Ed Bove-Beacon Blog

I'm not just the president...

Remember those old commercials for Hair Club For Men?  The narrator always said: "I'm not only the president, I'm also a member."  Well, I can say much the same think about my college planning practice.

If you're reading this blog, it's probably because you have a high school student who's planning to go to college.  And for what it's worth, you should know that I am in the same boat as you.  In fact, that's how I got my start in this business.  When it was time for my daughter to go to college several years ago, I dutifully went through the whole college financial aid process on my own, and thought I did an okay job.  It was only later when I happened upon a presentation by a college planning expert that I found out that what I didn't know was costing me to lose thousands of dollars!

That motivated me to learn everything I could about the entire college process.  Not only how to pick the most suitable schools and maximize my aid eligibility, but also how to pay my portion of the cost without driving myself into the poor house.  And I've made it my mission to share that knowledge with others who face the same daunting task that I did.

Now, three years later as my sons graduate from high school, I have a plan in place to get all my children through college without going broke!  I'm taking advantage of every available strategy at my disposal and I'm sharing those same strategies with my college planning clients.

Are you ready for the college process?  Don't you owe it to yourself and your college-bound child to get every edge you can find.  After all, what you don't know can hurt you.  A lot.

I should know.  I've been there and done that.  But I'm not making the same mistakes this time as these guys get ready to head off to college.

Congratulations to my twins, Michael and Eddie, on their high school graduation!  Looking forward to a very bright future for you both.

New Workshops Coming In July

As a result of the overwhelming attendance at our recent workshops, I have decided to add two additional workshops to the schedule in July.  As much as I love to spend my summer days at the beach or the ballpark, I feel a sense of obligation to give as many people as possible a chance to get this vital information.

Can you imagine looking to buy a new house without first figuring out your price range or knowing anything about the neighborhood?  Well that's what it's like trying to start the college process without first gaining this invaluable knowledge.

The workshops are scheduled on Saturday, July 11th at 11:00 a.m. at the Springfield Public Library and on Tuesday, July 14th at 7:00 p.m. at the Maplewood Community Center.  For more information or to register, please visit www.beaconworkshop.com

THESE WILL BE THE FINAL WORKSHOPS OF THE SUMMER, SO DON'T MISS OUT!

Binge Drinking Poses Great Risk To College Students

When we talk about college planning, we tend to focus on financial aid forms, payment strategies, SATs, college selection and the like.  However, true college planning has a far greater scope than those things.  It also involves helping you prepare your children for the change in lifestyle they will surely face when they go away to school.

Suddenly, they are thrust into adult situations with lots of peer pressure and no more parental supervision.  And very often, this can yield disastrous results, especially when drinking is involved.  Now you may be thinking: "Hey, I had a few adult beverages when I was in college and I'm none the worse for wear."  That may well be true, but it's a different world today.

When I was in college years ago, the drinking age was only 18, so all the drinking was out in the open.  We even had a campus pub that we all went to on Thursday nights to listen to live music and have a drink.  Did some trouble result from time to time?  Sure.  But not like today.

Today - with the legal drinking age being 21 - most drinking on college campuses happens behind closed doors.  And for whatever reason, it seems to happen in binge. which can have very serious health and social consequences.  How often do we read about alcohol-related deaths and accidents involving under-age drinkers?  All too often I'm afraid.

Just as we took great pains to teach our children to look both ways before crossing the street, we need to take even greater pains to prepare them for the temptations of drugs and alcohol when they're away at school.  It's a must!

Here is a related article that was published today by the Reuters news agency:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Extreme binge-drinking may be putting college students at significant risk of accidents and injuries, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 2,000 college students with drinking problems, those who admitted to "extreme" drinking -- eight or more drinks in day for men, five or more for women -- were more likely than their peers to have suffered a recent alcohol-related injury.

For each extreme-drinking day a man had in the past month, his risk of a drinking-related injury -- from a fall or "fender bender," for instance -- increased by 19 percent.

That same risk climbed by 10 percent for women, according to findings published online by the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

The fact that heavy drinking often leads to accidents and injuries is no secret, but the findings show that the risks continue to "grow rapidly" the more students drink, according to Dr. Marlon P. Mundt and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The researchers also found that students with a "sensation-seeking" personality -- as measured by a standard questionnaire -- were at elevated risk of drinking-related injuries.

"College administrators, parents, and clinicians need to focus their intervention efforts on these students -- 'frequent extreme heavy drinkers' -- who score high on sensation-seeking disposition," Mundt said in a news release from the journal.

"These are the students at high risk for injury," the researcher added. "Quantities alone, or frequency of consumption alone, do not show the whole picture. A drinking pattern of frequent extreme intoxication is key, as it escalates injury rates rapidly."

The findings are based on interviews with 2,090 students at five U.S. universities who had screened positive for risky drinking at their college health clinic. Risky drinking included habits such as drinking on three or more days of the week, and having more than 15 drinks in a week for men, or 12 or more per week for women.

Even within this group, the researchers found, extreme binge-drinking was linked to a substantially higher risk of recent injury.

The findings do not mean, however, that extreme drinkers are the only students at risk, Mundt and his colleagues stress. Lower levels of drinking, they write, should not be seen as "safeguard" against injuries.

SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, online May 26, September issue 2009.