Should I Go To University of Pennsylvania

Should I Go To University of Pennsylvania The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teach theyre sharing their college experiences as well. Brittany is a Miami tutor specializing in Algebra tutoring, MCAT prep tutoring, Chemistry tutoring, and more. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors degree in Psychology. Check out what she had to say about her alma mater: VT: Describe the campus setting and transportation options.How urban or safe is the campus?Are there buses or do you need a car/bike? Brittany: Penn is like a bubble in the middle of an urban setting. Its only 15 blocks or so from Center City (downtown) but has its own small collection of shops and restaurants, as well as a movie theater. West of campus isnt the safest of places but Penn is known to have one of the biggest private police forces in the country and theres security literally on each block. Theres unbelievable amounts of public transportation (buses, metro, free Penn shuttles) so you dont need a car or bike. VT: How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Brittany: Professors and TAs usually hold their own office hours that one can attend for in-person one-on-one explanations, but if you have a quick question, most professors and TAs are able to tend to your needs via email. I suggest contacting the TA first, though, because theyre usually lightening fast at responding. VT: How would you describe the dorm life rooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Brittany: In terms of dorm life, I suggest living in a dorm that has its own dining hall like English House/Kings Court or Hill because walking to dining halls in the harsh winter isnt much fun. I liked my dorm in English House because each room had its own sink, the rooms were spacious, and it was just small enough to get acquainted with basically everyone in my hall and in the House. VT: Which majors/programs are best represented and supported?What did you study and why? Did the university do a good job supporting your particular area of study? Brittany: Id say a lot of majors/programs are well supported at Penn. I studied Psychology because I enjoy learning about why people think and behave the way they do. The Psychology department has its own building with really nice advisors that will keep you on the right track toward fulfilling the Psychology curriculum. VT: How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Brittany: I made friends quickly with the people in my dorm hall, and continued to make new friends by joining extracurricular activities. There are plenty of activities a freshman can join, and he or she can learn about the activities via the fall and spring Activities Fairs and the fall Freshman Performing Arts Night. Freshmen interested in Greek life can rush in the spring semester. Greek life plays a big role in campus, but there are definitely many other opportunities to make friends and establish yourself on campus if Greek life isnt for you. VT: How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services?Do many reputable companies recruit on campus? Brittany: The Career Center is extremely helpful. They revise resumes for you, coach you through your graduate paths, and send you emails of job opportunities and internships all the time. Many reputable firms come to campus to recruit third-year students studying marketing or economics who want to pursue a career as an analyst, trader, or consultant. VT: How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Brittany: There are tons of libraries, all of which get pretty crowded around finals, but there are tons of lounges and computer labs all around campus that make great study spots. Also, some dining halls open up after hours as extra study space; you just have to avoid main libraries like VP and explore a little to find a good studying spot. VT: Describe the surrounding town. What kinds of outside establishments / things to do are there that make it fun, boring, or somewhere in between?To what extent do students go to the downtown area of the city versus staying near campus? Brittany: Students go downtown to go to shopping, check out historical buildings and monuments, attend late-night fraternity events, have formals at restaurants, attend concerts and sporting events (to see the Phillies, Eagles, and 76ers!), and even to go grocery shopping at Trader Joes. Its really simple to go downtown as there are a couple of metro stops on campus, and there are a few buses that go directly downtown. VT: How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Brittany: Penn has a fairly large student body (10,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduates). Introductory Science classes are huge (~300 students), so if you come late, its hard to find a seat. Once you get past the Intro classes, most classes are a nice size, and seminar courses are more intimate (~15 students max) and usually more relaxed in terms of exams and assignments. VT: Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Brittany: My most memorable experience was my Sleep and Psychopathology class. It was my first small seminar class and my lecturer treated us students as adults. He told us the first day that if we came to class prepared by doing the assigned readings the night before that he wouldnt have to make any graded assignments besides the midterm and final exam. As a mutual agreement, everyone did their part by reading beforehand, and we engaged in riveting discussion during each class. It was honestly one of the best learning experiences Ive ever had at Penn. Check out Brittanys tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

