Susie Watts is a college planner and educational consultant . She can help your student find colleges that meet his or her criteria. Susie will provide your student with college planning and useful college assistance throughout the entire college application process.
Test Prep Classes, Tutoring and Online Course for PSAT, SAT, ACT
College planning includes scheduling dates to take the SAT and ACT. Susie Watts is a test prep coach in Denver. She offers tutoring, small classes, and an eprep online course for the PSAT, SAT and ACT. Sometimes even a small gain in test scores will improve chances for college admissions and provide thousands of dollars in scholarships and financial aid.
College Planning, Find a College, College Applications, College Essays, Test Prep,
College Assistance in Denver, Colorado
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"College planning was really a challenge for us. Alex benefited from your ACT class. Helping him find a college and providing college assistance with his applications and college essays kept him directed. It also allowed us to have some family harmony without having to constantly be on his case. Helping him contact coaches and playing lacrosse in college was the icing on the cake. You were a tremendous college planner."
Can you provide the college assistance your student needs as he or she navigates the college planning process? Can your high school counselor? The shocking truth is that most students do not get the college counseling they need and often select colleges impulsively and for the wrong reasons. This explains why almost 50% of students will transfer to another college because the school they originally chose was not a good fit for them.
College Direction assists students with all facets of the college selection, application and admissions process. This website contains information, articles and videos that will benefit your student and help your family make important college decisions. Sign up for our free monthly college planning newsletter by entering your name and email below. Contact Susie Watts at susie@collegedirection.org or 303-692-1918 if you want to work with a great college planner. High school seniors: It is time to get organized!!!
College Planning Success for High School Students
College admissions continues to be a competitive and confusing process. Many parents realize for the first time that college planning is very different from when they went to school. They often have questions and don’t know where to turn for answers answers. Sometimes they are frustrated because they aren’t sure how to help their high school student.
Successful college planning begins with helping students to find the best college fit. Here it is important to consider many different factors: size, location, academics, social aspects, and special interests. Most importantly, families should look at schools that encourage students to grow academically and personally. This process takes time and research, but finding the right schools is well worth the effort. Schools should not be eliminated because of price because many colleges are generous with financial aid and scholarships.
After an initial list of schools is compiled, families can access information on specific college websites. Read about their college admissions requirements and the student profile from the previous entering class. It is always a good idea to sign up online as a prospective student at a college website so that a student will receive newsletters and mailings. Students should narrow their list down to about six or seven schools and make sure they have at least two or three colleges they feel admission is almost certain. Too often students do not consider their “safety schools” as carefully as they should.
College planning includes scheduling dates to take the SAT and ACT. Students should sign up to take these tests sometime their junior year. Some good test preparation is important so that students do their best on these tests. Often times test scores are used not only for college admissions decisions, but for scholarships as well. Students should consider taking the tests two or three times to get the best results.
Many colleges encourage students to apply using the common application which is available online. This is one application that is submitted to any number of schools using the same information and essays. Other schools have their own online application which can be used. Students may also need to provide supplemental information or essays. Students should be aware of all deadlines for schools, including those for applications and scholarships.
Often schools require two teacher recommendations. Students should request a recommendation no later than the beginning of their senior year, preferably sooner. They should make sure they have been in the teacher’s class at least one semester and that the teacher knows them well enough to write some insightful comments.
Most colleges require at least one essay or personal statement. This is an opportunity for students to show a college what interests them, what they are passionate about, or what makes them unique from other college applicants. Students should write a number of drafts and make sure they have proofread their final essay and that it contains no grammatical or spelling errors.
Applications are almost always submitted online, but students need to find out how their schools handle the recommendations and high school transcript. Most colleges also want to receive the SAT and ACT scores directly from the testing agency. You can contact both the College Board and ACT online to have your scores sent to each college.
Helping students through the college planning process can be a stressful experience for many families. Parents sometimes feel that their students do not get enough college counseling from the school. If they want to work with a college consultant, they can go to the Higher Educational Consulting Association (HECA) website to find a list of qualified consultants. These individuals have the expertise and time to assist students with the college search and application process. High school counselors, the internet, and the library are also good sources for helpful information.
The Many Benefits of Hiring A College Planner
When your high school student reaches his or her Junior year, you will find your free time comes very few and far in between. The process of applying for colleges, financial aid, and scholarships is very time consuming. Not only that, if you are not certain of the exact process, it can be very overwhelming.
For this reason, you need to consider all of the benefits you would receiving when hiring a college planner.
First of all, a college planner can help you save time. Even the high school guidance counselor does not have all the time your student will need. They have to divide their work hours between hundreds of students and they will not always be available for questions or concerns. A college planner hired by you will be paid to help your child with the process of getting into college.
Of course, they can also help you save money. A college education is expensive and the planner will know all of the ins and outs for both financial aid and scholarships. They can help your child to win more scholarships and even get accepted into a great college funding program. In the long run, this means less dollars out of your pocket.
If you have started the process without a college planner, you may be feeling the stress. It seems as though the process can easily double the amount of anxiety in your life. A planner can help to relieve the stress that both you and your student are feeling. Less stress means that your relationship with your child is going to be better, as well.
The parents who do not hire a college planner to help them with their child's college education plans may find themselves under a ton of pressure. If you are worried about the cost, just remember that the amount of money a college planner can save you will far exceed the fee they will charge you.
Participation in team sports, volunteer organizations, and after-school clubs are all great ways for students to spend their free time during high school. Students should choose activities that they really enjoy, not those that might look good on a college application. Working at a library for a month would not make an impression on anyone; setting up an adult literacy program and participating in it for two years would.
