Grooming for a college admission / scholarship

[moneybags]

DD starts high school next year. It's never to early to start thinking about college, and I don't want to get to jr. year and go "I should of thought of that". In terms of college admission and/or scholarship opportunities, what can we do to get ahead or be on track? Any websites with valuable info? I'm not unrealistic about scholarship opportunities (thus I'm saving for tuition), nor am I forcing an overachiever, I just want to make sure I don't miss anything.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Well, the one thing I would say that might be different than the high school counselor would say is to really encourage your daughter to develop and pursue a passion. A child who becomes accomplished in one area is apt to excel in multiple areas and be able to see the connections between many fields of knowledge and endeavors. That can help make for a really good student, a motivated learner, and a globally open-minded attitude. Hopefully your child is already developing that way. Let her be a major determiner in the route she takes; encourage her to be a strong young woman who follows her best judgment yet who acknowledges the worth of others.

Sounds pretty vague, eh? Well, just stick to the passion thing. Sometimes the passion itself might lead to a scholarship. Sometimes the quality performance as a student that the passion taught your daughter could lead to a scholarship

[Marcymox]

The following book is at the top of my list for this subject..

What High Schools Don't Tell You: 300+ Secrets to Make Your Kid Irresistible to Colleges by Senior Year (Hardcover)
by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross (Author)

Amazon.com: What High Schools Don't Tell You: 300+ Secrets to Make Your Kid Irresistible to Colleges by Senior Year: Elizabeth Wissner-Gross: Books

some of the suggestions are a little.. well extreme, but it has an incredible amount of accurate information. I highly reccommend BUYING it, and reading every single word in it- it's that good.

This book it seems, is designed for those kids who want to attend ivy league schools, and has sort of a "gifted child" feel, but don't let that sway you, there is info in there even for the most regular of kids. Even if you only do 25% of the things suggested in this book, it sounds as if your child will make it to some college. Don't be put off by the overachieving nature of the book- it has sections on what to do if your child has absolutely no clue whatsoever what they want to do when they grow up, and what to do if all they are interested in is tv.

Even though the book suggests grooming your child starting in 7th grade- you don't have to panic, there are suggestions for people who have kids in 9th grade as well.

also , equally good, by the same author, is:

What Colleges Don't Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You to Know): 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid into the Top Schools
by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross (Author)

as for scholarships, I'm not sure what to tell you, other than search high and low for every one out there. Do a google search for scholarships in your childs area of interest like " swim scholarship" or, if your child has written an good essay at school, maybe do a search for " patriotic essay contest" ( just using the VFW for example) these contest often offer savings bonds or small scholarships which could be used at least for books.
fastweb is about the only other site I know of.

as a last note, I found out that in our sate, if a student reaches " exceeding" on all 3 sections of our state mandated test for graduation- they are automatically accepted and fast tracked ( hardly any application involved) into our 3 state universities. Other states, Minnesota, if I recall correctly ( I've looked at alot of college info lately! ) have special programs for in-state students that offer steep tuition discounts and other incentives for students to stay in the state to be educated. Apparently, students who stay in thier home state for college tend to also work in thier home state when they graduate. It's a way to encourage educated growth in many cities. Check your state to see what they offer for residents that stay in thier home state to be educated.

good luck!

[moneybags]

Marcymox Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I just read the reviews at Amazon on that book. Very interesting, including the more negative thoughts about the book. My one and only is already in college, but I think I would like to read this book. One review suggested it is geared toward "hovering parents" (recent sensationalist TV news magazine type reporting snidely calls them "helicopter parents.") The reviews at Amazon seem worthwhile, including some of the cautions against taking the tact the book recommends.

I want to encourage you that scholarships presently are much more available than they were a generation ago. It is not unlikely to happen for your child as you might think.

[moneybags]

Joan, thanks for your insight. My child does (of course) have her gifts, we'll just have to wait and see what becomes of them.

[zakity]

It is never too early. I am thinking about college stuff and my oldest is 12.

[sweeps]

I've read in a few places that admissions counselors are well aware of these tactics. Many recognize the signs that a student has been coached and is trying to game the system. And many will react negatively if the parent gets involved and starts pestering the admissions staff.

[Marcymox]

Well from what I read in this book ( mentioned above) it talks about helicopter parents, and it talks about ways to be involved, without being obnoxious about it.

It talks about parents being the child's personal secretary- helping them, and showing them how to get organized. It tells how to make a file for all the college paperwork, and to make a calendar of dates, ect for applications, as well as managing the fees, and tracking all the scholarship deadlines. and yes it does say the parent could do the rote boring work of actually filling out the application ( name, address, phone number). of course the child must write thier own essay, prepare thier own interview, and actually DO all the work of grades and extracirriculars.

On one hand, it may sound like that is going a bit far, but on the other hand, it's a valuable skill I think to model excellent organizational skills. I know grown adults who still lose thier bills and forget appointments because they were never shown, and it was never modled to them how to manage important paperwork.

It also talks about bieng the child's advocate for unfair grading tactics, biased teachers, and just plan incompentancy prevalent in many public schools. Of course we wish every teacher was a model of teaching perfection, but sadly, most aren't. It becomes important , even in high school to make sure your child gets appointments with counselors, and teachers don't lose assignments. There is a whole section in this book about the underhanded tactics many teachers use in grading and how they treat students. Horrifying. You have to read it.


