Your college student is a unique creature. They are at once old enough to be considered adults but still young and inexperienced enough to make some pretty big mistakes. They are also incredibly idealistic, which can lead to them making even more mistakes as they try to pursue their dreams.
For all of these reasons, it is important for the people in their lives to offer them support. Here are six ways you can support your college student:
Continue reading 6 Ways to Support Your College Student
It’s that time of year when seniors will be weighing their college options. Choices will be made as parents and students evaluate colleges who offered admission.
The long wait is over and it’s time to make a decision. Which college will your student attend? This decision feels like the most important decision in his life up to this point and will weigh heavily on his mind and yours over the next month.
Before your teen makes the decision, however, you should weigh your college options. You would never purchase a home without determining its value, its fit for your family, or even its location. This college decision should be approached in the same manner. And to complicate matters, the decision has to be made in a timely manner—the National Candidate’s Reply Date is May 1st.
If your student didn’t get an offer of admission from his first or even second choice college, or he is accepted without enough financial aid, it’s time to re-evaluate the colleges on his list. Your teen should take a closer look at those schools on the list that weren’t on top. If he did his homework before applying, these schools should be more than sloppy seconds.
Continue reading Weighing Your College Options
This may seem like an odd topic to introduce on a parenting for college blog. But it must be said. Sometimes college just won’t do. If you are one of those parents whose child isn’t thrilled with the prospect of college, I’m here for you. Not every child should go to college—there, I said it.
No college doesn’t necessarily mean your child is stuck in a low-paying job for the rest of their life. They have options. These options can provide your child with a bright future and many who pursue these paths often outpace those who went to college.
Continue reading What To Do If College Won’t Do
If you have a junior in high school, you are starting to think about which colleges might make their top 10 list and the best place to start collecting information is online through college search sites. College search sites match colleges to your teen’s interests and abilities. Encourage your teen to spend some time on each of the sites changing preferences a bit. They might wind up with an entirely different list of colleges that might introduce them to unique possibilities.
When my daughter was searching for college possibilities, she knew about Boston University but had no knowledge of a much smaller college in the same area: Bentley College. The search process using college search sites unearthed this gem and it turned out to be her final college choice. If she did not spend time searching for colleges in the Boston area, she would never have found the school she now calls her alma mater.
If you’re putting together your college list, check out these online search engines:
Continue reading 10 College Search Sites
Data from the National Association for College Admission Counseling show there is a powerful tool students can use to improve their admission chances: demonstrated interest. How can social media play a part?
Social media makes it easier than ever to connect with colleges and their representatives. You can follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn, and follow their Pinterest and Instagram accounts. Demonstrate genuine interest and contribute to the conversations; but don’t flood their accounts with replies and questions. In this case, less is more.
When application decision time rolls around you should have established yourself as an interested candidate. College admissions officers should be able to look at their records and see that you demonstrated interest. Some will remember your face, look back on your interview and be able to recall any conversations they had with you during the admissions process. You will trump anyone who hasn’t expressed interest and was simply a casual shopper.
Here’s how you can leverage specific social media accounts and use them to communicate with colleges:
Continue reading Connecting With Colleges on Social Media
It’s that time of year. Students who applied ED and EA have already heard from the colleges regarding their admission decisions. Students who are applying regular decision will be sending off those applications this month and hearing early in the spring. What happens next?
Colleges will provide your student with one of four responses: offered admission, wait-listed, deferred, or not offered admission. Today, students hear as the notices are posted online. The days of waiting for the letter are over. We live in an instant gratification world. You can expect, however, for your student to be hitting that computer refresh button on the day notices are posted!
Continue reading Evaluating Admission Decisions
Grandparents are a fantastic resource for college-age students. They have a wealth of knowledge that allows them to provide perspective as young people go through education and get professional careers. But the benefits go beyond this. Grandparents tend to have a greater perspective on life that allows them to put everything the student does into context.
In this post, we take a look at some of the reasons why grandparents make great mentors and how you can use them.
Continue reading Why Grandparents Make The Best College Mentors
What is your student’s college deal-breaker? My daughter’s had nothing to do with academics or college rankings. From the time she was small, she wanted to go to college in Boston. Coming from Texas, that was a bit of a surprise–especially since she had never visited Boston.
But when college decision time came around, Bentley College beat out SMU because of location. My son’s college deal-breaker came when a buddy of his in the Marine Corps told him a college in Texas had “hot chicks” and a party school reputation. Perhaps neither was the best criteria to base this decision, but they demonstrate this fact: emotion plays a factor in choosing a college.
Continue reading The College Deal-Breaker
I’ll admit (willingly) that I like to offer my unsolicited advice to my children. Even though they are grown, I feel the need to continue to parent. As they did when they were younger, they smile, listen, and then do things their own way. It’s a type of dance parents and kids do with one another.
The hardest part of parenting during college prep is finding a balance in your parenting. You want to encourage them, guide them and help them make the right choices. But when you push too hard, nag and set guidelines that interfere with their independence and individual choices you create a stressful and frustrating college preparation experience. This is a monumental step in your child’s life and you don’t want to taint it with fighting, frustration and family discourse.
Common sense isn’t a flower that grows in everyone’s garden.
Following are 5 tips for parents of college-bound teens (based around good old southern truisms) to keep peace in the home and reduce the stress related to the college admissions process:
Continue reading Parenting During College PrepThis article was originally written for University Parent as a part of their parent program.
Everyone likes a good bargain.
We rush out on Black Friday to get the best deals for Christmas — we stand in line in the freezing cold to save money! But do parents put as much effort and attention into finding a college bargain? Student debt statistics would say they don’t. Would you want your student graduating from college saddled with that debt? I imagine not!
College bargains do exist and if you have a student who intends to start college in the fall, it’s your job as a parent to point him in their direction. College is a huge consumer purchase which you can and should approach much as you would the purchase of a home or car. Do your research, compare the prices, and help your student choose a school that gives you the best bang for your buck.
One of my favorite movies is Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. In it, Mr. Blandings tells his lawyer that “some purchases you make with your heart and not your head.” As I said, I love the movie, but this is bad advice. When it comes to your college “purchase,” use your head first and then listen to your heart.
I understand that it can be challenging to get students to look at the college choice from this point of view. When my daughter was applying, all her choices were east coast private schools with huge price tags. As a parent, I wanted her to have her dream but, also as her parent, I wanted her to graduate without being burdened with debt. Her heart told her to go to the college that offered the least amount of merit aid. Her head, after a long “money talk” and re-evaluation of her second choice, led her to a school that allowed her to graduate with a small amount of student loan debt. She’s grateful every day that I guided her in that direction.
Continue reading Searching for The Most Generous Colleges