How To Help Get Organized In General
Yes, were continuing on in the organization vein because it is so necessary! Heres how you can help.
10. Teach basic organization skills.
OK. Before you laugh , paint the picture that your childs future depends on his or her organization skills. His boss isnt going to like it if he is missing files from his board report, and professors arent going to like late assignments.
Even better, have someone else tell him this, like his favorite coach or English teacher. For some reason, teens prefer to hear this information from someone other than you.
As far as practical tips go, you could color-code assignments, install an assignment board in his room and encourage him to use task apps.
11. Help your child learn from past procrastination.
One of the best things you can do is let your teen procrastinate, then reap the consequences. It could be enough of a shock to the system to get the first F on a paper or fail to play in a soccer game due to poor grades. It might guarantee that your teen will never, ever make that mistake again.
12. Plan upcoming weeks.
Help your child get organized for each upcoming week on Sunday so your teen knows what to expect. Pencil in the big stuff: soccer games, time out with friends, tests and more.
How To Find Your Best Fit College
To find the right college fit for you, think about what you need in four different categories: academics, campus culture, financial aid, and career services. For 28 years, we’ve surveyed students at hundreds of colleges about their experiences on campus. We’ve learned a lotfirst and foremost, that no two students are exactly alike, and no two schools are exactly alike. That’s why we publish our ranking lists and school profiles every year: to help you compare colleges and find the best college fit for your unique personality and goals.
My Kid Picked His Major I’m Not So Sure
It’s not unusual for a parent to fret about their college kid’s choice. You always dreamed they’d be a lawyer they want to go into art history, instead. Or you know their heart lies in creative writing, so what are they doing in nuclear science? This is your child’s decision to make, ultimately. It’s far more helpful for both of you if you ask non-judgmental questions and encourage them to talk about the decision. Talking brings clarity to those dreams and ambitionsfor both of you.
You may discover the major they are proposing isn’t what you thought it was. From astronautics to viticulture, there are many new and intriguing majors that didn’t exist when you were in school. You may also discover that one or both of you have a classic misconception about a college majormaybe all art majors won’t starve!
Be happy your child knows exactly what they want to do! Just make sure your college student understands the how-tos involved in declaring a major at their schoolincluding deadlines, requirements, paperwork, and the pros and cons of waiting until the last minute.
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Parent And Community Involvement
- How does the school encourage parental involvement?
- What are the ways parents can get involved?
- Are parents encouraged to volunteer?
- Does the school have an active parent- teacher organization?
- Does the school hold meetings and events at times when parents can attend?
- How well attended are back-toschool nights by parents?
- Are families expected to be involved with homework?
- How frequently does the school communicate with parents?
- Are community leaders involved with the school?
- Does the school partner with local businesses and organizations?
- Are parents involved in the development of school policies?
How To Help With Scholarships
Sure, you want your child to get as many scholarships as possible because it might impact your own bottom dollar.
What should you do when your child is a little more sluggish than youd like?
8. Whatever you do, dont fill out scholarship applications for your child.
Sounds obvious, right?
Well, thats easy to say when your bottom dollar is on the line.
Sometimes students dont feel the sense of urgency that you feel, particularly if youre paying for college, not them.
9. Give your teen tools to stay organized.
Does your child have three socks in his backpack, clothes strewn over the back of the toilet and an old egg sandwich thats been sitting on the dresser for days?
Yeah. Organization isnt most teens strong suit.
Most of the time, kids can use organizational pointers when it comes to research, scheduling and organizing scholarships.
When you get into scholarship research mode, you realize how much of a beast it really is.
Its hard to sort through colleges scholarships that can come from anywherethe internet, the local Kiwanis Club, right here on Niche.
Throw researched scholarships on Asana or another task manager so your child can visually see whats cominga must for visual brains!
If you both get stressed out about deadlines, you might want to delegate.
Ask a friend or relative to be your childs scholarship secretary. Odds are, your best, most organized friend would jump at the chance to help.
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Types Of College Savings Accounts
First of all, it’s important to understand the types of college savings accounts available. Each type of plan comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
- 529 prepaid tuition plan
As you consider your options, keep in mind that you might find one of these accounts better for your situation than others. It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to limit yourself to one type of account.
