Tag Archives: College Counselors

Student Athletes

Pixabay Swimming PoolStudent Athletes need to be strategic when they are applying to College. If you can afford to hire a counselor who has counseled several student athletes or specializes in student athletes, you may find that is money well spent. On the other hand, sometimes Counselors who specialize in student athletes may be weak in the many other facets of College Admissions. The best way to assess a Counselor is to ask other clients about their experience. In the meantime, here are some articles addressing the issues specific to student athletes:

http://www.nacacnet.org/research/PublicationsResources/Marketplace/student/Pages/GetInTheGame.aspx

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/03/24/8-tips-for-the-student-athlete

http://college.usatoday.com/2011/11/21/seven-tips-to-help-student-athletes-improve-their-game-grades-and-relationships/

https://www.recruitingrealities.com/2012/10/10-success-tips-for-the-student-athlete/

https://exactsports.com/blog/academics-athletes-tips-on-how-to-succeed-in-college/2011/04/28/

http://www.athleticaid.com/Parents.html

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College Criteria

If you are working with a College Counselor, they will guide you through the process of searching for Colleges, which will include creating a list of College criteria, to help you narrow the 4,000+  Colleges to a shortened list of Potentials, which are you best match Colleges.

Pixabay Magnifying GlassMaybe you are ahead of the game and are thinking about Colleges before you meet with a College Counselor, or you won’t be hiring a College Counselor or you/your parents want to visit some Colleges while on vacation the summer after Freshman year of High School. Where to begin? I believe one of the most overwhelming aspects of the College Application Process is the College Search. For more advice on the early College Search, see Setting Realistic Expectations with Limited Knowledge – The Early Search and Choosing Where to Apply Based On Your Financial Situation.

Pixabay Spreadsheet

General College Criteria

A good place to start is to consider General College Criteria that is important to you. This sheet can get you started in thinking about what matters and what doesn’t. Do you have other ideas for what should be added to this list? Please leave a reply.

Pixabay Sharing Information

Share Your Experience

Did you make a great spreadsheet with your College Criteria? If you found a creative variable to consider, please share it by leaving a Comment.

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Finding Colleges With Strong Programs in Your Intended Degree

Pixabay Undecided

You may have no idea what you want to study. But even if you think you know what you want to study, you might change your mind

I’ve read articles stating that 80% of College students change their major at least once. Therefore, picking a College solely because of their reputation in a field of study you are interested in is probably not a great idea. On the other hand, if you think you want to be an Engineer, you might as well pick a College with a strong Engineering program. The question is, how do you find Colleges with strong programs in your intended degree?

If you are already keen to do a particular thing, you should certainly consider Colleges’ reputations in that field, but not as the only variable when considering a College’s Academic qualities. Maybe you start out in Engineering and then decide you would prefer to be a Surgeon. If the College you chose for Engineering has a good Science/Pre-Med program, then great. Otherwise you will be wondering if you should transfer Colleges. But keep in mind that if you are looking at years of post-undergraduate schooling to obtain a Masters or higher degree, maybe a College with a pretty good Science program is all you need for undergraduate school.

How do you figure out which Colleges have a strong program? 

  • Check to see where accomplished Professionals in that field of study attended College.
  • Ask those accomplished Professionals which College programs they hear good things about. You may hear that Professionals in that field went to a mixed-bag of undergraduate Colleges, but generally attended 1 of 5 strong Graduate schools.
  • Research options on the internet, in articles, publications for that field of study and various College-Search resources.
  • Clarify your research with an Admission Officer or with a knowledgeable Professional: is the specialty at this particular College more research-based when you are more interested in tangible applications? Is this particular College, which is listed in many articles as strong in writing, really strong in creative writing, while you are interested in non-fiction?
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Colleges With Strong Writing Programs

As you find potential Colleges with strong programs in your field of interest, add them to a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet tracks Colleges with Strong Writing Program, as an example.

Pixabay Sharing Information

Share Your Experience

Have you found a great resource for learning about strong College programs? Please share it by adding a Comment.

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Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth breeds knowledge (and knowledge is POWER).

