Welcome to College 101

So after a sudden huge scholarship contest and a week long sickness that took me out and sent me two weeks behind in school, I'm going to start blogging this month again. 

So for those of you who may not have realized, I'm basically hurtling towards the end of my senior year in high school (seniors 2013 woot woot!) and so I've had to delve into the topic of college. And since I've acquired a certain good amount of college knowledge (at least I think so), I've decided to spend some blog posts sharing tips and commenting on all things, college.

So, I don't know how many of you are in college, out of college, or not in college yet, but these posts are mostly aimed towards those either going into college or in college. And for those out of college, feel free to comment and add your own opinions and tips!

Today's post will be a basic college 101 post. The next several posts will include: Majors, College Costs, Scholarships, Types of Colleges, etc.

*Note: For those living out of the United States, take notice that when I use "college" I'm using it to refer to both colleges and universities. For those living in the US, yes, there is an actual difference but for the sake of simplicity, I'll just use college here.

Juniors...
I'm sure you've been told, but if you're probably going to go to college, now is the time to actually start thinking about it! Trust me, if you put it off until senior year, things will get hectic and fast!

1. Create a list of what you want in a college: You don't have to know what you want your major to be yet or anything, but just pick things you're looking for. Don't worry about price or anything like that yet either, you're just creating a list of what you want. 
1. For example: 
1. Athletic offerings.
2. Campus Safety
3. Campus setting (urban, suburban, small town, large town, etc)
4. Diversity of student body.
5. Extracurricular organizations and events. 
6. Faculty experience
7. Financial aid availability and deadlines
8. Length, time, and location of classes. 
9. Majors.
10. Tuition and fees. 
11. Housing. 
12. Transportation and cost. 
13. Support services (meals, job placement, career services).
14. School reputation
15. Percentages of students who graduate/return the following year/employed within one year of graduating.
16. Location. 
17. Religious affiliation. 
2. Start gathering a list of potential colleges: Once you've decided what you want, start looking at colleges that match that criteria. Don't worry about the number. 
1. Awesome tip #1: College Fairs. These are great places to see and know a lot of colleges without having to travel! What I did was visit every booth (well almost everyone) and either talk with the people there or just pick up brochures. Remember that they're there to answer any question you have and pick up the brochures there in case you have something you want to look back on. Ask your school counselor if there's any nearby you can attend. 
2. Awesome Links #1: Sites like College Board, offer free search engines that you can use to create a list of colleges to check out and then you can look at their profiles. College Board asks you what you're looking for and then matches you to ones that best fit. Click Right Here to Go to it!
3. Awesome Links #2: College Week Live is a free site that's basically like an online college fair. So in case there isn't one near you, you can go to here! 
3. Consider possible careers/majors: Don't be afraid to pick something really odd or random or whatever. Just think about what you like to do (hobbies for example), things you're good/not good at, favorite classes, etc. 
1. For example: When I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I made this huge list of majors/careers and it looked a little something like this:
1. Jeweler.
2. Writer. (English/Creative Writing)
3. Journalist (Journalism/Photojournalism)
4. Fashion Designer (Fashion Studies)
5. Geologist. (Geology)
6. Photographer. (Photography)
7. Librarian. (Librarian Science)
8. Astronomer. (Astronomy)
9. Web Designer. (Graphic Design)
10. Psychologist. (Psychology/Sociology)
11. Anthropologist. (Anthropology)
12. Paralegal. (Paralegal Studies)
13. Historian. (History)
2. Awesome Link #3: Sites like Occupational Outlook Handbook, ACT: Careers, Career Ship, and Iseek, let you explore different careers/majors and some of them provide you with interest surveys. 
3. Awesome Tip #2: Interest Surveys are a great place to help you decide what kind of job you might be good at or what you would like to do. Typing "career interest surveys" into Google might be a great way to start. 
4. Awesome Tip #3: Go to a college website and look at their majors. Most college sites will tell you what that major is like and what kinds of jobs you can get with it. Some even provide more resources to learn about that major/career. 
5. Awesome Tip #4: What if I can't decide on a major? No biggie! Most colleges don't make you pick one at least until your junior year, and even then, most colleges now have a "undecided major" for those who don't know. 
4. What else...
1. Take the PSAT your junior year to help you get ready for the ACT or the SAT. 
2. Request materials from colleges (My favorites are when colleges send you these 300 page "viewbooks" for free. And don't be afraid to request more information  Its free and you can customize it usually to get what you want to know).
3. Arrange college visits (remember that list you made?), the summer time right before senior year is a great time to look at colleges. Visits are a fantastic way to really really get to know what a college is like. 
4. Make sure to keep up your grades junior year and make sure you have the right classes and credits to get into college. 
5. Start looking for a job to help earn money if you don't have any yet. Trust me, you'll want to start saving ahead of time because college costs a lot and that's not even just for the tuition! 
6. Talk with your parents about college. What can you afford? Do they have an expectations for you? 
7. Talk with your school counselor. Most of the time they can give you tips on colleges, majors, and all sorts of stuff! They're even payed to help you with things!

