Friday, August 21, 2020
Online Courses as Extracurricular Activities for High School Students TKG
Online Courses as Extracurricular Activities for High School Students Weâve found that how students use their free time is a big indicator of success (or lack thereof) during and after the college application process. Thatâs exactly why we emphasize the importance of spending free time, whether it is short or long breaks from school, summer, that 2-hour block before bed when you play video games, doing something that expands their academic interests. Weâve written in the past about how extra classes, like college-credit courses and online courses, affect admissions. While thereâs no one guaranteed path to gaining a college acceptance letters, we do know that colleges donât like kids who waste their free time. In fact, itâs this non-school, non-extracurricular time, and how you spend it, in addition to your essay, that we think most determines whether or not youâll be accepted. Online courses are a great way to take an interest to the next level, whether itâs a topic that you have been interested in that youâve been meaning to delve in to more significantly, or an interest that youâve been cultivating over many years. The most popular websites that offer a variety of online courses are Coursera, edX, or various OpenCourseWare (OCW) or webcast resources, of which MIT, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard, Stanford, UMichigan, and others all have participation options. Where do I even Start?Each site has thousands of courses to choose from, which means that while they most certainly offer something that will increase your expertise in an academic field that you enjoy, it can be intimidating to choose one. Of course, our recommendations for online courses depend on a studentâs age, interest, and goals, remember that the idea is to expand your interests. How do I choose a course? When youâre deciding, be as specific as possible and then open your mind. If you type âengineerâ into a search bar, youâll get tons of results. Instead, think about what field of engineering youâre most interested in . Perhaps digital media and graphic design interests you the most, so youâd enter âgraphic engineeringâ and take a look at the courses offered. Take a scroll through, toggle with the topics offered, and be mindful about reading through the descriptions of the courses. Make sure that you pay attention to the presence of video vs. audio lectures if thatâs important to you. Do your research.How long is this going to take me? Will it be a time suck?Be realistic when youâre choosing a course about the time that youâre willing to commitâ"and challenge yourself! Though choosing an advanced class on Political Science might seem like a great challenge, it wonât help if youâre completely lost halfway into lecture 1. Be realistic about your understanding and potential involvement in the topic. Make sure that you choose something that will challenge you, yes, but also that will stimulate you. Pay close attention to prerequisites! What if I start a course and hate it? Will it look bad if I drop out?It wonât look bad if you drop out because no one will ever know you were enrolled in the first place. This is why weâve emphasized the importance of doing your research and paying attention to what is going to be taught before you commit to an online course. This is about exploration, so if you truly regret your choice itâs better to quit and find a new course that excites you two weeks in rather than wasting 8 weeks and having your eyes glazed over the whole time. Additionally, pay attention to why youâre disengaging: is it the teaching style? The time? The actual content? Donât just quit willy-nilly; be intentional about your decision and re-route accordingly. How do I know if a course is âreputableâ?At the end of the day, you probably have an idea of places where it will âlookâ better on your application to have taken (this will all go in your Additional Information section), but the bottom line is this: did you love it, and were you engag ed in the topic? If you choose a course just because itâs taught by a brand-name university, but the topic doesnât interest you, skip it. Weâd rather you engage meaningfully than write âStanfordâ on your application just for the sake of it. This is all about engagement and expanding your academic horizons. What courses do you suggest?This is totally dependent on your interests. We canât really give you an overview because we donât know you! What we will say is: pay attention to the specifics of the course before committing. That said, we put together a customized list of online courses for all of our students. Let us know if youâre interested in working with us and we can do the same for you.
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