Every parent worries about their college student observing this type of behavior. If you have a college-bound teen, use this infographic to start a discussion about the temptations at college and the obvious consequences of engaging in binge drinking.
Category Archives: college guidance
Public vs Private Colleges
I have had many parents ask me about a public college education vs a private college education. It’s the old debate: Public vs Private. Surprisingly, many times the private colleges cost less than public institutions (based on large financial aid packages they are able to offer from alumni contributions). But according to this infographic, private colleges might be an even greater value in the long run due to higher earning potential. It’s just one more factor to consider before making the final college choice.
Brought to you by: OnlineColleges.net
Preparing for College: Safety First
In a few short weeks, your child is going away to college – either for the first time or another year. That reality brings with it an overwhelming number of emotions for most parents. Excitement for the new experiences they will have, but also worries for their safety and ability to thrive on their own. So many questions run though your mind as the countdown begins. Have you prepared your child for this big step? Will he or she be able to take care of themselves? Make the right choices? But most important of all, is your child safe? Thanks to the wonders of information technology, you can send your child to college with powerful safety tools that keep you connected no matter the miles between you.
Creating a virtual safety tool kit for your child’s Smartphone is a great way to take advantage of the latest information technology. It’s as easy as downloading a few key apps. One basic app that can be useful to your child in all kinds of situations is a simple flashlight app. Downloading this app, for example, can help your college student locate their keys before entering an apartment or dorm at night. More involved applications like the WebMD app, put tons of valuable health information at your child’s fingertips. WebMD allows you to document any conditions your child may have, such as any allergies; it lists nearby hospitals, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices and includes a first aid guide for emergencies.
An all-in-one emergency response app can be beneficial to your child’s safety too. Apps like The Safety App Plus allow parents to request the safety status of their college student, giving them an instant visual update of their child’s current or last known address. The app also helps you to prepare your child for weather emergencies, by providing real-time emergency weather alerts. Its patented technology allows The Safety App Plus to send and receive text messages even when voice and data networks are overwhelmed which is common during disasters and emergencies.
The Safety App Plus can be used by both you and your college student to…
- Request a safety status, automatically supplying you with the GPS location of your college student or of a lost or stolen phone.
- Access real-time emergency weather alerts, a checklist of emergency supplies and important online resources while on a road trip.
- Send group or individual messages when data and voice networks are overwhelmed, such as during large campus events or disasters.
As an incentive for more families to benefit from the robust features of The Safety App Plus and in observation of National Preparedness Month, the app is now only $0.99.
Sending your child away to college doesn’t have to be wrought with worry for you or your child. With the right tools, you can stay connected and help them stay informed and prepared in the event of a weather or other emergency. For more information on The Safety App Plus visit www.thesafetyapp.com or follow them on twitter @thesafetyapp.
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Today’s guest post was contributed by Lisa Barclay DiBenedetto, the president and founder of LDB communications, a successful marketing company. Lisa is the mother of four children, the oldest of whom is a junior at Northern Illinois University. Keeping her family safe has always been a priority, as well as spending as much time with her teenage children as they will allow.
Your teen’s online reputation
I have been harping about your teen’s online reputation for the last year or so. Last week I posted an infographic “Google Yourself Challenge” and encouraged you to have your teen do this simple exercise. Why? Important people are looking at their online profile (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google)–people who could have a huge affect on your teen’s future.
If you don’t believe me, here’s something that a good friend of mine posted on Facebook this week. He’s the CFO and does the hiring for a major corporation.
Public Service Announcement for those who don’t believe that potential employers actually look you up on Facebook – we do!
If you are looking for a job, take the questionable pictures down (or at least hide them). I’ve reviewed 6 resumes this AM and eliminated 3 of them based off of Facebook profiles.
Your teen may not be job hunting at the moment, but they are college searching and colleges have begun to look at profiles of their applicants. In addition, after college, your student will be looking for a job. Mistakes like this can cause them to be unemployable after graduation.
Pictures aren’t the only thing you need to worry about. Later he posted these LinkedIn profiles with some comments:
Really…? Why bother posting the resume?
Ummmm this might have been funny if it said Zack of ALL Trades…
It’s clear what your teen posts online should be professional and impressive. Encourage your teen to take some time this week and review their online profiles. Clean them up and/or make things private. The steps they take could help them stand out in a sea of applicants who didn’t take the time to do some simple housekeeping.
