June 20,
2006
In this issue:
 Study in
the USA - Maplewood seminars
on June 29 and July 6
Top MBA
Program Admissions - Maplewood seminar
on July 13
College admission
trends update: The wait list game
Maplewood paves
the road to Ivy League success - Class of
2010 Send-off Party on July 15
The year of
ranking B-schools differently -
undergrad B-school rankings, MBA
rankings, expanded MBA admissions
services at Maplewood
Are you a
helicopter parent?... and
the fine art of letting go
Chinglin Tutoring
Program - English
peer tutoring community service,
summer 2006. Sign up
now!
Read on
...
The college and grad school
application season is round the
corner....
Learn from the experts on how to
...
Get
into top US colleges ...
Study
in the USA Seminar
Come to our
ever-popular college admissions
seminar, get a head start before
the summer for the next college
application season:
Choose from 2 dates, or come to
both:
6/29/06
(Thu) 18:30-20:00
Part I US
college admissions: The process
and strategies
-
Understand the US college system
- Know the admissions process and
the right things to do
- Build winning applications
- The latest rankings and
admissions trends
7/6/06
(Thu) 18:30-20:00
Part II College
admissions: What makes you
special?
- choose
the right school that fits you
- Why you should showcase your
special side and how
- Write a winning essay
- more ...
For
students who are applying to US
colleges in fall 2006 ... Come and learn
what you can do this summer
before your final school year to
help in your application.
For
parents and their college-bound
kids ... The US college
application is more complex and
competitive than ever. Maplewood
can help ease the strain of the
whole process and help students
and parents get into the college
or university of your choice.
and top
B-schools....
Top MBA
Program Admissions Seminar
Kicking off
Maplewood's expanded
MBA Application Counseling
services (in alliance with
MBA Exchange) is our MBA
Admissions seminar:
7/13/06
(Thu) 18:30-20:00
Come and meet Susan-Joan
Mauriello, Maplewood
Admissions Consultant and a
Columbia University MBA. Susan
has worked in MBA admissions
counseling and helped candidates
apply successfully to top US and
European business schools. She
has interviewed and assessed
applicants for both Columbia
Business School and the
University of Pennsylvania where
she graduated with a BA degree in
sociology and history.
At this seminar, Susan will share
with you valuable tips on top MBA
school application strategy,
timing, the latest admissions
trends, and specific topics
including:
- Business school selection: why
top tier is the only option
- The GMAT: why it matters, why
it doesn't
- Setting goals: how to use your
future to explain your past
- Essay planning and development:
what to say and how to say it
- Recommendations and interviews:
how to close the
"admissions" deal
For
the professional who has built a
solid career background in
preparation for a full-time, top
MBA program ... Get ready to
advance your career with a
coveted MBA degree. Enroll now to
learn how to enhance your chances
of gaining admission to the
business school of your choice!
Seminar
Enrolment: Send
in your seminar
date, name and/or
parent's name, contact
phone nos. to: enrol@maplewood-edu.com.
Seminars
are held at Maplewood's
office:
31/F, 88 Hing Fat Street,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (map) Enquiries: info@maplewood-edu.com or call
+852 2107 4108.
Get
going with your college
or MBA plans! Act now!
Seats are limited. Free
enrolment.
For more
info on Maplewood
seminars, please visit:
http://www.maplewood-edu.com/seminars.htm.
|
Feel free to
distribute this seminar
announcement to any
interested friends, parents and
colleagues and ask them to enrol
directly with Maplewood.
College
admission trends update:
The wait list game
Colleges admit few
students off the wait list in
2006, reported the Wall
Street Journal in May 16,
2006. It's going to be another
disappointing year for many
students on college wait lists as
many selective schools are taking
very few - if any - students from
the wait list this year.
Harvard University said it will
likely take only between 5 and 10
students, down from the 28 it
admitted last year. Georgetown
University is taking about 10
students, down from about 70 last
year. Others, including Princeton
University and Emory University,
aren't taking any.
At many
schools, the odds against getting
in off the list are astronomical,
if not outright nil. The
University of Chicago is
admitting about 7 students from
its list this year, compared with
34 last year. The University of
Pennsylvania has offered 1,400
applicants a spot on the wait
list but only expects some 10 to
15 students to be admitted from
it.
