All posts by Suzanne Shaffer

college guidance, college planning, Uncategorized

Start NOW on recommendation letter lists

If your teen is heading into their senior year in the fall, summer is the time to start thinking about that list of people who might write glowing letters of recommendations to the colleges they are aspiring to attend. Put some thought into this list and hit the ground running in the fall!

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What class did you do best in last year? Which class was your favorite? Who was your favorite teacher? Does your guidance counselor know you well? Who knows you the best (both adults and fellow students)? Who will write you the best recommendation?

These are questions to answer this summer if you are going be entering your senior year in the fall. Once you have your answers, make a list of the people who would be your best recommenders. Put some serious thought into who you will ask because these letters are important!

After identifying these top recommenders, ask them if they can write you a strong letter of recommendation. Teachers will greatly appreciate having time to work on your letters. So hit the ground running in the fall before they are drowning in recommendation requests on top of lesson plans and other school-related activities. Get a leg up by approaching them EARLY!

If you remember particular instances where you demonstrated your creativity, intelligence, responsibility, or other impressive qualities, don’t be shy about reminding your recommenders about them. You can even provide a list of things you think your recommenders might want to cover in their letters. The best letters tell stories, and you probably remember those stories better than anyone else!

Examples of things you might want to share with your recommenders:

  • A list of your activities and accomplishments
  • Copies of your best papers in the recommender’s class
  • Copies of your creative writing
  • Notes about particular contributions you made in class
  • Your transcript
  • Your student resume (yes you should have one!)

Any and all help you can give your recommenders, whether it’s giving them plenty of time or helping them with material to put in their letters, will be appreciated and will make for a stellar letter of recommendation!

The benefit to you, besides that you’ll have great recommendation letters, is that when December rolls around, you won’t be biting your nails worrying whether your letters will be in by deadline.

That’s worth a bit of thought and action right now, isn’t it?

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This post was written by Brenda Bernstein, a graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Law. She has been helping students get into college, grad school and law school for over ten years and is proud to offer college admissions assistance to students through her company, The Essay Expert.  Brenda practiced public interest law for ten years in New York City and knew early on that her calling was in student advising, not legal practice.  She is now a J.D. Career Advisor at the University of Wisconsin Law School Office of Career Services, as well as a writing coach and owner of The Essay Expert. Brenda is also trained as a life coach by the Coaches Training Institute.

Brenda’s company and consultants have helped students gain admission to top schools throughout the nation, including:  Yale, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, NYU, U Penn, Oberlin, Carleton, Northwestern, Georgetown, U of Miami, and UCLA.

college costs, college planning, financial aid

Understanding SAFRA



The college tuition system has been turned upside down now that the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) is law. The Student Aid and Fisc-huh?!?

SAFRA is legislation President Obama tacked on to his infamous health care reform bill.

“The White House succeeded in not only getting the health care bill passed, but in making a huge change to the college loan system,” says Eric Yaverbaum, education expert and author of Life’s Little College Admissions Insights. “It’s gone largely unnoticed because it’s seemingly unrelated to the blockbuster changes in the health care industry.”

There’s been some controversy surrounding the issue of combining student aid reform with the seemingly unrelated matter of health care reform. But political views aside, let’s see how SAFRA affects students:

No. 1: You’ll get loans directly from the government — without a middleman.
While some schools have participated in the Federal Direct Loan Program since its inception in the early ’90s, SAFRA requires that all federal student loans now be originated through the U.S. Department of Education. This means funds come directly from the federal government, which provides the loans at a low interest rate.

“It’s so advantageous to students,” says Yaverbaum. “My daughter is about to enter her freshman year, and as a parent I couldn’t be more excited about it. College students are really going to benefit. Paying back college loans kills kids forever. Now it doesn’t have to be such an awful experience.”

Your credit score and employment status are not factored into your application for a direct loan … unless you have extreme adverse credit (say, your car got repossessed or you’re more than 90 days past due on that Urban Outfitters account). If you get denied, you can appeal or get a qualified co-signer.

No matter where you are in the borrowing process, visit StudentLoans.gov to find out if you qualify for one of the four types of Federal Direct Loans:

1. Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans are based on financial need. The government pays the loan interest until you’re out of school.

2. Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans are not need-based, and students are required to pay all interest charges.

3. Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loans (“PLUS” stands for “Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students”) allow parents to borrow money to help pay for their child’s education.

4. Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans offer the same terms as Parent PLUS for graduate and professional-degree students.

No. 2: You can consolidate loans you already have.
Federally guaranteed student loans will no longer be made by private lending institutions through what many of you already know as the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program.

What to do if you have an existing FFEL loan? For a one-year stretch — from July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 — current students who have FFEL loans can roll those into the Direct Loan program. The benefit is that you’ll only have to deal with a single lender (the Direct Loan Servicing Center) which means paying one monthly payment for all loans. Plus, your minimum monthly payment on a consolidated loan may be lower than the combined payments for FFEL loans.

No. 3: You’ll pay back less per month (and overall) and be done in fewer years.

Carrie Meyer, a rising senior at Ohio State University, has had to rely on three loans to cover her college tuition over the years: federal subsidized, federal unsubsidized and a personal loan. Meyer, a hospitality management student who currently works part time, still worries about paying off her loans after graduation: “With what I want to do, you don’t start out getting a big salary.”

Direct Loan borrowers can choose from several friendly payment plans, depending on needs — and you can switch to a different repayment plan if your situation changes. Beginning in 2014, the Income Based Repayment option will cap monthly loan payments at 10 percent of income and forgive remaining balances after 20 years of repayment. Sound like a lot? Actually, this is a major improvement from the current terms of capping repayments at 15 percent and 25 years, respectively.

No. 4: You could save big-time on loan payments if you go into public service.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness provides incentive for students to enter into full-time public service employment. The program forgives the remaining balance of a Direct Loan after a borrower has completed 120 monthly payments (that’s 10 years) while employed full time in public service. This includes government jobs, military service, safety professions, law enforcement, health care, social work, legal advocacy and some teaching positions.

No. 5: Maximum Pell Grant amounts will increase with inflation.

While SAFRA does not change the process for applying for federal grants, it does increase the amount of money awarded through the ever-popular Pell Grant program, which provides financial aid to low-income undergraduate students. For the 2009 to 2010 school year, the maximum Pell Grant was $5,350. The max will be upped to $5,550 for 2010 to 2011 and will gradually increase based on inflation costs beginning in 2013.

Students interested in applying for aid should complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid at Fafsa.ed.gov or call 1-800-4-FED-AID. Keep in mind that this is not a one-time thing — students who want to be considered need to apply for aid for every school year, so it’s important to stay on top of application procedures.

A recent report released by the College Board found that millions in financial aid are left untouched by community college students. In the 2007 to 2008 academic year, 58 percent of Pell Grant-eligible students who attended community colleges applied for federal financial aid, compared with 77 percent of eligible students at four-year public institutions.

No. 6: Community colleges and minority schools will get big bucks for improvements.

Says College Board President Gaston Caperton: “Community colleges are a critical part of the education system, serving nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States.” The terms of SAFRA reflect this sentiment, as $2 billion is being committed to improving educational programs and updating facilities at community colleges. In addition, SAFRA has earmarked $2.55 billion to be invested in historically black and minority institutions.

Talk It up!

What do you think about SAFRA and its impact on the college student aid system?

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This article is by the editors at The Real College Guide. This article is made available to Parents Countdown to College Coach through a partnership with The Real College Guide.

college planning, parenting, Uncategorized

An important score for your college-bound teen

 

money

Your credit score can be a lot like an SAT score.  That is, you really don’t care about it until it isn’t high enough.  Like SATs, cramming doesn’t really work.  When it comes to your credit, there are no shortcuts.

