Bonnie R. Rabin, Ph.D.
focuses on guiding students and career professionals to better position themselves to reach educational and career goals. You'll receive unlimited one-on-one attention to create a focused and personalized strategic plan.
With over thirty years experience as a university professor, admissions committee member and HR Consultant, you're invited to leverage her extensive knowledge of university curricula and career opportunities.
Pre-College Academic Advising!
Be inspired!
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Educational & College Admissions Consulting:
- Academic assessment and extracurricular planning and refinement
- Customized solutions for effective study habits, time management and test taking strategies
- Assistance with college research and program majors to create a list of target, reach and likely admit schools.
- Negotiating and maximizing your financial aid award, including targeted scholarship search
- Guided college application assistance and review, including application deadline management.
- Admissions essay- finding your niche, topic development and guided editing of multiple drafts of your Common Application core and supplemental essays and Scholarships
Summer Internships/Co-ops, REU and research assistantships application support
- Evaluating potential gap year programs and your admissions offers
Career Services:
- Customized and personalized attention
- Resume, cover letters and networking
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Coaching for new graduates
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Guidance for career changes
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Assisted preparation and review of cover letters
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Coaching and practice for effective job and promotion interviews
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Negotiating a salary offer or a raise
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Greetings Students & Families!
A continued round of applause to our seniors for their accomplishments and acceptances. Bravo!
2017 Acceptances to date:
Engineering: Rose Hulman, Rice, U. Michigan, Purdue, Penn State, Westpoint, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Colorado, Embry Riddle, FSU
Other STEM including pre-med:
Cornell, Emory, Penn State, U. Michigan, North Carolina, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Northeastern, Georgia, Miami, FSU, Tampa, UCF, FAU
Other Majors: Syracuse (Newhouse), Gettysburg, Maryland, Rollins, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Tampa, FSU, UCF, USF, UNF, FAU, FGCU
TO DO NOW: 8th to 11th Grade families
It's time for your strategic educational check-up to assist with course planning taking place at many area high schools.
This is also the appropriate time of year to review
extracurricular activities and plan your
summer. It's time to
submit applications for
competitive collegiate summer programs
and/or plan independent projects and internships.
Juniors:
Over the next few months you should be engaged in research on college majors to
f
in
alize your list of colleges.
Please review my earlier blog posts:
STAY TUNED:
College Application Boot Camp -
RESERVE YOUR SPACE
June 5 to 9th OR June 12 to 16
STEM ACADEMIC ADVISING & COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
WHAT IS A STEM MAJOR?
Do you enjoy and excel in your science and math courses? Do you think you want to become a physician? Maybe you've learned to code and write APPs or were told you would make a great engineer?
You might be the next Tony Stark or follow in the footsteps of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Sally Ride (NASA), Jeff Bezoz (Amazon), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Jeffrey Katzenberg (Dreamworks Animation), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Helen Greiner (iRobot), or Antonia Coello Novello (Surgeon General).
Aspiring STEM students! Bonnie R. Rabin, Ph.D., provides pre-college academic advising,
ensuring academic success and helping you
s
et yourself apart from other STEM applicants.
Traditional STEM majors include:
Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry),
T
echnology (Computer Science, Information Systems),
E
ngineering (i.e. Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, etc.) and
M
athematics.
The complete list of STEM majors and careers contains dozens of selections and extends far beyond the courses you've explored in your high school AP, AICE or IB classes.
Given your interests and strengths, or perhaps there is an area you have yet to uncover, let me guide you to the discovery of
unique and cutting-edge STEM majors.
You'll be surprised to know that there are
STEM majors for students who enjoy the "Liberal Arts" and for students with overlapping interests in business, social sciences and even the fine arts.
A variety of fields have been influenced by the analytical approaches and scientific techniques taught in STEM programs.
Collaboration taking place within multi-disciplinary teams is the direction of future innovation in all fields.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A STEM EDUCATION?
The nature of STEM fields continues to evolve. Advanced preparation for an undergraduate STEM major should include the following:
- Mathematics: All STEM fields require a comfort and aptitude for quantitative analysis. High school coursework preparing you for Calculus & Statistics is advised. All engineering programs have math pre-requisites. Pre-medical students will complete rigorous Chemistry classes requiring mathematics. Business school students, especially those in Finance & Marketing should anticipate coursework in advanced statistics and calculus.
- STEM AP/AICE coursework: STEM majors are more structured than others leaving few credits for exploration. Achieving high (threshold) scores on AP STEM exams related to your chosen major not only enhances your admissions portfolio, but better prepares you for the challenging coursework ahead and leaves room to enroll in non-STEM electives/minors.
Challenge yourself to complete as many of these AP classes as possible during high school: Computer Science, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics
- CODING: Multi-disciplinary problem-solving is typical in the fast-paced and incredibly competitive technical sector. Students in all fields, including video-gaming/artists, filmmakers, financial gurus and even aspiring physicians are at a competitive advantage having acquired basic programming skills. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence continue to influence all fields. Understanding the basics of coding is essential to success in STEM and many disciplines. Have you considered "Computational Finance" or "Computational Biology" as potential majors?
Discover you passion!
STEM ADMISSIONS:
INCREASING YOUR CHANCES
First and foremost-
be yourself
because everyone else is taken! That's not cliché-it is truly the most important piece of advice I can provide.
