Lyda Newman Invents Vented Hair Brush

African-American inventor Lyda D. Newman patented a new and improved hairbrush in 1898  while living in New York. A hairdresser by trade, Newman designed a brush that was easy to keep clean, durable, easy to make and provided ventilation during brushing by having recessed air chambers. In addition to her novel invention, she was a womens rights activist.   Hairbrush Improvement Patent Newman received patent #614,335 on Nov. 15, 1898. Her hairbrush design included several features for efficiency and hygiene. It had evenly spaced rows of bristles, with open slots to guide debris away from the hair into a recessed compartment and a back that could be opened at the touch of a button for cleaning out the compartment. Women's Rights Activist In 1915, Newman was mentioned in local newspapers for her suffrage work. She was one of the organizers of an African-American branch of the Woman Suffrage Party, which was fighting to give women the legal right to vote. Working on behalf of her fellow African-American women in New York, Newman canvassed her neighborhood to raise awareness of the cause and organized suffrage meetings in her voting district. Prominent white suffragists of the Woman Suffrage Party worked with Newmans group, hoping to bring voting rights to all of New Yorks female residents. Her Life Newman was born in Ohio around 1885. Government censuses of 1920 and 1925 confirm that Newman, then in her 30s, was living in an apartment building on Manhattans West Side and was working as a familys hairdresser. Newman lived much of her adult life in New York City. Not much else is known about her private life. Hairbrush History Newman did not invent the hairbrush, but she did revolutionize its design to resemble the brushes in use more today. The history of the first hairbrush begins with the comb. Found by archaeologists at Paleolithic dig sites around the world, combs date back to the origins of human-made tools. Carved from bone, wood, and shells, they were initially used to groom hair and keep it free of pests, such as lice. As the comb developed, however, it became a decorative hair ornament used to display wealth and power in countries including China and Egypt.   From ancient Egypt to Bourbon France, elaborate hairstyles were in vogue, which required brushes to style them. The hairstyles included ornate headdresses and wigs that were used as displays of wealth and social status. Because of their primary use as a styling tool, hairbrushes were an indulgence reserved exclusively for the wealthy. As late as the 1880s, each brush was unique and carefully handcrafted—a task that included carving or forging a handle from wood or metal as well as hand-stitching each individual bristle. Because of this detailed work, brushes were usually bought and gifted only on special occasions, such as weddings or christenings, and cherished for life. As brushes became more popular, brush makers developed a streamlined manufacturing process to keep up with demand.

The Impact Of Technology On Our Understanding Of The...

Discuss ways in which modern (post 1950) neuroscientific research has had an impact on our understanding of the developing brain. Early stages of embryonic progression show how the human brain and nervous system start to occur at three weeks from contraception, with the closing of the neural tube and By four weeks, major sections of the brain can be distinguished in a simple form, including the forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain divisions and optic vesicle, where the eye matures from. (Brainfacts.org, 2012) From the premature stages advances the essential processes such as the sensory systems after birth. This essay will address how studies within post 1950 neuroscientific research utilise; brain imaging techniques, case studies of child†¦show more content†¦The results primarily displayed that grey matter develops from inside out, and from the back of the brain to front and myelination follows a similar ordered approach. There was also a decrease in brain water content during development and the grey and white matter intensities during the first 6 months are inverted from the adult pattern such that grey matter appears lighter than white matter (Barkovich, Kjos, Jackson Norman, 1988). From ages 6 to 12 month’s grey and white matter was not well distinguished and either was the myelination of neuron bodies. In addition to this study, Hà ¼ppi et al. (1996) demonstrated that brain surface changes from smooth surface and from few enfolds to a significantly enfolded surface with an increase of myelin in cortical white matter. His study included new born babies from 31 weeks gestation to 40 weeks post conception age, and this was carried out for the first 2-3 years of the child’s life. This study was undertaken over a longer period of time which displayed a more significant result in the change in grey matter, which are the neuronal cell bodies, and the process of myelination of axons which is white matter. In addition to this it backs up the previous study as it has a similar trend. These studies highlight the importance of more grey matter linked to development as it inc ludes sections of the brain used in muscle control, and sensory perception, as well as others and they added to our understanding

Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Language Study Free Essays

It has its origins in the sass as a conscious reaction to Chomsky linguistics, tit its emphasis on formalistic syntactic analysis and its underlying assumption that language is independent from other forms of cognition. Increasingly, evidence was beginning to show that language is learned and processed much in the same way as other types of Information about the world, and that the same cognitive processes are Involved In language as are Involved In other forms of thinking. For example, In our everyday lives, we look at things from deferent angles, we get up close to them or further away and see them from different vantage points and with efferent levels of granularity; we assess the relative features of our environment and decide which are important and need to be attended to and which are less important and need to be backgrounder; we lump information together, perceive and create patterns in our environment, and look for these patterns in new environments when we encounter them. We will write a custom essay sample on Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Language Study or any similar topic only for you Order Now As we will see in this volume, all of these processes are at work in language too. The two key figures who are associated with the inception of Cognitive Linguistics are George Alaska and Ronald Linebacker. Both, t should be remembered, started their careers as members of a group of young scholars associated with the radical new approach spearheaded by NOAA Chomsky. By the sass, however, both Alaska and Linebacker were becoming increasingly disaffected with the formalistic approach to syntax associated with the Chomsky school. Both scholars turned their attention, Instead, to semantic Issues, which had been relatively neglected within the Chomsky framework. Alaska raised fundamental questions with regard to ‘objectivism’ SE antics that is, theories which maintained that entente meaning maps onto objectively verifiable states of affairs in the world. He argued, instead, that semantic content is mediated by how speakers construe and conceptualize the world. An important aspect of construal is how we categorize the things in our environment. Taking up the notion of prototype category developed by cognitive psychologist Eleanor Roach, Alaska argued that words do not name classically defined categories, that Is, categories constituted by a set of necessary and sufficient conditions. Rather, entitles can be good, or less good, members of a category. In a crucial and highly influential move, Alaska then proposed that the a syntactic construction, might also be analyses in terms of a central, prototypical member, and a number of extended, or more peripheral senses. A noteworthy milestone here is the dissertation by one of Alaska s students, Claudia Bergman, on the polymers of the preposition (Bergman, 1981). Bergman argued that t he ‘central’, ‘prototypical’ sense combines the meanings of ‘above’ and ‘across’, as in The bird flew over the yard . Extended senses, related in virtue of some common shared features, include the ‘above’ sense , as in the electric is hovering over the hill, the ‘across’ sense, as in Sam drove over the bridge , the ‘covering’ sense She spread the tablecloth over the table, the dispersal sense, as in The guards were posted all over the hill , and several more. Bargeman’s thesis (presented in Alaska 1987: Case Study 2) not only inspired a plethora of -studies, it also provided a template for polymers studies more generally. La Coffs second main contribution was to id entity a number of ‘conceptual metaphors’ that underlie our abstract concepts and the way we think about the world and ourselves (Alaska and Johnson 1980, 1999). For example, one of the most important conceptual metaphors is the idea that ‘good’ or ‘active’ things are ‘up’ whereas ‘bad’ or ‘static’ things are ‘down’, which allows us to say that we’re feeling IoW or having ‘down time’, that things are or that that they are ‘up and going’ . This metaphor was taken to reflect our basic experience with the world that we have as children; when we fall over we feel bad; when we lie down we are stationary, when we get up we are active, and when we are feeling good, we literally ‘stand tall’. As discussed in a later chapter, conceptual metaphor theory has come in for a good agree of criticism in recent years and the theory has been refined to take account of empirical psycholinguistic findings as well as more socio-cultural approaches to language, but the basic tenets remain the same: language tends