If your student is pre-health/pre-med:
- consider some Colleges That Change Lives schools.
- many have excellent merit scholarships and good track records of students getting accepted to health professions’ grad schools.
- www.ctcl.org.
But what if YOU had your heart set on ‘Lottery School,’ but your kid’s favorite is NOT a Lottery School?
- You may be wondering, "What am I going to say to people when they look at me funny and ask, ‘Why is your kid going there?’
- Guide your student to own and be proud of their decision.
- Have a quick elevator speech to give people when they ask that question.
- For example: “Son/daughter is excited about going to Univ of New Mexico this fall. He/she is a film major and did you know that Netflix has a huge studio right next to campus? The film majors regularly get internships there at Netflix and Netflix hires UNM film grads all the time. It’s a great opportunity!”
- I GUARANTEE YOU that if you say it with CONFIDENCE, then the person who sneered at you will then turn around and say, “Oh, interesting! Tell me more about that.”
FINANCIAL AID:
- financial aid is NOT THE SAME as merit scholarships.
- some colleges do NOT hand out any scholarships and ONLY give out need-based financial aid (NYU is a good example). This means at a school like that, if your family does not qualify (based on FAFSA and/or CSS profile) for financial aid, THEY’RE NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU ANY FREE MONEY. NO discounts on tuition, fees, room & board.
College Essay Guy
- www.collegeessayguy.com
- also has a Youtube channel and podcast
- he has several ~5 min short writing exercises designed to get your personal statement essay writing juices flowing.
- our HS senior used a lot of those and found it to be really helpful.
DON’T TALK ABOUT COLLEGE ALL OF THE TIME!
- Pick 1 15-min time slot a week to talk college w/your kid.
- ONLY talk about college during that time slot.
- It’ll keep you & your student from driving each other bananas through the process.
The same major at different colleges can have slightly different course requirements:
- info about this can be found on college’s department websites or in the college’s course catalog.
- This is a good task to give to your student.
- Give them a spreadsheet to fill out. Have them look up & document the required courses for ONE major at ONE college per week.
- this would be something good to start looking at in latter half of junior year, in my personal opinion.
General ed requirements are not the same everywhere:
- does your kid want a more open curriculum (like at Brown)?
- or something more specific like at Jesuit universities?
- or something in between?
- have your student look this up on colleges’ websites.
When going on college tours:
- don’t have the 1st tour be to a Lottery School.
- pick a college closer to home 1st. Go in with the attitude of “we’re just going to see what A college looks like.”
- AFTER THE TOUR IS DONE: do NOT share your opinion right away. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Ask your child what he/she thinks. And when they say, “Uh, I don’t know,” ask them to name 3 things they liked and 3 things they didn’t like as much. This will shed some light onto what they’re thinking. And it will help you and your child refine the college list better.
Remember:
- YOU are not the one going to college. Your child is.
- Your child may feel overwhelmed at times during this process. This is normal to feel this way. this is a marathon, not a sprint. And how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Modern States’ Freshman Year For Free Program:
- www.modernstates.org
- you can take up to 8 of their online self-paced courses for free. At the end of the course, once you take and pass a practice CLEP exam, they give you a free voucher, which you then use to register with College Board to take the exam.
- in-person test centers are usually at universities and community colleges. This usually has a ‘test center fee.’ the test center fee at our local community college was $25.
- there’s also an option to take the exam online. You’ll need a webcam for this.
- Will the colleges your kid is applying to give them course credit for passing a CLEP exam? Most public institutions do, even some private colleges.
- How do you find out if they’ll give credit for a CLEP exam? Go on the college’s website and do a search for “CLEP” or go to CLEP College Credit Policy Search – CLEP | College Board
Helpful books you might want to read:
- How To Get The Most Out Of College, by Elliot Felix
- Thinking Critically in College: The Essential Handbook for Student Success, by Louis E. Newman
- The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into In College, by Harlan Cohen. NOTE: follow him on Instagram. He has a whole bunch of short reel videos chock full of helpful, practical advice to high school seniors and college students and parents.