Admissions officers said they've
been surprised at the large
percentage of applicants who
accepted their offers of
admission. The so-called
"yield" - the
percentage of admitted students
who actually enroll, a
closely-watched figure by
everyone from applicants and
parents to competing schools -
went up at many schools this
year, which means the schools
seldom need to resort to the wait
list.
Often, wait-list
activity comes in waves: Colleges
that overfill their classes one
year might react the following
year by accepting fewer
applicants outright and admitting
more students from their wait
lists. Because this year is
seeing generally low wait-list
activity, things may be brighter
for next year's waitlisted
applicants.
If you are on the
wait list, what can you do to
improve your chances of getting
off the wait list, despite the
low odds? Some tips:
- Show
you're still interested. Schools welcome
a note or a phone call to the
admissions office indicating that
a student appreciates making the
wait list and hopes that they
will ultimately be accepted.
- Offer
new information - a new school
grade report, a new research
article, a new award, a new
letter of recommendation. Another
guidance counselor's letter can
carry much weight. However, think
creatively without being
gimmicky.
- Show
eagerness but don't pester admissions
offices with frequent phone calls
and emails. It helps to determine
whether you are truly still
interested in the school by
paying a visit to the school and
the admissions office to let them
know directly.
More from
the College Journal, Wall Street
Journal, May 16, 2006.
Maplewood
paves the road to Ivy League
success
Congratulations to
all Maplewood students who toiled
hard in their college (and some
in your boarding school)
applcations this year. All your
efforts were well-deserved, as
you have been admitted to at
least one of your match schools
and for many of you to one of
your most desirable or dream
schools.
With our help and
advice, our students have been
successfully admitted to top
schools including Princeton,
U Penn, Cornell in
the Ivy League, and top national
universities Washington U
in St. Louis,
Northwestern,
Johns Hopkins, U
of Chicago,
UC-Berkeley,
Carnegie Mellon ,
U of Virginia, U
of Michigan-Ann Arbor , and
many others. One of our advisees
has won the prestigious Freeman
Asian Scholarship for full 4-year
study at top liberal arts college
Wesleyan University.
Our boarding
school students have applied
successfully to schools including
the Concord Academy
and the Philips Exeter
Academy.
Read Maplewood
paves the road to Ivy League
success, press release, May
15, 2006 on Maplewood college
application 2006 results.
Read
Chinese version.
At Maplewood, our
consultants are gratified to see
many of you develop and grow as
you go through the arduous
application process. As one of
you remarked, "I now realize
there is no reward in life unless
I put my best preparation and
efforts into it." College
application is by no means your
only life, but what you said well
illustrates the key to any
successful college application.
We have come to
know many of you as independent
thinking, warm and interesting in
your own right, hardworking and
confident young men and women. We
wish you all a great start in
college this fall.
 |
 Class
of 2010: Come to
our Send-off
Party on Saturday,
July 15, 2006
for Maplewood students
who are entering US
colleges in fall 2006.
Meet fellow classmates
who are also heading for
a new college life before
you leave for the US this
fall. Share your college
application experience
(oops, for what? - you
aren't applying for
another time, are
you?)... No, it's rather
a celebration and getting
to know new friends who
you might one day get
hooked up again while
you're in the US. Class
of 2010 parents?... You
are all invited, of
course!... (details) |
|
The
year of ranking B-schools
differently
Undergrad
B-school Programs: One
of the most popular majors for US
college applicants from Hong Kong
is business. It is also the most
popular major of study for all
college students in the US.
However, undergraduate business
programs vary in quality. In
recent years, top undergrad
business programs are getting
MBA-like respect, and competition
to get into them is hotter than
ever.
As the economy
rebounded after the dot-com bust,
and under increased demands from
students and recruiters, many
business schools have revamped
their typical two-year undergrad
offerings and admitted students
as early as in their freshman
year. They have set up
specialized programs (such as
combining business and
engineering) while maintaining
rigorous, in-depth studies of
core subjects such as economics,
and introduced more practical,
hands-on experience, and soft
skills such as teamwork and
leadership. Once a refuge for
students with poor grades and
modest ambitions, many undergrad
business programs now gain
MBA-like respect.
