About
Live to Learn™
1. What is Live to Learn?
2. Who operates this online resource?
3. What inspired you to provide this service?
4. What are the objectives of this site?
5. How is this site different from existing
online academic resources?
What
is Live to Learn?
Live
to Learn™ is the realization of a unique vision shared
by top students and academic advisers nationwide. It is a powerful
online resource intended to help students identify their academic
goals and maximize their likelihood of attaining them.
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Who
operates this online resource?
Live to Learn is a fee-free educational
service coordinated by students for students. We – the
contributors to and managers of this site – are students
and recent graduates who have succeeded academically. We have
participated in undergraduate honors programs and attended top
undergraduate institutions. We have enrolled in the most competitive
graduate degree programs and received the most prestigious academic
fellowships and awards. Most importantly, we want to pass the
secrets of our success on to other students.
Click on the About
Us section to read about some of the students who have contributed
content to this site, and their individual paths to success.
Accomplished professionals who represent educational
associations, major fellowship programs, and the national community
of fellowship advisers help us make this resource even better.
Additional information about our Advisory Board is located in
the About Us section of this
site.
We are an EduCap®
program made possible by a generous grant from Loan to Learn™.
Read more about our sponsor!
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What
inspired you to provide this service?
Several factors motivated us to launch this
unique online resource:
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We all remember
how unattainable these programs once seemed, and how little
guidance was available to students who wanted to apply
for them. We perceived the need
for a site that demystified their application processes,
and acknowledged the fact that any intelligent, dedicated
student can attain top-tier academic awards and fellowships
through sound strategic planning and hard work.
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We have benefited greatly
from the insights and expertise of generous mentors, whether
academic advisers, community leaders, family members, or
other students. Live to Learn is our way of providing
the next generation of emerging scholars with the same kind
of quality mentorship and support that was instrumental
to the actualization of our academic goals. |
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There are no “magic
bullets” that guarantee success at the highest levels
of academic competition. However, through our participation
in prestigious degree
and fellowship programs, we gained first-hand exposure
to subtle programmatic dynamics and priorities that are
not always immediately apparent to first-time applicants.
We have learned many things “we wish we’d
known then.” This site is
our way of sharing those insights with current applicants
so that they can enter these selection processes equipped
with a more comprehensive understanding of the programs
to which they aspire. |
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We are troubled by resource
disparities among institutions, and their effect upon the
success or failure of a student's application. Those of
us who attended institutions with sizable financial reserves
and numerous successful applicants among their alumni benefited
from extensive application preparation programs. That fortunate
group had access to filing cabinets full of past essays
and sample interview questions for every imaginable award.
On the other hand, those of us who attended institutions
with smaller financial endowments and fewer past award recipients
had no such opportunities, and were left scrambling to compensate
for our schools' inability to provide us with personalized
application advising and access to informational resources.
Our goal is to promote an environment in which admission
or award decisions are based solely on an applicantion's
intrinsic merit, and not on an advantage gained by attending
"the right school." We believe that every
student should have access to some minimum baseline of information
in order to ensure that all capable applicants are afforded
a fair chance to present themselves as viable candidates
in the selection process. |
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What
are the objectives of this site?
We seek to:
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Introduce students
to the full range of available awards, academic specialties,
and experiential opportunities. |
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Demystify these opportunities
by describing them in the context of detailed first-hand
insights provided by actual program participants. |
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Provide purpose-designed interactive
tools that help students identify their goals and translate
their personalized findings into a systematic action plan
that may greatly enhance their chances of attaining their
academic objectives. |
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Provide utilities that encourage
students to execute and constantly re-evaluate their strategic
plans in concert with their mentors and support networks.
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Assist students, after they
have identified those academic programs most aligned with
their objectives, to prepare effective applications by allowing
them to review materials that successful applicants have
submitted in the past. |
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How
is this site different from other online academic resources?
No other resource - online or off - compares
with Live to Learn.
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We’re
free. Unlike costly consultants
who claim to increase your odds of academic success in
exchange for huge financial outlays, Live to Learn
is not seeking to profit from your desire to achieve.
We don’t charge any fees for access to any part
of this site and, unlike many web resources that offer
advisory services or expert information, we are not a
site that will be free initially and then begin charging
our users once we have rendered ourselves indispensable.
We do not profit from the administration of this resource,
nor do we seek to profit from this site in the future.
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We’re credible.
You've probably noticed there
are virtually no online sources of sample graduate admission
or fellowship application essays. And those few that do
exist are often suspect (e.g., is this REALLY the essay
of a successful Harvard applicant?). Content
made available through Live to Learn is solicited
by invitation, and is carefully checked for authenticity
prior to its posting. We request content only from scholars
whom we have confirmed were actually enrolled in the degree
program(s) or selected by the fellowship program(s) about
which they write. You can be confident
that all of the materials housed on
Live to Learn are authentic. |
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We’re ethical.
Many online sources of
academic advice and sample essays are guided by unethical
motives. Essay sites are often simply reserves of content
intended to promote “paid plagiarism,” enticing
unwary students to fall into the trap of passing off the
efforts of others as their own. We
have no interest in cutting corners or encouraging others
to do so. We simply want to enhance students’ application
experiences by providing open access to rich informational
resources and strategic planning utilities. Live
to Learn is committed to instituting robust measures
that prevent the exploitation of these materials for unethical
purposes.
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We’re innovative.
Most student resource sites
consist of little more than a smattering of generally-available
data, common sense advice, and an education-related link
or two. By way of contrast, Live to Learn's Achievement
Gateway™ provides carefully researched detail
and strategic insights on numerous aspects of higher education
planning and application processes that are exclusive
to this site. |
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We’re interactive.
While the Achievement Gateway is richly informative,
it is much more than a factual resource. Its powerful
online tools will help you translate your personalized
findings into an effective, systematic action plan for
reaching your educational goals. |
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We’re ever-expanding.
Many student information resources simply provide the lowest
common denominator of basic application facts, and leave
this already sub-standard content to languish indefinitely
without enhancement. Live to Learn is a dynamic
gateway to successful academic achievement that is constantly
growing. We will always be in the process of improving tools,
updating information, and augmenting content. |
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FAQs
