But as alexandra reports, there are things you can do to increase your chances. While there are thousands of colleges in the u. S. , most of us can name many of the schools that have reputations for being the hardest to get into. The ivies harvard, yale. Princeton. Columbia. Cornell. All the ivy leagues. University of virginia, ucal, even. Northwestern. Vassar. Carnegie mellon. Duke, syracuse. U. Chicago. Mit and university of california. Stanford. Georgetown. And there are lots of others. But still, getting into a good college can be daunting. To give us some advice, were joined by jason ma. Hes a college prep coach, as well as the author of the book Young Leaders 3. 0. Hi, jason. Hi. Thanks for inviting me. How important is it to get into one of the top colleges . I think it would depend on your own ambition and your aspirations. If you want to really go for getting into the superelite schools here, then you are going to have to work a lot smarter and harder in preparation. But a lot of kids are happy with state schools and all that. And i would advise that dont think about college as your end goal. Its part of your journey through your, towards your dreams and aspirations. Is it getting harder every year to get into a top school . It is. And i think, its really largely due to an increasing number of applications per year. While the physical dormroom spaces remain constant, or fairly similar its not going to increase that much. So, when you have more and more applications as the denominator, and then you have the same number of admits per year, then the admit rate is going to keep on dropping. When it comes to applying, what are some of the most common mistakes students make . I think not paying attention, incomplete applications, lousy essays, not enough thought and time i mean elapsed time, not crunched time to put into the effort in brainstorming, in drafting, rewriting essays, and working to build great relationships with teachers, and really underestimating what it really takes academically and nonacademically in order to make you a competitive candidate. How can we avoid making these mistakes . I think like any successful person, whether you are in academia, in business, or in sports, its really the quality and the length of your preparation. So, you have to keep in mind in order for you to have a great chance of getting into a top school or a good school, the schools really look at a combination of your academic performance, and that includes your grades, the trend, the curriculum rigor. They look at pretty much your transcript on there, the courses you took. And they look at your new sat or the act with writing, your sat subject tests or sat2s. And certain schools look for two or three. Those are just kind of ballpark materials for a lot of the top schools. And then they look at your essays, your rec letters. So, overall, its much about character and story, and how interesting you are, and whether they feel that youre going to be successful on campus, in the school, and probably even in the future. A lot of students think that the sats, acts, or their gpa are what count the most with colleges. Is that true . It depends on the college. If you apply to a number of state schools out there and even many of the private schools that are not real top, they look at gpa. They look at a transcript, which is pretty much academic performance and sats. And thats pretty much the bulk of or all of what they look at. But if you look at schools that require essays and rec letters, then they really look at those, as well. And its a whole its more and more of a holistic way of looking at things. And if you really look at very elite schools, its very, very holistic. Any final advice to help us become more attractive to toptier schools . I think really the quality of preparation. When i look at a successful person, the first thing that comes to my mind is not how successful they are. Okay, i know theyre successful. Its how did they get there the mindset, the skill set, the strategy, the tactics, the pathways they took, probably the mistakes they made, what theyve learned from that. So, its really, if you want to go to a top school, its not going to be an overnight thing. Oftentimes overnight success comes from years of learning and practice. Jason, thanks for the info. Thank you. Thanks for inviting. For the record, there are many successful people who not only didnt go to the top colleges, they didnt even graduate from any college from food guru rachael ray to the genius behind apple, steve jobs. But if getting a College Degree is your goal, you really need to do your homework before you apply. For teen kids news, im alexandra. Too much work for one person . Ive got advice for building a dream team to help you make the grade. Well be right back. Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the work you have to do for school . Well, christins here to help, with this weeks make the grade. When it comes to studying, extra help can be very effective. Its as though you could clone yourself. And divide up the work. Actually, a good study group is even better than cloning, because you can use each individuals best set of skills. Study groups are standard in law schools, but you dont have to be a legal scholar to use their techniques. Here are some simple guidelines, starting with whom you invite into your group. They do not have to be social friends. And you can have different groups for different classes. At the first meeting, discuss your goals, your rules, and your schedule. For example, be very clear about when meetings will be held and what will happen if someone misses a meeting or comes unprepared. If everyone understands whats expected, its easier to work