At this seminar you will learn tips on the financial aid process, which colleges have the most scholarship money to distribute, and how to maximize your free scholarship money. To register please contact Karen Grunow kgrunow@ahpnet.com or 978.261.1417.
One College Tour, Two Different Impressions
One of the “benefits”, or so I like to call them, of being the child of an educational consultant is that you “get” to tag along with your parent on college tours from the time you can remember. My daughter plays club soccer and, for years, whenever she had a tournament in some far away state, we would leave a day early so that I could take advantage of the opportunity to visit college campuses. And she, of course, got to come along. This has been our routine since she was in middle school. Sometimes she would beg off, choosing instead to pass her time reading in the admissions office while I toured. Other times she would join me, learning more than a 13 year old should probably know about co-ed dorms and frat parties.
Now she’s a junior and last week we took our first official tour of colleges specifically for her. Although I had, of course, anticipated this moment for years, looking at colleges through the eyes of an invested parent instead of a detached consultant, was an extra-ordinary experience for me, unexpected in many ways. I worried about how she would find her niche in this new community, I tried to imagine her taking a semester to study abroad, and I wondered how she would be shaped differently by her experience at each college.
But my most pleasing revelation was how ready my daughter is to go off to college. Not in that “I-can’t wait-to-get-away-from-my-parents-and-lead-my-own-life” way that many students feel, but in the way that she is ready to tackle the challenges of collegiate life and is excited by the many new opportunities that await her.
I smiled several times on these tours as I watched my daughter’s eyes light up at things that would have made no real impression on me. In one dining hall, after seeing a row of 20 cereal dispensers lined up like soldiers, she turned to me beaming and said, “This is a GREAT school!” She engaged tour-guides and asked questions about classes and student activities that would never have occurred to me. And, above all, she concluded that natural sunlight and bright, open spaces were of paramount importance to her.
Despite the fact that we used two different assessment rubrics, remarkably we came away with the very same sense of which schools were the best fit for her. We just had different reasons - mine more objective and focused on the classroom experience and hers more subjective and, apparently, weighing heavily the cold cereal options!
In the end of things, I know that my daughter is going to thrive in college. I saw it by how easily she moved around campus, how comfortably she spoke with students, coaches, and professors, and how happily she took in everything she saw. At this time next year, she’ll be ready to tackle head-on the challenges of collegiate life with poise confidence.
No, I’m not ready to see my child off to college, but she is ready to go, and therein lies the pain, and the pleasure, of parenthood.
How to choose classes for next year Over the next few weeks, students will be filling out their course selection forms for next year. Students should put careful thought into their choices, selecting those that will demonstrate their academic potential and willingness to challenge themselves while not creating a schedule that will leave no time for extra-curriculars - or sleep!
Lincoln Sudbury College Fair
Why everyone should consider a Gap Program
Special Gap Year Programs Benefit ManyGap year and gap semester programs have always been very popular in Europe and are quickly gaining popularity in the U.S. For some students, this hiatus from the lock step march through their academic careers provides a timely opportunity to tackle new challenges, pursue passions and become more self-confident, self-sufficient and self-aware through travel, work, study and community service. These benefits of a gap program are well-recited, but there are less obvious yet equally compelling reasons to take advantage of this experience.
Predicting who is more likely to retake the SAT
Does your SAT score end in "90"? Tomorrow Juniors head off to take the SAT with varying degrees of preparedness and nervousness. While most students will sit for the SAT and/or ACT at least twice, we don't encourage our students to take these tests over and over in pursuit of that ever-elusive "highest score possible". Standardized tests are only one piece of the college application. While an important part, they shouldn't be given undue time or weight.
Good luck, juniors!
Helping your child with the college process
Resolutions Worth KeepingHelping your own child with their college process can be a rewarding, bonding experience - but boundaries have to be drawn. Here's where I have resolved to draw the lines and I embark upon this process with my own daughter.
Essay Writing Tips
The Dos and Don'ts of Graduate School Essays Marybeth Gasman, who works in the admissions office at Penn's Graduate School of Education, offers some pointed advice about how to write a compelling essay. While her words of wisdom are directed at graduation students, most of the advice she offers could be well heeded by anyone applying to college. Among my favorite tips: Don't use the word "love" - ever, and don't make excuses.
Twitter coming soon to a classroom near you
The Social Media Revolution Social media tools are changing the way teachers teach, students learn, and the classroom is defined.
The gap between sticker prices and net tuition explained
The Real Price of College: Looking Beyond the Sticker Over the last decade the averge tuition and fees after adjusting for inflation) at public four-year colleges rose 72% and increased 35% increase at private four-year colleges. But after subtracting estimated average grant aid and federal tax credits and deductions received by full-time students, the average net tuition and fees students are paying are lower in 2010 dollars than they were a decade ago.