What to Do After Youve Submitted Your College Applications

What to Do After You’ve Submitted Your College Applications The following guest post was written by Raj Patil, one of the co-founders at Admissionado, a premier college admissions consulting company focused on helping students get into their dream schools. College applications are the culmination of a few-month process. In fact, the commitment and sacrifice began on Day 1 of high school (and honestly, long before even that). The hard part is over and done with. If theres an appropriate time to sweat and stress out about getting something absolutely perfect, that time has passed! And yet, the school year hasnt ended. There are deferments, waitlists, rejections, and acceptances to deal with. So, now that the college application part has concluded, what now? January - mid-March: The grey zone The months of January and February and part of March typically sit between the submission of the college apps and the decisions associated with them. Is there a correct thing to focus on during this period? Yes: Stop focusing on stuff. Well, almostdont let your grades slide. If you were to belly flop, it may send the wrong signal to schools that say yes on the premise that youre precisely the kind of kid who wont let things slide. So, keep your hands on the wheel, but dont stress too much. Sure, attend that social event you may have chosen not to attend a few weeks ago. Jam a little longer with your bandmates. That kind of thing. In other words, enjoy being a senior in high school. Something profound is going to change when you go to college. For most folks, this is the real inflection point from adolescence to adulthood, dependence to independence. Theres also something to be said about burnout: now is not the time. Mid-March: Stay calm Funs over. Youre going to sweat, and you have every reason to. But given the circumstances, this is actually a great version of stress. It means that youre invested in the outcome. How could you not be? This anticipation of whether that envelope (or email) says a certain thingis actually one of the joys of life, and theres simply no substitute for it. Is it always fun? Nope. It can be positively gutting. But the point is, dont worry if youre freaking out with anticipation. Its more than called for. [RELATED: 6 Surprising Things About Senior Year of High School] Mid-March - early April = And the verdict is And then, just like that, the decisions come out. Usually in waves: letters, emails, whatever new way they decide to use, etc. And its going to be either 1.) great news, or 2.) not-so-great news. Waitlists arent inning-ending, but they are not always bankable either. If you have even one admit, take pride! You at least have the choice of attending a college in the fall. Now, you may be waitlisted at a higher-ranked school and do everything in your power to get off that waitlist, or you may have your heart set on a different program and make it your mission to work extra hard during freshman year at another college in hopes of transferring a year laterbut no matter how you look at it, you have a choice. Congrats. [RELATED: 5 Ways to Make Your College Decision Easier] If you have more than one admit, congrats as well! Now, you can choose between programs. Here, the algorithm is simple: Separate your admits into echelons and begin to evaluate. If in your highest echelon, you have more than one choice, you can now really get specific. You can look at factors like location, extracurricular opportunities, student to faculty ratio, etc. But what happens if you get flat-out rejected from every school youve applied to? What if have zero choices at the end of the day? Its natural and okay to feel bad and have regrets. Those emotions are normal, but its not the end of the road. There are tons of other gears you can tap into, depending on your resources and your particular ambitions. Gap years are not uncommon, for instance; pursue some great volunteer opportunities, take some online classes, enroll in more classes at a local community collegewhatever it is, choose opportunities wisely to position yourself well for whatever your next move will be. Want to apply again in a year? Figure out exactly what you need to do to augment your portfolio in order to make that happen. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

How does Homework Help in Math for College Students Accelerate the Learning Process

