Archive for March, 2009

7 Ways to Spot a Scholarship Scam!!

7 Ways to Spot a Scholarship Scam

If you’re a student, or the parent of a student, that is about to head off to college, you’ve got to be very careful, because you are on a lot of shady people’s list.

You are going to get a lot of offers by phone and by mail for scholarship searches, or telling you you’ve won a contest or scholarship…..and most of them are TOTAL scams.

Seriously, it’s a huge problem that costs parents over 100 MILLION dollars each year. And that is just what gets reported. I’m sure the actual amount is much, much higher.

So, let me tell you what to watch out for…by the way, feel free to pass this along to any of your friends.

First, let me give you the goal of someone who would try to scam you. It’s one of two things:

1.To get you to pay for something that isn’t going to help you and in fact is a total waste of money

2.To get you to disclose your personal information to them, so they can steal or abuse your identity.

With that said, here’s what you’ve got to be careful of.

  • Anyone calling you to tell you that your student has won an award or scholarship, and they just need some personal information (like a bank account number or credit card number) to ‘process’ your award. A legitimate scholarship is NOT going to charge a processing fee…..ever. Period. So do NOT be giving that information out.
  • Also, beware of any scholarship that you have to pay to enter. Even if the fee is modest, you shouldn’t pay anything. Many of these are just ‘lotteries’….meaning that they collect a ton of money from unsuspecting parents, and then award one token scholarship…just so they don’t get in trouble with the law.Technically, this is legal, but don’t waste your time, it’s still a scam. Go to a 7-11 and buy some lottery tickets instead. The result will be about the same, and hey, at least you don’t have to write an essay!
  • Beware of high pressure. If somebody is calling or mailing you and is trying to put pressure on you, it’s almost a sure sign of a scam. Look, most legitimate scholarships have thousands of applicants, so they don’t HAVE to pressure anybody. In fact, just the opposite, they have students lined up trying to win their money. If you are not interested, that’s fine, they’ll just move on to the next student, but they won’t pressure you, they won’t be asking you for money, and they will send the college or you a check, they WON’T need your credit card number. (Sorry, that was just a little review of what we’ve covered so far).
  • Beware of any company that ‘guarantees’ you will win a scholarship. Many will just take the money and run. No one can guarantee the scholarship except the organization that is giving it out.
  • Watch out for anyone telling you ‘We’ll do all the work for you’. Getting scholarships is a ton of work, and though a good service can weed out what not to waste time with, the student still has to do the work.
  • Many scammers will go out of their way to use official sounding names, like: ‘federal’, ‘national’, ‘education’, or ‘foundation’ to fool parents into believing they are legit.
  • Lastly, remember that private scholarships account now for only about 3% (no, that’s NOT a typo) of the total money that is out there.

My office is focused on getting you the other 97%, making sure your kid gets into the right college, and making sure you can reasonably afford your share, among other things.

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18 Questions for your Counselor…

18 Questions to Ask Your Counselor

They’re There to Answer Them

Your counselor is one of your best resources as you plan for college. She or he has information about admission tests, college preparation, and your education and career options. Here are some basic questions to help get your conversation started:

  1. What are the required and recommended courses — for graduation and for college prep?
  2. How should I plan my schedule so I’ll complete them?
  3. Which elective courses do you recommend?
  4. Which AP® courses are available?
  5. When is the PSAT/NMSQT® going to be given here?
  6. Is this school a testing center for the SAT®, or will I need to go somewhere nearby?
  7. Do you have any after-school or evening sessions available for college planning, or the SAT?
  8. Do you have college handbooks or other guides that I can browse or borrow? Do you have a copy of the free Taking the SAT booklet, which has a practice test in it?
  9. What activities can I do at home and over the summer to get ready for college?
  10. What kinds of grades do different colleges require?
  11. Are there any college fairs at this school, or nearby?
  12. Where do other kids from this school attend college?
  13. What are the requirements or standards for the honor society?
  14. Can you put me in touch with recent grads that are going to the colleges on my wish list?
  15. Do you have any information to help me start exploring my interests and related careers?
  16. If my colleges need a recommendation from you, how can I help you know me better, so it can be more personal?
  17. Can I see my transcript as it stands now, to see if everything is as I think it should be?
  18. How does our school compare to others, in terms of test scores and reputation?

Reality Check

Your guidance counselor may be the most wonderful and accessible person on the planet, or she or he may be juggling a thousand students and barely know your name. So remember that the person who has the biggest stake in your academics is you. It’s up to you to stay on top of opportunities and deadlines, to take control of your future.