That doesn’t mean that you are stuck and unable to impact your credit score. You actually have all the control. Here are six simple things to keep in mind:

  • Pay Your Bills On Time. Mom and Dad were right; on-time payments demonstrate responsibility and show creditors that you manage your accounts.  If you have to, even paying just the minimum amount – but on time – will help.
  • Check Your Credit. Be sure that you are checking your credit at least every 12 months to ensure that you know where your credit stands. This also helps you to make sure that no fraudulent activity has been going on in your account.  There is no need for a costly service – you can do this for free by requesting your free credit report each year.
  • Take Care of the Past. If you have any negative entries on your credit report that you haven’t resolved yet, do it.  Take any extra cash you have and pay off any judgments or liens. While these items may stay on your credit report for some time, resolving these matters demonstrates your efforts to get your credit score under control, which will then raise your score.
  • Close with Caution. It may seem ironic, but closing credit accounts can actually hurt you. It may be better not to use a credit card than to actually close it.  It has to do with your available credit and the amount of your available credit that you’ve expended.  Keep in mind, though, that some credit cards charge annual fees, so weigh the cost and the benefit.  You can always call the credit card company and ask them to waive your fee.
  • Get Credit for Rent and Other Payments.  Those with little to no credit histories can bolster credit files by having rent and other recurring payments reported. Traditionally, these payments do not get reported to the credit bureaus and therefore, these positive payment histories are often missed.  Online rent payment services will pay and report your ongoing rent payments and provide you with flexible rent payment options.
  • Open and Manage Accounts. Establish yourself as a serious borrower by opening a checking and savings accounts to begin tracking your money more closely and saving what you can each month. The longer your positive credit and banking relationships, the better your credit score will be.

While your SATs can determine what school you get into, your credit score can determine everything from the type of loan you can receive to what kind of apartment you can rent to whether or not you will get your dream job, so take care of it and it will take care of you.

college guidance, college planning, financial aid, parenting, Uncategorized

Being realistic about college debt

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It’s been in the news lately and it came up in a #CollegeBound chat yesterday: graduating with too much student loan debt. I wanted to lend my voice to the topic today and give parents something to think about and use in the future.

As I have said previously, I have a unique perspective in the college admissions process. As a parent, I’ve experienced all the frustration first-hand: the decisions about choices, the dilemma over financing, and the anxiety related to waiting for the final decisions. Something I haven’t talked about is how to handle making the final college choice when the acceptance letters and financial aid packages arrive. This can make a difference in the amount of debt your child graduates with and how it affects their life after college. Especially if you are unable to contribute to financing that education.

Case in point: my daughter’s decision to attend her “plan B or 2nd choice” college. After being accepted to her 1st choice/reach school, we waited for the financial aid award to arrive. In the meantime, awards from the other colleges she had applied to filtered in. She was offered a full-ride scholarship at one school, 80% of her financial need was met at two of the other colleges with grants and scholarships, and some small grants and loans from the rest of her college choices. Her 1st choice college met 0% of her financial need. Her heart was broken.

Here is where parenting comes into play. She wanted to attend her 1st choice college–her heart was set on it. She had been dreaming of it her whole life and any other option was out of the question. But, in order to attend, it would require financing the expensive education with loans (student and parent). While every fiber in me wanted to say YES, my common sense knew it would be a financial disaster. I sat her down, explained why she couldn’t go to her dream college, and she listened (while crying, of course). It might have broken both our hearts at the time, but it was the BEST decision for her in the long run.

To make a long story short, she fell in love with her Plan B college. It was smaller and offered a much better environment for her academically and socially. Most importantly, the college WANTED HER; as evidenced by their willingness to give her financial aid. They valued her contribution to the student body and from the moment she set foot on campus, she felt wanted. But the real payoff came when she graduated with only a small amount of college debt, being able to easily pay back the consolidated loans. Had she attended her 1st choice college, she would have graduated with close to $100,000 in debt, burdening her for years.

The bottom line:

  • Make wise financial choices about student loan debt.
  • Evaluate the financial aid packages and always consider the BEST offer.
  • Even if it’s disappointing for your child, you MUST be a parent and explain the consequences of graduating with too much college debt.
  • Disappointments are much easier to deal with than being saddled with debt after graduation.

If you liked this article, you might also like:

Choices. Choices. Choices.

Checking the “no financial aid needed” box

admissions, test prep

Test Optional Colleges

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What is a “test optional” college?