Participation in extracurricular activities is an important part of a high school experience because it helps students to explore their talents and interests. If teenagers are interested in acting, encourage them to join the drama club, try out for a school play, or get involved in set design for a community theater. Extracurricular activities can also play a part in college admissions. Colleges want students who can bring unique skills and interests to the student body
James was a strong student with a high school GPA of 3.8 and a
29 on his ACT. He was involved in a long list of extra-curricular activities and community service and enjoyed all of them, but did not have the dedication and time to develop any leadership positions.
Mark was also a good student with a 3.6 GPA and 28 on the ACT. Mark, on the other hand, loved playing baseball and was involved in three clubs where he had participated for four years. He was the president of one and the captain of the baseball team. He also devoted time to the Special Olympics and tutored children with learning disabilities.
When it came time for college acceptances, James was disappointed that he hadn’t been accepted at more schools. Mark had just the opposite problem. How would he choose between the schools that had accepted him? Could extra-curricular activities been the area that made him a more appealing applicant. Did colleges see Mark as a student who would make more worthwhile contributions to the campus community?
There is a lesson here when it comes to extra-curricular activities: It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. And it’s better to have four clear areas of interest than six or seven different areas where your performance is solid but certainly not distinctive.
Students should not choose extracurricular activities over academic achievement and need to make sure they budget their time to be able to do both. Some students may feel that impressive extracurricular activities can help less academically qualified applicants be admitted into their college of choice. Rarely, is that true. They won’t make up for a student’s lower grades and test scores. But, if two students have similar grades and test scores, strong extra-curricular activities just might tip the scale in one student’s favor.
College Admissions Help from a College Admissions Advisor
Whereas it is true that most college admissions committees view secondary school (high school) academic performance and standardized test scores (PSAT, SAT, ACT) as the two most important attributes in a college application profile, there has been a growing emphasis on other parts of the application. College counselors will tell you, gone are the days where grades and tests are all that matter to a colleges admission officers.
With more and more information available, students know which schools they can be competitive at. Be it Yale or the University of Alabama,
the students applying and being seriously considered by college admissions committees generally look very similar to other candidates from a grade and standardized test perspective.
Couple this lack of candidate differentiation with the fact that securing the best candidates has become more competitive. In the last three years, average college applications per college bound student have gone up from 4.1 to 7.2.
For these reasons colleges are putting a renewed weight on candidate performance outside of high school grades and the standardized tests. More weight is being placed on other parts of the application profile. College admissions consultants and counselors using tools like Naviance have long been focusing their clients/students on the importance of solid intangibles. There is not a finite definition of the intangibles (hence the name). Generally though, universities and colleges are looking for evidence of extracurricular activities, participation in athletics, recognition/honors from the school and external bodies, demanding courseload, work experience, and degree of candidate fit (typically evaluated through college essays and on-campus interviews).
Admit Insights estimates that depending on the college (and all colleges are different) up to 35% of the decision of admission can depend on intangibles. College applicants completing college admissions applications and college admission counselors should spend time ensuring the academic house is in order with good high school grades and college standardized tests, but they should also spend some time thinking about the softer side of college admissions. This will help maximize college admissions chances.
Gene Hunt
Six Steps to Starting the College Search
Quite often I hear from parents and students who just don't feel like they know how to start the college search process. Let me provide you with six steps to starting a college search.
Step 1 - Be Flexible - One of the biggest stumbling blocks to beginning the college search is starting with preconceived notions about finding the right college. Eliminate now from your thinking that only public or only private colleges are right. Eliminate the idea that some college beauty pageant list like US News is going to tell what the right college is. And eliminate the idea that if the "sticker price" appears too high, the school is off the list. Start with a blank slate.
Step 2 - Start Now - Yes, now. The more time that you put into the college search, the better decisions will be made. Starting early allows you to take time... have fun with the process. If you get a head start on the process, then the student won't feel like the search is running (or ruining) their life. Starting early allows you to pace yourself, ask more questions, and get the right input.
Step 3 - Visit Colleges - Any colleges. It doesn't matter if they are schools the student is interested in, just visit them. Go on their campus tours. Students will gather valuable information about what they like and what they don't like by visiting any college campus. If there are colleges nearby where you live, then go for a campus visit. If there is a college near where you will be travelling on a vacation, then stop by for a college tour. And try to visit different types of colleges and universities. Let the student see what a small town, liberal arts college like Grinnell is like. Let them see what a 40,000 student urban campus like ASU is like. Show them what a small college in a big city is like. My alma matre, Jacksonville University, is 3,000 students in a city of a million. I loved it compared to the typical Big Ten, city-wide campus of the University of Iowa where I started.
Step 4 - Ask Yourself Questions - Start asking the right questions. Close to home, or across the country? Big campus, or small campus? City or country? What major or majors might I want to study? The college search engines on the Internet, like the one at Collegeboard.com, can help you come up with great questions to ask. Personally, I think "where?" is one of the first questions to tackle. You can find great schools anywhere in the country. College is one of the few times when a person can have complete freedom in choosing where they want to live. So you might as well pick someplace you'll enjoy? On the beach? In the mountains? Where it's cold? Where it's warm? The field is wide open. You'll always find great colleges no matter where you pick.
Step 5 - Make a List - Your questions will lead you to answers that are likes, dislikes, and must haves. Start listing those answers. As you build your list, you will be building the profile of your desired colleges.
Step 6 - Be Flexible - I started with flexibility, and I'll finish with it as well. Always make sure that your list is broad enough to include 6 to 10 different colleges, because that's how many you will need to apply. And don't feel like the decision you make as to where you commit for your freshman year in college is set in stone. Over one-third of college students transfer to another college at least once. If you find out you don't like it at a college, you can always change.