Traditional students are embracing online education
Only a few years ago, online education was the realm of the non-traditional student. Whether you were a high school dropout, a dad working three jobs, or a retiree who simply wanted to take some classes, chances were that you were not a typical college student if you were signed up for courses online.In the last couple years, though, that all changed. In an era of tablets, smartphones, and omnipresent technology, it only makes sense that education – both traditional and otherwise – would gradually bleed into the virtual world.
Traditional students are quickly embracing the concept of online classes and obtaining various valuable degrees. There is no limit to what one can obtain via online courses. A degree like Information Security is easy to sign up for and schedule around just about any job or career. Furthermore, a degree like this is practically recession proof when considering technology’s exponential growth.
Online education offers the chance to change their career path at any time in their life. Combine this with the fact that there are plenty of opportunities in cyber careers like Information Security and there is no reason not to at least go online and see what is available.
Now, more than ever before, a student or alum from a traditional university can be found taking classes online. Here, generally, is what prompts these students to do this:
The Motivated Student
This student is enrolled in a traditional university – or, perhaps, they are a high school student who is about to matriculate to one – and they seek an intellectual challenge they cannot find in the classroom. Their classes may be too easy or the subject they seek to study may not be offered; either way, this student is self-motivated enough to go online and find an alternative.
The Prerequisite Search
Imagine that you signed up for a course at your university that you need for your major, for graduation, or simply wish to take for your own enjoyment. Now picture that this course has a prerequisite that must be taken but does not fit with your schedule. Maybe it’s a difficult mathematics course. What to do? Increasingly, students in this position are dealing with this issue by turning to online classes.
Students are also utilizing the help of powerful new tools that facilitate differentiated math instruction in and outside the classroom. Click here to learn more about such options.
The Second Degree
With the economy as it is these days, people often get a traditional degree from a four-year college, head out afterwards into the workplace, and quickly learn that they don’t possess many employable or marketable skills. Many of them, at this point, decide to work part-time towards an online degree that will provide those skills and, hopefully, help them find a job that they want.
With all these new types of traditional students entering the world of online education, the process of getting a degree over the internet suddenly becomes more widespread and traditional. As the lines continue to blur in the future between traditional and non-traditional, online and offline, we should expect to see this phenomenon occur with even more regularity.
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Today’s guest post was contributed by Amanda Green, a freelance writer who normally writes on the topics of education, business, and personal finance. Amanda has been writing for multiple years on the web and enjoys writing on less serious topics like pets and crafting in her spare time! You can read more writing by Amanda at paidtwice.com
Preparing your student for college graduation
Last night in the #CampusChat discussion we were talking about moving into college and what to pack. One participant stated she took her whole life with her to college because she never planned to move back home after college graduation; and to her credit she did not.
Most parents believe (or hope) that once their student goes off to college they will only be temporary visitors at home. We often talk about getting into college, but rarely discuss what happens after graduation. Unfortunately, in today’s economy, many students are forced to move back in with their parents after they graduate. For those boomerang students, the top two reasons are no job or job prospects and too many student loans exceeding their expected income.
These reasons alone make it important for parents to be involved in the financial decisions that their students make related to the college they choose and the loans they choose to incur while attending. Of course your student may WANT to go to an expensive private college, but can you, as a family, afford it? Is your student prepared for the ramifications of taking out massive student loans and not being able to repay them?
Three scenarios
After the student returns home three scenarios usually play out.
Scenario One
Your student returns home and still can’t find a job with their college degree. After weeks of depression and frustration, they make the decision to attend graduate school. Since it’s expensive, they opt to take out graduate student loans to supplement the financial aid and provide living expenses. After they complete their graduate degree, they are able to gain employment and begin paying back their loans.
Scenario Two
Your student finds a minimum wage job, defers their student loans and still can’t find a job related to their college degree and major. They end up working in a field that is completely unrelated to their area of interest, in a job they do not like, and are still unable to pay back their student loans. They borrowed too much and will probably never crawl out of the hole they dug for themselves.
Scenario Three
Your student returns home, finds a minimum wage job, defers their student loans and saves every penny they make while living at home. They are able to begin paying back their student loans with their savings and continue the job hunt while working full time. Many times, those temporary jobs end up being avenues to find college degree employment either through networking or company advancement.
