High School and Admission

Has Your Student Found the College with the Best Fit?

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According to a survey conducted by Noodle Education, one of the issues parents are most concerned about is that their college student find a college that is the right ”fit.”  72.5% of parents ranked this as highly important to them.

Students, too, want to find a college that is the right fit.  Guidance counselors encourage students to look for the college that is the right fit.  Colleges claim to be the right fit for your student.

So what exactly does it mean to say that a college is the right ”fit” for a student, and how can a student find that fit?

”Fit”

The quality of fit in a college is a complex concept.  It is often difficult to define or describe, but students often know it when they find it.

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How Hard Is College?

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Does your soon-to-be college student worry about how hard college is going to be?  Probably.  Do you worry about how hard college will be for your student — and whether they’ll be able to do well?  Probably.  Can you find the answer?  Probably not.

Many, if not most, college students — or almost-college-students – and their parents worry about how hard college will be.  Students may not voice their concerns out loud, but they are there.  Will school be hard?  Will I be able to do the work?  Will I understand the material and what is being asked of me?  They may ask their advisors, faculty members, other students — ”Is this class hard?”

The answers may not be very satisfying.  It depends.  Hard is relative.  It may be as hard as you make it.

What do students mean by ”hard?”

Hard, of course, can mean many things — and different things to different people.  It may mean difficult, challenging, complex, time consuming, a lot of work.  It may mean arduous, demanding, exacting, strenuous, exhausting, grueling, painful, distressing, brutal, complicated, intense.

A lot of scary words.

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Is Your Student Rising to the Challenge of Preparing for College? Finding Solutions.

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In December 2014 Achieve, Inc. released the report Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work?  We think the information in this report is important not just for schools, but for parents as well.  In our last post we shared some of the results of this survey.  In this post, we share some of the implications for parents and students.

Preparing to succeed in college seems to begin earlier and earlier.  Laying the solid foundation of academic skills, softer life skills, and getting ready for the admissions process takes years.  Some of the work is conscious for your student, and some may happen unconsciously.  Some is under your student’s direct control, and some of the preparation depends on your student’s school, family, and mentors.  Can you help?  The answer is a resounding yes, but not necessarily in ways that you might think of at first.

Both parents and students can, and must, take control of the college preparation process.

How does this affect me — or my student?

Achieve works primarily on a state level, and as a result of this survey the organization has made several important recommendations to states and to individual school districts.  We think the information is important to parents, too, and we think that parents can, and should, talk to their high school students about some of these findings.  Students who become aware of shortcomings while they are in high school rather than after high school are in a position to do something to improve their own preparation.

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Is Your Student Rising to the Challenge of Preparing for College? What’s the Problem?

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In December 2014 Achieve, Inc. released the report Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work?  We think the information in this report is important not just for schools, but for parents as well.  In this post we share some of the results of this survey.  In our next post, we’ll share some of the implications for parents and students.

Preparing to succeed in college seems to begin earlier and earlier.  Laying the solid foundation of academic skills, softer life skills, and getting ready for the admissions process takes years.  Some of the work is conscious for your student, and some may happen unconsciously.  Some is under your student’s direct control, and some of the preparation depends on your student’s school, family, and mentors.  Can you help?  The answer is a resounding yes, but not necessarily in ways that you might think of at first.

A new study has just been released about students’ high school experiences and how they relate to college experiences.  It contains important information that parents can use to understand specifically how both students and parents can take more control of the college success preparation process.

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It’s Time to Love Your Second Choice College

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As a parent, you want your child to be happy.  It began when they were infants, and it hasn’t changed.  And for some students about to head to college, happiness may mean learning to love their second choice college.  They may need your help understanding how to do that

The facts are there.  According to a recent study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, fewer than 57% of students in the United States are attending their first choice college.  That means that your student may wind up attending their second (or third or fourth) choice of college.  It is interesting to note, however, that over 75% of students were admitted to their first choice of school.  This means that your student (or you as a family) may make the choice to attend a school other than your student’s initial first choice.

Some research is also suggesting, however, that where your student attends school is going to matter less than their attitude and actions once they get there.

What can I do to help my student make the adjustment?

The first thing that you can do is to honor your student’s disappointment.