Got Senioritis?

What to Do about “Senioritis”

Help Your Child Make Senior Year Count

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High school seniors have worked hard for three years, taking tests, completing projects, and preparing for college admission. When senior year rolls around some students just want to get through college applications and relax before they head off to the college of their choice.

Also known as “senioritis,” taking it easy senior year may be a nice break for your child, but is likely to do more harm than good. According to recent reports, incomplete high school preparation can contribute to academic problems in college.

  • “As many as half of all college students do not have adequate academic preparation, and are required to take remedial courses.”
  • “More than one quarter of the freshmen at 4-year colleges and nearly half of those at 2-year colleges do not even make it to their sophomore year.”

Not only does “senioritis” jeopardize your child’s chances for success later on in college, it can also affect her grades — and college admission officers pay close attention to her performance senior year.

College Admission

Many students mistakenly believe that prepping for college ends after the eleventh grade. However, the senior year — the entire senior year — is actually of particular interest to colleges.

Applying

Many college applications (including the Common Application) require your child to list his senior courses, including information about course levels and credit hours. It will be very obvious to the admission officers if he has decided to “take the year off.”

Many colleges also include as part of the application a form called the mid-year grade report. Your child’s counselor completes this form with first-half grades and sends it to the colleges. It then becomes a crucial part of the application folder.

If Your Child Is Accepted

Many college acceptance letters include warnings to students such as “Your admission is contingent on your continued successful performance.” This means colleges reserve the right to deny your child admission should her senior year grades drop.

Mary Lee Hoganson, College Counselor for Homewood-Flossmor Community High School, Flossmor, Illinois writes: “It is not at all rare for a college to withdraw an offer of admission when grades drop significantly over the course of the senior year. (I have a folder full of copies of these letters.)”

Helping Your Child Through Senior Year

Senior year is your child’s opportunity to strengthen his skills and broaden his/her experiences, in school and out, to prepare for all of the challenges ahead. With your encouragement and support, and the help of his teachers, your child’s senior year will help launch him/her on the path to a successful future.

A Challenging Course Load

Your child should take the most rigorous courses available, and be sure to continue taking college-track subjects. He/She should consider AP®courses, which can also earn him/her credit at many colleges.

Pursuing Activities

Your child’s continued involvement in activities, sports, volunteer work, etc. will help him/her stay active and focused throughout his final year. In addition, a great internship or career-focused job opportunity can help motivate your child to start considering his career options. Meaningful and significant experiences will help prepare him/her to make informed decisions about his education and career goals.

Try out College Early

If your child is interested in pursuing a subject further, and has excelled at his/her high school classes so far, she should consider taking a class at a local college. This challenge can help him/her avoid sliding into an academic slump, and stimulate her interest in the possibilities of college.

Another option in many areas is “middle college” or “early college” high schools. These schools, normally located on community and four-year college campuses, allow students to spend their last two years taking classes in both college and high school. Early exposure to college classes introduces students to the rigor of college work while easing their transition from high school.

Explore All the Options

Your child’s continued commitment to challenge himself and grow will help him/her to maintain his momentum, and make smart decisions about his/her future. Your child should discuss all his education options with his/her counselor to create a plan that puts him/her on the right track for success — throughout his/her high school years and beyond.

A Winning College Essay

Three Steps to a Great College Essay

You, in 500 Words or Less

The college application essay is a chance to explain yourself, to open your personality, charm, talents, vision, and spirit to the admission committee. It’s a chance to show you can think about things and that you can write clearly about your thoughts. Don’t let the chance disappear. Stand up straight and believe in yourself!

The Essay Writing Process

OK, boot up your computer and let’s get to it. To write a college essay, use the exact same three-step process you’d use to write an essay for class: first prewrite, then draft, and finally, edit. This process will help you identify a focus for your essay, and gather the details you’ll need to support it.

Prewriting

To begin, you must first collect and organize potential ideas for your essay’s focus. Since all essay questions are attempts to learn about you, begin with YOU.

  • Brainstorm
    Set a timer for 15 minutes and make a list of your strengths and outstanding characteristics. Focus on strengths of personality, not things you’ve done. For example, you are responsible (not an “Eagle Scout”) or committed (not “played basketball”). If you keep drifting toward events rather than characteristics, make a second list of the things you’ve done, places you’ve been, accomplishments you’re proud of; use them for the activities section of your application.
  • Discover Your Strengths
    Do a little research about yourself: ask parents, friends, and teachers what your strengths are.
  • Create a “Self-Outline”
    Now, next to each trait, list five or six pieces of evidence from your life — things you’ve been or done — that prove your point.
  • Find Patterns and Connections
    Look for patterns in the material you’ve brainstormed. Group similar ideas and events together. For example, does your passion for numbers show up in your performance in the state math competition and your summer job at the computer store? Was basketball about sports or about friendships? When else have you stuck with the hard work to be with people who matter to you?