With scenario one, if your son or daughter opts to pursue the graduate degree path, it’s critical they do their homework, research interest and payback rates, and degrees that are worth their investment. If they don’t, they could end up as the student in the second scenario with too much debt and no job prospects.
Summing it up (my opinion)
Advise your student wisely about debt, college value, and degree prospects after graduation. It’s not just a decision on which school they “like”. It’s a decision that affects the rest of their life and could have overwhelming negative consequences. Parents are key role players in this decision. It’s our job to point out the possible ramifications of their decisions and allow them to have input. But (and this is is hard) if they won’t listen to reason, you might have to be a parent. I know because I had to take that role with my daughter and her college choice. I had to be the “bad guy” and kept her from attending her first choice college. Today she thanks me. At the time, she wasn’t very happy with me–but she fell in love with her second choice college and graduated with minimal debt.
Being a parent can be extremely hard; we have to balance guidance with “helicoptering” and know when to take a stand for the well-being of our kids. It’s a difficult job on the best of days and downright frustrating on the worst of them. Helping them with the college choice as it relates to financial consequences is one of those “take a stand” moments.
Do you need help with the college process?
I’m hearing more and more from parents that they are desperate for help and answers. It seems they are drowning in the sea of college information out there. They don’t know who to listen to, where to go for help, and how to make the best use of the help they find.
There are two tools that will answer every question you ever had about how to handle the multitude of questions related to the college admissions process: my Parents Countdown to College Toolkit AND Paul Hemphill’s Plan for College Videos. Both resources will help you help your student navigate the college maze. If you own both you can finally sleep at night!
For a limited time only (until September 30th), Paul and I are offering parents a 2 for 1 special–buy my Parents Countdown to College Toolkit and you receive a FREE subscription to Paul’s Plan for College Video Series. These tools can save your family hundreds or even thousands in college costs and help you help your student market themselves to the colleges, thus receiving multiple scholarships.
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The best help available to help parents navigate the college maze.
If you’re a parent of a college-bound teen, you can’t afford to pass up this opportunity. You and your student will have the peace of mind, knowing that all your questions are answered and you have done everything you can to help them get into their first choice college (with scholarships and merit-aid, of course!).
Click this link to learn more about the Toolkit,
purchase and score your 2 for 1 deal!
Your student wants to study medicine
Remember when your now teenager came up to you as a toddler and said they wanted to be a doctor when they grew up? We smiled and said, “that’s great sweety” and knew that years down the road their interests would change. But what if it didn’t change? What if your college-bound teen still wants to pursue a career in health care? How do you help them find the career and right education path that best suits their personality and career goals?
Are they interested in medical research? Does medical imaging interest them? Are they interested in nursing and see themselves as care givers to the sick? Would they like to study psychology and work with the mentally ill or those who are emotionally hurting?
As you can see, there are numerous career paths your student could choose if they want to be part of the health care community. It can be overwhelming, especially if they aren’t sure which direction they want to go and what type of education they will need and the top programs available. The good news, however, is that the American Medical Association has devoted a section of their website to help your student learn about all careers in the medical field.
Here’s the list (which might surprise you):
- Allied health
- Complementary and alternative medicine and therapies
- Communication sciences
- Counseling
- Dietetics
- Dentistry and related fields
- Expressive/creative arts therapies
- Health information and communication
- Laboratory science
- Medical imaging
- Nursing
- Pharmacy
- Physician
- Physician assistant
- Podiatry
- Psychology
- Therapy and rehabilitation
- Veterinary medicine
- Vision-related professions
The great thing about this list on the site is that it gives you all the information your student will need to make an informed decision about a specific medical field. When you click on a specific field, you can see the careers related to that specialty. For instance, Medical Imaging has Diagnostic medical sonographer, Magnetic resonance technologist, Medical dosimetrist, Nuclear medicine technologist, Radiation therapist, Radiography and Registered radiologist assistant. Each career has a corresponding PDF that provides you with information related to salary, education required, and even contact information to ask additional questions.
It is also possible to get your degree online by enrolling in registered nursing, Bachelor of Science in nursing, Master of Public Health, and Master of Human Services programs. These programs provide you with everything that traditional schooling does, except for you can complete the coursework from the comfort of your own home. Applying for a program in the health field is as simple as filling out an application and submitting it to an online university, allowing you to begin the next stage of your professional life in no time at all.
This type of information can prove invaluable when making a decision on which college to attend, which career path to pursue and what the career outlook is after graduation. If you son or daughter is interested in any area of the medical field, send them to this site. The information the AMA provides might help them make a more informed decision about their future.
