Category Archives: college prep

college planning, college prep, mom approved tips

Mom-Approved Tips: When Do You Start Preparing for College?

1 Comment

 

preparing for collegeHow early is too early to start preparing for college? Should you start in grade school? Should you wait until high school? How and when do you begin the process?

Grade School

Some type A, over controlling parents will tell you they start grooming their kids for college in grade school. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But on some level, it’s not that crazy. In grade school you help them form the foundation for academic success and the attitude of serving others. Both these character traits will serve them well as they begin the college prep process.

Middle School

Ideally, middle school students should begin the pre-planning process for high school. Course selection begins at this level as well, carrying on into high school.

Recognizing this need, John Ma, a college counselor, begins coaching students in the 6th grade:

Building up true interests and strong extracurriculars and leadership positions can help students thrive during the brutal top-tier college app season. Booksmart kids with high test scores and high grades are a dime a dozen, and strong academic performance is simply expected at top universities. Highly developed extracurriculars that reflect a standout character and strong communication and leadership skills significantly increase chances for admission.

Middle school is the place to begin developing the traits that colleges consider key in the application process.

High School

It goes without saying that students who enter high school should hit the ground running. The intense years of college prep begin as they become freshmen. From making wise course selection courses to establishing a commitment to community service to striving to excel academically, students who approach college prep early will reap the benefits of their preparation.

If you look at college preparation as training your child to excel in life, you can see that setting the groundwork for success early in life will alleviate some of the stress and pressure during the college application time. A student who has a strong academic record, a solid commitment over the last four years to one area of community service, and planned ahead for application time will be less stressed and more ready to approach the highly demanding months of senior year.

As I like to say–preparation prevents panic. And the college admissions process will be much smoother if you plan early.

 

college planning, college prep, websites

Custom College Rankings

 

For seniors, the college search is almost over. On May 1st, they will make their final college choice and look toward graduation and the fall when they become a college student.

For sophomores and juniors, the search has just begun. We’ve been learning about choosing a college over the last several weeks, with posts like: How to Choose a College, 7 College Search Apps for Parents and Students, and The Student Role in the College Visit. Students and parents are looking for tools that will help them as they begin that college list.

custom college rankingsWhat is Custom College Rankings?

Custom College Rankings is an amazing site created to help you view all the college statistics on a spreadsheet and change the criteria of the spreadsheet as you view it. There are over 2900 colleges and universities with statistics for each gathered from the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education.

How does it work?

According to the site, you can use the spreadsheet in three ways:

  1. To find colleges by using as many filters as you like on the spreadsheet.
  2. To compare colleges by checking the boxes on the spreadsheet of the colleges you want to compare.
  3. To look up the statistics for a specific college.

Why create another college search site?

It’s creator, Susie Sadowsky holds a B.A. in accounting from Michigan State University and an M.S. in computer science from San Diego State University. After helping her two teenagers through the college admissions process, she created CUSTOM COLLEGE RANKINGS to give others what she wishes had been available to her.

Her motivation is to help parents with the college search process and save them some of the frustration that I encountered when helping my children through this process. After reading how US News ranks colleges she realized that she didn’t care about several of the criteria they were using. Thus she wanted to create her own rankings. She wanted to combine the search for colleges and data gathering into one central area. The best way to do this she determined was on a spreadsheet

Ms. Sadowsky explains what’s different about her rankings:

  1. My spreadsheet combines searching for colleges with comparing data of colleges all in one spreadsheet. Many websites are good at helping you narrow down your college list but the data for your list of colleges can only be found on separate pages for each college.
  2. Fine tuning of filters when searching for a college. One thing that frustrated me when I was using other college search websites is when it came to specifying your desired size the choices were limited.
  3. Other websites do not include the crime statistics.
  4. My website ranks all colleges together. Other websites like US News rank Small Liberal Arts Colleges, Large National Universities and Regional Universities separately.

Take it for a test drive and let me know what you think. Custom College Rankings is just another tool parents can add to their arsenal of college prep.

 

 

admissions, college prep, parenting

10 Biggest mistakes parents make

 

parent mistakesParents and students are in the thick of the college application process. With more and more parents becoming involved, admissions officers are on the lookout for parents who won’t let their students own the process. That’s not to say that parents should step back and stay uninvolved; students need help and encouragement. They definitely need their parents to partner with them in the application process; but it’s a fine line that many parents simply don’t know how to walk.

Over the past ten years I have heard some stories from admissions officers that would make your hair stand on end: parents who write the student’s essay and try to pass it off as the student’s; parents who ask embarrassing questions during the college tour; and parents who simply won’t let go once the student is at college. Colleges frown upon this type of parent involvement and tend to question whether the student is ready to become an independent college student and adult.

Head over to Zinch to read the 10 biggest mistakes parents make.