Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Whats a Good ACT Score for Your College

What's a Good ACT Score for Your College SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Hopefully at this point in your college application process you have thought about your dream schools. Whether you took the ACT once and are debating taking it again or if you are just beginning the ACT preparation process, you are probably wondering what ACT will get you accepted. While there is no one exact ACT score that will be considered â€Å"good† for your college or guarantee you a spot, there is a particular ACT score that will you give you the best chance of being accepted. What is it? I will answer that and more by guiding you through 4 easy steps. College ACT Score Ranges and What They Mean for You Before figuring out your target score, you should look at colleges’ ACT score range.The score range will show the scores that admitted freshmen received.Usually, schools provide you with scores from the most recent applicant pool. The scores will be written in one of two ways: as a 25th/75th percentile range or as an average ACT score.The 25th percentile score indicates 25% of admits received an ACT score at or below that number (and 75% of admits scored higher).The 75th percentile score means 75% of admits received an ACT score at or below that number (and 25% of admits scored higher).The average ACT scoreis simply the average of all admitted students’ ACT scores. Looking at the score ranges will help you understand what ACT score you need to be a competitive applicant to that universitysince you'll know what ACT scores admitted students received.Before figuring out your target ACT score, you need to figure out what your list of target schools. Step #1: Create Your List of Target Schools You may have some schools in mind, but take the time to write down a list of the schools you hope to attend. Do not include your safety schools on this list.A safety school is a schoolthat you're almost certain you'll be accepted to with the ACTscore and GPA you have now. This target school list should include the more selective colleges. You should exclude the safety schools because you want to plan your target ACT score for the colleges with the most difficult admissions criteria. If you meet the admissions criteria for the selective colleges, you'll very likely be accepted to your safety schools.Once you have identified your target schools, draw a table with 3 columns with the following titles: School Name 25th Percentile or Average ACT 75th Percentile / Target Score Fill in your target colleges under school name as I did below: School Name 25th Percentile or Average ACT 75th Percentile / Target Score University of Michigan UC Berkeley Under the 2nd column for 25th percentile or average ACT, you should write either the 25th percentile or average SAT score for that college. As I said before, universities will only give you one or the other; whichever they give you, writethat number in that column. Under the last column for 75th percentile / target score, write the school’s 75th percentile score (if you can find it). For colleges that give average ACT, you will be calculating a unique target score later on in this article. Step #2: Find Out the ACT Scores of Admitted Students. Now that you have your list finding the admitted students’ ACT score range is very easy. Simply search â€Å"[College Name] ACT† or â€Å"[College Name] ACT 25th/75th percentile† in Google.That will lead you to what is known as the Freshman Admission Profile for your target school.If you can't locatea Freshman Admit Profile for your target college, check out our database of college admission requirements. There you'll find the admissions requirementsfor almost every schoolin the US. Use the Command + F function on your keyboard to search for your target college. Here is a screenshot of University of Michigan’s Freshman Admit Profile: Colleges will usually provide you with the 25th/75th percentile ACT score for freshmen. Some colleges call it the mid 50% range (as UMich does above), but the 2 numbers they provide are the 25th and 75th percentile scores.For UMich, the 25th percentile ACT score is 30, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 34. Add the 25th percentile / 75th percentile composite ACT score to your chart in the appropriate columns: School Name 25th Percentile or Average ACT 75th Percentile / Target Score University of Michigan 31 34 UC Berkeley While most colleges tell you the 25th/75th percentile ACT scores, other colleges will only give you one number, the average ACT score for admits (which UC Berkeley does on their admissions site).The average ACT score is just the average of all of the ACT scores for admits. Since the score is an average, you cannot determine exactly how many applicants scored above and below it, but we will assume about 50% of admits scored above and 50% of admits scored below. For Berkeley, the average ACT is 31. Knowing this information, we'll writeit in the column for 25th Percentile or Average SAT, leave the 75th Percentile / Target Score blank for now for the schools that only provide average ACT. I'll explain what to fill in for those schools later on: School Name 25th Percentile or Average ACT 75th Percentile / Target Score University of Michigan 31 34 UC Berkeley 31 Step #3: Determine Your Target Score for Those Schools. Based on each school’s 25th/75th percentile ACT or average ACT, we'll determine what your target score should be.For schools that provide the 25th/75th percentile ACT, you should aim for a score at or above the 75th percentile. (Which is exactly why I had you list the 75th percentile in the same column as target score. The 75th percentile is your target score!) For those schools that just give you an average composite ACT (such as UC Berkeley), I would aim for a score 2 points above that average score.For the best shot of admission to UC Berkeley, I would aim for a 33. You should writein that number (the average ACT plus 2 points) on your chart under 75th percentile / Target score: School Name 25th Percentile or Average ACT 75th Percentile / Target Score University of Michigan 31 34 UC Berkeley 31 33 You may wonder why you shouldn’t aim a score closer to the 25th percentile or the average since many applicants are accepted with that score. I wrote this article assuming that you are a â€Å"normal† applicant and not a â€Å"special† applicant. To qualify as a special applicant, you need to be an athlete, legacy, child of significant donors, or a unique talent (such as world-class opera singers or famous actors). These special applicants are typically admitted with the lower scores (25th percentile score). If you're a â€Å"normal† applicant, you'll want a higher ACT score to set you apart and give yourself the best chance of being accepted. The higher your score, the better your chance of admission. As an example, check out Brown University’s breakdown of admission; below is a screenshot: If you look at the highest score (36), 23.8% of applicants who scored a 36 were accepted to Brown, which is significantly higher than the overall Brown admissions rate 8.7%. You can see that as your score begins to decline (you get between 33 and 35) your chance of admission drops by 11.1%, from 23.8% to 12.7%.The lesson to take away from this data is the higher you score, the better your chance of being accepted. In my chart above, the two â€Å"Target Scores† vary by 1 point, so which should you aim for?Aim for the highest target score on your list. That way, when you reach the highest target score, you have the best chance of admission at all of the universities on your list. If you got a 34 and applied to UC Berkeley and University of Michigan, you would have a great chance of being accepted to both. However, if you aimed for the lower target score and got a 33 and applied to University of Michigan, you would now fall short of the 75th percentile score and be in the middle 50% of admits scores. You still have a decent chance of being accepted, but your chances are not quite as good. Step #4: Create a Plan to Achieve Your Target ACT Score. To achieve your target score, you need to have a clearplan of attack. If you need significant improvement to meet your target score, you should think about taking an ACT prep class, hiring an ACT tutor, or using an online ACT program such as PrepScholar. Our program figures out your strengths and weaknesses and personalizes your ACT preparation to your needs. For more information about our program, read How to Ensure Online Tutoring from PrepScholarTutors is Right for You? If your family can’t afford one of those options and/or you want to prepare on your own, check out our ACT study plan guides: 5 Step SAT/ACT Test Dates Study Plan for Summer before Senior Year SAT/ACT Test Dates Study Plan for Sophomores and Juniors SAT / ACT Study Guide: Schedule and Plan for One Year or More Don't forget that your target score is in reach if you put in the time and effort. What’s Next? Learn more about preparing for the ACT: How Many Questions Can You Skip for a Good ACT Score? Systems of Equations on ACT Math: Algebra Strategies and Practice Problems The Ultimate Study Guide for ACT English: Tips, Rules, Practice, and Strategies The Ultimate Study Guide for ACT Science: Tips, Practice, and Strategies Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

A History of the Chola Empire of India

A History of the Chola Empire of India Nobody knows exactly when the first Chola kings took power in the southern point of India, but certainly, the Chola Dynasty was established by the third century BCE, because they are mentioned in one of Ashoka the Greats stelae.  Not only did the Cholas outlast Ashokas Mauryan Empire, they continued to rule until 1279 CE- more than 1,500 years.   Fun Fact The Cholas ruled for more than 1,500 years, making them one of the longest-ruling families in human history, if not the longest. The Chola Empire was based in the Kaveri River Valley, which runs southeast through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and the southern Deccan Plateau to the Bay of Bengal.  At its height, the Chola Empire controlled not only southern India and Sri Lanka, but also the Maldives.  It took key maritime trading posts from the Srivijaya Empire in what is now Indonesia, enabling a rich cultural transfusion in both directions, and sent diplomatic and trading missions to Chinas Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 CE). Chola History The origins of the Chola Dynasty are lost to history.  The kingdom is mentioned, however, in early Tamil literature, and on one of the Pillars of Ashoka (273 - 232 BCE).  