It is a college and/or university that deemphasizes the use of standardized tests by making admissions decisions about substantial numbers of applicants who recently graduated from U.S. high schools without using the SAT or ACT. Some schools exempt students who meet grade-point average or class rank criteria while others require SAT or ACT scores but use them only for placement purposes or to conduct research studies.

“Testing hall of shame” proposed by FairTest.org

This week at the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools, Mr. Schaeffer, public-education director for FairTest, described his plans to compile a “testing hall of shame” — a list of colleges that use cutoff scores in their evaluations of applicants. According to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

He hopes that the list will persuade such institutions to stop relying on minimum ACT and SAT scores, a practice that the National Association for College Admission Counseling, among other groups, has condemned. Mr. Schaeffer predicted that more and more colleges would go test-optional as the “demand” for such policies grew among future applicants. If nothing else, the “testing hall of shame” would make for a memorable press release in a world of bland press releases. Mr. Schaeffer, who hopes to publish the list in the fall, said it would include only colleges that explicitly state their cutoffs (some institutions use them without saying so). This would be one distinction that colleges probably won’t tout on their Web sites.

The controversy over the benefits of using tests and not using tests for admission standards will no doubt continue. However, if your college-bound teen’s SAT scores are less than stellar, you might want to check out the list of colleges at FairTest.org. The list is growing with Colorado College and Marist College adding their names to the list.

admissions, college guidance, college planning

Top 10 Questions parents ask about college

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Over the years, parents have cornered me and asked me questions about the college admissions process and their college-bound teens. While those questions are varied, and sometimes specific as they relate to their own circumstances, here is my list of the Top 10 most asked questions:

  1. What can I do to help my “average” student stand out and get accepted to college?–The good news is that the admissions application is not all about grades. They look at the overall picture: grades, SAT scores, essay, student resume, and interviews. There will always be a college that recognizes value and potential. Grades are important, but they aren’t the ONLY way to sell yourself.
  2. Should I fill out the FAFSA even though I think we make too much money to qualify for financial aid?–YES. YES. YES. The FAFSA is what colleges use to determine your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) which is used to determine the financial aid package. This package is NOT just federal aid. It’s composed of grants, scholarships and loans (much of which is merit-aid directly from the colleges themselves). If you don’t fill it out, your teen can’t get ANY of that money.
  3. My teen isn’t motivated to make good grades, how can I motivate him/her to try harder?–They need to be invested in the process. If they want to go to college, grades are part of the process. Encourage them to talk with current college students (they can do this online) or consider finding them a mentor–someone who can motivate them to do their best. Nagging won’t work. Punishment won’t work. Reward and encouragement from you and others will produce much better results.
  4. Is it really worth spending hours and hours of time looking for scholarships?–Yes and no. A large portion of scholarships/grants come from the colleges themselves. But, there are also thousands of other scholarships available to college-bound teens. It’s worth registering on some scholarship sites and applying to those that are a good fit. You can also use the College Potential Calculator for some help. Don’t neglect LOCAL scholarships–these are often the easiest to win.
  5. We can’t afford to pay for college, does that mean our teen won’t be able to go?–There are all kinds of ways to finance a college education: student loans, work-study, college grants and scholarships. Everyone qualifies for parent and student loans. But be wise about your borrowing and consider the best options. Paul Hemphill with Pre College Prep has come up with a GREAT way to attend college on the cheap!
  6. How many colleges do you think my teen should apply to?–Here’s a good formula: 2 reach colleges (colleges that might be a reach but still attainable), 3 good fit colleges (colleges that are a good match for the student), 2 safety colleges (colleges that the student will be at the top of the applicant pool). Having choices also means the colleges are in competition, which translates into negotiation for you with the financial aid package.
  7. What’s the most important tip you could give me about the college admissions process?–Find those “perfect fit” colleges. Do the research and evaluate choices based on student body, academic programs, college visits, location and financial aid awards. If the college is a good fit, they will value the student for his/her contribution to the student body. Those are the colleges you want in your application pool.
  8. My son/daughter has just been wait-listed; what should we do?–Be proactive. Send a letter to the college and let them know how much you want to attend. If there is more information you can provide that didn’t make the application, send that as well. Let them know that, if given the chance, you WILL attend.
  9. My teen’s SAT scores aren’t that great; will it affect their admissions chances?–The bottom line is that most colleges do look at those SAT scores. But, it’s just part of the overall picture. The best advice I can give is MAKE CONTACT with an admissions representative from EVERY college your teen is applying to. This PERSONAL contact can and will make a difference when the admissions application is reviewed. Do this by visiting and making an appointment to speak with them. Then hang on to their card and stay in contact until acceptance letters arrive.
  10. My teen is so scatter-brained and we keep missing deadlines–how can I help them get organized?–Set up a landing zone for college material. Use a desk, a file cabinet, a bulletin board, and a wall calendar to keep track of deadlines. Start this freshman year and remind them that their floor is NOT the landing zone. Once they get used to bringing everything to that one spot, it will be easier to find, file and locate all the college related materials.