Seniors (duh duh duh...)

Last year of high school. Big time, right? Now I know most kids will slack off, but trust me, I'm tell you this now because it really is super-duper important. Keep up your grades and partipate in things! Join clubs and sports, and have fun! 

1. Start narrowing down your college choices: The fall is when you'll need to start applying to colleges so make sure, summer of junior year, or at the beginning of senior year, to start narrowing down your choices. I recommend at least applying for at least several different ones. At least one or two you know you'll get into. And one or two you think you might be able to get into. 
1. Awesome Tip #5: Most colleges have a "priority deadlines" and if you apply to deadlines, not only will you get a decision sooner, but you might not have to pay an application fee. 
2. Awesome Tip #6: Make sure to keep a list of what colleges you have applied to, and if you've been accepted or not, and what their deadlines are. 
2. Visit the colleges if you haven't already. For the ones you really can't visit (like the ones in a different country or out of state, a good look over the website, a call to the admissions, and a request of materials should do fine). 
3. Start searching for scholarships! There's a ton of sites out there that will help you look for scholarships. 
1. Awesome Tip #7: Never pay to apply to a scholarship, to receive one, or to have someone match you with them. Click here for more advice on how to avoid a scam.
2. Awesome Tip #8: Sites like College Board's Scholarship Search, Fastweb, and Cappex will help match you will hundreds or thousands of scholarships for free. 
3. Awesome tip #9: Don't be afraid to check out books in your local library, book store, or even with you counselor for scholarships/books on scholarships. 
4. Make a list!
1. Deadlines.
2. Gather the materials you'll need to apply (letters of recommendation, essays, acceptance letters, transcripts, etc).
3. Make a list of scholarships you might apply for, you are going to apply for, you have applied for, ones you won/didn't win/, and stuff like that. 
4. What else...
1. Keep your grades up!
2. Take or retake the ACT or the SAT. You can find plenty of study materials at your school, library, or on the websites themselves. 
3. Complete the FAFSA.
4. Don't wait until the last minute!
5. There's probably some other stuff I'll have to update here...
6. Make sure you have everything ready. Compile a list of things you'll need for scholarships and anything your college might want from you.

Sareh's top College Resources

• College Board
• Cappex
• Fastweb
• CollegeView
• Iseek

Other Resources

• Rate My Professors Is a free site you can use to check out the professors at the schools you're considering. The reviews are made by students for students. 
• Chegg- Need to start looking at textbooks? I've heard in the grapevine that Chegg is the best site to look for new, used, and rented textbooks. You can even use it to check out courses, get study help, and sell your own textbooks!
• College Majors 101- This site is great for if you want to know anything and a ton of things about different careers and majors! 
• College-Insight- This gives you all the data you'd want about a certain college here. Its even free and no login required!

Awesome tip #10: Need help figuring what exactly you should be doing? College Board has a great resource you can use! Their My Plan is easy to use and helps you keep track of everything you need to know/do.

So, do you have any tips you'd like to share? Or are any of you going off to college this fall too?

Sincerely,
Sareh

I have news, Birdies!

Hey Birdies!

So its been a while...almost two months, in fact. I haven't abandoned this blog so don't worry! I've just been concentrating on school this year so I haven't had as much time as I would like to blog.

