Ed Bove's College Planning Blog

The Importance of Internships

College Students - You should really begin looking for internships for this summer. Use your time off in between semesters to network with people back home. Mention that you're looking to intern this summer.

Also make sure to visit the Career Services Department at your college. They will help you with all sorts of stuff, including finding jobs and internships.

Internships (paid or un-paid) are a tremendous opportunity for you and often lead to full-time employment after graduation.  And even if it doesn't, it will look great on your resume and give you references you can use in your job hunting.

Another tremendous benefit of an internship is that will either reinforce that you are on the right path in your career plans or not.  If you are on the right path, wonderful.  And if you're not, better you find out now rather than later.

College Planning Tip of the Week

Volunteer!

Have your student make the most of the holiday break!

 

Instead of getting distracted by the holidays, your student can use this time to enhance their resume and keep up with their college planning! They can consider volunteering their time at a charitable organization to help those less fortunate. Having this on their resume will definitely boost their appeal to colleges (and no, they don't have to spend their winter vacation in a third world country... a local soup kitchen or other well deserving organization is just fine).

College Planning Tip of the Week

Stay on Track

Typically for students with regular decision deadlines, we suggest setting the Thanksgiving holiday as a target deadline for yourself to have everything complete so that you aren't stressing in December. How are your applications coming along? Are you on track?

College Planning Tip of the Week

Some words of wisdom from the folks who run The Common Application:

Clicking Submit on an application is like dropping it in a mailbox: you cannot retrieve it, and you cannot edit it.

To avoid clicker's remorse, remember the following: Do not name specific colleges or tailor letters to specific colleges. Your submitted evaluation will be sent to ALL colleges to which the student applies.

Preview your work before submitting. And make sure you have attached the correct documents.

What Does It Take To Get Into College?

Below is a message from my mentor and Ducerus founder Ron Caruthers who has a brand-new, free video course on what it takes to get into college today  Here you go:

A few months ago, I talked about how it was the worst year ever in college history for admissions. (Even the Wall Street Journal said so.)

So....what DOES it take to get into college these days?

Well, frankly, I thought you'd never ask!

I've put together a killer course explaining exactly what you should and should NOT be doing right now...no matter how old or young your kid is....to get the colleges to line up and practically beg them to come. Even though everyone acts like it's a big mystery, it's really not, IF you follow the formula...just like you have to follow the formula if you want to get any financial aid.

You can go watch it now here: www.GetFreeFinancialAidForCollege.com

The course is 3 parts, and the link will take you to the first part. You will have to enter a valid email address (so I can send the extra course material and a special bonus that I don't want everyone having) but that's it. I won't be spamming you and I'm not giving your information away, so you don't have anything to worry about.

Again, go watch it now: www.GetFreeFinancialAidForCollege.com

It's about 30 minutes long and I'm going to cover the 9 biggest myths about college admissions, as well as one about AP classes that you really need to pay attention to. (OK, I actually forgot to include one of the myths, so it's really only 8, but I'll include the 9th in the next part of the series).

Please shoot me back an email and let me know what you think, too.

Ron Caruthers, Your College Planning Expert

PS. OK, I'll spill the beans. When you register for the class, you're also going to get a copy of my new booklet 'The Consumer's Guide to Getting Into (and Paying for) College'. So, go claim your copy now www.GetFreeFinancialAidForCollege.com

PPS. Be sure to forward this out to your friends if they have kids that are going to be going to college. I'm trying to reach 100,000 families with this message, so if you know someone that would benefit from this, pass it along. Thanks!

College Planning Tip of the Week

Students, when drafting your college admissions essay, try to write about something that the admissions office would not know about you unless you tell them. They are going to read your application, see your transcript and your standardized test scores, but what else is truly special about you that they may never know if you don't tell them? What qualities about you, experiences you've had, things you've accomplished, are unique to you and not many others could talk about?

College Planning Tip of the Week

Apply to 6 to 8 schools, minimum!

One of the things that we have found is that it does no good to apply to so few schools that you don’t get admitted anywhere or admitted to only 1 or 2. You don’t need to apply to 30 different schools, and in fact, it can actually hurt you in the long run. But, the ideal amount is to apply to 6 to 8 schools. These are things y...ou should look for in schools that you apply to:

1) Schools that you have a fairly good shot of getting into;
2) Schools that have financial aid to give, or are affordable even if you don’t get financial aid;
3) Schools that you would be really happy to attend.

By applying to 6-8 schools, you should get accepted by several and this will give you options to choose from, not the least of which is competing financial aid awards which you can use to your benefit.

Free Admissions Assistance Available

If you are the parent of a high school senior then you realize that college application time is right around the corner.  We have a special, limited-time promotion to help you and your child deal with that monumental task.  If your student needs guidance writing a compelling admissions essay, perfecting the college application and brag sheet, and making a successful transition to college, visit www.smarttracktoolkit.com/enroll and enter promo code EB7595AA to receive the Admissions Assistance component for FREE! (This is a $247 value!!!)

This special promotion ends at midnight on Labor Day. So don't delay!  Enroll for your free component now!

PS -- Once you've experienced the benefit of the Admissions Assistance component, you may be interested in some, or all, of the other valuable components that make up the toolkit.  If so, click on those components and use promo code EB7595 for a special discount.

 

 

Students Trading Sex For College Money!

Can you imagine your daughter seeking out a "sugar daddy" to pay her college costs?  It seems unimaginable, but it's for real.  Students are out there trading sex for college money.  Can it get any worse than that?  How can it be prevented?

That's what college planning is all about!

Take a look at this news report from PIX Morning News in New York.  I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it:

Sextra Credit: Inside The Sugar Party

What do Hurricane Irene and the College Process Have in Common?

It's simple: They both cause people to panic and rush around like lunatics!

Here is when that revelation struck me.  I was in Home Depot this morning to pick up a quick item, and the place was jammed!  When I got inside, I saw a long line of people with carts leading to the customer service booth. I was wondering what they were waiting for.  Then I overheard one of the managers saying that they were all waiting for the delivery truck to arrive with a new shipment of generators.  He was walking up and down the line of people telling them they would get them on a first-come, first served basis, and he couldn't promise there would be enough for everyone.

I walked away shaking my head and I thought to myself: "If they needed a generator, they could have easily gotten one at any time.  Why did they wait until the day before a hurricane hits to try to get it?"

And then it dawned on me: I could be asking the same question about parents dealing with the college process.  They've had 17 years to save up for their children's college education and formulate a plan for dealing with the process.  But just like the people in line waiting for the generators, they waited too long!!!  What would have been easily attainable before, is now going to take a lot of tough work and last-minute planning.

Parents who attend our free college planning workshops often ask me: "Is it too early for me to start planning?"  My answer is: "It's never too early!"

People should be a lot more concerned about being too late!  That's when they end up in long lines hoping for a generator -- or a miracle that will help them pay for college.

 
By the way, I know it's not a very good shot, but this is a picture I took of the folks waiting in line this morning.  I hope none of you are among them when college time comes around.