If you liked this article, you might also like:

Finding the perfect “fit” (for college)

Motivating an underachiever towards college

Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Parenting a College-Bound Teen

college guidance, college planning, parenting

Can that long-distance relationship survive?



Today’s guest post from The Real College Guide editors gives some positive input on the pros and cons of long-distance relationships. My daughter ended her senior year of high school “in love” and even questioned going off to college. Under my STRONG advice, she did go away and eventually they grew apart. Neither was ready for a serious relationship and in the long run, it was best for both of them. If your c0llege-bound teen is facing this issue, this article should help make the right decision.

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Prep yourself for the separation — and “the talk” — with a plan to leave your relationship when you leave for school.

I have to start this article with a confession: I was the kid who broke up with his high school girlfriend before taking off for college, and no, it was not my most sensitive, sterling moment. In fact, the sting stuck around even after I settled into college life, when it finally hit me: I didn’t want our relationship to end. I was pretty fortunate that my ex-girlfriend agreed to reconcile, but unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.

So, before making any sudden adjustments to your Facebook status, take some time to consider your options — and we’re not talking about the many ready-to-mingle singles on campus. Whether you’re leaning toward staying together, breaking it off or testing the waters of an open relationship, here’s what you need to know before “the talk”:

Keep It Together
Last season on MTV’s “The City,” fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg doled out this gem to the reality show’s star Whitney Port: “Absence is to love what the wind is to fire. When it’s a small fire, the wind kills it. But when it’s a real fire, it intensifies it.” True?

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder for a while, but if it keeps up, the emotional distance grows,” says Mira Kirshenbaum, author of When Good People Have Affairs: Inside the Hearts and Minds of People in Two Relationships. “Love is about intimacy, connection, the experience of the other’s voice and smell and touch. The kind of lifestyle in which couples don’t have time for each other is an anti-intimacy machine.”

Staying in touch–Tools like Google Talk, video chat, email and texting make it convenient to bridge the distance in your relationship. (FYI: My girlfriend and I set time aside every day, even if it’s just a few minutes, to talk on the phone or face-to-face via Skype, and it works for us.) The key is to first commit to making the effort. Then, work to strike a balance between staying involved in each other’s lives and smothering each other. And no, we’re not saying this is easy.

Seeing each other –Finding time — and money — to meet in person is a challenge, especially without a car. Like many long-distance college relationships, mine began in high school, so there’s the benefit of visiting at home during breaks. If you don’t share a hometown, you’ll need to take turns visiting each other at school. Advance planning goes a long way in strengthening your relationship by giving you something to look forward to. And remember: Even in the middle of nowhere, when there’s a will there’s a way — it’s called public transportation.

Bigger issues– Besides maintaining contact while apart, the biggest challenge is retaining trust. Temptation is inevitable when you are on your own and living in a bubble filled with kids your age. “The best predictors of infidelity are opportunity and unhappiness, and this is what is created when one partner is away,” says Kirshenbaum. “If one of you discovers the other has cheated, this is the relationship equivalent of someone having a coronary. But the best antidote to suspicions that something might be going on is to spend time together, be more intimate and continually try to make your relationship better.” Easier said than done, right? Which is why some people opt for …

The Open Relationship
College students have wildly varying perspectives when it comes to arrangements in which couples, though in a primary relationship, are free to date others. Those in open relationships often struggle with jealousy and insecurity, but it can be a temporary solution that won’t leave either of you feeling confined — or heartbroken from a full-on breakup.