BusinessWeek
presented its first-ever
undergraduate business school
rankings in a May 8, 2006
cover story. The University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School
landed at the top. The ranking is
based on a survey of over 100,000
business majors at top schools
and a poll of undergraduate
recruiters, and incorporates five
measures including student
engagement, postgraduation
outcomes, and academic quality.
Wharton landed in the Top 10 on
four of the five ranking
measures. Small classes, talented
faculty, top-flight recruiting -
and a four-year format that
allows its ultracompetitive
students to delve deeply into
business fundamentals - lofted
Wharton to the No. 1 position.
The new ranking
also shows just how much good
company Wharton has these days. U
of Virginia's McIntyre School of
Commerce is No. 2. Schools that
had never been thought of as top
business programs, such as No. 18
Lehigh University's College of
Business & Economics, turn
out to deserve more recognition.
And schools that have always
enjoyed a solid reputation, such
as U of Notre Dame's Mendoza
College of Business, and Emory
U's Goizueta Business School come
in among the top five. (The Top
20 undergrad business schools in
the ranking.)
Competition to get
into top undergraduate business
programs is very tough. For the
2005 school year, more than
10,000 high school seniors
applied to No. 4 Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's
program, but only 14% were
accepted. At Wharton, of the
4,200 applicants, only 16% won
admittance. The result: Both
schools have average SAT scores
approaching 1500.
More from
BusinessWeek, cover
story, May 8, 2006.
On the MBA
Front: A full-time, top
MBA degree serves as a gold
standard for management education
and the passport to a corner
office and an enviable salary.
MBA is big business to business
schools worldwide, and rankings
of top MBA programs have been
released regularly. We may all be
familiar with the US News
ranking of top business schools or the Financial
Times global MBA rankings. Other well-known
MBA program rankings include the Wall
Street Journal business-school
ranking, or the Best
Business Schools list by Forbes. Now for the
first time ever, a non-American
institution has topped one of the
leading rankings of business
schools.
Heading the global
ranking of business schools in
the September 2005 edition of Which
MBA?, published by the Economist
Intelligence Unit
(EIU), is IESE Business School,
an arm of the University of
Navarre in Spain. IESE topped the
EIU's list because it scored
particularly well in opening new
career opportunities and in the
starting salaries of its new
graduates. The University of Hong
Kong MBA program ranked 45 on the
EIU list, the highest of any MBA
programs in Asia. EIU's ranking
methodology relied heavily on
students' assessments of their
education experience, contrasting
methodologies based on
recruiters' surveys. Some top
schools, including Harvard
Business School and Wharton at
the University of Pennsylvania,
are notably missing from the EIU
ranking because they did not
release student contact
information for the survey.
More from
EIU's Which MBA? 2005
rankings, September 2005.
Choosing a place
to study an MBA is a complicated
decision. It depends on a wide
range of factors including
location, price, and reputation.
One should be aware that the
rankings are all produced by
media organisations whose primary
purposes may simply be
entertaining their readers and
catching the attention of
potential readers.
The listings, and
the information that they distil,
can help a student with choosing
where to study. However, in the
absence of a single
incontrovertible measure of
quality or performance, the more
the lists proliferate and differ,
the less attention one should pay
to them. "Rankings are here
to stay," says Kim Keating,
Director of Public Relations at
the Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth. "The important
thing to remember is that each
ranking is measuring something a
little bit different from the
others. Look at them all to
understand what they are
measuring, and then do the
research about each school to see
which will be the best program
for you."
At
Maplewood, we have expanded
our MBA admssions services in
June 2006. We can help you
sort through the myriad of
rankings and choices, give your
candidacy a fair assessment as
the first step to applying
successfully to a business school
of your choice.
Upcoming
seminar on MBA admissions at
Maplewood
Are you a
helicopter parent?
...
and the fine art of letting go
As parents,
[baby]-boomers face their final
frontier: how to stand aside as
their children become independent
adults. Where's the line between
caring and coddling?...