It's more than just backpacking
Study Abroad's New Focus is Job Skills We've always believed in the many merits of Study Abroad and have encouraged our clients to take full advantage of these opportunities. However, employers have not felt as warmly about these opportunities, often dismissing them as "a few months backpacking through Europe."
However, that tide is slowly turning and, thanks to people like Cheryl Matherly, the former assistant dean of students for career and international education at Rice University, who are helping students to describe their study abroad experience in terms of transferrable, marketable skills.
Hopefully, more and more employers will see that value that hiring a graduate who has spent time navigating their way through a foreign culture can bring to their companies.
Early applications deserve careful consideration
Early Action Could Aid in Admission, Report Finds With November 1 just a few days away, we're very busy helping our clients meet Early Application deadlines. However, despite evidence that it might be easier to be admitted in this round of decisions, the choice to apply early isn't that simple. First, it can be argued that those students who submit early apps are some of the strongests candidates because they dont' need grades from fall and winter terms to demonstate their full academic potential. Second, while the decision to apply ED must be made with thought and care because it is binding, the decision to apply EA, while non-binding should not be made lightly. To "just get the process over with" is not sufficient justification. We find that students lose momentum after they submit their early applications, which can lead to disasterous results if they are not accepted. And, for many reasons, students may be able to present a stronger application if they wait for the Regular Decision deadlins.
So, while in many cases submitting college applications can be the best choice, don't go into the decision without giving it careful thought.
Virtual Boarding School Fair on October 24th
Here's a tremendous opportunity to learn more about boarding schools with making the drive. This weekend you are invited to attend the Boarding Schools Expo from the comfort of your living room. In addition to a virtual tour of the campus, you will have opportunities to as questions of students, faculty an admissions staff. To sign up, go to http://boardingschoolexpos.com/ Boarding Schools Expo Sunday, October 24, 2010 2:00-8:00 pm Eastern
An opportunity to visit with over 60 boarding schools, Ask questions of school staff, students & alumni
Don’t miss a presentation on “Choosing the Right Boarding School & How an Educational Consultant Can Help” followed by a Live Q&A session starting at 5:45 in the “Auditorium.
Reaches, Moderates, and Likelies - The College List
Building a Better College List Ideas for our monthly columns come from many different places, but after the umpteenth conversation with my colleague, Tim, about people's misguided notions that we can "just make a college list", I decided to write about the considerations that we put in to each of the college lists we create for our clients. In truth, we never get "the list" right on the first try and, in fact, we don't try do. Figuring out which colleges are the best matches is an iterative process, but the more the client understands their options, the more they learn about what is important to them, and the better the ultimate list will be.
Free Workshop-8 Steps for Acing the Job Interview
Title-8 Steps for Acing the Job Interview Join Susan Kennedy as she teaches college students and recent graduates what they can expect on a job interview and what they can do to excel
When-Monday, October 25th at 4:00 pm via webinar
Where-490B Boston Post Road, Sudbury, MA 01776
Free Workshop-Writing a Personal Statement That Shines
Title-Writing a Personal Statement That Shines Allison Matlack will address the nuts and bolt of the college essay for high school students and parents.
When-Monday, October 18th at 5:00 pm
Where-490B Boston Post Road, Sudbury, MA 01776
Allison will be attending NEACAC's "The Ins and Outs of Getting into College"
September 29, 2010 at Bryant University, Smithfield, RI
Allison will be attending "The Ins and Outs of Getting into College"
October 5, 2010 at Roxbury Community College, Roxbury, MA
Spray and Wear: One size fits all
Fashion in a Can: The Clothes you can Spray On Well, I usually like to keep my blogs more pressing and pertinent topics, but on this rainy Friday afternoon this piece in Forbes about sprayable clothes better held my attention than the more timely article about "How the ACTs have caught up with the SATs".
Just the idea of "spray and go" clothing makes me smile - no more worrying if the pants are too snug, the skirt too short, or the shirt the wrong color. Sprayable clothing opens a world of fashion possibilities. The best part for me -the inventor was probably one of those hard to teach kids who never followed the rules, thought outside the box, and walked to the proverbial beat of his own drum. And look where he is now. So, to all of you who are frustrated by children/students/friends who are insist on drawing outside the lines, know that one day they may find a solution to a problem you didn't even know you had. And get rich doing it.
College - Don't Go! (Yet)
Research Suggests a 'Gap Year' Motivates Students We are finding that the college seniors we work with are increasingly interested in taking a gap year before they go off to college. Recognizing either that they really aren't ready to take full advantage of their college experience or that this is a once in lifetime opportunity not to be missed, they are exploring possibilities from traveling around the country to volunteering abroad to working at the local pizza shop to save money for college expenses. Generally it's a good idea to try a few different things during that gap year rather than just one, but focus on experiences that will build confidence, teach skills, give broader exposure to the world, and create opportunities to explore interests.