“It’s perfectly natural to explore the boundaries of fidelity in a new environment with new people,” says Harvard sophomore Chase Carpenter. “I think open relationships can be difficult and vague, but if both parties are trusting and relaxed, they can be fantastic.”

Peers on pros –College of Charleston sophomore Alex Crowley identifies what she sees as a benefit: “It’s nice to be able to talk to someone like you’re in a relationship even though there might not be a full commitment.”

Peers on cons– “I’ve never met someone who’s been in [an open relationship], but it sounds like a load of crap,” says Georgetown University junior Molly Redden. “You’re either with someone or you’re not. Getting back together when you’re at home doesn’t count as a relationship. Even if you talk every day, if you’re casually seeing or sleeping with other people, I don’t see how you’re still dating the guy back home.”

So, enter an open relationship with caution, unless you choose to …

Break It off
In some instances, it may be appropriate to break things off. If you and your significant other will be hundreds of miles apart and unable to visit for extended periods of time, let’s be real: Attempting to sustain a healthy relationship is borderline unrealistic. Maybe you want to be free to have the total college experience, and for you, that includes the prospect of hooking up. Or perhaps after trying the long-distance thing, you realize it’s just not working out the way you’d planned.

Dealing with it –Breaking up is never easy. Even if you know it’s the right decision, expect emotions of grief and loss. “Don’t mistake grief for love,” Susan J. Elliott, author of Getting Past Your Breakup: How to Turn a Devastating Loss Into the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You, warns on her blog (search: Getting Past Your Past). “It’s normal to grieve. Don’t let grief cause you to second-guess your feelings.”

Distancing yourself –Elliott recommends a no-contact rule. “Even if you still love him or her, you don’t have to act on it,” she advises. “Grief is a hard process, and often, contact will seem like it temporarily alleviates the pain. But it just postpones the inevitable.”

college guidance, college planning, college visits

Top 4 reasons to visit colleges this summer

Summer is here and your high school junior might be thinking more about trips to the beach than about college plans, but this is the perfect time to start planning college visits!  The earlier the better.  If you haven’t already, sit down with your son or daughter and think about what colleges he or she might want to attend.  Then plan a trip.

Top 4 reasons to visit colleges this summer:

  1. The college visit is the best way for you and your son or daughter to get a feeling for what a school is really like, beyond the two dimensionality of a web page or brochure.  Meet students, see dorm rooms and dining halls, and maybe even sit in on a class (though classes are not as numerous in the summer as they would be in the spring or fall).  Your child will get a sense of whether he or she wants to spend four years at this school.
  2. At colleges that offer on-campus interviews, this is your child’s chance to meet an admissions representative before submitting an application.  It is an opportunity to make an early impression so the committee has a face – or at the very least an interview report — to attach to the application.  Alumni interviews don’t happen until after the application is submitted, so the on-campus interview is an opportunity not to be missed.
  3. Your visit shows the school that your child is serious about that school.  Who takes their summer vacation to go and visit colleges?  Show up at colleges when you could be out on Cape Cod, and you make an impression.  Want to make the biggest splash?  Visit in June or July.  Most families wait until August, when your child will be just one face in a sea of hundreds.
  4. Summer visits give you time to revisit.  If you and your child like what you see and want to know more, or if you’re not sure and need a second look, visiting in June gives you plenty of time for a second round.  If you see a school for the first time in February, your family will have to make decisions based on one visit alone.

So…  before hitting the beach, sit down for a college conversation, pull out a map, and start planning!

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This post was written by Brenda Bernstein, a graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Law. She has been helping students get into college, grad school and law school for over ten years and is proud to offer college admissions assistance to students through her company, The Essay Expert.  Brenda practiced public interest law for ten years in New York City and knew early on that her calling was in student advising, not legal practice.  She is now a J.D. Career Advisor at the University of Wisconsin Law School Office of Career Services, as well as a writing coach and owner of The Essay Expert. Brenda is also trained as a life coach by the Coaches Training Institute.