You Never Know When You Will Learn Something New, Sometimes From an Unexpected Source

You Never Know When You Will Learn Something New, Sometimes From an Unexpected Source

I know, I know, you get what you pay for. But word-of-mouth is invaluable in both preparing for College and The College Search, in the same way that this website is valuable to students and parents, because you are getting advice from a parent who has recently helped their child in The College Search and who understands the need for specific, organized, pertinent information about The Search. Effective word-of-mouth, by my definition, means that people are sharing information they think is valuable to each other. Word-of-mouth information can be inaccurate or incomplete, but it often provides a bigger picture, and a different perspective.

Do you need examples?

1. My kid wants to take a class not offered at her school (Advanced French, for example), and is debating whether to take that class at another High School, a Community College or on-line. She asks her counselor, who suggests she take the class on-line, because its hard to line up her class schedule at her High School with when that class is offered at another High School or Community College.  She is proactive, and asks a few friends who have taken off-campus courses for advice. One of them warns her that their school allows only 2 classes be taken on-line. My kid wanted to take Health and Creative Writing through on-line courses, and realizes that if she takes Advanced French on-line, that will preclude her plans for Health and Creative Writing. She can now make a more informed decision, some of that information coming from word-of-mouth, which is more complete information than she discovered merely by talking to her counselor.

2. A Senior in High School is debating whether to apply to a “reach” school, thinking it’s unlikely he will be accepted. He mentions this school to a friend, who happens to be friends with a College Junior (Sherry) attending that College. This friend tells him that Sherry struggled with her grades when she attended their same High School. He mentions this news to a teacher, who knows Sherry. The teacher offers to connect the students over Skype. During their discussion, Sherry admits that she did not have a great cumulative GPA due to some missteps early in her High School years, which makes the boy hopeful, as his GPA is also not stellar. She said that based on conversations with the school and her classmates after she attended the College, she understood more about what got her “in”: a) the College valued that she got consistently better grades starting her Junior year, b) she had spectacular test scores, and c) the school emphasizes sports, and she was a star varsity volleyball player. At this point, he feels less hopeful, as he has not been successful in raising his grades his Junior and Senior years, his test scores are average and he doesn’t play a sport. Can he find more information that might might make him think he can get in? Yes, but he knows a lot more after the conversation with Sherry than if he had only been told that there’s a kid from their high school who wasn’t a great student that got in. That doesn’t mean he can’t apply, but now he knows his chances of acceptance are not high. Maybe that conversation gets him thinking about how Sherry’s talents helped her gain acceptance, and that he should look for another desirable “reach” school that emphasizes music, because he was a finalist in the State Competition, playing the oboe. Knowledge is power!

The key to word-of-mouth is you have to be talking to someone who has experienced the same issue or know someone who has, and that this person became very knowledgeable about that issue. That is why a College Counselor can be invaluable, because they know the intimate details of many students’ experiences, and therefore will be more likely to provide relevant information. But even their experiences are limited, so you should still be trying to procure word-of-mouth information, censoring it for inaccuracies. Seek knowledge through many resources, but don’t discount the value of word-of-mouth.

Pixabay Playmobile Figures Talking

Great things can come from talking to others about your College Search

When I am with a group of parents with High-School aged children, it is invariable that a discussion about Colleges results. These can be GREAT discussions, because someone is sharing a story or insight, and if there are others in the group with similar experiences, they can elaborate or disagree, based on their knowledge. That story leads to more questions, and I am leaving that gathering with new things to think about.

 

Word-of-Mouth Breeds Success

Another reason to get in the habit of promoting these discussions? Most people agree that success in life often comes from who you know. But you need to FIGURE OUT who you know. Do you know where your friends went to College? Their current employer and position, as well as previous employer and positions? Where they used to live? Their sports and favorite past-times? Knowing who you know means you can take advantage of their experiences when the need arises.

If you are a connectoror know a connector, good things result.

Connecting Can Be Fulfilling

Connecting Can Be Fulfilling

connector knows about their friends, co-workers, etc. and connects people. If their cousin wants to be a Financial Advisor, they connect her with their son’s best friend’s father, who is a Financial Advisor. When their babysitter is moving to Oregon for a position at Nike, they connect him to their co-worker, who used to live in Oregon and has friends who work at Nike.

Word-of-Mouth can be awesome!

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Early Decision, Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Regular Decision, Rolling Admission

It’s time to figure out some application strategy, in terms of when and how to apply to a College. You have options for how you apply to a particular College. Those options may include Early Decision, Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Regular Decision and/or Rolling Admission Application Plans, depending on the College. Before we get into the details, it’s important for you to understand an important factor in the Admissions game, which is Yield.