In any case, I've written this post tonight to let you know that I'm back to blogging (at least, by February for sure I will be) and that I'm making some changes.

New and Improved Blog Design
Well, I know the last design was pretty, but my lovely friend, Ana was kind enough to make me a new blog design and so here it is! I hope you guys like it! I know I do! Please let me know your thoughts on it!

Updated Author's Page
Yep, I've updated my author's page, and I've even included information about the stories I'm working on! So I've provided covers, pitches, and links to the stories so that you can see the tons of projects I'm working on (actually, I'm not working on all of them at once, but for the most part, they're all started).

Other Updates
These will include all the widgets you see on the sides (and I have to go back and re-add all the blogs I've been sharing.) as well as the Resources, Writing Prompts and Ideas, and the Archive.

Schedule Changes
So I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about the book reviews, although I think I'll continue them. Although as of right now, all those past books I've read? I'll only blog the ones I feel mentioning, but after this I'll try my best to keep you updated with my reading.

And because I'm busy with school this year, I've decided that one day during the week I won't post anything or it'll be catch up day in case I miss a post or two. We'll see.

Keep me posted!
To all my lovely Birdies, I'm always thrilled to see new faces and old ones on my follower widget and so I'll like to tell you this. If any of you have any news you'd like to share (it can be as something as random as you won an award at school or something) or something writing related (like you finally started that book or you finally finished that chapter), please feel free to contact me and let me know! If you'd like, I'll happily give a shout out on here or I'll just congratulate you in the comments or by email.

Also, always keep in mind that if there's anything you would like to see here on this blog (and yes, I'm planning to post a One Direction post sometime because one of you lovely people requested it and I've yet to post it) don't hesitate to message me (you can contact me through the comments or through the contact form under the Author page)!

It can be something like homework help (I LOVE researching things, although I'm not best at math) or something you're just curious about and you don't know where to start looking. Maybe you need help on a story or you want something looked over for you (mind if you want something critiqued, I only do up to twenty pages at a time).

So in sort, if there's anything I can ever do for you guys, please let me know! I'm always happy to help best I can! I don't mind listening or taking the extra time to help with something.

Sincerely,
Sareh

Wordy Tuesdays- The first Ten.

So I'm going to try out a new thing for the next couple of weeks. See, I'm trying to study to take the ACT again and to help study, I'm learning new words.

And because I believe that its always good to learn new words and that using different words can help enrich your writing, I'm going to share ten (hopefully new!) words every Tuesday and write a sentence using them. And then every Tuesday, we'll see ten new words and review last week's words.

So let's get started.

*Note: Blogger was being weird when I completed this blog post and wouldn't let me add anything at the bottom without messing up the numbers, so I'm putting what I meant to be at the bottom of this list, here. 

Resources
Dictionary.com

1. Lusus Naturae- [loo-suhs nuh-toor-ee, -tyoor-ee]- n. A deformed person or thing; freak. 
1. Variant felt like a lusus naturae when people made fun of her name. 
2. Telesthesia- [tuhl-uhs-thee-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh]- N. sensation or perception received at a distance without the normal operation of the recognized sense organs.
1. Juan was gifted with telesthesia, which allowed him to guess the answers to his test from reading his teacher's mind. 
3. Ignoramus- [ig-nuh-rey-muhs, -ram-uhs]- N. an extremely ignorant person.
1. The kid who did not study for the history test was cleary an ignoramus. 
4. Thaumaturgy- [thaw-muh-tur-jee]- N. the working of wonders or miracles; magic.
1. Harry Potter was knew how to use thaumaturgy because he was a wizard. 
5. Tellurian- [te-loor-ee-uhn]- Adj. of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants;terrestrial.
1. Trees are a tellurian part of the world. 
6. Antediluvian- [an-tee-di-loo-vee-uhn]- Adj. of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gen. 7, 8.
   2.

   very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated;primitive: antediluvian ideas.

   1. The fashion styles of the 1700s are now antediluvian compared to today's fashion ideals. 
7. Ephemeral- [ih-fem-er-uhl]- Adj. lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory: the ephemeral joys of childhood.
   2.

   lasting but one day: an ephemeral flower.

