Go to college, win an Oscar (or don't go, learn to act, win an Oscar)

Our cursory examination of IMDB tells us the following about the winners in the four acting categories at the Oscars:

Helen Mirren: can't find any higher education on her bio. Not that she didn't attend...but we can't see anything.

Jennifer Hudson: worked in a Burger King before American Idol.

Forest Whitaker: Attended Berkeley and USC. Points scored by the USC web team for already posting on their school's Oscar wins.

Alan Arkin: Started at Los Angeles City College. Then went to Bennington. No idea if he's a graduate.

What does this prove? Not much, except that the only place that could see an influx of applications after the Oscars? Burger King.

We're HUGE in Israel

Okay, not THAT huge, but those who like tracking web traffic will note that Alexa has new rankings and percentages and stuff.

U Sphere is really pleased to report that we have a nice ranking in Israel. (Site stats link here.)

BTW, these site stat things can be addictive.

Trendspotting: Knox College

Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, USA has set another record for applications for its next freshman class. See the link here: Knox record.

Okay, so if places like Knox see an increase, and Princeton sees an increase, are there more students (no) or are students applying more places (yes)?

The Macro story: more, more, more. The Micro story - you, or your kid, or your cousin, is probably facing a much more competitive environment -- for both students and schools.

Meet TutorVista

Hi everyone. We don't enter into partnerships lightly here at U Sphere -- they've got to be the right groups providing the right tools.

So when we bumped into TutorVista we did our due diligence, sniffed around, talked to others that are out there. And we liked what we heard, liked what we saw, and are very happy to have them on board with our new strategic partnership.

If you want to learn some more about what we're up to, feel free to take a look at this
splash page.

Or you can learn more through the news release below:

USPHERE.COM NAMES TUTORVISTA EXCLUSIVE
ONLINE TUTORING PROVIDER

Strategic partnership provides U Sphere students with access to personalized, one-on-one, affordable, tutoring services

EVANSTON, Ill. and BALTIMORE – February 20, 2007 – College admissions marketplace U Sphere and TutorVista, the leading online tutoring and test preparation provider, today announced a strategic partnership that makes TutorVista’s personalized, one-on-one tutoring and test preparation service available to all members of the U Sphere community.

U Sphere offers a college application service that is part matchmaker and part deal aggregator. The U Sphere application product links competitive students with schools that have competitive offerings – but may not have access to all the students who would be a potential fit. Students just need to register – and, for a limited time, access to the application service is free.

TutorVista offers personalized, one-on-one tutoring and test preparation services to K-12, college and graduate level students. Launched in 2005, TutorVista‘s services are currently available in the United States and United Kingdom in a variety of subjects, tests and exams.

Dave Van de Walle, president and CEO, U Sphere, Inc., commented: “College-bound students and their families are looking for the competitive edge: not only do they want to know about schools and programs that would make sense for them, they want to optimize their chances for admission. Providing access to the array of tutoring services provided by TutorVista will help U Sphere students and families equip themselves for the increasingly competitive college admissions space.”

“Scoring well on college entrance exams is essential for students to maximize their chance for admission and scholarships,” said TutorVista president John Stuppy. “This is an ideal partnership as TutorVista makes convenient and high quality personalized one-on-one tutoring and test prep available to families that couldn’t afford it before and U Sphere helps students target the right colleges to meet their academic and financial needs.”

In addition to now offering TutorVista’s online tutoring and test preparation services, U Sphere, which launched in July of 2005, offers a college finder and other college-application management tools free to its users. U Sphere also provides a personalized college advice service called “U Advisor.” More information is available at www.usphere.com.

# # #

“U Sphere” is a registered trademark of U Sphere, Inc.

About TutorVista
TutorVista is an online tutoring company that provides affordable tutoring and test preparation in the United States and United Kingdom. TutorVista uses technology to bring high-quality tutoring to the student’s home and highly qualified tutors to make tutoring both affordable and convenient. TutorVista is the solution to problems like declining test scores, a shortage of teachers, and the lack of affordable and effective supplementary education and test preparation. To learn more about TutorVista programs, go to www.TutorVista.com

Trendspotting: Princeton

Numbers from Princeton show a record number of applicants. Again. Here's the news story.

If you're following this macro story, you'll also see that, at places like Northwestern, applications are up, too. (See our earlier post.)

And I talked to a VP of Enrollment Management at an unnamed school this week who said, well, their applications are up. BUT they're in need of more good kids from a certain part of the country. (HINT: FILL OUT A U SPHERE APPLICATION IF YOU ARE IN A BLUE STATE.)

(Self-serving U Sphere link.)

The fun is just beginning...

From Down The Street from U Sphere HQ

Northwestern University, located in sunny Evanston, Illinois (temp today, 26 degrees; 4 inches of snow, but otherwise delightful), is seeing an unprecedented spike in applications for Fall 2007 admission.

Read more from the Daily Northwestern (the campus newspaper).

If Northwestern, already considered a highly selective school, becomes an even more highly selective school, what does that mean for those "selective" schools that want to become highly selective?

Rather than explain the logic trail here, just trust me that more kids applying to more places, with the place budgeting for only slight increases in enrollment, means that, well, less kids will get accepted. Even though the same amount of kids will go to college, the batting average will be collectively lower.

Hi, I'm Dave. Really...

Are you who you say you are? Really?

We wanted to alert you to some shadiness out there -- if you're a kid looking for a college, or if you're a parent trying to help a kid find a college, you need to know that you know who is who, and who isn't who. And those trying to help you need to know that you are you.

(1) Beware Facebook and MySpace. They are great tools for connecting -- to an extent. But, considering companies can set up fake people to promote stuff they are selling, it's a vast, un-filtered morass of identities. Some true, some not.

Note that college admissions folks are using both but are doing so with a very critical eye.

But think about this next time you post a picture of yourself partying. These days, when image still matters, online image is most of everything.

(2) Beware just about everything else. One of the E-Lists I follow -- which has both college admissions folks AND your college counselors checking in -- was recently hit with an email blast from a "reporter." Or, in this case, a "grad student" who was working on a research project.

Actually, neither was the case -- it was someone from the company itself trying to drum up business.

(3) Learn to use the phone. I'm as guilty as the next guy or gal -- it is much easier to email blast the universe, or my own "sphere" of influence, and tell them what's going on. But the phone adds a human touch. It's trite, but darnit, it's true.

It's also a lot easier to figure out that the person you're talking to is the person you're talking to if they're on the other line.

Gotta run. I, Dave, am going to ignore MySpace and make a phone call.

Saving Darfur, One High School Kid at a Time

I was sent this link today about some creative students looking to bring their energies to solving the Darfur problem.

Rather than talking too much about it, figured I would post it and you can take a look.

Dollars for Darfur.