to reflect our physical interactions with the world and abstract concepts are linked to physical experiences through metaphor. Linebacker’s contribution is perhaps more fundamental than Lassoes . His Cognitive Grammar (Linebacker 1987, 1991, 2008) offers a radical re-think of basic issues concerning the nature of linguistic meaning and its relation to the surface form of utterances. He proposed a ‘minimalist’ approach, whereby the only elements in linguistic description are (a) phonological representations, concerning the overt form of an expression (whether spoken, written, or signed), (b) semantic representations, roughly, meanings, broadly understood to include pragmatic, situational, and encyclopedic aspects, and (c) symbolic relations between elements of (a) and elements of (b). On this basis, a language comes to be characterized, quite simply, as an inventory of phonological, semantic, and symbolic units, and language acquisition is a matter of a speaker’s increasing command of these units. Importantly, the units differ along a number of dimensions. Thus some units are internally complex, while others are schematic to some degree or other. For example, the expression can-opener is internally complex, while the component unit can is an instance of the more schematic unit Noun, the whole expression being an instance of the complex schematic unit [N V- ere] and its associated semantics (roughly: ‘ a device that can be used for V- ins Ins’). The schematic unit can sanction an open-ended set of instantiations; in this way, Cognitive Grammar is bled to handle syntactic and morphological generalizations. It should also be noted that the unit has other semantic values (think of examples such as dog-lover , which denotes a person, not a thing, and , where the initial noun designates the place where a person dwells); in other words, the unit is polygamous, Just like the words of a language. The mechanics of Cognitive Grammar are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this volume. Three aspects, however, may be singled out for special mention here: The first concerns the way in which ‘grammaticality (or ‘acceptability- cognitive insists see little reason to distinguish the two concepts) is to be understood. Grammaticality, namely, has to do with the extent to which an expression is sanctioned, or legitimated, by an already existing schematic unit, or possibly by several such units, in the language; the fit, needless to say, need not be perfect, neither will different speakers of the language always assess the matter in the same way. * The second observation concerns the idea that syntactic organization is inherently symbolic and therefore meaningful, and that syntactic structures – Just like individual words ND morphemes associate a form and meaning. An early indicative study concerned the passive construction in English (Linebacker, 1982). Rather than being seen as the result of syntactic transformations, the construction and its various components, such as the verb be the verbal participle, and the by phrase, were argued to have semantic content, which contribute cumulatively to the semantic and pragmatic value of the passive construction. Thirdly, the Cognitive Grammar approach is sympathetic to the notion that linguistic knowledge, rather than residing in a small number of very road, high-level abstractions, may actually be rather low-level and ‘surface oriented’, consisting in multiple memories of already encountered usage and relatively shallow generalizations over these remembered instances. In practical terms, this means that linguistic knowledge will tend to be centered on individual lexical items and their idiosyncratic properties, concerning the syntactic environments in which they occur and their stylistic or pragmatic values. Similarly, the representation of syntactic and word-formation constructions will incorporate knowledge of the lexical items which typically occur in hem, in addition, once again, to information about the kinds of situations in which they are likely to be used. Although it represents a radical departure in some ways from many established ideas in linguistics (such as the formerly widely held view that syntax, semantics and pragmatics were largely independent of one another), the principles underlying Cognitive Linguistics resonated with many traditional concerns one thinks of classics such as Gustavo Steer’s Meaning and Change of Meaning (1931), C. S. Lewdest Studies in Words (1960), and various works by Stephan Almsman (e. G. , Almsman, 1964) How to cite Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Language Study, Essays

