Category Archives: college guidance

college guidance, college planning, parenting

That all-important college deal-breaker

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college student
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been having conversations on Twitter about the emotional aspect of choosing a college.

As a parent of two teens who headed off to college, this is no surprise. My daughter’s college deal-breaker 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”.

I also heard a college student say she transferred freshman year because another school had a sink in the freshmen dorm rooms. That has to be the first time I’ve ever heard that described as a college deal-breaker!

While parents are thinking academics and cost, their college-bound teens have that deal-breaker in mind. It might be Greek life, or the fact that it’s the #1 party school. But trust me, there’s a deal-breaker in the back of their head. And you might be surprised to find out what it is. All this time you thought they were looking for a college with an excellent engineering program, they really wanted a college where the girls outnumbered the boys!

What does this mean for you as a parent? Talk to your college-bound teen. Find out what their deal-breaker is and help them choose a perfect-fit college that addresses it. There’s nothing wrong with having a deal-breaker, but it’s your job to guide them to find the college that makes them happy and provides them with an education that benefits them in the future. If the college with the sink in the dorm rooms also values your teen and offers an excellent program in her chosen field of finance, you’ve found that “perfect fit” college!

college guidance, college majors, college planning

Choosing a major–now or later?

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There was some talk on #collegebound chat recently about college majors and how important they are to your chosen career path. While many students know what they want to major in from day one, a greater number haven’t a clue. My opinion–that’s what college is all about–finding your passion and trying out varied interests.

Here’s some excellent advice along this vein:

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Question: Do I have to choose my major before leaving for school or can that wait until I get settled in? I have too much to think about right now!

Answer: Of all the things weighing on you this summer, choosing a major can be crossed off the list. Many, many students enter college with no idea of what they want to study. This is largely the reason for many schools’ general education requirements, which allow you to study a bunch of things before picking what piques your interest the most. (You can often get away with dragging your feet to declare a major until the end of freshman or even the beginning of sophomore year.) If you don’t know what you want to major in, take some intro classes your first semester and knock out some of your general requirements. Then, once you choose something, take more classes in that area.

If you have already chosen a major, great! Take a class or two in your field, then use the rest of your credit hours for electives and requirements. It’s important to remember that as a freshman, you might not get all the classes you want, so have backups and realize that there’s always next semester.

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This Q&A is from Liz Cruger of  The Real College Guide. It is made available to Parents Countdown to College Coach through a partnership with The Real College Guide.

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 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, 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 guidance, college planning, scholarships

The College Potential Calculator

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Today’s guest blog post is from Dan Coomes, creator of The College Potential Calculator. I asked Dan to give us an idea of how his calculator works and how it can benefit both parents and students in the college search and the search for scholarships. It’s an excellent tool to narrow down the college and scholarship search process. For those of you wanting to make the best use of your time this summer, you should check out the College Potential Calculator.

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What is a high school graduate’s biggest deterrent to getting into a top college or obtaining a scholarship? According to a recent survey of high school counselors, it is a student’s “lack of initiative or simply starting too late in the process.” In fact, 22% of the counselors surveyed reported that high school seniors are either too overwhelmed or simply don’t make the time to sit down and apply for scholarships. They think their grades either aren’t high enough or they can’t write a compelling enough story about themselves, so why waste the time?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the US Department of Education, only about 10.6% of students, or about 1 in 10, received scholarships worth an average of $2,815 in 2007-08. This leads to tight competition and let’s face it, $2,800 isn’t going to go vary far when the average annual prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board were estimated to be $11,578 at public institutions and $29,915 at private institutions for the 2007-08 school year.

So what can you do to stay competitive and attempt to reduce wasting time on scholarships that won’t pay that much? Dan Coomes, one of the surveyors and creator of The College Potential Calculator, has a few non-traditional tips for students and parents looking for an extra edge this summer:

  • Know what your intended field of study is going to be: Most students, parents, and counselors I’ve talked to believe that minority status or being able to demonstrate financial need is the biggest factor in obtaining a scholarship. While being able to demonstrate need is an important factor, a student’s minority status is only applicable to approximately 9% of the scholarships listed in our Calculator. That means there’s 1,800 other scholarships out there that don’t have a minority status requirement. Selecting a field of study and being able to write about it is far more important than minority status, representing approximately 48% of the scholarships in the College Potential Calculator. Engineering and engineering technology is one of the most represented intended fields of study, capturing about 33% of scholarships that require an intended field of study to be eligible to apply. A few others that had good representation were biological and physical sciences, business/management/administration, and trade and industry. Conversely, liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies, English and literature, foreign languages, and area and ethnic studies were all intended fields of study that were not widely represented with available scholarships.
  • Join an organization: Approximately 11% of scholarships require that you are apart of some organization to be eligible to apply. The American Legion is the most widely represented organization, representing over 25% of the scholarships that require an affiliation with an organization. The American Legion is for current or past active duty military personnel, but there eligibility can be extended within divisions of the Legion for sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, wives, and other family members.
  • Look at what your current state of residence or the state where you are looking to attend college has to offer: Fifty percent of the Scholarships listed in the College Potential Calculator are based on the state you currently reside in or the state you intend to attend College in. You can cut the time down on your scholarship search by simply looking at scholarships registered in your state. For instance, Googling, “Scholarships in Texas,” will yield an alphabetical list of all scholarships for Texas residents.