When and how you apply to College can have a big impact on outcome.  In general, there are five ways (or plans) to apply to College:

  1. Early Decision (ED) – sometimes there is ED1 and ED2

    Applying Early Can be a Good Thing... Unless it's Not

    Applying Early Can be a Good Thing… Unless it’s Not

  2. Early Action (EA) – sometimes there is EA1 and EA2
  3. Restrictive Early Action (REA) – AKA Single-Choice Early Action
  4. Regular Decision (RD)
  5. Rolling Admission (RA)

Colleges don’t offer all of these options; typically they offer RD plus one other application plan, unless they offer RA.

A College’s policy regarding offering financial and/or merit aid for different admission plans (ED vs. RD, for example) are important considerations that should be discussed with the College’s Admission Officer. It is also important to research and discuss admission rates for the different application plans. Finally, ask about early application plans acceptance rates, adjusted for athletes and legacies.

About 450 Colleges have Early Decision or Early Action plans.  To determine which application plans are offered at a particular College, type <school name> undergraduate admissions deadlines in your search engine. Again, a College Counselor can be invaluable in navigating this complex process.

Checkout Deadlines and Timelines for related information.

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Application Plans, Deadlines by College & By Date

See the spreadsheets below for ideas on how to track application deadlines for each Application Plan they offer. You will want to track this information by College and by due date.

Application Plans, Deadlines, by College

Application Deadlines, by Date

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PARENTS: Why Should I Help My Child Find the Right College?

Every parent of high-school aged children tells me, “No one helped me find a College to attend when I was in High School!”.  Most then go on to say “I wish they had.” and “There’s no way I could have figured out how and where to apply, in today’s College environment.”.  A few (brave? ignorant?) parents say proudly “I am letting my kid be in charge of this process.  I THINK it’s going pretty well.”

The #1 LOGICAL reason to help your child find the right College? 
MONEY!

Does money motivate you?

Does money motivate you?

  1. A student left to their own devices may not realize that a private school may be much more liberal with financial aid than the public school in their state: in-state public school tuition costs can actually be MORE expensive than a private College!
  2. They may not figure out that a reach school is MUCH less likely to offer merit aid than a safety school.
  3. Neither of you may realize that you can contest FAFSA’s OR CSS Profile’s assessment of your ability to pay, if  there are extraordinary circumstances in your home that were not accurately reflected in your financial aid forms.  (Are there extra family members living in the home that increase your expenses?  Do you have extensive medical bills that you are struggling to pay off?)
  4. Or they may not think about money at all, and be extremely disappointed when they get into their dream school, only to hear you say “There’s no way we can afford for you to attend that school”, after you meet with the College’s financial aid officer and determine the costs.

The #1 EMOTIONAL reason to help your child search for the right College?
HAPPINESS!

We live in a small town, my daughters attend a small High School. When I asked my Sophomore to tell me what she would want in a College, she said “I want a BIG College in a BIG town”.  In other words, not what I have now!

Pixabay Kids Happy at Computer

Help Your Student Make a College Choice That Will Make Them HAPPY

I found a medium-to-small College NEAR a big town that I was sure she would love, and took her on a tour.  She loved that school.  I nicely pointed out that it was not a big College nor in a big town, so remember to be open-minded in her College Search.  That experience was much more powerful for her than me TELLING her that maybe she might not want to attend a big school in a big town.  You know your kid, and you know a lot more about the College experience and life in general – help your 16, 17, 18 year old figure out what they really want, not what they think they want. Remember, they are beginning to consider themselves as adults capable of making their own decisions. The way you give them advice can positively or negatively impact how they take that advice.

The College Search is a whole new game, much more complex and difficult than when we attended College.  I am hearing more and more stories of students coming home from a College and not going back, either attending a Community College while they try to figure out what they want to do, or transferring from College A to College B because they did not like College A. While not the end of the world, transferring Colleges is expensive:

  1. Did they complete the quarter/semester, or become so miserable, they left early?
  2. Will College B accept all of the credits from College A?
  3. Does College A and College B have different core requirements?  Most likely!

This all translates to more tuition, as it will likely take longer to graduate.