toward success together im christin, helping you all make the grade. We all know what the American Flag looks like. But every state has a flag, too. And every one of them tells a story. Heres our flag facts report. Louisiana holds a unique record. Since the first europeans arrived, 10 flags have flown over the territory. Thats more than any other u. S. State. In 1519, spanish explorers planted their flag. They were followed by the french in 1682. Later on, napoleons tricolor was displayed. Then, in 1763, Great Britain gained a foothold in the region. In 1810, local colonists united against the british under a flag known as the bonnie blue. Finally, in 1812, louisiana achieved statehood. It looked like the stars and stripes were here to stay. But with the civil war, louisiana withdrew from the union. It declared itself a republic, with its own flag, of course. But two months later, it joined the confederacy. Louisianans would live under two different confederate flags before the war ended. Finally, in 1912, louisiana adopted the flag we see today. The louisiana flag i love because its a story of unconditional love. What the settlers saw, according to a louisiana legend, when they first arrived there, were these Brown Pelicans. And if food was scarce, what the mother pelicans would do was peck at their breasts until they bled, and they would feed that to their young. So, on the state flag, you see a mother feeding three baby Brown Pelicans. Eventually, louisiana adopted the Brown Pelican as its official state bird. By the way, louisiana also has an official state doughnut, called a beignet. Its fried dough with powdered sugar on top. Fortunately, the official state drink is milk. With flag facts, im eric. Believe it or not, its against the law in california to bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time. Makes you wonder. How do parents in the golden state handle twins . When teen kids news continues, ill show you how you can charge cellphones without electricity. Well be right back. There are countries in the world that dont have some of the things we use every day. But there are simple ways even teens can help make a difference. Eden tells us more. In many poor countries, putting up telephone wires is too expensive. So, the only phone Service People have is with cellphones. But when you realize that many of these areas dont have electricity, you see theres a pretty big problem. How can you charge your cellphone when theres no place to plug it in . Once again, were joined by betsy teustch. She wrote the book 100 under 100 one hundred tools for empowering global women. Betsy, if someone has a cellphone, but theres no electricity, how can they charge their phone . Well, thats a great question. Fortunately, think about the sun. It beats down in the global south, where were talking about, where theres the vast swath of poverty on the planet. Those are very, very sunny places. So, the trick is to harness the sun and figure out how to charge it. And we do that with solar panels. So, whats the inexpensive tool that can help solve this problem . Well, the inexpensive tool is a very small solar panel, which is on this lamp, which also has a usb port. So, you leave this to charge all day long, about 8 hours, and then you can plug in your phone right into the charger here. And you can have your phone charged. That way you dont have to go somewhere else and pay someone else for phone charging, which is a big nuisance for people in the developing world when they have phones but not electricity. And, by the way, this is also a lamp. So, you can press it once, and you have low wattage. And you can press it twice, and its a much brighter light. And then if youre using your light but you see that its probably going to start running out, you can turn it down again to the lower wattage so that it will last longer. These are led bulbs, and they are so efficient that the entire charging panel is only the size of my hand. Thats pretty impressive. Why did you write the book about empowering women . I felt that it was important for people to realize that yes, we have billions of very poor people in the world and the vast majority of them are women and girls, but we also have a vast number of solutions that people have been working really hard at figuring out. So, i wrote a book because i wanted more people to get involved in being part of those solutions so that we can end poverty. If any of our viewers want to help women get solar phone chargers, how can they . There would be a lot of different ways to do it. A lot of these places are companies, so they dont really need charity. They need people to help get the word out. There are also lots of organizations. This one comes from an organization that i wrote about in my book. Its called unite to light. And you can buy one of these yourself, and they will donate one. For the cost that you pay, you get one, and they donate one. So, you can also be a friend of the planet and charge your devices solar, and a family will get one in the developing world. Thanks, betsy. Im looking forward to hearing about more of these tools on future editions of teen kids news. Take care. Bye if youre looking for a Great Service project, empowering women with solarpowered chargers may just spark your interest. For teen kids news, im eden. This Important Message is brought to you by the National Road safety foundation. They want you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road, and your mind on driving. [ horn honks ] coming up, ill tell you about a british statesman who truly proved that the pen is mightier than the sword. During her trip to the united kingdom, nicole learned about a man whose bulldog determination helped save a