   1. Horse flies are ephemeral creatures. 
8. Chimerical- [ki-mer-i-kuhl, -meer-, kahy-]- Adj. unreal; imaginary; visionary: a chimerical terrestrial paradise.
   2.

   wildly fanciful; highly unrealistic: a chimerical plan.

   1. Back before the 1960s, the idea that man would walk on the moon was a chimerical idea. 
9. Quixotic- [kwik-sot-ik]- Adj. ( sometimes initial capital letter ) resembling or befitting DonQuixote.
   2.

   extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical,or impracticable.
   3.

   impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

   1. The extravagant decoration of the birthday hall was quite quixotic with the balloons that spilled out over the chairs and the glitter thrown every where. 
10. Amaranthine- [am-uh-ran-thin, -thahyn]- Adj. of or like the amaranth.
    2.

    unfading; everlasting: a woman of amaranthine loveliness.
    3.

    of purplish-red color.

    1. There is said to be a jellyfish that is amaranthine for whenever it 'dies' it is 'reborn' into a new jellyfish.

Interesting Facts- The Nine Animal Phylums

So since I saved my biology notes from last year, I'm going to share what the nine phylums of the animal kingdom are. 

First of all, what is a phylum? 

A Phylum is one of the major categories in Taxonomy (the study of living creatures) in which animals are divided. There are seven categories in which to organize the animals:  Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species (from biggest to the most specific). 

 There's actually a funny way I remembered those. So at the beginning of biology last year when we were just learning about these, I had gotten a henna tattoo in the shape of a fish with a cross in the middle at the state fair. And for some reason, I put one of the categories on each point of the tattoo so when I remembered it, I would tap that part in that order. 

I know its really weird, but I'm a very visual person. And sometimes its using weird tricks like that, that will help you remember things more.

The Nine Phylums

Phylum	Characteristics	Examples
Porifera	Contain pores (Porifera); lives in water, most primitive, sessik	Sponge
Cnidaria	Stinging cells; aquatic; tentacles	Jellyfish, hydras, coral
Platyhelminthes	Flat worms	Tape worms; plamranian; flukes
Nematoda	Round worms (remember the Nematodes from Spongebob that ate his house?)	Trichira; hook worms, asckarid
Molluska	Soft bodies; tentacles, shells (most); suction cups	Clam, squid, snail
Annelids	Segmented worms	Earth worms, leech, sand worms
Arthropods	Many jointed appendages; legs; exoskeleton; antenna; feelers; claws	Insects; spiders; lobsters
Echinodermita	Spiney skin; (ocean) water muscular system	Starfish, sand dollar, sea urchins
Chordata	Backbone (notocord) (Cordata, Cor like in cord, or backbone like a cord); skeleton;	Reptiles, Amphidians, mammals, fish, birds, humans

So there's a nice chart that hopefully is easy to understand. In future posts, I'll explore each phylum in more depth (provided I still have my notes for it! Or I can find information on the internet about them) and eventually I'll post about human biology.

Resources
My biology notes

Sincerely,
Sareh

Who doesn't like free classes?

People who don't like do to homework.

Well, I suspect that people just don't like to do homework in general. But anyways, tonight I'm blogging about this really awesome site called, Coursera. See, the reason its so neat is that you can take free, online, college level courses through actual colleges and taught by real professors.

It has over a hundred classes in pretty much every subject (there's even a class where you can play a video game for assignments!). Some of them require a bit of background knowledge, but most of them are just for people who are curious about the subject. Some also have suggested materials that you could view before or during the course that will help with the course, but most of all the materials are provided for free.

One of the nice things I like about it too is that you're not required to complete a class. So if it turns out to be too difficult or if you're just not interested in the subject, you can drop it at any time and it doesn't affect you. But say you don't pass the class, you are allowed to retake it too.

Some of the classes even give you certificates for completing the class (note that you don't get any actual college credit for them unless maybe you're a student at that particular university and your professor gives you some).

Also, most of the classes are taught in lectures and the assignments are peer reviewed. Why peer reviewed? Well because there's so many people taking the course (I think the history course I'm taking has over 83,000 people taking it?) that there's no way just the professor and maybe his assistants could review them all alongside their regular classes.