A fun feature of the College Potential Calculator is the ability to look at more than just one college. In fact, you can allow the calculator to find your potential to get into up to 20 colleges at a time based on the cost of the college, location of the college, national rank of the college, or your best chances. For instance, let’s look at a high school student who lives on the east coast but wants to go to school on the west coast. All she has to do is simply enter in the city and state on the west coast she wants to be near, her SAT or ACT scores and GPA, and then click calculate. Based on her preference, she can sort the results of the 20 colleges by the least expensive colleges near the area, the closest colleges to the area, the colleges with the highest national rank in the area, or by the colleges she has the best chances of getting accepted to near the area.

The College Potential Calculator is designed for students, parents, and counselors who want to gauge a student’s potential to get into any one college or obtain a scholarship based on their GPA, SAT or ACT score. The tool looks at the past 1 – 5 years of admission statistics for 3,600 universities and approximately 2,000 scholarships. You can watch a quick demo of the College Potential Calculator on WhatisAverage.com.

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You can contact Dan Coomes, President, The College Potential Calculator at
Dan.Coomes@WhatisAverage.com and follow him on Twitter at @wisavg.

college guidance, college planning

College Roommates MUST Communicate!

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With so many college-bound teens headed to college in the fall, it’s important to know that roommates can cause some grief. The key to having a positive roommate experience is COMMUNICATION. That starts BEFORE you head off to college by making contact with your future roommate and setting up some mutually agreeable ground rules.

Today’s post from The Real College Guide is from their Expert Q&A section and answered by Liz Cruger.

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Q: I HATE my roommate! Is there any way I can move?

A: I’ve seen a ton of roommate conflicts turn totally out of control just because the roomies refuse to talk to each other. If this is your situation, be rational and calm, not accusatory, and tell your roommate what drives you nuts. Clothes on the floor, loud music, keeping the door open? Any of these issues can be negotiated. If you need help, your R.A. and professional Residence Life staff are trained to help you work out differences.

If you absolutely cannot stand your roommate, most schools will allow room changes after a certain trial period. If you’re just two weeks into the semester, you’ll probably have to stick it out for a while. If it’s been a month or so, you might be in luck.

The best person to ask is your R.A., who will know the details of your school’s housing policy. Many colleges have a room change period in which you can apply to move to another empty spot on campus. These periods usually fall within each semester or trimester, so if you come back from break and can’t take it anymore, there’s a good chance you aren’t stuck. On the other hand, if your roommate leaves, you probably won’t have a single for very long — housing will fill the vacancy with someone else. And there’s no guarantee a replacement will be any easier to live with. So before you write off your roommate for good, give it your best effort to smooth things over.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like:

Sleeping with Strangers

The Naked Roommate

college guidance, college planning, extracurricular activities, parenting

My kids need to volunteer…HELP!

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A mother on Facebook a few weeks ago asked for some volunteer suggestions from the Facebook community. Of course, there are the obvious: hospitals, local charities, beach clean-up, etc. But what if your teen isn’t interested in any of these options? If they aren’t interested, odds are they won’t stay with it.

Where do you go to find some unknown volunteer opportunities? Thanks to WhatGives.com and Chris Noble, here’s a good list of sites that might help you find the best volunteer fit for your college-bound teen:

Hands On Network: With 250 action centers around the country, it’s easy to connect and get started with a volunteer opportunity that fits your schedule and location.  Plus, they’ll occasionally partner with corporations like Disney to offer special incentives for volunteering.

Do Something: Focused more on teen activism and engagement with causes, their site offers “Virtual Volunteer” opportunities so you can take action without leaving your couch!

US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Interested in volunteering in our National Parks?  For the Smithsonian?  Start here.   You’ll find a host of ways to volunteer alongside existing government programs.  The HUD site also lists opportunities to provide technology access and job training to those who need it on a volunteer basis.

VolunteerMatch: One of the largest online databases for volunteering, where over 71,000 nonprofits have listed local and regional events and projects.

Go Abroad: Want to volunteer on vacation?  Fulfill your travel bug and your need to do good at the same time by applying for one of the nearly 6,000 “Volunteer Abroad” opportunities from more than 1,300 organizations around the world.

iParticipate: Follow the stars.  Literally.  The Entertainment Industry Foundation launched this project with Ashton Kutcher, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Katie Couric (and many others) in a campaign designed to encourage Americans to consider volunteering as an integral part of our national identity.

Serve.Gov: One year old today, this site and associated initiatives were created by the Serve America Act.  One of its purposes is to help Americans get back to work by building skills and connections through volunteer opportunities.

Every college expert will tell you that volunteering is an integral part of the high school resume. Summer is the BEST time to start on that volunteer journey. But remember…one day here and there does not a volunteer make! Consistency over the course of your teen’s high school career shows a level of commitment to the cause and a willingness to give back.

If you liked this, you might also like to read:

Summertime is Volunteer Time

My Top 10 Summer Activities