Choosing More Than One
Some college students are so passionate, they may not want to limit themselves to just one major. A double major is an enormous undertaking and one that, depending on the college, may translate into the fifth year of study . So it’s also worth investigating the differences between a major and a minor.
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Pitfall #: Underestimating The Importance Of Independent Living Skills
How to avoid it: When looking at colleges, you may be tempted to focus on academics. To succeed, however, kids need many independent living skills. Theyll need to manage money, meals, schedules, personal hygiene, and maybe even medication.
As you choose a college, keep in mind the level of support your child will need. You may want to consider a school closer to home. Start working on the skills your child will need for college as early as possible.
Don’t Be Afraid To Acknowledge The Pandemic
Some schools have optional essay questions on their applications, and this year, students can write a message about how coronavirus has impacted their lives. Even if it’s optional, you should consider it essential. “You should never treat any optional essay as optionalincluding the COVID essay,” Taylor says.
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What Are Examples Of Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activity options run the gamut for today’s kids and teens. Popular activities include sports, scouts, art, theater, music, and community service. Many children also join school-affiliated organizations like student council, competitive academic clubs , and affinity groups that help connect kids with shared identities.
Important Factors For Helping Your Child Choose A College
Here are the four most important factors to consider when helping your student choose a college . . .
Founder and Owner, Tier One Tutors
Originally Posted: Jun 12, 2014
Your child has worked hard for all of high school. They got good grades, they have the SAT score they want, they spent hours out of school doing extracurricular activities and volunteer work, and now it’s finally time to decide where to apply to college. At this point, the biggest mistake parents make is to approach their students college search process haphazardlyeither resting on research done for an older child, listening to friends, or simply thinking back to when they were in school.
Think about it this way: if you and your spouse were contemplating switching careers, imagine the amount of time you would spend before choosing one over the other. Family relocation, salary, weather, friends and personal happiness would all be factors in the decision. From your child’s perspective, choosing the university they will attend for about half a decade is really no less severe.
Here are the four most important factors to consider when helping your student choose a college:
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Look At The College’s Approach To Covid
One of the biggest deciding factors is how the university has handled its response to COVID-19. Do the decisions they have made fit with your expectations?
See if your student feels safe attending college there despite any current issues surrounding COVID-19. Find out what measures the school is taking to prevent the spread of the virus among students and staff.
Even though we’re past the worst of the pandemic, many schools have implemented the following practices, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines:
- Regular COVID testing
- Implementing certain health measures in environments where not all students and staff are vaccinated
- Offering COVID-19 vaccinations
- Requiring students to get vaccinated before registering for in-person classes and on-campus housing
President Biden has issued the COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge as a way to increase the numbers of young people who are vaccinated on college campuses.
If you or your student are not comfortable with the COVID precautions in place at a school of their choice, consider what the college’s online learning options are like. Is living on campus a priority for your student, or are they mainly concerned about the degree programs offered by the university? They may decide to study at home and attend online for at least part of their college experience.
The Importance Of Experience
Hands-on experience can do three things: It will confirm what your child does and does not like about a job, which will allow them to weed out certain career paths and home in on positions they could visualize themselves in. Experience can also add valuable depth to their resume and can be highlighted in their personal statements, college applications, and future job interviews. And, perhaps most importantly, it can open new doors and opportunities. These opportunities may come in the form of personal connections for future jobs, internships, or potential letters of recommendation. They may also come in the form of tangible attributes, like having learned a new skill that they can apply in a different situation down the road.
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Gather Information About Schools
If you were looking to buy a car, vacuum cleaner, or refrigerator, you could talk to friends and family and find information on the Internet, in consumer magazines, or in other published resources. Similarly, when investigating schools, you may also have to make phone calls, collect written material from different schools and look for reports in your local paper to get the information you need. You can check public school report cards and go to parent fairs and school open houses. You can find reliable school information online on sites such as www.greatschools.net and www.schoolresults.org as well as other sites listed in the Resources section of this booklet. The hard work will be worth your while if you find a school that brings out the best in your child.
Resources To Narrow The Field
While individual college websites can provide an overview ofthe factors listed above, keep in mind that this is not the be-all, end-allresource for determining if a college is right for your child. Nothing beatsexperiencing a campus up close and personal.
