How Westchester“B” and Even “C” Students Can Show Their Potential to Colleges

Too many Westchester students believe that if you don’t have perfect grades, perfect test scores, and a certificate proclaiming that you invented plutonium in a fit of inspiration while at Rye Playland, you’re not going to get into college today.  That’s just not true.  If you’re a “B” or even a “C” student, you can still go to a good college if you want to.  Here a few tips to give you even more college options.

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How Parents Can Help Without Hurting

5 healthy ways Westchester parents can help Westchester kids during the college application process

 

Efforts to help, in spite of good intentions, can sometimes lead parents to impede unwittingly their kids’ admission to college.  Here are five healthy ways parents can help without hurting, courtesy of our Collegewise families who enjoyed the process together.

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TOP 10 WAYS TO HELP WITHOUT HURTING DURING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS

1 0 . ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CHILD’S STRESS – AS WELL AS YOUR OWN. Much of the stress about applying to college is self-induced. The fall is certainly going to be a very busy time for you and your child, but millions of people have gotten through it, and so will you.
9 . MAKE A MASTER CALENDAR OF IMPORTANT DEADLINES. Deadlines rule the college admissions process. Buy a large calendar that you can put on the fridge or in another prominent place. Write in application deadlines, due dates for financial aid forms, dates for SAT, ACT, SAT Subject Tests, etc.

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Five Common Errors That Can Keep Applicants Out of Top Colleges

1.They write unoriginal college essays.
Every year, admissions officers read hundreds of essays about the same topics, such as “how my work on Student Government at Ossining High School taught me the value of hard-work and responsibility,” and “how my volunteer work in the Appalachian mountains showed me the importance of helping others.” Successful applicants avoid clichéd topics and instead write revealing, original essays that only they could tell.

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Resisting Peer Parenting Pressure

For parents of high school kids: How you can stay focused on what’s really important in testing & college admissions
Dinner parties around here this spring and summer aren’t what they used to be.

In many parental circles, dinner parties that used to be a time to enjoy good food, good friends, and good bonding over the joys of parenting have turned into college preparatory competitions.  Instead of regaling each other with tales of the harrows of driving lessons or the preparation for first dates, parents are comparing the SAT tutors they’ve secured, the number of community service hours their kids have completed, and the extravagance of expensive summer programs they’ve planned for their kids.  These assuredly well-meaning parents hijack the college process from their kids and surely know how to ruin a good dinner party.

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Scholarships

Unless you are independently wealthy, you will probably need more money than you currently have for college. The good news is that billions of dollars are available in private scholarships to help students jump the college-funding hurdle. Are you ready to jump?

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Five Students Every College Loves

Different colleges look for different qualities in potential students.  But there are some characteristics that are appealing no matter where you apply, from Pace to Purdue, Harvard to Hofstra,  Marist to Molloy, Vassar to…OK, you get the idea.

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Parenting a local high school junior or senior?

Then you need to know about…

The Most Overused College Application Essay Topics

(Our peacekeeping mission to protect students from cliché crossfire)

“Blood drive” essays. They make a lot of admissions officers want to draw their own blood by jabbing themselves with a paper clip, as one applicant after another claims that one on-campus blood drive changed his life and made him appreciate the importance of serving humanity.

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Getting In 5 tips for winning the college admissions game

Now that the admissions net extends across the globe,” says Carol Gill, president of the eponymous educational counseling service she founded 25 years ago in Dobbs Ferry, “the college process has become increasingly competitive and applications have risen dramatically.” So with local high school seniors filling out their college apps and juniors starting to kick their searches into high gear, we asked Gill for her best tips for successfully navigating the process.
Read this article by Laurie Yarnell at: http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/September-2010/Getting-In/
For more information: (914) 693-8200; collegesplus.com.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:

TOP TEN PLANS FOR SUMMER LEARNING (SO YOUR PARENTS WILL LEAVE YOU ALONE)

1 . READ If we had to suggest one thing that would increase your grades and SAT scores, make you a better writer, a better student, and increase your knowledge of the world, it would be to read as many good books as possible. Read newspapers and magazines, even check out a trashy novel or two. But read!

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FREE and Low Cost SAT Prep

Westchester Library System offers access to sample questions in all subjects featured on the SAT- and offers some online test-taking courses, too. 

westchesterlibraries.org/node/861

 

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www.ineedapencil.com offers free online SAT prep

 

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If your student is from a low-income background or will be a fisrt generation college student, Let's Get Ready is a free program where high-scoring volunteers tutor other students.  Each program runs for about nine weeks and includes 30 hours of instruction and 3 practice tests.  You could save $1,250. 

www.letsgetready.org

Extracurricular Activities