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How to Help Your High School Student Work Now to Avoid College Remedial Courses

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Is your student college ready?  The answer may not be what you think.  If your student has done reasonably well in high school and has high school diploma in hand, you may assume that your student is now ready for college.  Unfortunately, in most cases this may not be true.

According to a recent study conducted by the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education, an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization, ”Every year in the United States, nearly 60% of first-year college students discover that, despite being fully eligible to attend college, they are not ready for postsecondary studies. After enrolling, these students learn that they must take remedial courses in English or mathematics, which do not earn college credits.”  Even those students enrolled in a college preparatory curriculum may not be as ready as they should be.

According to another report, released by Achieve, Inc., students who require remedial courses in college graduate at half of the rate of their college ready peers.  Many students who do graduate need extra time to complete their degree.

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Deferred? Waitlisted? Help Your Student Take Action

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The college admissions process is a roller coaster for everyone.  Students spend months, or years, preparing — taking the right classes, taking tests, visiting schools, filling out applications, writing essays, securing recommendations.  It’s exhausting and everyone is anxious for the process to conclude.

Many students send their applications for Early Action or Early Decision and hope to have an answer by December.  Other students apply through rolling admission or regular admission and hope to know their fate by early spring.

But two specific situations can thrust your student into limbo.  If your student has applied to school through Early Action or Early Decision and is deferred, she will need to wait to have her application reviewed with the regular pool of applicants in the spring.  If your student applies for regular admission and is wait listed, she will need to wait, sometimes well into the summer, to hear whether there will be a place for her — and this will depend on the response rate from those who have been offered a place through regular admission.

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When Disappointment Comes for Your Student

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Your student will experience disappointment. It is inevitable. There are the little disappointments that occur all through childhood, of course, but then there are bigger disappointments.  It may be failure to make the team or get the part in the play, a grade that is less than desired, loss of a scholarship, college rejection or deferral, or low GPA.  It might happen in high school or it might happen during college.

However, the important question is not whether your student will experience disappointment (they will) or even when, but what will you and your student do when the inevitable happens?

Your student may look to you, even without realizing that they are doing so, to model how they should handle this disappointment.  Whether it is an admission rejection or academic probation, it is important to see this as an opportunity to model your attitude and behavior for your student.  How you respond may affect how they react to the situation.  Remember when your student was little and fell down?  Often, the first thing they did was look to you. If you smiled and laughed, they often got up and were fine.  If you were alarmed and fearful, tears came.

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Beyond Admissions: Preparing Your High School Senior for College

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As the parent of a high school senior (or junior) you may be doing everything that you can to help your student make decisions and get into the college of their choice.  This is an important time and there certainly are a lot of things to do.  As your student works on the college admissions process, you may be drawn into the whirlwind along with your student.

This is a good time to stop and think about how the college admissions process has involved you either directly or indirectly.

Your student is

  • preparing for PSAT, SAT and/or ACT exams,
  • making sure that extracurricular activities and community service are documented,
  • keeping grades strong,
  • cleaning up social media accounts,
  • attending college information workshops,
  • completing financial aid applications,
  • compiling lists of schools,
  • attending college fairs,
  • working with guidance counselors,
  • making college visits,
  • getting all paperwork organized,
  • writing essays,
  • sending out applications,
  • and finally — waiting impatiently for admissions decisions.

It’s no wonder students — and parents — feel overwhelmed.  Just thinking about the process can be exhausting.  And once those applications are in the mail, you may feel as though the real work of senior year is done.  Now you just wait — at least until letters arrive and new, and final, decisions need to be made.

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New Student Convocation May Launch Your College Student’s Year

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What is college convocation? You’ve dropped your new freshman off at college and they say that they will be attending convocation. For anyone unfamiliar with college traditions this may be a strange term and you wonder what is going on. Fall convocation for new students, or for all returning students, is a common experience at many colleges and universities.

According to most dictionaries, the most technical meaning of convocation is a large formal meeting of people. The term used to refer to gatherings of bishops and other religious clerics, but now has been broadened to refer to meetings of members of a college or university to observe some sort of celebratory ceremony. Convocation is often associated with the beginnings and endings of the school year or of a student’s college career.

Some colleges include convocation along with a commencement ceremony to mark the ending of a student’s college education as well. At some schools, degrees or diplomas may be handed out at convocation. Many schools now include an opening convocation at the beginning of the school year as a ceremony to welcome new students or to welcome students back for a new year.

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