Keep in mind, that you don't have to do the assignments. I joined my history class really late and because there's so many lectures and they're usually long (anywhere from five to nineteen minutes long), I'm just watching the videos and participating in the discussion forums.

So far, most of my classes aren't too bad but its watching the lectures that take the longest. Some classes also have quizzes and tests too, but the ones I've taken haven't been very hard. Most of the assignments I've gotten are given a week's time to complete them and then a couple days to review some of my classmates' assignments.

Most classes I think has discussion forums where you can talk to your classmates and ask questions. Normally, I don't think the teacher answers questions himself (unless there's a lot of students asking the same one or you brought up something important) but I've seen teacher assistants answer them and most of the students are pretty knowledgeable so I haven't had much trouble yet.

Classes I'm taking (or planning too):

• Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, our Modern World
• A History of the World since 1300
• Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society
• Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
• Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning
• The Social Contest of Mental Health and Illness
• E-learning and Digital Cultures
• Introduction to Philosophy
• Introduction to Sociology
• Songwriting
• Property and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics
• A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior
• Why We Need Psychology
• Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets
• The Camera Never Lies
• Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps
• English Common Law: An Introduction
• Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
• Social Psychology
• Listening to World Music
• Animal Behavior 
• Basic Behavioral Neurology

Eh, I know that's a lot, (I just counted and there's twenty-two on that list so far) but that's the thing I really like about Coursera. I can enroll in any class and drop it later if I want to. But besides that, there's so many courses on so many different subjects that its really nice. See, it lets me learn and explore subjects no offered by my school.

And if I take a class and find out I'm not good at it or I don't like it, I won't have to pay or anything if I drop it. I can take science and math classes (neither of which I'm good at) and learn a little more in those areas if I like. I can take classes in subjects I'm not normally interested in and see if I like them or not.

So while I'm taking a lot (and I expect I won't finish them all or even start some of them!), I think its okay. Personally, I love learning (eh, I hate homework depending on what it is) and I think this is a great opportunity for me to learn even more before I head off to college (where I'll learn even more and things will be more stressful).

But that's the other thing, these are college-level courses so when I go off to college, I think I'll have a better understanding of how hard or easy they'll be (granted though, these are online courses though and I don't expect to do actual college online).

See, I think that this site is a great idea. Because some people really can't afford to actually go to college and this might give them a chance to learn more. Plus, I think there's a lot of people (especially in my generation) who only seem to learn things if they have to or only about things they're interested in (which is natural). So, I guess, this is a way for people to take advantage and learn new things.

Personally, I think education is very important. And I think that people should take advantage of every opportunity out there for them to grow as a person. We have education for a reason and while school is boring and stressful, fun and maybe exciting (at least in social terms more often then naught), we should be grateful that we actually can get a somewhat decent education.

It reminds me of that Pakistani girl who was recently shot for standing up for education for girls. I think that's a great cause and I applaud her for standing up for something so important. I think she's very brave for trying to get a higher education in a society where many girls may not go beyond the basic level.

So anyway's, there's my spiel tonight. If you want more information, I guess you can go to the FAQ page, here (which is actually kinda hard to find). That or join and sign up for a class and see what its like. I recommend it, some of them are really fun and interesting.

Sincerely,
Sareh

Writing Prompt- Quotes

I think I might have done this one already...but anyways. So tonight we're going to look at a random quote and then write a snippet about whatever it brings to mind.

"Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all. " -John Fitzgerald Kennedy 

What this makes me think: I absolutely love this quote just because not only is it so true, but its really interesting. I could see the flashes of a plot bunny here but its not quite there. Computers can only do so much, but humans can do amazing things that computers will probably never be able to do. 

What does this make you think?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Writing Prompt- Retail!

So, tonight's prompt is that your character is opening a retail store or just a store of some kind. Write a scene in which you explain what it is that they sell and if any of the items has a special meaning to your character or someone else. Try to have fun with it! (Who doesn't love a story with a store that sells magical items?)

I once read an article where the author suggested that if you want to make your story more interesting, add a cool gadget or fun item. I don't know about you, but I always loved the stories as a kid where the main character would have a wand or cool item that I wished I had.

Sincerely,
Sareh