Evolution of the X-Box Supply Chain free essay sample

Xbox and Sony’s Playstation. Nintendo turns high profit margins with its console, the Nintendo Wii, however it competes virtually in its own market, pursuing the casual gamer. Microsoft and Sony lose money on sales of their consoles, and make up the profit on the games. Microsoft was not extremely successful with its development of the original Xbox, and made some essential changes in their gaming strategy to make the introduction of the Xbox 360 more profitable. The two important changes Microsoft made were repositioning the release date and changing the product offering. One of the biggest problems with the original Xbox was its release date. This problem was fixed with their second generation console. With video game consoles the release date is highly correlated to market share. First of all, when the Xbox was released, the Playstation 2 already had a predecessor with market share. â€Å"In Q4 1999, when the PS2 was launched, Sony sold 1. 1 million PS1 consoles, and 1. 4 million PS2 consoles. † (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain. ) This brand presence was further established when the Playstation 2 was released 12 months before the Xbox. Customers who wanted to move onto the next generation of gaming bought the PS2, choosing not to wait a full year for the Xbox. â€Å"Microsoft did not have the established base of games and gamers that Sony enjoyed, and Sony continued to dominate the market (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain. ). † One of the failure’s of the original Xbox has become a success for Microsoft with the Xbox360. Xbox did not have to worry about being a newcomer into the market anymore, the problem with their first console. Not only that but now they were doing exactly what Sony did. They chose to release their console over a year earlier than the PS3 taking advantage of the early adopters. In fact Xbox planned to sell 2. 75-3 million consoles within 90 days of their launch. Microsoft switched the tables on Sony, a very prudent part of their improved gaming strategy. Microsoft’s most important change in their gaming strategy with the Xbox 360 was how they adjusted their product offering. The original Xbox was differentiated from the PS2 on the basis of technology and features. The Xbox â€Å"processed 116 million polygons per second, compared to 66 million for the PS2 (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain). † The Xbox also had a better DVD player and overall better technology. This was a strategic move for Microsoft, and forced them to prolong the introduction. â€Å"A 2000 launch would force the company to use technology that did not offer a substantial improvement on Sony’s PS2, (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain†). † Once again the tables were switched with the Xbox 360. The graphics processor and microprocessor would both be more powerful than that offered by the Xbox 360. The PS2 had a Blu-Ray player while Microsoft installed a HD-DVD player. Clearly the PS3 has better technology but was that the right move? Xbox UK boss Neil Thompson said, â€Å"Sony is now making people pay an extra few hundred pounds for a Blu-Ray DVD drive which we dont know is going to be the standard in the next-generation DVD formats (Microsoft execs slam Sony Blu-Ray strategy). † This is important point because Sony is investing all of their money in Blu-ray technology. It will probably be the right move, but Xbox may be able to find a way to still compete, and still save precious manufacturing costs. Another product offering adjustment made by Microsoft is that they are trying to attract the casual gamer like Nintendo did. â€Å"Roping in the casual game fan will be a number of game show releases that promise to expand the consoles limits beyond its rather traditional hardware (Dimmel). † A partnership with NetFlix will also help pursue the casual, residential consumer. 2. With the original Xbox many of the supply chain initiatives were to reduce costs. This is an essential piece of making console sales profitable. Microsoft was not very successful reducing costs on their processing and graphic chips, as well as overall manufacturing costs with product design. Microsoft improved this with the release of the Xbox 360. For the original Xbox, Microsoft purchased the graphics chip from Nvidia and the microprocessor from Intel. For the second generation Microsoft changed its method. â€Å"Microsoft contracted with chip companies so that it owned the designs of the critical Xbox 360 chips (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain. ) . † This was a strategic move aimed at reducing costs, and giving Microsoft more leverage with suppliers. This had a great impact on the manufacturing and purchasing aspects of the supply chain. The second supply chain improvement was in the Xbox360’s actual product design. For the first generation the Xbox was big and bulky and required specific parts such as the controller to be ordered against the Microsoft contract. The second time around, â€Å"Microsoft brought its existing Xbox manufacturers into the design process so that design production could be optimized (Evolution of the Xbox Supply Chain). † It is always a brilliant supply chain move to work with your suppliers on product design. Optimized manufacturing always minimizes overall supply chain cost. Conclusively, Microsoft made significant supply chain changes with their chip design and product design. These process improvements minimized supply chain costs, and overall supply chain costs. 3. Microsoft’s new change to their supply chain is a strategic move to cover up one of their worst manufacturing decisions. The structural differences between the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 are that the Playstation has a built in Blu-ray technology, and the Xbox runs inferior technology, HD DVD. HD-DVD lost the battle to bluray for the next generation of DVDs, creating a huge manufacturing problem for Microsoft and their supply chain. Should Microsoft redesign their console, with blu-ray technology? According to Brandon Dimmel a writer for Geosign, â€Å"Microsoft has announced a partnership with Netflix, the online-based DVD rental company†¦The downloads are an alternative to switching HD support from HD-DVD to Blu-ray (Dimmel). † This partnership is a way for Xbox to strategically change its technology without changing their manufacturing costs or overall process, a great move. It seems that some of Microsoft’s best manufacturing moves are choosing to not change anything at all. While some of the other consoles may have to change their design to keep up with the improving techno-science market, Xbox360 will not. They are taking advantage of their extremely successful online access and partnering with other social networking sites. According to a 2009 New York Times article, â€Å"Microsoft announced new relationships with the social networking giants Facebook and Twitter as well as Sky, the big British satellite television provider (Scheisel). While this doesn’t seem to be a change in Microsoft’s supply chain it essentially is. Applications for the IPhone, are a part of their product offering and downloading them is a distribution channel for their supply chain. The Xbox 360 has superior internet access to PS3’s because of the willingness for their customers to pay. Microsoft knows this so they are using the downloading ability to expand the product offerings and provide effective distribution channels. This will expand the overall profitability of these machines, because as we already know, you lose money on the consoles and make money on the games and other products. This also helps Xbox360 challenge its other competitor, the Nintendo Wii. The Wii is for the casual gamers, not the hardcore gamer as the Xbox is. The NY Times reports, â€Å"Reaching out beyond hardcore video game players to everyday consumers†¦ Microsoft outlined an entertainment strategy on Monday for making the company’s Xbox 360 game console a gateway for movies, television and social networking,† (Scheisel). This is another winning strategy for Microsoft. Microsoft always seems to significantly improve their products by the third generation as they did with Windows, and it seems that they are at it again. Microsoft should stay on this course and continue to expand their products by utilizing their top of the line internet access. It seems that they are already doing this and will continue with their new social networking initiatives.

