Feature Article: A Quintessential Careers Special Report: 2005 -- Answers to Common College Admissions Questions
Special Feature: Offbeat Ways to Pay for College
Quintessential Site: Featured Career Web Site of this Issue
The Career Doctor: Answering Your Questions
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search
Notes from the Editor: About this Issue...
In September, we again welcomed a record number of visitors to Quintessential Careers,
with more than 2.5 million page impressions (2,570,782) from a record 937,539 unique visitors,
once again showing the continuous growth and use of this site! The QuintZine subscription
list is growing again after a relatively flat period. Thanks, readers and visitors!
This issue is one of our favorites and one we've done every year of the 5+-year
existence of QuintZine -- our College Bound issue for those getting ready for college.
And for you job-seekers, don't forget our job portal.
--Katharine Hansen, Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master, Certified Electronic Career Coach,
and editor at
kathy@quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Annual College Report
Answers to Common College Admissions Questions
Compiled by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
The college admissions process is all about marketing and fit. Initially, colleges market themselves to prospective students
in an attempt to get a diverse group of applicants (and to meet certain quotas). Once a student decides which colleges he/she
wants to apply to, then it's the student's turn to market his/her unique qualifications to the colleges. Once the marketing game
has played out, the decisions by colleges on which students to accept and by the students on which schools they will attend
all come down to fit; the college admissions staff wants to admit students who will fit well on campus, and students want
a place where they feel they belong.
With these issues in mind, we set about trying to help you learn even more about the college admissions process;
hence our annual study,
A Quintessential Careers Special Report: 2005.
Special Feature: Paying for College
Offbeat Ways to Pay for College
by Maureen Crawford Hentz
You've looked online for scholarships, asked at work, had your parents ask at work, and tried every avenue
you can think of to find the money you need for tuition for college. What do you do when you've exhausted all
your options and still need to come up with some money? Think outside the box.
CampusDirt.com is designed to help students and
parents find first-hand information on more than
600 college campuses across the U.S. Discover what
life on a college campus is like with behind-the-scenes
information.
The site offers such sections as:
College Search
College Comparison
Salary Predictor
Campus Pics
Top 10 Lists, such as schools with the
most school spirit and campuses with the most diversity and best dorms.
CampusDirt.com also offers numerous links to financial-aid information, as well as helpful
articles on preparing for college.
No-cost registration required to use best features of site.
Indrani writes: "I just switched out of AP U.S. history and was wondering if that was indeed the right choice. I know that I could
have handled the course. Yet, I do not think I could have handled the course in addition to studying for the SAT. My other courses
include Honors English, Honors Spanish, Honors Physics, Honors PreCalculus, and AP Chemistry. Now I am in Academic U.S. history.
Will top colleges look badly on my decision? Will they not admit me because I did not take AP U.S. history?"
Pat writes: "I desperately need help with my resume. I am not getting interviews. I have tried working with two different
resume professionals, and they just don't seem to get the type of resume I need. They just send me lots of bulleted statistics
instead of polished prose. Please help."
Nathan writes: "I was hoping you could help me in my college search. I know I want to be an entrepreneur.
I don't want to hold a typical job working for someone else. As a junior in high school, I have a good amount of experience
in the business world. My academic marks are on par with the top universities in the country. Do you know of any colleges
that offer programs for people who want to operate their own business empire? A small business just will not do. I appreciate
any help you can offer me."
Kelly writes: "I've been using an executive recruiter to find a new job, and it has worked well. I just came back from an interview
for a job that is perfect for me and with a company I want to work for. I immediately called my recruiter and told him how I felt. Should I still
write a thank-you letter to the employer? I don't want to upset my recruiter by going around him. What do you think I should do?"
And then there is the Quint Careers Blog.
It consists of career and job-search news, trends,
and scoops for job-seekers, compiled by the staff
of Quintessential Careers.
The blog is a great way to stay posted on the most
recent events occurring in the career and employment fields.
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
More women than men are pursuing higher education. Statistics show that 57 percent of college students are women, and the number is
predicted to increase. Educators say several factors are contributing to the growing gender gap between male and female
students.