nation. Just a stones throw from the house of parliament and its iconic clock tower is a statue of the person many consider britains greatest Prime Minister. His name . Sir winston churchill. Sir winston was born into a family with a long and distinguished military history. One of his ancestors was the first duke of marlborough. After the dukes spectacular victory over the french at the battle of blenheim in 1704, a grateful english queen granted him this amazing palace. The duke dutifully named it blenheim. It was here in 1874 that Winston Leonard spencerchurchill was born. Today blenheim and its sprawling grounds are open to the public to visit. Sir winston grew up to become a war correspondent, a soldier, and eventually a politician. When he became Prime Minister, england was in its darkest hour. Hitlers aggression had triggered world war ii. The germans defeated every european country that stood against them except the british isles. Every day, the brave british expected the nazis to invade. More than tanks and soldiers, it was the words of Prime Minister churchill that the british found most heartening. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall Never Surrender. That Never Surrender attitude gave the british the courage to fight on. Throughout the war, churchills speeches and Radio Broadcasts rallied a nation. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour. And it was. Through all the bombings and rocket attacks, the british never gave up nor gave in. The power of sir winstons inspiring words helped defeat nazi germany. It was said that churchill mobilized the english language and sent it to war. For teen kids news, im nicole. If youre a bit sluggish in the morning, instead of caffeine, reach for some peppermint. Research shows that the scent of peppermint sends a wakeup call to the brain. In fact, there are many who believe rubbing a bit of Peppermint Oil on your forehead will help you think more clearly. The scent is said to stimulate the memory part of your brain. Does your high school have a Kindness Club . If not, maybe you can start one. Well tell you how when teen kids news continues. Bullying and cliques they can be as much a part of high school as studying and homework. But there are ways that we can protect ourselves from these bullies and queen bees. Thats the subject of our hooplaha pick of the week. B kind is so important to me for obvious reasons, but high school is a place where, sometimes, people can lose sight of kindness, and i thought it was not only important for my friends, students, but the whole community teachers, faculty. Virginia approached me and asked me if i would be interested, and it was one of those things where i just said, of course. My family founded the b kind foundation, and i am copresident and founder of the st. Lukes b kind club. All right. Thank you. Thank you bye so, today, were here really just to spread our logo and spread our message. Were selling a bunch of these tshirts. Were selling our water bottles, our phone cases, and so much more. And were also doing some face paints. And i think homecomings a really special time to have a b kind booth, just because when people walk by and see what were doing, theyre not only intrigued, but maybe it just gives them that incentive to, you know, smile at someone new or go say hi to alumni or Something Like that. I think its just a really positive booth to have here, and i know all the kids love the face paint, too. Being kind can change someone oh, start over. Ive been friends with virginia since kindergarten, and im really happy to be a part of the b kind club. The mahoney family created b kind in memory of bill mahoney. And virginia came to me and asked if i would help out starting this club and really bringing the community of kindness to st. Lukes. I just want to carry on my dads legacy, because he really was the kindest man that ive ever known, and multiple people i know would say that. He was the best man in nine weddings. We have about fifteen, i think, clubs that are starting this year across the nation, and its growing rapidly, which is awesome. One of my favorite acts of kindness that weve done is the kindnessgram. We have done a kindness board. We went around with cameras and videotaped students about what kindness meant to them. I believe in the mission of the b kind club, and i also know that kindness is something that doesnt cost anything, and we all can do. I personally just couldnt let that message not be spread, and i couldnt leave his legacy without bringing it to more people, because thats what he wouldve wanted. Being kind can change someones life. It can also change the world. The famous Aviator Amelia Earhart certainly agrees. She once said, a single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. So, ill leave you with that thought. Get it . Trees. Leave. Anyway, for teen kids news, im daniella. Thats our show for this week. But be sure to tune in again next week for more teen kids news. Bye. For the first time ever, these truck chasers facing elimination and no better place to settle the score than taladega super speedway. Taladega, a place where opportunity can easily turn into disappointment. Sheer big one. Down back straight away in taladega. That is crafton. Where emotions too often turn into rage. Things happen fast and trucks can find themselves upside down and backwards. Where just finishing is a daunting challenge. She right behind him they are rolling behind him . Johnny court gets the. Statutory gets the win sauter advances. Two drivers will be eliminated. For those on the cusp of not advancing, taladega is the most volatile and not the track they wanted to see to decide their fate. It is time to get you set