High school years are just as stressful for the parent as it is for the teen! Making sure your teen is on the right path to not only excel in their current classes but also be prepared for the long road to college admissions is certainly challenging. But before you or your student get overwhelmed, consider getting organized and setting realistic and tangible goals. You don’t have to grow the mustard tree today, just plant the seed!

It is all about baby steps. Even the smallest tasks can help your child tremendously. The last thing you want to do is wait until their junior or senior year and start scrambling and coming up with a plan. If you procrastinate you lose. Your child loses. Here are 8...

If you think it's too early to talk about the college process with your 9th grader, you're wrong. So much of what they will do in the next few years, inside and outside the classroom, will have a direct impact on where they will be admitted. Now is the time to prepare. I am getting more and more inquiry calls from parents of 8th and 9th graders wanting to know how we work with students and when we can start. Why? Because they know that the college admissions process is getting increasingly complex and they want to be ahead of the game. And rightfully so.

Applying to college is not easy. The more information a family has, the better decisions they will make. I recently had a family of a 9th grader...

Colleges love to be loved. They crave attention from the RIGHT students at the RIGHT time. Demonstrating interest in one of your top choices can be critical for college acceptances. They, the college, want to know that if they admit a student, that there is a strong likelihood that the student will attend. As high school students start to engage colleges, here are 7 simple and effective ways to do it. Trust me, it works.

1. “Like” their social media pages

Not as silly and trivial as you think. Colleges “track” their social media just like most people. If a student does not take the time to pop up on a list, how can they really want to go there? “Like” them on...

The word “resume” sounds very adult and professional, and it is. Your young adult, who is almost eighteen years of age, needs one in order to show colleges what they do outside of the classroom. They need to list their activities so colleges can see how they spend their time, whether it is participating in the arts, athletics, community service (now called “civic engagement”), or working a part-time job.

Why is a resume important? Well, colleges want to know what your child has to offer them. This list of activities should include their position (i.e. captain, president, volunteer, sales associate, etc.), the time they spent doing the activity (i.e. three hours a...

Um, yesterday.

There is no better time than the present! Given that seniors SHOULD be writing now, it’s our advice that they get knee deep into the essay process before school starts.

Why?

Well, because writing college essays is hard and should not be taken lightly. A good essay that represents a candidate's character and ability cannot be slapped together overnight. Not if you want it to be effective, anyway.

Several colleges have released their 2018-19 supplemental essay questions. It would behoove you or your child to see if the schools to which they intend to apply are available.

If essays are completed by the end of the summer, the beginning of senior year is much easier in terms of...

I love it when I get feedback on our blog posts. Having people comment or email me directly shows that there is engagement, curiosity and maybe some clarity.

It’s that time in a high school parents’ life when they start to look at their son or daughter and think about college. What are they going to do? Where are they going to go? Given that these questions are swirling in the heads of many, I figured I would offer a few quick tips for parents who are eager to find the right college match for their kid.

1 - The size of the student body

Size affects so much of the social and academic experiences at college. Too often students are not honest with themselves and think that one of the two...

With college admissions getting more competitive every year, it can feel like every test, grade, and extracurricular activity can be a determining factor in your child’s future.

Check out these statistics…

• With more students applying and shrinking acceptance rates, admission rates are at all-time low — in the single digits for top colleges.
• 70% of today’s college students are graduating with an average of $39,400 in student loan debt... And many of them are taking longer to graduate or struggling to find a job after graduation
• Nearly 40% of 18-34 year-olds are moving back home to live with parents or other family members (YIKES!!)

The rules of getting into college have...

I love my children dearly. As a father of four, there are only a few things I would not do for them to ensure their happiness. Would I choose their friends? No. Would I choose their their political affiliations? No. Would I choose their college? Absolutely not. Now remember, “choose” and “influence” are very different and I hope my model of how I live my life helps them to make wise decisions, but I would never outright choose any of the above for them.

I would, however, help them with their college application process. As a company we are knee deep with seniors and their applications and having parent involvement is critical and welcomed. Within reason. While all of us, as...

Preparing for college demands steady effort throughout high school. However, even the most prepared of students can sometimes hurt their college chances by making simple mistakes that do not need to happen.

The college search and admissions processes should start early, and without this long-term, aerial view, many students and families students exhausted during the senior year. This can be avoided! Too often students “sabotage” their college process without even realizing it.

Below are three pitfalls that you want to avoid.

Being Dismissive of Freshman Year.

Some students think, and are even told, that freshman year is unimportant. Not true. Each year, when a college evaluates tens of...

Writing a college essay is hard. Very few students go into the writing process “pumped” to sit in front of a computer to tell a story. It's part laborious, often times frustrating and occasionally embarrassing. The most common thing I hear is “I don't know what to write!” and then it becomes my job to help the student to brainstorm and believe in the idea that we have thought of together.

Know what's far easier? Documenting life. Instead of trying to devise some cleverly creative epiphany that they think will change the landscape of college admissions and help them get into the college of their dreams, students should simply share what has happened in their lives or what is...