Wednesday, October 24, 2012

colleges that never were

In the blog The Social Network- college Edition the author Tom Dretler talks about college transfer students in America, and what he said was surprising to me. I knew that many college students weren't particularly happy with their college and that they would possibly then transfer out. I also knew that it was very expensive to do that and that if one transferred out mid-year, they would have catching up to do. I have no idea why but I just never put two and two together. One of the points that was made in the blog is the fact that when a student transfers between different colleges, it costs roughly $25,000 now this is done by about 2.5 million students. Adding it all together gives you a total just over 60 billion dollars. that doesn't even seem to be possible, but the math is their. That is about .6% of the GDP of the US. I know families could use that money else where, and I know that there are ways to prevent families from losing that money. Even though its the colleges/universities that get the 60 billion, they still don't want to see their students unhappy, and they don't want students to be spending the extra money to transfer.
When I visited Clark University, one of the first things that the counselor told me was that he wanted me to go to the school, but only if I knew I was going to be happy here. He told me that in the end it all comes down to me and not the school, and that is something that I really liked about Clark. Clark also did a well job in staying in touch with me when I was in the undecided stage. I was even able to talk to a representative from Clark a number of times in my home town. That was amazing to me. Clark University is at least a 6 hour drive from my house but because the University has such a great network and because it attracts good people, I was able to talk to them. I cannot even stress how important that was to me. No other school contacted me and asked if I could talk to a representative, and the rest of my schools were only an hour or two away from me. I decided to go to Clark because of those conversations I had with the representative.
 I felt as if Clark did a very good job in showing what campus life was like. when I visited, there was a fair to show all of the prospective students different clubs and activities that are open to them if they went to Clark, Clark was the only school that did that. Thing only thing that I wished Clark did, was have panel of upperclassmen where we could ask them different questions about Clark life. A couple of other schools that I visited did that but I don't recall anything of the sorts at Clark. There was the option of asking someone when you passed them by or you could call a student at some point, but when a student is applying/deciding for or on a college, a lot can slip their mind. So I believe that having a whole room of prospective students with different questions will not only help the student with a question he or she may have, but it will also help other students in the room that would have the same question but just didn't come up with it. Regardless of that one thing, Clark did a very good job in portraying its campus, and it's exactly what I thought it would be, and I'm very glad that I came to this school.







Friday, October 19, 2012

Steve and Dale

Sometimes it takes someone their whole life to figure out what they want to do with it. They keep looking and looking until they find something that interests them and makes them want to continue for the rest of their life. This is similar to the life Dale Carnegie. Dale is the famous author of the book how to win friends and influence people. Though he was 48 when he first wrote the ground breaking book. Dale's parents worked on a farm, and therefore, they weren't very wealthy. The farm has seen many hardships with floods and poor harvests. Dale swore that when he grew up, he would become rich and famous. One day, Dale saw a public speaker from the Chautauqua Movement, and that is when he realized that he wanted to do something with that wasn't farming. Dale would then get up early in the morning to work on the farm and then he would go to college for the day. Dale then moved to New York without finishing college, where he had an assortment of jobs. Non of which really interested him, nor paid him well. It wasn't until he was living at the YMCA when he started teaching public speaking, and he was very good at it. It's almost as if he traveled in one giant circle, because it was public speaking that started him on the path of a new world with jobs other than farming, and in the end he became a public speaker.
through his teachings, Dale realized that what prevented salesmen from reaching their greatest potential was fear. People were afraid of public speaking and meeting new people. It was then when he wrote the book how to win friends and influence people. This book was a great success. Even today it's a best seller. Dale was the most surprised at the success of his book. With his help, it became possible for someone who was terrified of public speaking to be able to speak in public. His book was one of the first self help books in the world and it is estimated today that 15,000,000 copies of this book have been sold worldwide. Dale went from a poor farm boy who was going to grow up to be a poor farmer, to a poor farm boy who could be whatever he wanted to be. And he did just that he went from poor to rich, and it was all because he opened his mind to possibilities.

Someone that you could compare to Dale Carnegie is Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was adopted by a not too wealthy couple. His father worked with machines and it was there when Steve began to get an interest for them. He didn't think that he could have an actual career with them though. even in grade school, his genius was showing. He was actually offered the ability to skip a couple of grades and then go straight to high school, though his parents declined the offer. Steve started to work on computers in his garage when he was in high school. At the time though it was just for fun and not profit. when Steve then went to college, he was only there for six months and then dropped out. the next 18 months he would visit different classes that interested him, but he had absolutely no direction of where he should go with his life. He later met up with his computer friend again and they started to work on apple computers as a business. Apple computers took off!
What make the story of Steve Jobs one in a million is that he came from nothing. Steve was lucky enough to become adopted by a kind and loving family. He else sets him apart from not everyone else but the rest of the world is his computers. They were completely different. Image the awe someone would feel when they found out that they didn't need a whole room for a computer, and that it would be possible for them to buy one. Something else that sets him apart is that for the majority of his young life, Steve had no idea what he was going to do. He was interested in art, history, computers, and he loved the liberal arts. He could have done anything with his life, but he went back to his square one. which was mechanics, just like when he would tinkering with machines in the garage with his father.

 The greatest difference between the two is the fact that they were born in different times, and this has a major affect of what people do. In the early 1900's salesmen were needed and so public speaking became a necessity, where in the 70's and the 80's computers became the next big thing. what else is very different between the two is their inventions/ products. Steve Jobs created something that no one knew was impossible. He gave the public an item that they didn't even know that they wanted/needed it. Where Dave Carnegie became a teacher for public speaking. In other words, people came to him because they already knew what they needed and Dave just filled the void. This is without a doubt one of the greatest differences between the two. Dave was given a problem in which he created an answer for. Steve Jobs was never given a problem. He created a solution to a problem that people didn't even know  existed.
What Makes these two the same though, is their ability to create a solution. Public speaking has been a problem that was plaguing man kind for over a millennium, and all of a sudden Dale rises up out of no where and he is able to sell 15,000,000 copies of his book allowing people to speak in public. Steve Jobs was the same exact deal. though the size of computers haven't been a problem for thousands of years, but it was still a big problem. then just like Dale, Jobs comes up from a small income family and shows the way to a computer someone can have in their own home. That is actually the greatest thing that both innovators have in common. they both came from low income families and rise up to fame and riches. What else makes them similar is the fact that for the beginning of their life, they had no idea what they were going to do with it. Both of them explored the world and different opportunities that it holds. Only to come back to what their first interest was. For Steve Jobs it was machines, and for Dale it was public speaking