The argument against this is that of course if the child wanted to go to college bad enough they would sit down and fill out thier own stuff, and shuffle through mounds of paperwok on thier own - if they really wanted to- without nagging.

maybe.. but the kids I know who are applying to college are taking AP classes, have 3 hours of homework a day, play in the band, play a sport, do community service, ect, ect. it seems ok to me to fill out a few forms or send away for info for the child. Sometimes calls can only be made during "bankers hours" when the child is in school.

that being said, I don't recall the book advocating parents EVER calling the college. I know I would never do that. I think it did mention hiring a tutor for the SAT's and some formal prep classes for writing entrance essays though.

What you do have to know about this book- and I think I'll write a review on amazon saying so- the book implies that you do need some serious money in getting your child ready for college. Wither that or you are so dirt poor that you qualify for financial aid.
There is so much advice on tutors, talent search and summer programs, and when helping your child identify and pursue his passions, all of them require the sort of private lessons or specialized courses offered only at the biggest universities- often not even in your own state.

I'm taking every shred I can from the 2 books and trying to apply it to our own family. The SAT's are affordable, and so is a study book- we can't afford a class geared toward 7th graders like it suggests, so we study at home. We do what we can to create the triangle of desireability.. Academics, a sport, an art, and service to the community.

[simpletron]

instead of taking a shotgun approach where you try get your daughter ready for every college and scholarship, try focusing in on a few colleges. Try to figure out which schools that your daughter will apply to and focus in on what is needed to get in and what scholarship programs they offer.

each college gives out a lot of scholarships for various reasons and here are some of them:
1. win a high school competition at a college and top prizes are often scholarships to that college
2. be a star athlete/musician
3. being one of the X top students or the top student of a state or just a very good student
4. certian majors(generally smaller ones) give out scholarship if you will become that major
5. being the only one or one of few from a particular state(like alaska)

some other places, I would look for scholarships is the state, your employer, and organizations you belong to. A lot of states offer scholarships to state funded schools if you meet certain academic requirements. Many companies and organizations give out scholarships to children of thier employee/member, which reduces the pool of applications and gives your daughter a better chance to get one. these are probably the easiest to get and can be worth a lot, for example if I went to an in-state college I would have gotten 6700/year from the state, 5000/year from my dad's employer, 1000/year from a local organization my mom belong to for a total of 12700/year which was enough for tuition and room and board to any in-state college.(I went to out of state school but because of my major and the Academic common market, I was able to get in-state tuition, which was worth about 10-13000/year and that made the school affordable)

remember colleges and scholarships base their decision on three things:
1. acacdemic preformance(GPA, class rank, standardized test scores, course load)
2. extracurriculars (sports, clubs, community service, jobs,...)
3. essay/interview
(4. some search social network websites for additional information)
colleges are looking for individuals that have a balance between school and life and are good at both, but at the same time being extraordinary good at something can allow the school to overlook your weakness.

If your daughter gets good grades, I wouldn't worry too much about getting into college(unless ivy league) but paying for it is a different story. tuition went up every year and was up 31% for in-state and 56% for out of state between the first and fourth(last) year. luckly almost everything else kept pace with inflation(~3%/year) or held constant. I graduated last year, so this information is pretty recent.

[Like2Plan]

DD starts high school next year.....I'm not unrealistic about scholarship opportunities (thus I'm saving for tuition), nor am I forcing an overachiever, I just want to make sure I don't miss anything.

moneybags,
This is a really good time to start looking at colleges. When DS was that age, we took him to different colleges to have a look-see. Anytime we visited a city that had a college, we would stop by and take a look. DS had not taken his SATs when we started looking and he didn't have any idea as to what his major would be. They generally ask about both, but it was not an obstacle to taking a tour. I know some folks that started looking spring break of Jr year or summer preceding Sr year or fall of Sr year, but there are only so many campuses you can visit in that period of time. (In the past, Amtrak has offered a specials in the fall for Seniors visiting colleges).

Another resource is your child's high school. There are a lot of scholarships that have specific requirements such as going to a specific HS or living in a specific county or participating in a specific sport at the HS, et'c. We found there were quite a few scholarships listed on DS's HS web site. His HS worked college admissions into the curriculum.

When it came down to actually applying, DS only applied to one college and was accepted in the early admissions. As exciting as this whole process was, it was really wonderful when it was done!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Just remembered that another way to find out about very small locally awarded scholarships is to get a copy of the graduation program from various high schools. I guess you could do that every year from here on out, and from any high schools. Programs often will list scholarships the graduates have earned, some of which are not well publicized. For example a local very small grocery store offers a scholarship of $100. Not many people would know about it. But that'll buy a book and you can certainly come out well by stringing a number of scholarships together.

Once in school, daughter can watch for scholarships that are offered only after you are actually a student there. My son applied for one for sophomore physics students and got it, but he tells me he thinks he might have been the only one to have applied, though it was advertised to those students. He is hoping for the same for a similar small scholarship offered to juniors, now.

[mom-from-missouri]

Don't forget to check with businesses you frequent--for eample, our electric, telephone and rural water companies have scholarships for their customers. Our grocery store has one (country mart), so do most hospitals or hospital volunteer auxillaries, some libraries, and many business and social clubs.

Years ago I got 7 small scholarships from such companies, that together totaled 4 semesters of tution.