Tag Archives: strategies

Plan for College – Seven Summer Strategies for College-bound Kids

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Once a student reaches the eighth grade, in some ways summer needs to be more strategic.  I’m not talking about adding yet more busy work to your soccer-filled schedules.  I’m talking about developing a new filter through which you do things.  I want you to start living in the “big picture” of being college-bound so you’ll start doing things now that will help shape your college experience later.  Here are seven smart summer strategies for college-bound kids and their families:



Visit a college campus. Before this summer is out, go to at least one campus – and do more than walk around.   Craft more a personal visit by finding out in advance which classes and events actually connect to your current interests.  In fact, between now and the first day of freshman year at college, every time your family takes you out of town for any reason, make sure a custom campus visit is part of that trip.  “Big Picture” Plus: Your college-bound plans will be far more powerful once you know what that experience looks and sounds and feels like.

Read a classic. A lot of kids hear “classic” and immediately think “old,” and we all know where old stuff ranks on the “Mom-can-I-do-that?” list.  Listen – books become classics because decades, even centuries, of readers read them, fall in love with them and read them again.  Jump into Alexandre Dumas’s Three Musketeers, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird or Shakespeare’s As You Like It.  The classics are the common cultural language that crosses all generations.  They expose you to new worlds.  And they are GREAT READS.  “Big Picture” Plus: Committing to reading something unfamiliar is a great step towards building the academic discipline you’ll need in college.

Go to camp. Making s’mores is great – but building a robot is amazing!  Today’s summer camps have you climbing mountains, studying sea life, coding video games – and often living right on college campuses in dorms with fellow college-bound kids.  If money is tight and the program you want is not free, make sure you check into scholarships they offer or work hard to raise the funds the year before through jobs, your church, friends and more.  Summer camps dramatically expand the world in which you feel you belong – the bigger, the bolder, the better.  “Big Picture” Plus:  Camp is a fun way to learn how to live with people who are nothing like you, a strong start for college.

Get your academic act together. Commit this to memory: what graduates you from high school does NOT always get you into college.  If you have a “D” or worse in any subject, it’s like you never took that class when you apply to four-year institutions (only “C” grades or higher generally count).  Head to community college over the summer and take the class again – and get college credit at the same time!  In California, high school students can enroll at community college for free (check your state).  Community colleges are also great places to take advanced classes your high school doesn’t offer or you can’t get into because of limited space.  All of that will boost your college application’s impact.  “Big Picture” Plus: Summer courses give you a taste of the academic challenges and independence to come in college.

Commit. I’m a big fan of school year clubs and events, but an important – and fun! – part of growing up is developing long-term pursuits.  By “long-term,” I mean two years or longer of engaging in: an academic interest (like journalism or math club); a personal passion (like music or sports); work experience (like internships or jobs); and public service (like scouting or local volunteering).  Summer is a perfect to time to start.  You don’t have to join a formal organization; you can explore your own interests.  Just be sure an adult works with you, like a teacher, boss, pastor or program director.  Their guidance will help you grow, and they’ll be well-equipped to write recommendations for you later.  “Big Picture” Plus:  Long-term commitments test you, stretch you and give you a valuable measuring stick of personal growth.

Get fit. If you’re thirteen or older, it is time to be personally accountable for your general fitness.  Forget that a “pooch,” “muffin top” or a full-on gut is not your idea of cute – it is truly dangerous.  There will never be an easier time in your life to get in shape, schedule- or metabolism-wise, than right now.  Decide this summer that you are going to work out every day and eat responsibly.  Not because it’s fun or easy, but because it is the best thing to do for your body and your brain.  Okay, and because you want to look good when you show up on campus this fall.  Whatever gets you MOVING!  “Big Picture” Plus:  Becoming and staying fit is a life-changing step towards deciding to do things you don’t want to do – and coming out a winner in the process.

Complete a college application. Do not let the first time you see a college application be the fall semester you are expecting to complete a dozen of them!  Download the Common App or Universal App, or get a copy of a state school application from the library.  Then sit with family or friends and fill one out.  Take notes of any questions (trust me, you will have some), and call the admissions office and get the answers.  Yes, they will answer your questions!  Practice writing at least one essay response, as well – and ask a tutor, parent or teacher to review it.  Yes, they will help you!  “Big Picture” Plus:  Filling out practice apps over the summer will flatten that part of the college-bound learning curve when the heat is on senior year.

All right, stop worrying that this sounds like a lot of work!  Instead, really envision reading on your front porch, shooting serious hoops every day with your friends, and scheduling one day a week to work with a conservation group to beautify your town.   Then imagine telling your roommate all about it freshman year in college.  That’s a big picture you’ll want to frame.

