Saturday, March 21, 2020

High School Social Studies Courses Needed for College

High School Social Studies Courses Needed for College Choosing the high school courses that will best prepare you for success in college can be a difficult process, and social studies, though an important subject for a strong college application, is easily overlooked, particularly if you arent planning to enter a liberal arts program. Many students are much more concerned about their math, science, and foreign language requirements. Requirements for high school preparation in social studies vary significantly among different colleges and universities, and the term social studies can mean something different to different schools. What Courses Count as Social Studies? Social studies is a broad term that encompasses fields of study related to culture, government, civics, and the general interactions of people within a complex national and global context. War, technology, law, religion, and immigration all have a place within the category of social studies. High school classes in social studies typically include United States History, European History, World History, U.S. Government, Human Geography, and Psychology. Keep in mind, however, that colleges are free to define social studies as broadly or narrowly as they choose. What Social Studies Classes Do Colleges Require? Most competitive colleges recommend at least two to three years of high school social studies, which generally includes history as well as courses in government or civics. Here are some specific recommendations for high school social studies coursework from several different institutions: Carleton College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, requires three or more years of social science. The college does not specify what courses it prefers students to take under the label of social science.Harvard University, the prestigious Ivy League school, is more specific in its recommendation. The university wants to see that students have taken at least two, and preferably three years of courses that include American history, European history, and one other advanced history course.Stanford University, another prestigious and highly selective university,  wants to three or more years of history/social studies. The university wants these courses to include a meaningful essay writing requirement so that applicants are prepared for the rigors of university humanities and social science classes.Pomona College, an excellent liberal arts college and member of the Claremont Colleges, wants to see a minimum of two years of social sciences (the term the school uses fo r social studies), and the college recommends three years. Clearly when a highly selective school recommends something, applicants should take that recommendation very seriously. UCLA, one of the countrys top  public universities, requires two years of study. The university is more specific about this requirement than many other institutions. UCLA wants to see one year of world history, cultures, and geography; and or one year U.S. history or one half year U.S. history and one half year of civics or American government.  Williams College, another top-ranked liberal arts college, does not have any specific academic requirements for admission, but the schools admissions website notes that they look for the strongest program of study offered at a students school, and that competitive applicants have typically taken a four-year sequence of courses in social studies. The table below gives you a quick glimpse of typical social studies requirements for different types of colleges and universities. School Social Studies Requirement Auburn University 3 years required Carleton College 2 years required, 3 or more years recommended Centre College 2 years recommended Georgia Tech 3 years required Harvard University 2-3 years recommended (American, European, one additional advanced) MIT 2 years required NYU 3-4 years required Pomona College 2 years required, 3 years recommended Smith College 2 years required Stanford University 3 or more years recommended (should include essay writing) UCLA 2 years required (1 year world, 1 year US or 1/2 year US+1/2 year civics or government) University of Illinois 2 years required, 4 years recommended University of Michigan 3 years required; 2 years for engineering/nursing Williams College 3 years recommended What Social Studies Classes Do the Strongest Applicants Take? You can see from the selective colleges above that all schools require two or more social studies classes, and many require three. The reality is that your application will be strongest with four classes, for its important to remember that colleges look more favorably upon applicants who have done more than meet the minimum requirements.What you take will largely depend on what your school offers. A student who takes a course in U.S. history followed by courses in African American history and America at war shows depth of knowledge and intellectual curiosity, but courses beyond basic American history arent offered in many school systems.   In general, however, you should take the most challenging courses available to you. An IB curriculum will certainly impress the admissions officers, as will AP classes in history and government. If you have the option of taking classes through a local college, those dual-enrollment classes in history, politics, sociology, psychology, government, and other social sciences will also make a good impression and help demonstrate your college readiness. College admissions officers are looking for students who have challenged themselves throughout high school, taking on advanced coursework in multiple subjects. Because social studies is an area in which most schools only require two or three years of study, you have an opportunity to present yourself as a well-rounded and dedicated student by taking additional courses. This is particularly true if you are applying for a college program in history, civics, or any of the liberal arts.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