The Solar System Essay Sample free essay sample

1 ) What do we intend by a geocentric existence? Contrast a geocentric position with our modern position of the existence. Geocentric describes the thought that everything revolved around Earth. compared to modern cognition that everything revolves around the Sun ( our star ) . 2 ) Briefly describe the major degrees of construction ( such as planet. star. galaxy ) in the existence. Planet: ( a ) Orbits a star. ( B ) big plenty for its ain gravitation to do it round. ( degree Celsius ) has cleared most other objects from its orbital way. Sun: The star of our solar system.Star: Large. glowing ball of enkindled gas that generates heat and visible radiation through atomic merger in its nucleus. Galaxy: A great island of stars in infinite. incorporating a few hundred million or trillion stars held together by gravitation. revolving a common centre. 3 ) What do we intend when we say that the existence is spread outing? How does enlargement lead to the thought of the Big Bang? Observations of distant galaxies show that the existence is spread outing by an mean distance addition between galaxies. We will write a custom essay sample on The Solar System Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page We are able to follow back at this rate to find what we were all one existence and where the Big Bang might hold started. 4 ) What did Carl Sagan mean when he said that we are â€Å"star stuff† ? Star material refers to the cognition that all the elements in the existence are created from stars. including ourselves. The bigger the star. the heavier the elements. 5 ) How fast does light go? What is a light-year? Light travels at a velocity of 300. 000 km/sec. From Moon to Earth. it takes about 1 2nd for visible radiation to go. From the Sun to the Earth is takes about 8 proceedingss. On light-year’s travel = 10 trillion kilometers ( 6 trillion stat mis ) . 6 ) Explain the statement: The farther off we look in distance. the farther back we look in clip. Because light takes so long to go these long distances. the visible radiations we are seeing are really millions of old ages old. 7 ) What do we intend by the discernible existence? Is it the same thing as the full existence? The discernible universe includes everything that we can potentially see. anything less than 14 billion light years from Earth’s place ) . It is non the same thing as the full existence. merely the part that we can see. 8 ) Describe the solar system as it looks on the 1-to-10 billion graduated table used in the text. How far off are the other stars on this same graduated table? The nearest star system to our ain. Alpha Centauri. is about 4. 4 light-years off. That distance is approximately 4400 kilometer ( 2700 myocardial infarction ) on the 1-to-10 billion graduated table. or approximately tantamount to the distance across the U. S. 9 ) Describe at least one manner to set the graduated table of the Milky Way Galaxy into position and at least one manner to set the size of the discernible existence into position. If you cut down our solar system by a scale factor of 1 billion. the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy become 100 metre. ( a football field ) . and our microscopic solar system is located on the 20 pace line. If you stood at our place. 1000000s of star systems would lie within the range of your weaponries. 10 ) Use the cosmic calendar to depict how the human race fits into the graduated table of clip. The full human civilisation falls into merely the last half minute on the cosmic calendar. where one month is more than 1 billion old ages. 11 ) Define astronomical unit. ecliptic plane. and axis joust. Explain how each is related to Earth’s rotary motion and/or orbit. Astronomic unit: Earth’s mean orbital distance. equivalent to about 150 million kilometres or 93 million stat mis. Ecliptic plane: Earth’s orbital plane. level way Axis joust: 23 1/2 grades perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. points about precisely to Polaris ( current Northern Star ) 12 ) What is the form of the Milky Way Galaxy? Describe our solar system’s location and gesture. The form of the Milky Way Galaxy is a revolving. pinwheel-like disc. Our solar system is located in a 230-million-year orbit. about 28. 000 light years from the centre of the Galaxy. 13 ) Distinguish between our galaxy’s disc and aura. Where does the cryptic dark affair seem to shack? Most of the mass of the galaxy lies outside of the seeable disc in what we call the aura. The affair exterior is called dark affair because we have non detected any light coming from it. 14 ) What cardinal observation leads us to reason that the existence is spread outing? Use the raisin bar theoretical account to explicate how these observations imply enlargement. An spread outing raisin bar shows that if person was populating in one of the raisins inside the bar. they could calculate out that the bar is spread outing by detecting that all the other raisins are traveling off. with more distant raisins traveling off faster. In the same manner. we know that we live in an spread outing existence because all galaxies outside our Local Group are traveling off from us. more distant 1s traveling faster.