Top Academic and Admission Strategies for Colleges

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Copyright (c) 2008 Karen Bolton

With the rising cost of college, it is important to utilize as many cost cutting strategies as possible. Let’s explore some top academic and admission strategies to help reduce the cost of college.

1.Career Planning

Career planning is often overlooked during the college planning process. However, this is one of the most important decisions that students will make. Without proper career planning, many students take 5-6 years to complete a degree. Many students receive degrees in declining growth fields or fields with a surplus of applicants and cannot find employment after graduation.

However, this can play a critical role in reducing the overall cost of college. A contributing factor in the college dropout and transfer rates is a lack of career planning and a failure to make college decisions based on career goals. Research by the US Dept of Education and American College Testing show that each year, approximately 50% of college freshman leave the college in which they first enrolled. Of the dropouts, about 30% transfer to other colleges at least once, and 20% transfer twice and typically take 6 or more years to complete a 4-year program.

Students who receive career planning prior to college selection and attendance have few major changes and college transfers, graduate on time, and tend to be more goal- and academic-focused. You may want to check out web-based career planning services at www.careerdimension.com and www.myroad.com.

2. Use Smart Admission Strategies

Apply where the student is academically above the incoming freshman class profile. Private colleges place a premium on good students and will often use tuition discounts to attract them to their campuses.

Apply for admission early. The student should submit an application to the college as soon as possible in the senior year of high school (September through December). After a college begins to fill the upcoming year’s freshman class, the need for the college to offer a tuition discount diminishes. Colleges need to complete their enrollment quotas as early as possible, so they often offer scholarships (tuition discounts) to the students who apply early (even students who do not qualify for need-based aid).

Apply to schools that have a low enrollment yield factor. The lower a college’s enrollment yield (yield percentage), the higher the probability of the student receiving tuition discounts. The enrollment yield is calculated by dividing the number of students enrolled by the number of students admitted. Enrollment is key to a college’s survival. Many colleges select students for admission to their school, only to have them enroll in another school. The colleges have a constant battle to fill seats every year (lesser-known private colleges are even more challenged because they must compete with the low cost of public universities and the popularity of the elite private schools).

The student should also apply to private colleges. Many private colleges have declining enrollments due to their high cost and competition from low-cost universities and popular elite private colleges. These colleges often give a tuition discount to students to fill empty seats at the college. Private colleges must compete with less-expensive, state-subsidized public universities.

Many private colleges offer incredible financial award packages to attract good students. Plus they offer smaller class sizes, which increase the student’s chance of attaining a degree in four years. Be sure to include a few private colleges in your selection process. You might be surprised with the outcome.

The student should apply to six to eight colleges. Do not limit your ability to negotiate the price of college. Apply to several colleges to maximize your financial opportunities. By applying to several colleges, the student is given the opportunity to receive a tuition discount from one college and use that discount to ask for a comparative discount, or better, from the college the student prefers to attend. Try to pick at least several schools where your child lies in the top 25% of the incoming freshman class. This strategy is more applicable to students attending private colleges.

If the student is planning to attend a private college, the student should create competition between colleges. The following types of colleges will create competition for your child:

A college in the same athletic conference

The student should apply to colleges that are competitive in the same area or location, athletic conference, or intellectual fields. The most competition often occurs between colleges that are in the same athletic conference.

An in-state public university

Even though you plan to go to a private college, always apply to a good in-state public university. The public university’s low cost may force the private college to offer a tuition discount to make its cost competitive with the public university’s cost. Low-cost public universities are the private colleges’ main competition.

A similar college outside of the student’s region of residency

The student should apply to similar private colleges that are located outside of the student’s region of residency. Most private colleges try to achieve regional diversity in its student body. The college may offer tuition discounts to entice students who are located in a different region.

3. Use the CLEP Program and AP Tests to Reduce the Cost of College

College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) is a widely accepted credit-by-examination program in the United States today. Although Advanced Placement (AP) courses are usually taken by above-average students, CLEP exams seem to benefit the average student and also the non-traditional (adult ed) student. The CLEP examinations are a series of examinations in undergraduate college courses that provide the student with the opportunity to demonstrate college-level achievement and achieve college credit. The examinations, which are sponsored by the College Board, are administered at colleges year-round. All CLEP exams are delivered on computer, providing test takers with instant score results. Be sure to check the college’s CLEP policy before taking any exam. The CLEP program can help students save time, save money, and advance to more specialized courses.

Perhaps the easiest and most effective way for a student to stand out academically for admissions is to score well on Advanced Placement (AP) tests offered by the College Board (www.collegeboard.com). While these studies are for the academically gifted student, they can represent real dollar reductions in the cost of college. The student can receive a full year’s credit and be granted sophomore standing from more than 1,400 higher education institutions by earning satisfactory grades on enough AP Examinations.

