Discover Your Passion With This Gap Year Program

Taking a gap year before college is a growing trend. It could be attributed to the increasingly competitive nature of college admissions, or maybe because it’s popular and Malia Obama is doing it. While there aren’t exact numbers on the number of students who take a gap year, there has been a 294% increase since 2010 in USA Gap Year Fair attendance. Again, this heightened interest spurs the question - why are students so interested in taking a gap year? The American Gap Association did an alumni survey in 2015 and asked what the most significant influence was in their decision to take a year off. Ranked 1st was their desire to gain life experiences and grow personally, followed by travel and experience other cultures, and finally, to take a break from their academic track. With the tech industry boom and increase in student entrepreneurs, high school and college students are also more encouraged to take the time off and take a risk. One way to do that is through Draper University’s pilot 9-month entrepreneurship program. This entrepreneurship program, also called the Master’s Program, is designed to allow you to incubate yourself and ideas. The 9-month program may not sound like the gap year you’re looking for, but it doesn’t follow the traditional academic calendar, nor are you confined to lectures and forced to memorize facts for exams. The program gives you a platform to develop essential skills to build, market and finance your startup. You’ll receive 1:1 mentoring sessions from Silicon Valley’s leading entrepreneurs and VCs, and given the opportunity to pitch in a business plan competition where Tim Draper will invest $1 million total. If traveling is your primary reason for taking a year off, this may not be the program for you. However, if you’re looking for a challenge to grow personally and professionally, you shouldn’t hesitate to apply. Tim Draper, the founder of Draper University, said, â€Å"We built Draper University to address the need for real world Entrepreneurship education, taught by entrepreneurs themselves. At Draper University, students are taught to learn by doing. They are rewarded for making mistakes. They are encouraged to go out and create revolutions. It takes one person taking the first step. That could be you.† Don’t simply associate startups with the Facebook campus and unlimited holidays. Building a startup takes a lot of hard work, countless mistakes and failures, and dedication. You’ll be able to test your own limits, challenge yourself intellectually, and more importantly, figure out what you’re passionate about. Take it from someone who has been through the program. Brian Friedman, now the founder CEO of Loopd, said, â€Å"As I arrived at Draper University I was welcomed with open arms to a new community. The positive energy just radiated, and I knew this would become my new family. When starting a company, you need to believe in yourself, your mission, and your purpose. Passion, creativity, and consistent drive are a few of the key factors that fuel your success. Draper University is an epicenter for serendipity unlike any other entrepreneurship program I have experienced.† While the program isn’t limited to students who are planning on taking a gap year this fall, it is an amazing opportunity to take advantage of. Live, learn and grow!

Rescale Test Scores by Using Sten Scores

Rescale Test Scores by Using Sten Scores Many times in order to make easy comparisons between individuals, test scores are rescaled.  One such rescaling is to a ten point system.  The result is called sten scores.  The word sten is formed by abbreviating the name standard ten. Details of Sten Scores A sten scoring system uses a ten point scale with a normal distribution. This standardized scoring system has a midpoint of 5.5.  The sten scoring system is normally distributed and then divided into ten parts by letting 0.5 standard deviations correspond to each point of the scale.  Our sten scores are bounded by the following numbers: -2, -1.5, -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.0 Each of these numbers can be thought of as z-scores in the standard normal distribution.  The remaining tails of the distribution correspond to the first and tenth sten scores. So less than -2 corresponds to a score of 1, and greater than 2 corresponds to a score of ten. The following list relates sten scores, standard normal score (or z-score), and the corresponding percent of ranking: Sten scores of 1 have z-scores less than -2 and consist of the first 2.3% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 2 have z-scores greater than -2 and less than -1.5 and consist of the next 4.4% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 3 have z-scores greater than -1.5 and less than -1 and consist of the next 9.2% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 4 have z-scores greater than -1 and less than -0.5 and consist of the next 15% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 5 have z-scores greater than -0.5 and less than 0 and consist of the middle 19.2% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 6 have z-scores greater than 0 and less than 0.5 and consist of the next 19.2% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 7 have z-scores greater than 0.5 and less than 1 and consist of the next 15% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 8 have z-scores greater than 1 and less than 1.5 and consist of the next 9.2% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 9 have z-scores greater than 1.5 and less than 2 and consist of the next 4.4% of ranked scores.Sten scores of 10 have z-scores greater than 2 and consist of the last 2.3% of ranked scores. Uses of Sten Scores The sten scoring system is used in some psychometric settings.  The use of only ten scores minimizes small differences between various raw scores.  For example, everyone with a raw score in the first 2.3% of all scores would be converted into a sten score of 1.  This would make the differences among these individuals indistinguishable on the sten score scale. Generalization of Sten Scores There is no reason that we must always use a ten point scale.  There may be situations in which we would want to have use  of more or fewer divisions in our scale.  For example, we could: use a five-point scale, and refer to stafive scores.use a six-point scale, and refer to stasix scores.use a nine-point scale, and refer to stanine scores. Since nine and five are odd, there is a midpoint score in each of these systems, unlike the sten scoring system.

Oligopoly is the ideal market structure because it allows society to Essay

Oligopoly is the ideal market structure because it allows society to benefit from the efficiency gains of both competition and monopoly - Essay Example The range within which each oligopolist can independently influence prices is, however, narrower than where there is a pure monopoly, for he has to take into account not only the availability of substitutes (as does a pure monopolist as well), but also the likely actions of his principal competitors in his own market. In all circumstances price changes are likely to affect adversely the interests of certain participants in the market. Increases in price naturally are harmful to consumers, while decreases injure the interests of producers and of some traders. In monopoly and oligopoly situations the power of firms to influence prices, coupled with a high degree of dependence on these firms, tends to provoke allegations that all price changes are deliberately engineered to injure certain interests. Consumers, producers or rival traders may consider that they have been specially and deliberately injured by the actions of the monopolist or oligopolists, and may ascribe market changes to their intentional activities. Plausibility is lent to these views because in these situations the firms can undoubtedly influence the market; indeed, they cannot help doing so. It is therefore impossible conclusively or convincingly to refute allegations of profiteering, of destructive underselling to eliminate partic ular competitors, of deliberate depression of producer prices, or of wasteful inflation of costs. 1 An important and distinctive characteristic of oligopoly is the realization by each firm that its fortunes depend very closely upon the actions of the others in the same market. Their behaviour is necessarily influenced by the realization of mutual interdependence. Each firm appreciates that in initiating price changes it must expect the other firms to react to these changes, and that in assessing the net effects of a price change it must take account of the probable reaction of others. In deciding on price changes each firm considers not only the general market situation and its own financial and stock position, but also the probable conduct of its principal competitors. Firms recognizing their mutual interdependence may find it convenient and profitable to co-ordinate their policies and to act together, and co-operation is made easier because the numbers are comparatively small. An oligopolistic situation is frequently accompanied by market sharing arrangements between a number of producers or firms. This is particularly likely in the supply of standardized products or services, where these price-fixing agreements may be effective and stable even without formal market-sharing arrangements; banking and shipping provide familiar examples in the United States, in Britain and in Western Europe. Where the product is largely unstandardized, agreements are less often concluded, and, moreover, tend to be unstable; the motor industry seems to be a convenient example. Co-operation is, however, by no means the inevitable outcome of oligopoly. Individual firms may decide to try their strength and to enlarge their share in the market by active competition. Moreover, when new entry is