How to Build the Best Social Media Promotion Schedule For Your Content

How to Build the Best Social Media Promotion Schedule For Your Content You know that creating amazing content takes a lot of time. When your content doesn’t get the views it deserves, though you wonder if it was worth the time. There is a simple fix for that problem. Sharing your content  on social media with a coordinated social media promotion plan. But, before you can get results, you need content thats worth sharing in the first place. Thats where this blog post comes in. You’re going to learn: How to understand what your audience wants  so you can create and share the right content to reach them. How to find shareable talking points in your content  that can easily be repurposed on social media. How to build a promotion schedule that maximizes traffic and shares. In short, what youll find here is a complete guide to creating and scheduling social promotion to maximize your contents value. How To Build The Best Social Media Promotion Schedule For Your ContentGrab Your Free Social Media Promotion Plan   Kit This kit includes three templates to help you plan and execute an effective content promotion strategy: Social Media Promotion Posting Schedule Template: Plan out how often youll post on each network. Social Media Calendar: Then schedule all your posts ahead of time in one place. Social Media Promotional Insights Report: Show your results with this simple reporting template. Get them all free now and execute the advice in this post more easily. ... Then Check Out the New and Improved ReQueue ReQueue is the industry's only intelligent social media automation tool, built into .And now it's improved and better than ever: Set it and forget it (with confidence):  Choose posts to reshare and let handle the rest. Reshare your best posts (with intelligence):  Never worry again about sending too many or too few posts. Customize sharing groups (with granular control):  Use Placeholder Groups to customize clusters of messages on the days and times you choose. Ready to try it yourself? Get it free for 14 days and start saving time on social media marketing now. Understand What Your Audience Is Going To Get Out Of Your Content You write your content based on one goal. That could be informing your readers of a new product, or sharing answers to frequently asked questions. Your audience reads your content because they’re being driven by a different goal. They could be looking to learn something new, gather information about your product, or explore more of what your company is about. Your content you share on social media should aim for the overlap between these two goals. But not just the content that you're planning on sharing with your followers. Your social media messages also play a role. By figuring out that intersection between your goals and your audience’s goals, you'll be able to write stronger messages that will drive them to the landing page, blog post, podcast or any other type of evergreen content that you’ve created. The second question you need to ask yourself is what is your audience going to get from your content? People are not going to care unless there's something in it for them. That sounds harsh but the reality is, your audience is going to ask what's in it for me? Your social media messages need to be able to answer that question and inspire them to click. Recommended Reading: The Easy 5-Step Content Plan Template That Will Make Every Piece Amazing Now that you know how to handle WIIFM and the goals behind why you created your content, you can begin to plan out your social media messages and create the right tone and conversation that encourages your audience to interact with your content. In essence, you're going to need to reread your content and pulling out the best talking points based on what your audience is going to get from your content. Things like: What will your readers leave knowing? What is a call to action that would drive them to click? What results should they expect to see after they read your content? Statistics, numbers, and quotes. Write Compelling Social Media Messages The first step in creating compelling social media messages involves tapping into the emotional side of your audience. It's at this point that you're going to dig deep and think about what's in it for them? Let's say for example that I wrote a blog post on creating inspiring Instagram content. I'd think about what my readers are going to get after they finish reading the blog post. That might include: How to think outside-the-box to execute more creative Instagram campaigns. How to increase engagement with better-quality photos. What's the optimal post frequency for the next network? Ultimately, they'll feel better prepared to rock at Instagram marketing, without spending hours of trial and error figuring things out themselves. Helping your audience build new skills while saving time? Sounds like a good goal to me! Once I had determined the benefit to my audience, I would aim my social media messages  at those takeaways. Suddenly you have clear benefits, a clear aim, and an emotional appeal to drive clicks to your content. Successful social posts have: 1. Clear benefit. 2. Clear aim. 3. Emotional appeal.How can you translate that into social media copy? In short, you have to maximize the few words that you have. This is where those talking points come into play. Ask yourself these things before you start: Is the message I’ve written  clearly communicating one of the talking points I selected earlier? Are my readers getting the best idea of what my content is about? Is this going to appeal to them in a way that will encourage them to interact with my content? Recommended Reading: The Best Social Media Copywriting Guide to Be a Social Word Ninja Create Messages Around Statistics From Your Content One way to create compelling messages is including statistics that you’ve compiled in your content. For example, when we were promoting our social media posting schedule we found out that we could help users increase their traffic by 192%. Now if someone told me that I could increase my traffic by 192%, I’d want to find out how. Here’s another example of another statistic that from our blog on content promotion tactics. Grow your traffic by 3,150% with tip #19 of 100+ blog promotion tactics. https://t.co/HCGhkxIrcr pic.twitter.com/kQQIzEuqPI (@) June 29, 2017 Statistics give someone a data point to fall back on because they’ve been backed by a process that is repeatable and they can prove those statistics to their team. Create Messages Around A Compelling CTA The second type of message that you can create promote your content involves creating a compelling CTA. Telling your audience what to do and what they're going to get out of your content is a great way to encourage clicks. For example, Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda encouraged people to pick up the new karaoke soundtrack for Hamilton and record them singing along. The call-to-action in this case is to buy the soundtrack and sing along. Those karaoke parties?Theyre called #Hamiltunes.Go make one for free wherever you are!Read more: https://t.co/3hvyIrDDxz https://t.co/L5Bq45oqRx Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 30, 2017 Another great CTA social media message example is this Instagram post from Barnes and Noble. They’re maximizing their book sales by encouraging fans to check out a list of gift for graduates that they created. Need some tutoring to help figure out what to get the students in your life? Check out our collection of "Gifts Ideas for Every Graduate" using the link in our bio! A post shared by Barnes Noble (@barnesandnoble) on May 25, 2017 at 2:32pm PDT Create Messages Telling Your Audience What They’re Going To Get When They Read Your Content One of the best things you can do when you’re crafting your social media messages is to tell you audience what they’re going to be getting when they read your content. If I read a message that says I’m going to get 15 different ideas on how to style my hair in a hurry, I hope that’s what I get if I click on the article. That’s why misleading titles or clickbait drive everyone crazy. You’re not being honest about what they’re going to get from your content.