Discover an area that you are truly passionate about and dive in!
STEM admissions is different!
How do you increase your chances of admissions?
Demonstrate "INFORMED INTEREST"!
More than any other major, STEM applicants must clearly demonstrate "informed interest"! Admissions officers don't want to read an essay describing your fascination with Legos since childhood.
Your application must leave no shadow of a doubt that you are
prepared to succeed in some of the most demanding academic majors.
STEM curriculum are intense and challenging!
An astounding 25% of all intended engineering students exit the field after their freshman year. Only 40% of college students who declare a STEM major complete their degree. Demonstrating you understand the challenges ahead is essential.
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STEM "informed interest" can be demonstrated through:
- In addition to completion of AP STEM coursework, engage in sustained formal or informal STEM extracurricular activities and independent projects (we have plenty of ideas for an independent project)
- STEM Research: participation in local, regional and national competitions working with our competition educator. (see our research page)
- thoughtful college specific supplemental essays showcasing maturity and self-directed exploration of a potential narrow area of interest (i.e. stochastic processes in Financial Modeling, Genomics, Artificial Intelligence applications to pharmaceutical development)
CONSIDER Applying to a cutting-edge, LESSOR KNOWN or BLENDED MAJOR:
Allow me to help you think outside the box, increasing your chances of admission. STEM majors such as Nanotechnology, Computational Finance, Oenology, Cognitive Psychology, Human Computer Interaction are just the tip of the iceberg of exciting STEM fields of study.
You've seen that bumper sticker: CO-EXIST!
Many colleges have unique programs balancing a STEM field with an interest in the social science, liberal arts, business or even the Fine Arts!
With the cost of a four-year education continuing to rise, families are justified in exploring the ROI of any major. Employers are seeking STEM graduates who demonstrate an ability to communicate, manage and collaborate with others.
Click and explore these three unique STEM degree programs combining engineering with liberal arts, fine arts and international studies!
Based on your academic strengths and personal interests, we will work together to create a personalized strategic STEM ADMISSIONS plan including:
- Pre-college academic advising on coursework to not only increase your chances of admission, but ensure a seamless transition to your initial undergraduate experience. There's more to STEM than "engineering"!
- We'll work together to identify and apply for highly competitive local and national STEM summer research programs. Our team has inside-knowledge of programs and faculty.
STEM RESEARCH COMPETITION
- Develop your unique research interests
- Engage in competition
- Present an effective admissions portfolio showcasing and distinguishing your strengths as an aspiring STEM student.
Why is participating in STEM research competition particularly important?
- Enhance your high school STEM education!
- Increase your chances of Admission!
Learn More: Google Science Fair
- By participating in a major STEM competition for high school students you are stepping out of the crowd of students having high GPAs and extensive extracurricular accomplishments.
- Your Common Application will showcase formal and/or informal STEM research activities and competitions. Admissions representatives prefer students who have already demonstrated an ability to conduct independent research essential to the problem solving you'll experience as a STEM undergraduate.
- Through academic research (lab work, computer science programs/APPs, math competition), STEM competition not only enhances your pre-college education, it effectively demonstrates an ability to accomplish a major task validating your creativity, independence and ability to see a task to completion.
It doesn't matter whether you win first place at Intel - participation is impressive and unique!
We maintain an extensive database of available STEM based venues as well as ideas for feasible independent projects.
Think beyond FIRST Robotics, Science Olympiad or HOSA.
So much more awaits you....
MEET MRS. SERFATY- OUR EXPERIENCED STEM COMPETITION EDUCATOR!!
Mrs. Serfaty has been a science research teacher and consultant for the past 17 years. She has managed over 350 students many of whom have been 1st place winners in national and international science competitions (see sample of projects below). She holds two Master's degrees: a M.S. in Biology and M.S. in Educational Administration. She has completed research and taught at both the University and high school levels. She has been instrumental in launching research programs in both public and private settings.
STEM Research and COMPETITION SERVICES
(8th to 12th Grade)
- Brainstorming and planning for STEM projects
- Ongoing project support and execution
- Identify appropriate competitions within our extensive database of STEM competition venues
- Direction in choosing an appropriate summer research opportunity
- Preparation and guidance of competition applications and ongoing review of a publishable, scientific research paper
- Direction and evaluation of entry forms, research abstracts and essays for various competition venue
- Assistance in preparation of paper and research abstract to showcase completed work for the college application process.
A SAMPLE OF SUPERVISED RESEARCH PROJECTS and SUCCESSFUL COMPETITIONS and VENUES:
- 1st Place Intel Science Talent Search: "DNA-based Steganography"
- Siemens: We Can Change the world Challenge: "100% algae based fuel converted to biodiesel used in a home heater"
- Long Island Science and Engineering Fair: "The Evaluation of the Methodology of His-tagged ProteinExpression in Transfected Escherichia coli"
- Exploravision national second place: REGENX: Human Limb Regenerative Protein Cocktail Injections.
Have a wonderful day!
Bonnie
Bonnie R. Rabin, Ph.D.
561.509.0021
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QUICK LINKS!
LEARN MORE ABOUT:
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Get started today creating a strategic educational plan for long term educational success.
STAY TUNED!
Next blog will focus on: Researching College Majors
Please review my earlier blogs on
Campus visits and Summer Programs
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