It also appears in the Greco-Roman Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (c. 40 - 60 CE), and in Ptolemys Geography (c. 150 CE).  The ruling family came from the Tamil ethnic group. Around the year 300 CE, the Pallava and Pandya Kingdoms spread their influence over most of the Tamil heartlands of southern India, and the Cholas went into a decline.  They likely served as sub-rulers under the new powers, yet they retained  enough prestige that their daughters often married in to the Pallava and Pandya families. When war broke out between the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms in about 850 CE, the Cholas seized their chance.  King Vijayalaya renounced his Pallava overlord and captured the city of Thanjavur (Tanjore), making it his new capital.  This marked the start of the Medieval Chola period  and the peak of Chola power. Vijayalayas son, Aditya I, went on to defeat  the Pandyan Kingdom in 885 and the  Pallava Kingdom in 897 CE.  His son followed up with the conquest of Sri Lanka in 925; by 985, the Chola Dynasty ruled all of the Tamil-speaking regions of southern India.  The next two kings, Rajaraja Chola I (r. 985 - 1014 CE) and Rajendra Chola I (r. 1012 - 1044 CE) extended the empire still further.   Rajaraja Cholas reign marked the emergence of the Chola Empire as a multi-ethnic trading colossus.  He pushed the empires northern boundary out of Tamil lands to Kalinga in the northeast of India  and sent his navy to capture the Maldives and the rich Malabar Coast along the subcontinents southwestern shore.  These territories were key points along the  Indian Ocean trade routes.   By 1044, Rajendra Chola had pushed the borders north to the Ganges River (Ganga), conquering the rulers of Bihar and Bengal, and he had also taken coastal Myanmar (Burma), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and key ports in the Indonesian archipelago and Malay Peninsula.  It was the first true maritime empire based in India.  The Chola Empire under Rajendra even exacted tribute from Siam (Thailand) and Cambodia.  Cultural and artistic influences flowed in both directions between Indochina and the Indian mainland.   Throughout the medieval period, however, the Cholas had one major thorn in their side.  The Chalukya Empire, in the  western Deccan Plateau,  rose up periodically and tried to throw off Chola control.  After decades of intermittent warfare, the Chalukya kingdom collapsed in 1190.  The Chola Empire, however, did not long outlast its gadfly. It was an ancient rival that finally did in the Cholas for good.  Between 1150 and 1279, the Pandya family gathered its armies and launched a number of bids for independence in their traditional lands.  The Cholas under Rajendra III  fell to the Pandyan Empire  in 1279  and ceased to exist. The Chola Empire left a rich legacy in the Tamil country.  It saw majestic architectural accomplishments such as the Thanjavur Temple, amazing artwork including particularly graceful  bronze sculpture, and a golden age of Tamil literature and poetry.  All of these cultural properties also found their way into the Southeast Asian artistic lexicon, influencing religious art and literature from Cambodia to Java.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Health Reform Plan Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health Reform Plan - Research Paper Example When Clinton administration took office, it did not prioritize health reform per se because it fashioned the supposedly reform to fit their political agenda. The task force, which was constituted to construct the policy, was made up of over 30 working groups with over 500 participants (Yankelovich, 1995). What Clinton and his adviser failed to know was that congress is a political body whose profession is only to make the most politically viable policies, but not policies for public significance. This way, the resultant policy was not inclined to benefit ordinary citizens because the political reality is that healthcare benefits represent income to few players, who benefit from the health industry and whose interest is to ensure that policies favour them. Therefore, the politician and the reform body mistook good policy for good politics by creating a bill which was fit for political mileage rather than political process. Moreover, the Clinton administration did not appreciate the need for a national strategy to sell the plan to the people. Medical coverage would have been a source of anxiety for all Americans as well as voters (Yankelovich, 1995). Failure to involve Americans resulted to what is referred to as human error. One angle of the human error lies in the fact that with 84 per cent of Americans holding health insurance, they were deeply afraid of losing their benefits (Toner, 1993). As a result, whenever the public was interviewed concerning their satisfaction on the old health coverage, most of them rated the services as either ‘very good’ or ‘good’, and this made it very hard to reform the system. Democrats have been avoiding the repeat of the idea following the reform debacle, and this attitude has been a foremost impediment to change.There are several recommendations for president Obama based on the failure of this reform. First, there is no fact in the idea that health reform is not inevitable in the United States