🌎 Greetings, Fiveable fam! Let’s explore this week's standout study content, stories, and things to make your week better. 🌟

📲 Content Corner

A weekly roundup of the best study hacks, tools, and insights to boost your academic game.

🇹🇩 60 second history lesson: the bizarre “flag beef” between Romania vs Chad 🇷🇴

🧠 Psychology professor reveals why the idea of your lizard brain is total BS.

💡 This awesome website — Untools — offers super-helpful resources to enhance your decision-making and problem solving skills.

🪓 A simple note-outlining hack that can save you hours of time every week.

🏆 Fiveable is hosting a free AP World History Study Group cram preview tonight at 7pm ET, and a live SAT Writing Cram preview tomorrow at the same time. See you there!

📣 Homeroom Headlines

2023 College Admissions: Navigating a New Landscape ⛰️

The 2023 college admissions cycle was unprecedented with test-optional policies, record application numbers, and elite universities becoming more elusive.

Factors such as sports success, selective majors, and deep extracurricular engagement took center stage.

What this means for students: Here's a game plan to get ahead in this new admissions landscape:

1. Apply Early: Take advantage of early action and decision options to increase your chances.

2. Diversify Your College List: Don’t put all your hopes on Ivy Leagues; state schools are becoming equally competitive and prestigious.

3. Showcase Depth, Not Just Breadth: Colleges are looking for genuine, long-term commitment in extracurriculars. Align these passions with your intended major.

4. Research Specific Majors: Some popular majors are now super competitive, even at colleges with higher overall acceptance rates. Make sure your application shines for these selective majors.

5. Stay Adaptable: With the rise in deferrals, be prepared to remain flexible and open-minded. Every college offers a unique opportunity – keep an open heart and mind. 🌟

Harvard's Application Shift: Progressive Move or Missed Mark? 🤨

Harvard University revamped its supplemental essay questions this year, moving from one optional open-ended essay and two short essays to five required short essays, each capped at 200 words.

This change arrives amidst the cessation of race-based affirmative action in university admissions, leading to questions about how applicants' diverse experiences can be expressed within these new constraints.

What this means for students: Harvard's recent changes may feel restrictive, especially for those with profound, diverse stories. A 200-word cap might unintentionally sideline those from marginalized backgrounds.

And hey, while some prompts could be an easy win for well-resourced applicants, they can also feel alienating if they don’t resonate with your unique journey, and lead to concerns about equity.

As the discourse around sharing personal struggles heats up, it’s key to remember that your experiences, no matter how complex, are valid.

College Students Seize New Opportunities in Personal Branding Beyond Sports 🤳

The boundaries of personal branding expand on college campuses as non-athletic students begin to capitalize on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) laws.

Once restricted largely to college athletes, there are new and interesting brand sponsorship opportunities for any student with an interesting passion, ability, or skill set.

Take a page from Will Hazeltine of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Not an athlete, but his marching band flair landed him a partnership with Kwik Trip.

What this means for students: In the evolving landscape of NIL, unique talents extend beyond athletic prowess. There's an increasing opportunity to build personal brands around diverse passions, from the arts to academic achievements.

Keeping an updated digital presence, showcasing accomplishments, and connecting with networks like alumni groups can open doors for branding and sponsorship opportunities. As the world of NIL grows, so does the chance for every talent to gain visibility and value.

😌 The Wellness Workshop

Educational company Magoosh conducted a study that found 86% of high school students procrastinate on assignments.

If you’re one of the 14% who’s solved that problem, congratulations!

However, if procrastination is a struggle for you, listen up.

The world's leading expert on how to solve procrastination – Dr. Tim Pychyl – has spent decades researching this common struggle.

He’s focused on the reasons why people procrastinate, and developed strategies to help procrastinators take action.

His biggest finding was published in his pop-science book Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, namely:

Understanding procrastination as an emotional regulation problem, not a time management issue.

He advises taking a compassionate view towards yourself, breaking tasks into smaller steps, and focusing on taking action instead of trying to eliminate procrastination entirely.

To get a great, quick summary of his book:

Check out this short 13-minute video with 5 top insights for how to beat procrastinating.

⭐ Student Spotlight

In this week’s student spotlight, we’re celebrating six student researchers – Jasmine Armstead, Bryan Mann, Daniel Mason, Paisley Namowicz, Chandler Brady, and Amalachukwa Agwuncha.

Partnering with Argonne and Fermi Labs through the DuPage County NAACP, they shined at Boston's Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics.

Their projects ranged from aiding sickle cell anemia patients to using machine learning for tornado predictions, and four clinched national wins!

This competition enabled students to undertake impactful STEM research with national lab experts, helping prepare them for potential careers in STEM.

Kudos to their groundbreaking efforts! 🌟

Do you know an inspiring student or group of students from your school or community?

Reply to this email with their story, and they could end up in a future student spotlight!

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💡 Lights out for now, Fiveable fam! Catch you next Wednesday! 👋