Top 10 College-Bound Student Questions Answered by Admissions Expert Oliver McGee, (http://www.OliverMcGee.org)

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Oliver McGee, 2012-13 American Council on Education Fellow at UCLA and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of transportation inside the Clinton administration, gives his advice on getting admitted to top-ranked elite colleges and universities. A nationally recognized admissions expert, Dr. Oliver McGee gives students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors, insider tips and advice on receiving an affirmative letter from college admissions committees. Dr. McGee served 5 years on the Faculty Admissions Committee of The Ohio State University. Serving in admissions for the largest public university in the U.S. provided him with incredible experience to become an expert on the college application process, as well as a widely known science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education mentor.

Dr. McGee has mentored numerous students, (http://www.olivermcgee.org/education.html), who have gone further in their academic endeavors to receive extremely prestigious fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and Ford Foundation, including Keith L. Coleman being recently named a 2013 Black Engineer of the Year, Technical Sales & Marketing, (http://www.blackengineer.com/artman/publish/article_1481.shtml), from US Black Engineer & Information Technology (USBE&IT) magazine.

Here's a sample from the Top 10 college-bound student questions of Dr. Oliver McGee's interview for the college admissions blog, Varsity Tutors (VT):

(http://www.varsitytutors.com/blog/ask+an+admissions+expert+dr+oliver+mcgee?locale=los_angeles&state=ca)

VT: How far ahead of time should a student begin working on his or her college application?

Oliver: A student must begin working on his or her college application about a year in advance to gain insights into themselves and their desire for a college education through advice and counsel of parents, teachers, student colleagues, mentors, and extracurricular activity counselors, coaches, and coordinators. The application process falls into 3 buckets of work:

1)  High School Classes – always select challenging classes. Admissions counselors will read your transcripts very carefully to identify what classes were offered to you and what classes you ultimately chose. If you don't choose advanced courses, but do well on the SAT or ACT, you appear intellectually lazy because you didn't challenge yourself day-in and day-out in your classes.

2)  Summer Activities – make sure to spend your summers wisely: volunteer, work, attend college and university summer programs, be a camp counselor, or take summer school classes. Admissions counselors are eager to understand how you spent your time, because they want students who will contribute to their college or university.

3)  Researching Colleges – plan to spend quality time the summer before your junior year, using tools like Naviance to research colleges and universities. It is fun and the filters make it very easy. You can also get a good introductory sense of colleges and universities by looking at their websites.

VT: Are there any essay topics you get tired of seeing or would warn students to stay away from?

Oliver: ... Avoid writing about how someone inspired you, because the risk is that you will spend most of the essay writing about that person rather than about yourself. This won't help the admissions counselor get to know YOU.

VT: What is the biggest mistake a student can make on a college application?

Oliver: Lie. Why start out one's college career with academic misconduct? College is a momentary detour of thought and reflection on the journey and game of life. Why rest one's generous thought and reflection on a lie? It's unstable ground. Finally, avoid these 4 additional mistakes:

1)  Submitting the application on the deadline – For many colleges, the application deadline is December 31st. Why would you wait until 11:59 pm to press the "send" button on your application? This just increases the likelihood for problems as colleges and university admissions teams must print your entire application. And, given many others students procrastinate, why place your application inside that "last minute company."

2)  Writing less than the maximum number of words on the essay – If the maximum number of words is 250, then don't write 100 words!

3)  Skipping the Optional Essay – Why miss the opportunity for the admissions committee to get to know you better?

4)  Forgetting to proofread! – Have your parents read your essay backwards to look for spelling errors. And ask your parents to read your essays a couple of times for grammatical errors.

College student admissions, financial aid, and undergraduate graduation attainment are amongst the top issues facing higher education today and going forward in the future, including pressing issues of affordability, access, diversity, student learning assessment, institutional cash financing, fundraising, faculty compensation, costs of doing research and development, staff talent recruitment and retention, facilities and building maintenance, student discount rates, and student life and success on campus.

About Partnership Possibilities for America:

Founded by Oliver McGee in 2010, the mission of Partnership Possibilities for America is to provide focused expertise and leadership by fostering greater public awareness, appreciation, advocacy, and advancement of social, technological, educational, economic, and political (STEEP) capacity of philanthropy, working across government, university, and industry partnerships. Oliver McGee established Partnership Possibilities for America, (http://www.OliverMcGee.org), to address the urgent call-to-action need that was even suggested by President Obama in his second inaugural address that "possibilities are limitless in America." Sadly nowadays, 7000 kids drop out of high schools every day at an alarming rate of a kid dropping out every 26 seconds across America. Compounding this, unemployment for young people is as high as 38% in some extremely economically-challenged communities, which is staggering. Unfortunately, many Americans underserved socially, technologically, educationally, economically, and politically in some communities across this country are still hoping and waiting for those possibilities to become limitless.

For News and Media Inquiries, Please Contact:
Oliver McGee by Direct Email: [email protected]
Partnership Possibilities for America online: http://www.OliverMcGee.org
Books by Oliver McGee at Amazon online: http://www.amazon.com/Oliver-McGee/e/B008NC1AJ2
Plus Social Media Contact:
Partnership Possibilities for America on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ogmcgee#!/olivergmcgee?group_id=0
Oliver McGee on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ogmcgee
Oliver McGee on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/olivermcgee
Oliver McGee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olivermcgee
Oliver McGee on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/drolivermcgee/videos?flow=grid&view=0
Oliver McGee on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/olivermcgee/videos
Oliver McGee on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_McGee
Oliver McGee on Google+: https://plus.google.com/105903945324156780472/posts#105903945324156780472/posts
Oliver McGee on Deeyoon.com: http://deeyoon.com/d/should-government-or-private-business-take-the-lead-on-us-national-disaster-recovery-3/archived

About Oliver McGee:
Oliver G. McGee III is a teacher, a researcher, an administrator, and an advisor to government, corporations and philanthropy. He is professor of mechanical engineering and former Vice President for Research and Compliance at Howard University. Dr. McGee is former Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Inc. He was Professor and former Chair (2001-2005) of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Geodetic Science at Ohio State University. He is the first African-American to hold a professorship and a departmental chair leadership in the century-and-a-quarter history of Ohio State University's engineering college. Dr. McGee has also held several professorships and research positions at Georgia Tech and MIT. McGee is the former United States (U.S.) Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Technology Policy (1999-2001) at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and former Senior Policy Advisor (1997-1999) in The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. McGee is a 2012-2013 American Council on Education Fellow at UCLA Office of the Chancellor Gene Block, a 2013 University of California, Berkeley, Center of Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) and American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), Inc. Executive Leadership Academy Fellow, and an American Association of State Colleges & Universities' (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI) Fellow - educational leadership and management development programs for prospective university chancellors and presidents. Education Background: Ohio State University, Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Civil Engineering, University of Arizona, Masters of Science (M.S.) in Civil Engineering, University of Arizona, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Engineering Mechanics, Aerospace Engineering (Minor), The University of Chicago, Booth School, Masters of Business Administration (M.B.A.), The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Certificate of Professional Development (C.P.D.), Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy - Certificate of Fund Raising Management (C.F.R.M.). Partnership Possibilities for America – Invested in STEEP Giving Forward is based in Washington, DC.

SOURCE Partnership Possibilities for America