How does Homework Help in Math for College Students Accelerate the Learning Process Every student is special in his or her own way. Every student has some or the other kind of liking and disliking and this discriminates a child from the other. Different child has different type of liking and disliking. It is not possible that every child will have similar kind of liking. There are various subjects that help in making a child know anything better. When I was a child I used to fear mathematics to a large level. Such may be the case for many who are not at all familiar and comfortable with any of the particular subject. Amongst all it is generally viewed that people are much scared of mathematics and thus they do not want to take it to the next level. But still exceptions are there are all fields. Many have taken this brave heart thing and have shifted it to the next level. In college also they have taken mathematics and have thought it to be making it move to the next level. The entire process is very tough and thus it takes a lot of time to go with the flow of the subject. Private tutors are available but very few of them are into good teaching. A good teacher can help you to know the subject deeply and with much enthusiasm. They can turn a subject into an easy one and this will help them to score more and get deep into the subject. But with time the private tutors have become professional and thus it has made students get in lot of problems for now. Unavailability of good teachers has made students suffer a lot of problems and this has decreased their grades and also their moral support. A good teacher at higher level is very much required for knowing the subject in a much better and easier way. Have you heard about online tutors? Yes, it is a new concept and thus very few may be accustomed with the concept. The concept is about providing you with good and proper knowledge and training for a subject under the guidance of a good teacher. The entire process of online tutoring is conducted via internet and thus helps you to save your time, energy and transportation expenses. The online tutoring facility is increasing to a large extent and people are even enjoying it largely. With the passage of time things have fallen into place and it has become one of the good ways to learn and teach. It is encircled with lots of benefits that help a child to get ahead in life and have a better future. Now it’s time to get into the details about online tutoring and how it can help a student. Features of online tutoring There are many features of online tutoring, but the best are some which have been noted down so that you can know better about the process. The teacher is an important part and that is very much available with a good online tutoring service. Every teacher is knowledgeable and thus they can go deep down into the subject and make a student feel more comfortable with the subject. All the teachers that are appointed with any good and reputed online service are very much intelligent and have a good command over the subject. When you have good command over the subject then you can teach also better. This is the basic facility of a good and reputed online teacher. The good teachers make it a point to teach the student with same enthusiasm and this is possible only when you yourself will know the subject. First of all they plan a strategy to conduct the subject and then work according to the plans and programs for betterment of a student. The rates in some institutes are very high, but in some institutes it is very less and can be easily afforded by the middle class parents. This brings relief too many parents largely. The online tutoring services do not have any fixed timing and thus it depends on the student as to how and when they want to avail the class. The availability of the teachers is all the time and this brings in a great amount of self confidence within a student so that they can perform better. The other best part of online teaching courses is that the teachers are there available for each student individually. Yes, it is true that here a teacher can be individually guiding you with his entire time and concentration and this helps a weak student largely. They get lot of support and guidance with such type of teacher beside them. The student can gain lot of help and they can come out of their shell and perform better with having guidance from such a teacher. Not only with the subjects but the teacher also provides you with other help as well. They help you with homework help in which they solve the problems that arise while you complete your homework. Other help such as completion of projects and assignments can also be done by them. A good teacher is available to help you and guide you with such problems as well. It can be said as a total package and thus young generation people are availing it largely. Now you may have in mind that how to discriminate between a good and a bad institute. A good institute will have all the above facilities that are noted down. But still if you are not able o track anyone of them till now then you have gone with TutorPace. Yes, it is a great and one of the reputed institutes. This institute helps their clients with all the facilities that are said above. Good teachers, full time, individual student help and so on. So, may be it has become easier for you to know the institute better. TutorPace also provides you with Homework Help in Math for college students.  

It All Adds Up End of the Year Results are IN! - Heart Math Tutoring

It All Adds Up End of the Year Results are IN! - Heart Math Tutoring It All Adds Up: End of the Year Results are IN! It All Adds Up: End of the Year Results are IN! June 12, 2019 As we head into the summer, we are thrilled to celebrate the outstanding academic progress made by nearly 1,000 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) students during the 2018/19 school year. With an increase in students and schools from the 2017/18 school year, tutors were able to help even more students surpass their goals and end the year on yet another high note. End of the year certificates for a job well done! Take a look at some of our results here: 98% of 993 Heart Tutoring students met program growth goals in math, growing in two or more building block concept areas. On average, students doubled the goal â€" growing in 4.8 concept areas. The goals were set with guidance from math specialists at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and UNC Charlotte. Students grew from mastering 25% to 57% of the skills needed based on grade-level standards, cutting the skills gap in half. 92% of surveyed teachers believe students showed increased confidence/enthusiasm in math as a result of Heart, up 3% from last year. 91% of surveyed teachers observed growth in foundational math skills for students enrolled in Heart Tutoring, and 83% believed Heart Tutoring had a positive effect on classwork, class tests, or standardized tests. 63% of surveyed teachers said students became more confident and enthusiastic in subjects other than math as a result of the program. 99% of 599 surveyed Heart Tutoring volunteers rated their experience as positive, and 96% would recommend the program to friends or colleagues. “We are extremely proud of our students for building the skills and confidence they need to be successful,” says Emily Gaffney, Executive Director of Heart Math Tutoring. “It truly does take a village to ensure that ourstudents develop the strong foundation in math and enthusiasm for academics needed for long-term success. Because of the building blocks developed and experience of success working with tutors, Heart Tutoring students can progress into higher levels of math, meet graduation requirements, and have better access to post-secondary and career opportunities. We owe a huge thank you to this school yearsvolunteers, donors, and school partners who made one-on-one instruction possible for so many CMS elementary students!”