Brenda’s company and consultants have helped students gain admission to top schools throughout the nation, including:  Yale, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, NYU, U Penn, Oberlin, Carleton, Northwestern, Georgetown, U of Miami, and UCLA.

college planning, social networks

College-Here we come!

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In honor of the high school graduating class of 2010 and their future endeavors in academia, I’m sharing some recent website jewels that I discovered via Twitter. (Yes, it’s an EXCELLENT resource for locating helpful tools!)

If your teen is headed off to college in the fall, make note of these helpful offerings and share the information with them. If your teen is still in high school, bookmark this page because some day in the not-to-distant future you’ll be asking yourself, “Now where were those websites for college students?”

Koofers.com–Did you ever wish you had someone’s notes from a course you were taking or copies of study guides and past exams? This is the place where college students can find those FREE by simply registering with a college email account. Practice with previous exams; review shared notes and study guides. Find materials from your class, instructor and university, or from students in equivalent courses nationwide. Added bonus–course and professor reviews!

RateMyProfessors.com–Want to read ratings from actual students? This is the place to go to find out: overall quality, helpfulness, clarity, easiness AND “hotness!” You can read comments and even the books the professors use in their classrooms. There is also a forum to chat with other college students.

BecomeAlum.com–This offering (in conjunction with students and advisors) helps students compose a degree plan to assist them in finishing “on time”–which translates into huge cost savings. BecomeAlum guides the student through the process of creating a plan to meet degree requirements, taking into account prerequisite sequences and semester course offerings.

CollegeThrive.com–Provides college students with tips, advice and resources related to college life, academics, health and fitness, financial and prospective students. There’s even a job board!

CollegeDrop.com–Every college resource in one place–a smorgasbord of college-related links. Websites are submitted by subscribers and rated as well. The categories include: college blogs, college bound, compare colleges, financial aid, homework help, online universities, student collaboration, textbooks and tools.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Top 50 College Info Sites

Top 30 College Info Twitterers to follow

admissions, college planning, test prep, Uncategorized

Is the SAT just a test?

1 Comment

 

Preparing for the SAT/ACT tests cause panic and stress for college-bound teens and their parents. Why? Because colleges use those test scores as part of the college admissions evaluation process. Some parents are willing to shell out massive amounts of money to assure that their teens do well on those tests. But controversy around the “cost vs return” swirls.

I had a Twitter conversation the other day with Elizabeth King, an SAT coach and author of “Outsmarting the SAT” and she made a profound statement:

I’m just ideologically opposed to test prep without educational value.

She makes an excellent point. As parents, we worry and fret about those scores and often nag our teens to “study” for the SAT. Is it all about the score? Or are we concerned that they improve their vocabulary, writing and math skills? Do we worry that they might not have that high score or worse yet, fall into that “average” category. Are we so concerned about the score that we forget there is little value in any test prep that has no educational value?

Jenn Cohen of Word-Nerd.com, a free SAT vocabulary prep site, makes a valid point in her recent blog: The SAT and Me, Me, Me. She proposes that it’s not the test itself that is flawed, but the inability of parents and students to accept the concept of being “average”:

…a test that generates primarily average scores must be a bad test in the culture of narcissism, so it’s roundly criticized for its inability to capture the “unique” abilities of average students.  The SAT awards scores that separate students from each other, and trophies are certainly not awarded to everyone.  Tests that might make our children feel less than extraordinary are awful, and should be eliminated… Accepting the test as an opportunity, rather than an act of persecution, can open doors and motivate students to live up to their actual potential.

Let’s look at the big picture here. As parents, we have a tendency to demand and expect the best of our children. That “best” often translates into indulging them and often overlooking their failures and faults. We will do just about anything to see that they get into their first choice college. But will we encourage learning? Or will we drop a bundle on test prep as a means to an end–a high test score? Will we criticize the test because it levels the playing field and gives those students with poor grades a chance to shine? Or criticize it because it says that our college-bound teen is “average”?

The bottom line–Promote learning and not just your version of success. Remember that even “average” students excel in life. Encourage your teen to read and expand their vocabulary. The benefits will produce more than just a good test score.

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