Drafting

Now it’s time to get down to the actual writing. Write your essay in three basic parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.

  • The introduction gives your reader an idea of your essay’s content. It can shrink when you need to be concise. One vivid sentence might do: “The favorite science project was a complete failure.”
  • The body presents the evidence that supports your main idea. Use narration and incident to show rather than tell.
  • The conclusion can be brief as well, a few sentences to nail down the meaning of the events and incidents you’ve described.

An application essay doesn’t need to read like an essay about The Bluest Eye or the Congress of Vienna, but thinking in terms of these three traditional parts is a good way to organize your main points.

There are three basic essay styles you should consider:

  • Standard Essay
    Take two or three points from your self-outline, give a paragraph to each, and make sure you provide plenty of evidence. Choose things not apparent from the rest of your application or “light up” some of the activities and experiences listed there.
  • Less-Is-More Essay
    In this format, you focus on a single interesting point about yourself. It works well for brief essays of a paragraph or half a page.
  • Narrative Essay
    A narrative essay tells a short and vivid story. Omit the introduction, write one or two narrative paragraphs that grab and engage the reader’s attention, then explain what this little tale reveals about you.

Editing

When you have a good final draft, it’s time to make final improvements to your draft, find and correct any errors, and get someone else to give you feedback. Remember, you are your best editor. No one can speak for you; your own words and ideas are your best bet.

  • Let It Cool
    Take a break from your work and come back to it in a few days. Does your main idea come across clearly? Do you prove your points with specific details? Is your essay easy to read aloud?
  • Feedback Time
    Have someone you like and trust (but someone likely to tell you the truth) read your essay. Ask them to tell you what they think you’re trying to convey. Did they get it right?
  • Edit Down
    Your language should be simple, direct, and clear. This is a personal essay, not a term paper. Make every word count (e.g., if you wrote “in society today,” consider changing that to “now”).
  • Proofread Two More Times
    Careless spelling or grammatical errors, awkward language, or fuzzy logic will make your essay memorable — in a bad way.

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Campus Visit Checklist

Campus Visit Checklist

I get a lot of questions on what the best way to research schools to attend.  But, all the research in the world can’t give you the real “feel” of what the campus is like.  You can save THOUSANDS if you actually go to the schools under consideration and take a tour.  Just because the school looks good on the internet and in books, your student might not like the “makeup” of the school.  If you live in California and are used to warm weather and you are looking at school in New York, your student might not like snow.  Visiting 6-8 schools may seem like it would be expensive, but it is A LOT cheaper to tour the school and find out you don’t like it, versus actually moving to the school, getting an apartment and deciding its not for you.  Then having to transfer to another school.

Here are things your child should not miss while visiting a college. Take a look at this list before planning campus trips to make sure that your family allows enough time on each campus for your child to really get a sense of what the school — and the life of the students there — is really like.

§ Take a campus tour.

§ Have an interview with admission officer.

§ Get business cards and names of people you meet, for future contacts.

§ Pick up financial aid forms.

§ Participate in a group information session at the admission office.

§ Sit in on a class of a subject that interests you.

§ Talk to a professor in your chosen major or in a subject that interests you.

§ Talk to a coach in your chosen sport.

§ Talk to a student or counselor in the career center.

§ Spend the night in the dorm.

§ Read the student newspaper.

§ Try to find other student publications — department newsletters, “alternative” newspapers, literary reviews.

§ Scan bulletin boards to see what day-to-day student life is like.

§ Eat in the cafeteria.

§ Ask a student why he/she chose this college.

§ Wander around the campus by yourself.

§ Read for a little while in the library and see what it’s like.

§ Search for your favorite book in the library.

§ Read the bulletin boards around the campus.

§ Ask a student what he/she hates about the college.

§ Browse in the college bookstore.

§ Ask a student what he/she loves about the college.

§ Walk or drive around the community surrounding the campus.

§ Ask a student what he/she does on weekends.

§ Listen to the college’s radio station.

§ Try to see a dorm that you didn’t see on the tour.

§ Imagine yourself attending this college for four years.

§ Write down notes of your visit on what you saw (both, good and bad).

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