Letting
go. Are there two more
painful words in the
boomer-parent lexicon? One
minute, there's an adorable,
helpless bundle in your arms.
Then, 18 years go by in a flash,
filled with [parent-and-child
classes, ballet, swimming,
violin, piano lessons, drama
club, musical production, choir
and orchestra rehearsals,
traveling judo and tennis teams,
math Olympiads, science
competitions, EPGY and CTY summer
programs], SAT prep classes and
college visits. The next thing
you know, it's graduation. Most
boomers don't want to be
"helicopter parents,"
hovering so long that their
offspring never get a chance to
grow up.
Well versed in
the psychological literature,
they know that letting go is a
gradual process that should begin
when toddlers take their first
steps without a parental hand to
steady them....
But with cell
phones and e-mail available 24/7,
the temptation to check in is
huge. Some boomer parents hang
on, propelled by love (of course)
and insecurity about how the
world will treat their children.
After years of supervising
homework, they think nothing of
editing the papers their college
students have e-mailed them. A
few even buy textbooks and follow
the course syllabi. Later they're
polishing student resumes and
calling in favors to get summer
internships. Alarmed by these
intrusions into what should be a
period of increasing
independence, colleges around the
country have set up
parent-liaison offices to limit
angry phone calls to professors
and deans. Parent
orientations, usually held
alongside the student sessions,
teach how to step aside.
Letting go is
the final frontier for boomer
parents [those born between 1946
and 1964],... While their
incomes grew, boomers kept family
sizes small.... Now many families
have only one or two kids to work
with, so they focus all their
attention and energy on one or
two and want them to do
well." An explosion of
child-development research
stressing the importance of the
early years reinforces boomers'
determination to give their kids
the best. They've carefully
followed expert advice on
everything from music that
nurtures the developing brain in
utero to gaming the
college-admissions process....
Many
parents say letting go is hard
because the stakes seem so much
higher than when they were
starting out. At every stage of
their parenting careers, they've
felt the pressure of competition
- whether it's getting their kids
into a good preschool, summer
camp or college. Boomers might
have spent their young-adult
years shuffling from major to
major or job to job, but many say
they'd never condone that
behavior in their kids.
What's helpful
and what's hovering? How can a
boomer parent let go? What's the
proper role to play to facilitate
the child's personal development
and not just their
accomplishments?
Read
article The Fine Art of
Letting Go, Newsweek,
May 22, 2006.
Chinglin
Tutoring Program
-
English peer tutoring community
service, summer 2006
 
Many Maplewood
students have been looking for
good community service projects
to participate every summer. Our
students believe that through
meaningful community services,
they can gain a deeper
understanding of their community,
show their concern for others,
and develop better awareness and
maturity in themselves.
Not to mention the fact that
solid, reflective community
service experience is an
important personal attribute that
top US colleges and universities
would always look for in
assessing their applicants.
Riding on our successful
experience in 2005, Maplewood is
again coordinating the Chinglin
Tutoring Program, an
English peer tutoring program for
students in summer 2006.
Volunteer
students are now being recruited
to provide conversational English
and reading/writing workshops to
fellow students attending a local
middle school in Hong Kong.
Interested parents and adults are
also welcome to participate in
the program. (Program objectives.)
To ensure the
program will be a solid and
substantive community service
experience, volunteering students
are expected to put in at least
30 to 45 total hours of tutoring
within a 5-week period from July
17 to August 18, 2006.
Interested students (and parents,
as well) may send a email to chinglin@maplewood-edu.com to register your
interest to participate or ask
for more information. A program
briefing meeting has been
scheduled for July 12, 2006 at
Maplewood to let all volunteers
meet and plan the program in
further details.
More info
on Chinglin program.
Positive
experience in Chinglin 2005.
About this
newsletter: Aspiration is an occasional
news and events announcement by Maplewood
Education Services, an independent
college admissions, boarding
school and MBA application
counseling service provider and
is distributed to Maplewood
students, parents and our mail
list via email and made available
on Maplewood's website.
To subscribe to
our newsletter Aspiration, please send your
email address to add@maplewood-edu.com.
To remove
your name or email from our list,
please send request to remove@maplewood-edu.com.
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