College tours are a great way to experience campus life and interact with students at a university. But in a day and age where the average college student applies to ten schools, attending college tours for every school is costly and often unrealistic.
And that is where Campus Reel comes in. This innovative website, designed and created by graduates from Colgate University, offers 13,000 videos from students at over 250 college campuses. The videos are created by college students and give an in-depth, real-life view into campus life at that particular school. Not only do they show potential students what an actual dorm room looks like, but they also include an up-close-and-personal glimpse into dining halls, classrooms, activities and yes, even the campus itself. Parents will appreciate that all video content is monitored and screened, so this truly is a resource, not a party video platform. Co-founders Rob Carroll and Nick Freud created this brainchild to help potential students truly understand the most important aspects of the college search, which is the people and the community at a school.
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Help Teens Focus On Their Essays
“One of the areas that will be more important than ever this year is the application essay,” Knaus says. “This essay gives the admissions office the opportunity to hear the student’s individual voice and who they are as a person outside of their classes, grades, and clubs what they can share about themselves that’s not already answered on the application.”
How To Make Your College List
Okay. You have worked your tuchus off and used all of the college search criteria in this guide to find schools that meet all or most of your needs.
First, high five! Second, its time to come up with a list of 515 colleges that seem like a good fit for you. If you have far more options than that, keep digging with your research to eliminate choices that dont feel right or dont check off all your boxes.
Otherwise, this is the time when your college search spreadsheet becomes your best friend, hero, and favorite thing ever.
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Choose An Academic Area First
A list of 200 possibilities can feel overwhelming. Many of today’s majors didn’t exist in the 1970s and ’80s. Whether your child ultimately ends up in astronautics , informatics or viticulture , start by looking at broad areas of interest. Are they an art type or a science student? Choose a broad category first, then delve into the specifics and help them narrow the list.
College Decision: Why Your Teen Needs Your Help
I did not let my sons make a college decision alone. I just didnt. When they knew what their options were I did not throw up my hands and say, It is your life, it is your four years, it is your decision. Really, I dont have much to add.
Todays parenting orthodoxy seems to suggest that they are adults, highly informed and totally capable of making a college decision without parental intervention. Look, just one moms opinion butno.
In weighing their options my sons asked my husband, their father, what he thought they should do. He refused to answer, telling them that he would talk it through with them endlessly but at this point, it wasnt his opinion, but rather theirs that mattered. Me? Yeah, I blurted my opinions out in five minutes. Lets just say that there are different approaches that parents can take.
Yet, the notion of letting them figure out how to frame the college decision on their own seemed a dereliction of duty.
I was not going to make the decision about which school to attend but I was going to show them the many ways to think about something that would have such a big impact on their lives. But mostly, honestly, we talked.
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Cost Financial Aid And Affordability
It can be a big mistake to start your college search by excluding certain schools because they have an expensive price tag . Of course, for most students and their families, college affordability will weigh heavily on their decision-making process.
However, the initial sticker price you see will seldom be the final price you pay. Most colleges and universities realize they need to help students afford their education. And financial aid changes everything. In fact, you might find the pricey school that seemed out of reach is actually your most affordable option once you get their financial aid award letter.
College students get financial support through a wide range of sources, such as academic scholarships, special ability awards , diversity grants , or on-campus employment . Students also get money based on the results of their FAFSA and/or the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE .
Also, pay attention to the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate and the four-year graduation rate in your college cost research, because they often signify a schools true value. For example, a “cheaper” school may be less of a bargain if a low percentage of students actually graduate in four years. And a more expensive school with a higher four-year graduation rate may actually be the better value.
Questions to ask
Choosing The Best College Savings Account For Your Child
In the end, it’s up to you to do the research and consider your circumstances. Figure out what’s likely to provide the most benefit while offering more options for the future. And, of course, no matter which type of account you choose, the earlier you start saving, the better off your child will beand the less likely they’ll be to need to use debt to fund their education.
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Have Them Take A Career Test
Selecting a college major can be pretty intimidating. But there are a variety of personality and career tests that your child can take to help with the process. Even if they have no idea or related experience, these tests can suggest paths based on your students likes and dislikes, learning style, and interests.