of hard work. 

With that in mind, I thought it might be insightful to share a little bit about my own journey through higher education, which began at a community college, concluded at a four-year state university, and included a summer detour through the halls of New College, Oxford. What I took away from the experience is that mastery in education has little to do with content learning, but in learning how to learn, an effort that I continue to refine. 

I was lucky to find a professor at my community college who took the time to not only be a professor but also become my mentor. The class he taught was on social theory, but it touched on everything in the humanities, all of which became topics for discussion and debate when I would meet with him during early morning office hours. He respected my intellect but did me the favor of crushing it, needlessly at times, with the intent of goading me on. To challenge him, to distrust everything he said, to force him to defend his every position, in the same manner he forced me to. What he taught me was that learning wasn’t a passive absorption of facts from text or teacher, but a test of every idea I believed. I was certain of much less after those office hour debates, but the few ideas I retained were evergreen and more like scaffolding to be built upon.

My transfer to the four-year university that I eventually graduated from was somewhat disappointing. You could get lost in the sea of students and everything seemed driven by politics. But I got lucky by mistakenly enrolling in a graduate course as an undergrad. The professors who ran the sociology department at my college took in anyone who wanted to learn. They allowed me to sit in on graduate courses, despite the annoyance my endless questioning may have brought to some of the discussions, even though they frequently stirred up good debate. My mistake landed me in a setting where I could have the types of intellectual exchange that I had with my community college mentor.

During my time at Oxford, I studied critical theory with a dedicated tutor over the course of a summer. The workload was intended to break me. I recall one prompt in particular: “Were the Frankfurt School theorists bitterly pessimistic or expectantly optimistic with regard to their social outlook during their American phase?” I had a week to write an essay on two books, Minima Moralia and The Dialectic of Enlightenment, and be prepared to argue about it at next week’s session. A lot of what I remember from Oxford was the view outside the window above my desk—grey clouds and rain—but it was also there that I realized what I had been doing all throughout college.

I was creating situations for engagement. I was recreating the format of discussion and debate that was standard at an elite university like Oxford. I wasn’t learning material as much as I was challenging it to ensure it was worth learning. In essence, I was learning how to learn.

This is the experience that tutors at Intelligentsia aim to provide. The aim isn’t merely to help students preparing to take the SAT get better at selecting more correct answers, more of the time. Our aim is to provide exercises in prioritizing their cognitive effort, in deploying proper strategy to sort through information (most of it useless), in identifying the parts of a passage where a solution to a query might lay, and in recognizing when a problem has become a snag to set aside and return to later.

That’s what we put in. A sharper, more confident student is what we hope to get out.

— Jonathan Tupas

Read Laura Pappano’s full piece “Where 4-Year Schools Find a Pool of Applicants: 2-Year Schools” at NYTimes.com —>

How Does Your Child Read? Reading for School Versus Reading for Standardized Tests

Reading comprehension sections can be found on virtually all standardized tests. What I am about to share may appear to be simple, but it is critical for reading comprehension success on standardized tests.

Many students replicate the working-from-memory model on reading comprehension sections of standardized tests. Where is this model learned, and what does this model look like? School teachers assign a chapter or two from a novel or textbook, students read the material at home, and the following day students are quizzed on the material and are expected to reproduce answers from memory. School readings and subsequent examinations (mostly) require students to rely on their memories.

Why is relying on memory a poor strategy for reading comprehension sections on standardized tests? One, standardized test makers exploit students who use this working-from-memory model. They try to present answer choices that would seem familiar to students to deliberately trip them up. Two, working from memory isn’t necessarily the best strategy when the passage can be accessed with the flip of a page. In school, students are prohibited from accessing a novel or textbook during exams. On standardized tests, the passage they are being tested on is right in front of them.

Successful students, by and large, continually and strategically refer back to the passage. Less successful students, however, may be habituated (by school) to use the working-from-memory model on standardized tests to their detriment. What’s a better model? Treat reading comprehension sections on standardized tests as if they are reference passages, that is, passages that are to be continually consulted for specific details and information, like one would do with a manual or user guide. Manuals and user guides are not memorized; they are referred back to quickly, carefully, and systematically. Reading comprehension passages should be treated similarly. With training, there are ways of learning how to strategically locate the appropriate details on standardized test passages.

There is a whole repertoire of skills that tutors will teach their students on standardized tests. But here is a fundamental procedure students need to learn that can have a profound effect on scores: Rely less on memory and rely more on actively consulting the passage for important details required for answering questions.

— Eugene Netupsky

Eugene Netupsky is Intelligentsia’s CEO and a test prep expert. Contact him at insight [at] intelligentsianyc [dot] com.