Transferring Colleges is disruptive and stressful, even if that transfer is the best thing for the student.  Do the academic calendars line up, or is the student sitting at home waiting to start College B, wondering if they have made a mistake, or possibly feeling like they somehow failed?  It’s easier to start at a College at the same time as the rest of the Freshman, who are all new to the environment.  That transition is HARD, which is why a key factoid Colleges share is their Freshman retention rate.  Colleges implement many programs for incoming Freshman to get oriented and to feel they belong, to increase that retention rate.  Coming in later that year or in future years can be a hard transition, both academically and socially.

Pixabay StressfulHelp your student!  If you don’t have the time or tend to butt heads, find the money to hire a College Counselor.  It may not come cheap, but outside buying a home, your child’s post-High School education will likely be the biggest investment you make (or the biggest loans your child acquires).  Spending some money up-front will likely save you money in the long run, and net a better outcome for your child’s happiness and success.

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Setting Realistic Expectations with Limited Knowledge – The Early College Search

How do you set realistic expectations for your eligibility at selective Colleges before you have taken Standardized Tests or otherwise demonstrated your academic abilities?

The Early College Search Question You are on top of your College Search. You (or your child) aren’t yet well into your Junior year, but you want to make sure that you are doing all the right things (academics, extracurriculars, etc.) so that you are an Eligible College Student. Or maybe you want to take advantage of a family trip to see some potential Colleges. Excellent! Now what?

Starting Early is Immensely Helpful, but Requires Strategy

Starting Early is Immensely Helpful, but Requires Strategy

The Realistic Search – Many institutions state they use a holistic approach in their admissions process, which means they are looking beyond (not instead of) test scores and grades when considering your application. BUT that doesn’t mean they don’t heavily weigh your test scores and grades when considering your application. At highly selective Colleges, RARE exceptions may be made for a phenomenal athlete, a young Yo Yo Ma, a student who has overcome amazing obstacles or contributed in a spectacular way in their community (no, I don’t mean you went to the Humane Society every week to walk dogs).

If you don’t fit into one of the exceptional categories, you need to be aware that a student that doesn’t match a school’s academic (grades, test scores) profile is less likely to be accepted into that institution. Furthermore, these so-called “reach” schools are much less likely to offer you merit aid. Long story short, be realistic and compare your academic profile to that of a typical accepted student to know whether a particular school is a “safety” “match” or “reach” school. Remember that comparing your academic profile to the typical admitted student as your sole criteria for whether you are likely to be accepted into a College is oversimplifying the Admissions process.

PARENTS: Motivating Your Student by Exposing Them to a Great Institution A great way to motivate your child to do well in High School is to expose them to a great institution that motivates them. I don’t think too many kids would walk on Stanford’s campus and not think, “Wow, I’d like to go here!”. (When my kid said that, I said “I’d like to go here too!”) Downside: if there is no way their academic record or your wallet are going to make that school possible, you may be setting them up for disappointment. On the other hand, never say never when it comes to your child getting into a “reach” school. I think you need to make an educated decision about what schools to expose to your child, as motivation.

Report Card

There are ways you can use your limited knowledge and project some answers to help you target your search.

The Early College Search Answer – You may not be far enough in your high school education to know where you GPA is heading, especially as you might choose to add some more rigorous courses (Honors, AP) into your workload as an upper classmen. And at most, you have only taken the PSAT. But there are ways you can take your limited knowledge and project some answers to help you target your search. And there are many things you should be doing now to make sure you are an Eligible College Student.

Extending Limited Knowledge – This College Board webpage provides information to help analyze your PSAT scores, including a chart to convert Sophomore year PSAT scores to likely Junior year PSAT scores, and a chart to convert Junior year PSAT scores to likely SAT Scores (see Standardized Tests and  When Do I Take Which Tests? if you are thinking “huh?”).  This information is for 2014. If you are looking for the same information for a more current year, type psat to sat conversion chart (and the year) in your internet search engine. Think about how you handle the demands of a more rigorous class and how your extracurricular activities and personal life are impacting your ability to study and apply yourself in class. If you have not been applying yourself, now is a good time to make changes and set goals. A College will be impressed if you bring up your grades after a slow start, even if your overall GPA is not stellar. See Grades and Test Scores – How do I Fix This? if you feel your academic record doesn’t reflect your abilities.

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