Expanded and Extended

Expanded and Extended Expanded and Extended Expanded and Extended By Maeve Maddox Tali asks, What is the difference between extended and expanded When do you use either? Although extend and expand can be used interchangeably in some contexts, extend applies to things that are being stretched out, while expand applies to things that are spread out. One implies length; the other area. If you extend your arm, for example, you stretch it out, making it longer. If your waist expands, its getting larger. As a business expands, or gets larger, it may extend its opening hours. Extend comes from a word meaning to stretch out, lengthen. (Latin extendere, stretch out, from ex out + tendere, to stretch.) Expand comes from a word meaning spread out, spread flat. (Latin ex out + pandere to spread, stretch. In this quotation that uses both words, extend conveys a lengthening of time, while expand indicates that more people will be covered by the credit: On Wednesday, the Senate voted to extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. Here are some uses of both words: Laguna College of Art and Design officials hope to expand the library and build a new gallery. Availability of the iPad will expand to all of Best Buys U.S. stores Sessions Predicts Congress Will Extend Tax Cuts After Election Investigators are going to extend the probe until February 2011 A contract might be expanded to include additional specifications, or extended to last for a longer period: BP could expand the contract of a local disaster relief company, giving it the power to call in additional resources to defend Mobile Bay in the event its threatened by oil†¦ Last seasons UEFA Champions League runners-up, Bayern Munich, have decided to extend the contract of Coach Louis van Gaal. When expanded and extended are used as adjectives, context determines meaning: This article explains how to allocate memory and set up your system to run both expanded and extended memory. The Extended Mind refers to an emerging concept†¦that addresses the question as to the division point between the mind and the environment†¦ I have returned [from my travels] with an expanded mind and an open heart. Bottom line: Choose expand if what youre talking about is getting wider, becoming more inclusive, or taking up more space. Use extend if what youre talking about is increasing in duration, length, or reach. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Spelling Test 1The Many Forms of the Verb TO BETreatment of Words That Include â€Å"Self†

Is It Too Early To Be Making My College List?