Too Many Tests: A Standardized Test Glossary

Love it or hate it, standardized testing is a fundamental part of the American education landscape. While their merits may be contested, there is no avoiding the fact that all students, especially those seeking admission to elite schools, must learn to master the art of taking standardized tests. As a tutoring company, we believe that the most effective way to prepare for these tests is with individualized, one-on-one tutoring, but before that can begin, it helps to know the tests by name.

Tests For High Schools

ISEE

The Independent School Entrance Examination is used for admission into most private and independent high schools. It lasts three hours and is broken into four sections plus an essay: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning (basically Math), Reading Comprehension, and Mathematics Achievement + Essay (1 prompt). The ISEE is generally better for students with strong Math skills.

SSAT

The Secondary School Admission Test is similarly used for admission into most private and independent high schools. It also lasts three hours and is broken into four sections plus an essay: Quantitative 1 and 2 (Two Math Sections), Reading Comprehension, and Verbal + Essay (choice of 2 writing prompts, one personal essay or one short story). The SSAT is generally better for students with strong ELA skils.

SHSAT

The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is used only for application into New York City’s eight Specialized High Schools. The SHSAT format is two sections, Math and English Language Acquisition (ELA), spread out over three hours, with no extra written essay, and no wrong answer penalty.

>> Read our full breakdown of these three tests!

Tests For US Colleges & Universities

AP Tests

Each of these 38 tests is administered in conjunction with Advanced Placement classes. Testing above a certain threshold may allow a student to gain college credit and place out of introductory college classes. Good scores also bode well on college applications. More info.

IB Tests

While not widespread, a number of private and public schools grant International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas. The culmination of these programs is two weeks of standardized testing. Like AP tests, these can lead to advanced placement at some universities, but should not replace SAT Subject Tests. More info.

SAT Subject Tests

Formerly known as SAT II, these are subject-specific tests that will showcase particular aptitudes your student has gained during high school. While scores are often considered by colleges, there’s no need to wait until junior year to take them. Take these tests while the information is still fresh and only take tests on subjects in which you’d expect to do well. More info.

PSAT/NMSQT

This mini-alphabet of letters stands for Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. While the PSAT isn’t required by any colleges, taking this “pre”-SAT exam does help prepare students for the real thing. Beyond serving as great practice for the SAT, it is also used as eligibility and qualification for the National Merit Scholarship Program, which can help high-achieving students earn money towards college. The test is offered once each October and most students take it during their Junior year. More info.

SAT

Although the SAT has been known by several names, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the Scholastic Assessment Test, it’s now known simply as the SAT and the letters don’t stand for anything. The SAT is the poster child of standardized tests for college admissions and consists of four sections: Reading, Writing and Language, Math (no calculator), and Math (with calculator). There is also an optional essay section that certain colleges require. The exam lasts half a day and can be taken an unlimited number of times, usually during junior or senior year of high school. More info.

ACT

Originally named for the company making the test, American College Testing’s College Readiness Assessment is now, like the SAT, known simply as the ACT. While it once played second fiddle to the SAT, most colleges now accept scores from either test. Featuring four sections (Reading, English, Math, Science), the content and style of the ACT are very similar to the SAT and taking practice tests is often the best way to decide between the two. See how the tests compare.

>> Here’s a concise summary of all these tests from Kaplan!

Tests For Graduate Studies

GMAT

Students applying to MBA programs must take the Graduate Management Admissions Test. The GMAT is a computerized test with four sections: Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative Assessment, and Verbal. More info.

LSAT

Students applying to Law School must take the Law School Admissions Test. The exam is comprised of five multiple-choice sections and one essay. The multiple-choice sections are Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Logical Reasoning (yes, 2x), Analytical Assessment, and a fifth experiment section that repeats one of the previous categories and does not count toward the final score. The essay section is not scored but is sent to law schools for further assessment. More info.

MCAT

Students applying to Medical School must take the Medical College Admissions Test. The exam is entirely multiple-choice and computer-based, testing in four key areas: Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems; Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems; Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior; and Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills. More info.

GRE

Students applying to *any* Masters or Ph.D. program must take the Graduate Record Examinations. The GRE is actually two tests, the General Test and the (optional) Subjects Test. The General Test consists of four sections: Verbal, Math, Critical Thinking, and Analytical Writing. The Subject Tests are taken in order to highlight your aptitude in a specific subject, such as the one in which you majored. Note that some programs which require GMAT, LSAT, or MCAT scores may also wish to see GRE scores. More info.

>> Read USA Today’s breakdown of the graduate school exams.

English Proficiency Tests

TOEFL

The Test of English as a Foreign Language is the more widely-used of these two tests and it specifically tests American English as used in academic settings. It tests aptitude in four areas: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. More info.

IELTS

The International English Language Testing System is an exam aimed at testing English proficiency as it pertains to academic, migration, and work settings. It specifically tests British English in four areas: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. More info.

>> Still curious? Check out this overview.

— Evan Barden