GRE Verbal Strategy Review Text Completion

GRE Verbal Strategy Review Text Completion GRE/MAT Graduate School Blog Of all the different questions that students work on as they prep for the GRE Verbal, none seem to routinely cause as much trepidation as the Text Completion. If you’ve taught the GRE as much as I have, then you know the particular sigh of fear and pre-emptive defeat that students give when they turn to page to see a sentence riddled with long underscores. But why do GRE text completionquestions seem to cause so much more anxiety than the rest of the GREVerbal questions? Part of the reason, I think, is that Text Completion questions wear their difficulty right on their sleevesâ€"you can see, up front, that some are missing just one piece of information, but several of them contain two or even three blanks that you need to fill in. But beyond that, the Reading Comp questions test you on skills that you haveâ€"more or lessâ€"been practicing in your daily life for over two decades. Text Completion questions, on the other hand, require you to do things with texts and with language that you almost never have to do as an adult. In essence, they require you to take a conscious, methodical approach to doing somethingâ€"readingâ€"that you are used to being able to do in a way that is so intuitive it’s almost mindless. Think about it. Most sentences you read in your daily life are relatively easy to understand, and contain all the information you need. You don’t tend to examine sentences like they are crime scenes, scanning first for things like subjects and verbs, before building a hodgepodge understanding of what the sentence seems to want to say. But this is exactly what you have to do with Text Completion questions. If you’re a math person, this should actually be good news. The sentences in these questionsâ€"like all good sentencesâ€"should function with the logic and precision of mathematical equations. Let’s look at a simple Single Completion problem, to see how this works. His musical tastes are certainly ____ ; he has recordings ranging from classical piano performances to rock concerts, jazz and even Chinese opera. A. antediluvian B. eclectic C. harmonious D. sonorous E. dazzling The most glaring formal element of this sentence, to me, is the semicolon. If you’re rusty on why and how semicolons are used, you’ll definitely want to brush up on them before the GRE, where you’ll see as many semicolons as you saw in all of grad school. Here, as in most cases, the semicolon is used in an area where you could otherwise use a period. It separates two independent clauses that could stand on their own as complete sentences but where the writer wants to indicate a closer relationship between them. Oftentimes these semicolons function like equals signs do in mathematical equationsâ€"the two sides of the semicolon may not be expressed in the same terms, but they ultimately contain equivalent information. How does that help us solve problem? Let’s look closer. We can see that the blank comes in the first clause. Why, then, do we even have the second clause? We can see from the answer choices (tip: never be afraid to look at the answer choices for clues about what kind of answer to expect) that the missing word is an adjective. And, looking at the first clause, it’s obvious that the adjective describes “his” musical tastesâ€"whoever “he” is. But, recognizing that, how should we describe his musical tastes? Here we can see the logic of the question at work. Without the semicolon and that second clause, we would have no way of completing this sentence. The first clause contains no information at all about his musical tastes. All that information is to be found by piecing together clues and information from the second clauseâ€"the clause after the semicolon. Many of the Text Completion questions on the GRE function this way. The part of the sentence that contains the blank simply tells us what kind of information fills the blank (e.g. an adjective describing someone’s musical taste). But the information about what word or phrase is actually correct exists elsewhere. So now that we know we need to figure out which word best describes “his” musical taste, let’s look for clues. We see that he has “recordings ranging from classical piano performances to rock concerts, jazz and even Chinese opera.” This is no longer just a verbal/vocabulary question. It’s also sort of a reading comprehension question. We might note that those recordings are all of vastly different genres of music. The clause seems to exist to tell us that there is great variety in his music collection. Therefore, we are going to look for the answer choice that describes the musical taste of someone who has a wide variety of musical interests. Assuming we know what all the words mean (which is its own battle), it’s obvious that the correct answer here is B., eclectic (which is defined as, “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources”). To summarize, you can use the sentence itselfâ€"as well as the answer choicesâ€"to determine what kind of information the sentence is missing. That is, what kind of word or phrase is missing, and what is that word or phrase doing with the rest of the sentence. From there, it’s up to you go digging elsewhere in the passage to find clues that tell you what word or phrase works best. Here, we first determine that we need an adjective describing someone’s musical taste. From there, we ask ourselves what kind of musical taste he has. Then, we look for the answer to that question in the sentence and, finding it, select the word that best fits. About the Author Steve is a graduate of Northwestern University, scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, and has been tutoring LSAT students for many years.