We’re definitely in favor of getting started early on the process of preparing for college application season. Applying to competitive colleges is a time-consuming process that deserves your full attention, so it’s important that you give yourself enough time to do your applications justice. One task that will be part of your college planning process is choosing which colleges belong on your personal college list . As we recently mentioned in our post 10 Considerations For Making Your College List , there are over 7,000 institutions in the United States that offer post-secondary degrees, so you’ll obviously have to narrow it down quite a bit. If you’re still in ninth or tenth grade and in the early stages of preparing for college, you may be wondering when to get started with this process of narrowing down your college choices. The short answer is that you can start working on your college list early in high school, but you need to think of it as an evolving document that’s responsive to changes in your college goals. Read on for more information about why you should start working on your college list early and how to stay flexible when planning where to apply to college. When we talk about your â€Å" college list ,† we generally mean the list of colleges to which you’re interested in applying. Eventually, your college list will become a fixed set of schools — between around six and  a dozen, for most students — to which you’ll actually submit applications during your senior year. Your college list will be divided into three categories — target schools, reach schools, and safety schools — based on your likelihood of admission to each school. It’s important to have an appropriate range of schools on your list. (Take a look at our post The College List, Decoded: Safety, Target, and Reach Schools for more information on these categories.)    Which schools end up on your college list is a function of many different variables, potentially including academic requirements, selectivity, cost, location, size, financial aid availability, the unique opportunities each school offers, and many others. Colleges might land on your list for practical reasons, or due to less tangible features like the school’s campus atmosphere. Overall, though, all the colleges on your list should be schools that genuinely interest you, that you feel positively about, and that are good matches to your applicant profile and college needs. Each of the schools on your list should be somewhere that you can actually see yourself attending.    By the time you submit your applications, you’ll need to have a finalized and concrete college list. However, when you’re starting out, your list definitely doesn’t have to be so rigid. Early on, it can also function as a way to keep track of which colleges interest you, what factors are important to you in choosing a college, and what your application process might eventually look like. It’s a great idea to get started planning for college and the demands of the college application process well before your application deadlines. As we’ve talked about previously in our post Is Freshman Year Too Early to Start College Planning? , there are significant benefits that come with starting your college research and preparation early on.   There are limits on what you can do when you’re planning for college early in high school. For instance, you can’t actually start filling out your college application forms until the fall of your senior year of high school. Also, it’s usually not a good idea to take your standardized tests before your junior year — if you wait until later in high school, your scores will likely be higher.    However, there’s a lot of work that can be done early on. Below, we’ll go over a few ways that you can work on your college list in your first two years of high school.   You can research the requirements of college applications, get an idea of what your favorite colleges will ask of you, and make sure that you’re on track to fulfill their requirements. Knowing as much as possible about the colleges in which you’re interested will help you to make informed decisions later on. Having particular schools in mind when you’re preparing for college applications can also be a significant motivator for you. If you know that your dream schools have high expectations for their applicants, this can inspire you to work hard and challenge yourself in high school in order to make yourself a better applicant for those schools. Setting goals early in high school gives you something specific for which to aim. No matter which colleges you eventually apply to, it’s still beneficial for you to set these high goals — your accomplishments will be an asset to you in applying to any college. Starting early on making your college list gives you plenty of time to collect information, make thoughtful decisions, and, if necessary, change your mind. If the information you gather leads to a change of heart about a college you initially thought was a good match for you, it’s best to learn this well before you invest your time and effort in that school’s application. Starting early gives you time to make new plans without having to scramble at the last minute, both in terms of ruling out certain colleges and in terms of finding previously unknown-to-you colleges that appeal to you. Putting together a competitive college application takes time, so adding a college to your list at the eleventh hour won’t give you a good opportunity to make that application the best it can be. Our Early Advising Program helps students in 9th and 10th grade discover their passions and build strong academic and extracurricular profiles to succeed in high school. As you can see, there’s nothing wrong with starting to formulate your college list early on; in fact, doing so is a good idea. However, in order for this plan to be effective in helping you to manage your college applications, it’s essential that you be open to making changes to your college list in its earliest incarnations. Overall, flexibility is an important quality to have during the college admissions process. You may not be accepted to the colleges at the top of your list, so adjusting your plans is something you need to be able to do in order to meet the challenges with which you’ll be faced. Your teenage years are a time for growing and learning, and many people find that their plans and goals change over the course of high school, sometimes dramatically. As you discover new academic and career options, gain life experience, and get to know yourself better, your college plans will evolve as well. Your unfolding high school career will also determine which colleges belong on your list, and in which categories. For instance, your cumulative GPA and the details of your academic performance will help to decide which colleges are appropriate target schools for you. As we’ve discussed, a major benefit of starting early is that it gives you time to change your mind, and this is an opportunity that you should embrace. You need to make sure that you don’t lock yourself into one particular plan too soon; even if you feel pretty sure about your college and career ambitions, you still have a great deal to learn and experience, and you might find a different field or plan that you end up liking even more. When you’re in ninth or tenth grade, you shouldn’t try to make any concrete determinations about where you’re going to apply to college. It’s simply too early for you to make a fully informed decision about what you intend to do with your next few years, much less the rest of your life. What you need to do is keep a running college list and adapt that list as your situation changes. Use it as a way to keep track of colleges that interest you, compare different colleges, and consider what characteristics are important to you when choosing a college. Having this information available to you in an organized and accessible format can only help you as you endeavor to set appropriate goals for the rest of your high school experience and beyond. It’s not too early to start making your college list, as long as you keep in mind that the key word is start, and that it’s not yet time to make any definite decisions . A flexible college list with room for changes makes the best guide for college planning early in high school. At , we’re committed to providing information and assistance not only for students who are actively involved in the college application process, but also for motivated students who want to start their college planning process well in advance.