Looking at what to major in as you enter college? Here are some areas with strong growth potential, according to
Donna Rosato, of Money magazine:
Auditing: Thanks to the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley Act,
which makes executives sign off on financial statements, more and more number crunchers are joining corporate
payrolls. Few are more sought after than internal auditors, whose starting salaries are up about 10 percent over what they
were in early 2004. "They can write their own ticket," says Dave Richards, head of the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Corporate law: Sarbanes-Oxley and merger mania are fueling
demand here too. Lawyers who specialize in securities and corporate transactions are getting signing bonuses for the
first time since the dotcom days, says Marcia Newell, CEO of Washington, DC, legal search firm NewinCo. She just helped
a Houston law firm recruit a 28-year-old attorney who specializes in technology outsourcing; a $20,000 signing bonus and a faster
track to partnership sealed the deal for the whiz kid.
Construction: Still-low interest rates continue to fire up the
home-building industry, but a commercial building boom is further igniting competition for architects, engineers and contractors.
San Francisco recruiter Mary Breuer says most of the heat is in hospitals and health-care facilities, colleges and universities,
and high-end hotels both in the U.S. and overseas.
Health care: As the nation's 76 million baby boomers age,
the number of health-care jobs grows. Nearly a million will be added in the next three years, predicts Global Insight. Most in
demand: nurses, pharmacists, and physical therapists.
This thought is a little depressing for our College Bound issue, but it also can help you prepare for the future: CollegeGrad.com
recently released its survey results on how long college students anticipate it will take them to pay off their student loans, and 46 percent of
student-loan recipients say it will take them more than 10 years to pay off their student loans.
With the rising cost of a college education, students are being faced with larger student-loan bills upon graduation and a lengthier
payback period.
With only a six-month grace period before having to begin payments on their loans, it is critical for graduates to quickly begin earning a
steady income. Graduates are faced early-on with the "real world" of bills.
Students often receive loans from a variety of institutions; upon graduation, they are then faced with not just one student loan bill,
but a set of multiple bills. A popular student response is to consolidate their loans, which will roll all of their high-interest
payments into one lower-interest monthly bill.
Students have an opportunity to start of on the right foot by having a job offer in-hand before they graduate.
Ad: Does Your Organization Have Open Positions to Fill?
Find Qualified Candidates Today!
The Quintessential Careers Job-Hunting Portal is a great place for organizations that have job
openings to post those openings and review job-seeker resumes.
Our national resume database contains more than 500,000 active resumes of candidates seeking employment.
Numerous job-posting packages are available.
If your organization is looking to hire, use the power behind our
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We'd Love You to Link to Quintessential Careers!
If your school, organization, business or other
entity has a Web site, we welcome you to link to Quintessential Careers.
If you already have a link from your site, we want you to know we
appreciate it. If you don't have a link to us, please
send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
link to Quintessential Careers. Thanks so much!
For more details (including sample HTML copy), see our
Link to Us page.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* The Value of Internships Abroad and Study Abroad
* Top 10 Fears of Job-seekers
* For Job-hunting Success, Develop a Detailed Job-Search Plan
* How to Build a Personal Advisory Board
* Keep Your Career Dreams Alive
* MBA Career Portfolios
* Trends/Tips in Career Portfolios
* Pre-Hire Background/Credit Checks
* Noncompete Clauses
* Sticky Job Interview Situations
* Practice Career Management to Avoid Career Crisis
* Financial Aid/Scholarship Timetable
* Build Confidence and Avoid Insecurity in Job Interviews
* Empty Nest Job-Seekers
* Baby Boomers Beware
* Are You Sabotaging Your Job-Search/Career?
* Quiz: Marketing Yourself
* Marketing Yourself with internal/External Promotions
* Lifelong Networking
* Networking for the Shy
* Converting a Seasonal Job to a Permanent Position
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Hours
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Career, College, and Job-Search Book reviews
. . . and much, much more!
Don't ever want to miss another issue of QuintZine? Get a free subscription to
the email version of QuintZine by completing our
subscription form.
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desiring to bounce ideas off of a career expert?
trying to discover the keys to career success?
Let Dr. Randall S. Hansen, The Career Doctor, help you work through all your college, career, and job-search concerns,
issues, and problems. He has helped hundreds of teens, college students, and experienced job-seekers identify obstacles, develop
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And for an economical online-only career-coaching alternative,
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More women than men are pursuing higher education. Statistics show that 57 percent of college students are women, and the number is
predicted to increase. Educators say several factors are contributing to the growing gender gap between male and female
students.