Useful college information for parents
Since I’ve been gone for six months (on an unexpected hiatus) my blog has lacked new content. It’s always been my goal to provide parents with useful information that will help them guide their students through the college maze of requirements, planning, applications, visits and selection. It is this commitment that has made me come up with a schedule for my blog, in the hopes that parents will know what to expect each week from its content and know where to look for the information they need.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances (like the last six months), my goal is to post daily and I have decided to focus on these topics:
- Monday-In the News (a post related to the latest and best news in the college admissions community)
- Tuesday-Website evaluation (websites that will help parents and students find the information they need to make informed college choices)
- Wednesday-Guest bloggers (anyone with a message for parents and students is welcome to submit an article for publication)
- Thursday-Editorials (using this platform to voice my own personal feelings about all things college)
- Friday-Infographics (timely infographics that provide useful college information)
- Sunday-Scholarships (helping you find scholarships for your student)
It’s my hope that this consistent blogging will provide a platform to help parents find the information they need during the college search and application process. If you have a request for a specific article related to any of these topics or have an idea for a guest post, please feel free to contact me:
How to get the most out of your college visit experience
Today’s guest post is from April Elizabeth Bell, Associate Director, Counselor Advocacy – The College Board. The College Board has launched their new site, Big Future, making it easier for students and families to successfully navigate the complex process of finding, affording and enrolling in a college that’s a good fit for them. Big Future has a special section dedicated to campus visits, and today’s guest post discusses the importance of those visits and the tools The College Board provides to help.
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Why Visit?
Choosing which college to attend can be a life-changing decision. Take the time to pursue a campus visit and ensure that you are making the best decision for you. By picking the college that will best fit your needs, you will position yourself to excel in your academic career. Take a look at these students’ testimonials of how college visits shaped their decision about what school to attend.
Planning Ahead
Be proactive and remember to use your resources. Your school counselors can help you plan your college visit and answer any preliminary questions. Also, all colleges have an admissions office that can help you plan your trip, whether you want an official campus tour or to create your own informal visit. You can even check out these 10 Ways to Learn About Colleges Online to see how to effectively research various colleges online. Utilizing these resources beforehand will help prepare you with the information necessary to make the most of your college visit. Watch the video below to hear Jonathan talk about how he maximized his college visit by creating his own campus tour.
It’s important to go on a college visit, even if it’s not the school you want to attend. Tours give you the opportunity to learn more about the common places on a college campus and what resources are available, regardless of which school you attend. Visit the Location Matters to Me link to search for a college near you.
Determine When to Visit
The success of a college visit may vary depending on the time of year, even the time of day, can have a large impact. It is common for most students to wait until spring of their junior year in high school or early autumn of their senior year for their visits. Check the school’s academic calendar to be aware of any potential dates the school is closed. The beginning steps to planning a successful visit also include planning ahead and deciding what’s most important to you during your college visit. Opportunities available for touring students include informational sessions and dorm tours, and it’s even possible to sit in on class lectures. The timing of your campus visit may vary from other students if you’re considering various opportunities before your first year, including participation in summer programs, taking summer classes, or planning to participate in collegiate athletics. Click the link for more tips on When to Visit college campuses.
Create a Checklist
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by all of the things to do, information to gather, and people to talk to while on a college visit. Create Checklist and be sure to prioritize the items that are most important to you. Informational sessions are important, but exploring the college to get a better feel for its campus environment is also critical. Be sure to think about some of the worries you may have about going to college and write them down. Then, look for opportunities to speak with students or staff who may have shared your same concerns before beginning college. They can help you understand how their college meets your specific needs. Make note of any buildings you want to see. Student unions, recreational facilities, dorms and libraries are some of the most common buildings on college campuses, which are important to consider when making your college decision. This Campus Visit Checklist will give you more ideas for your college visits.
Follow-Up
Planning for college should be an enjoyable experience and you don’t have to do it alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for the contact information of any students or staff you speak with. That way if you have any additional questions, you will already have a personal contact at the school. If you plan your own informal visit, stop by the admissions office to get connected with a school representative so they too can help.
Still confused on what to do and where to go to plan your college visit? Take a look at the 6 Steps to Get the Most Out of a Campus Visit. For more information about planning campus visits, admissions, financial aid and college life, check out bigfuture.org.