At your service. Welcome Sam to italki!!

At your service. Welcome Sam to italki!! Hello Italki! As the new online Community Manager, my mission is to provide high quality, person-to- person service for teachers and students alike. If you have a problem, I’ll take care of it.  Think of me as your personal concierge. I am originally from Parsons, Kansas, a town of less than 20,000 people. I grew up in Milwaukee WI, and have spent the last 6 years living in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and most recently Shanghai. While studying advertising at Columbia College Chicago, I worked as a fundraiser for charity and have a vested interest in making the world a better place. I like to run, play video games, and recently developed an interest in Standup Comedy. My role at italki is online Community Manager. I am a personal contact point for all students and teachers who use the site and I’m very approachable. If you have any questions or comments, or if you have a problem of any kind, you can reach me by visiting my profile at  /T007352073.htm   I look forward to knowing  each and every one of you. -Sam Bleakly At your service. Welcome Sam to italki!! Hello Italki! As the new online Community Manager, my mission is to provide high quality, person-to- person service for teachers and students alike. If you have a problem, I’ll take care of it.  Think of me as your personal concierge. I am originally from Parsons, Kansas, a town of less than 20,000 people. I grew up in Milwaukee WI, and have spent the last 6 years living in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and most recently Shanghai. While studying advertising at Columbia College Chicago, I worked as a fundraiser for charity and have a vested interest in making the world a better place. I like to run, play video games, and recently developed an interest in Standup Comedy. My role at italki is online Community Manager. I am a personal contact point for all students and teachers who use the site and I’m very approachable. If you have any questions or comments, or if you have a problem of any kind, you can reach me by visiting my profile at  /T007352073.htm   I look forward to knowing  each and every one of you. -Sam Bleakly

E-activities This Summer - ALOHA Mind Math

E-activities This Summer Don’t Say No To Gadgets In our last post, we spoke about developing curiosity in children, this week were covering applications for popular platforms that will keep kids minds active during the holidays. The summer holidays are a time for children to put their books aside and forget the classroom. iPads, gaming consoles and late night TV are picked over study material and textbooks, but just because kids are glued to their gadgets doesnt mean they cant benefit from them. Five Apps That Kids Can Benefit From Here are a few apps and games that will help teach children over the summer and keep their brains active and alert. 1) QuizUp: (iOS and Android) This trivia app has over 400 topicsincluding math, literature and science. It’s a great way to test knowledge in different subjects and play against people from around the world. 2) Sparknotes: (iOS and Android) This app is great for readers and literature lovers. It provides detailed explanations, summaries and analysis of many novels and plays. 3) 2 Player Reactor:(iOS and Android) This game requires sharp observation skills, quick thinking and speedy reflexes. The best part is, that this game has 2 player functionality, so it’s a great way for parents and kids to play against each other. 4) 2048: (iOS and Android) This is a great math game. The objective is to slide the numbers across the grid and get them to add up to 2048. 5) TED: (iOS and Android) Weve all watched a TED talk at least once. Theapp makes it easier to watch the educational videos andfollowdifferentspeakersfrom popular TED talks. Share Your Findings These apps and games are a good source of information and provide kids with a fun and interactive means of learning. You will be able to find many more like these that will keep children engaged the right way. If you find any apps that you think will benefit kids, share them on our Facebook or Twitter page. __ About ALOHA Mind Math Founded in 1993, ALOHA Mind Math has been guiding children between the ages of 5 through 12 years to achieve academic excellence. The interactive learning process is proven to enhance a child’s math, reading and writing capabilities. The teachers also assist children in developing skills and abilities such as observation and listening that result in the overall growth of the child. ALOHA Mind Math is currently training children in over 20 countries with 4200 different centers. For more details on this unique program please visit alohamindmath.com or search for the center closest to you by using our locator alohamindmath.com/locations/