15 Strategies For Enhancing Memory

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The following strategies are offered to help students develop a more efficient and effective memory. This listing is by no means exhaustive, but rather is meant as a place to begin.

1. Take the mystery away.

The first and perhaps most important strategy is to insure that all students understand how memory works and identify their particular profiles of memory strengths and challenges. Then, students should be taught memory management strategies.

2. Give directions in multiple formats.

Students benefit from being given directions in both visual and verbal formats. In addition, their understanding and memorizing of instructions could be checked by encouraging them to repeat the directions given and explain the meaning of these directions. Examples of what needs to be done are also often helpful for enhancing memory of directions.

3. Teach students to over-learn material.

Students should be taught the necessity of “over-learning” new information. Often they practice only until they are able to perform one error-free repetition of the material. However, several error-free repetitions are needed to solidify the information.

4. Teach students to use visual images and other memory strategies.

Another memory strategy that makes use of a cue is one called word substitution. The substitute word system can be used for information that is hard to visualize, for example, for the word occipital. These words can be converted into words that sound familiar that can be visualized. The word occipital can be converted to exhibit hall (because it sounds like exhibit hall). The student can then make a visual image of walking into an art museum and seeing a big painting of a brain with big bulging eyes (occipital is the region of the brain that controls vision). With this system, the vocabulary word the student is trying to remember actually becomes the cue for the visual image that then cues the definition of the word.

5. Give teacher-prepared handouts prior to class lectures.

Class lectures and series of oral directions should be reinforced by teacher-prepared handouts. The handouts for class lectures could consist of a brief outline or a partially completed graphic organizer that the student would complete during the lecture. Having this information both enables students to identify the salient information that is given during the lectures and to correctly organize the information in their notes. Both of these activities enhance memory of the information as well. The use of Post-Its to jot information down on is helpful for remembering directions.

6. Teach students to be active readers.

To enhance short-term memory registration and/or working memory when reading, students should underline, highlight, or jot key words down in the margin when reading chapters. They can then go back and read what is underlined, highlighted, or written in the margins. To consolidate this information in long-term memory, they can make outlines or use graphic organizers. Research has shown that the use of graphic organizers increases academic achievement for all students.

7. Write down steps in math problems.

Students who have a weakness in working memory should not rely on mental computations when solving math problems. For example, if they are performing long division problems, they should write down every step including carrying numbers. When solving word problems, they should always have a scratch piece of paper handy and write down the steps in their calculations. This will help prevent them from loosing their place and forgetting what they are doing.

8. Provide retrieval practice for students.

Research has shown that long-term memory is enhanced when students engage in retrieval practice. Taking a test is a retrieval practice, i.e., the act of recalling information that has been studied from long-term memory. Thus, it can be very helpful for students to take practice tests. When teachers are reviewing information prior to tests and exams, they could ask the students questions or have the students make up questions for everyone to answer rather than just retelling students the to-be-learned information. Also, if students are required or encouraged to make up their own tests and take them, it will give their parents and/or teachers information about whether they know the most important information or are instead focused on details that are less important.

9. Help students develop cues when storing information.

According to the memory research, information is easier retrieved when it is stored using a cue and that cue should be present at the time the information is being retrieved. For example, the acronym HOMES can be used to represent the names of the Great Lakes – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. The acronym is a cue that is used when the information is being learned, and recalling the cue when taking a test will help the student recall the information.

10. Prime the memory prior to teaching and learning activities.

Cues that prepare students for the task to be presented are helpful. This is often referred to as priming the memory. For instance, when a reading comprehension task is given, students will get an idea of what is expected by discussing the vocabulary and the overall topic beforehand. This will allow them to focus on the salient information and engage in more effective depth of processing. Advance organizers also serve this purpose. For older students, CliffNotes or other similar study guides for pieces of literature are often helpful aids for priming the memory.

11. Use Post-Its.

The use of Post-Its for jotting down information can be helpful for students who have short-term memory or working memory challenges.

12. Activate prior knowledge.

In order to enhance the likelihood that students will elaborate on new incoming information, teachers should activate their prior knowledge and make the new information meaningful to them. An easy way of accomplishing this task is to ask, “What do you know”, “What do you want to know”.

13. Give extended time.

If students have difficulty with the speed of retrieving information from memory, they should be given extended time for taking tests so that a true picture of what they know may be gained.

14. Use multisensory methods.

When learners, both young and old, experience something through multiple senses, they are much more likely to remember it. Use a Multisensory approach by engaging as many of the senses as possible when teaching (seeing, touching, hearing, smelling, and tasting).

15. Review material before going to sleep.

It should be helpful for students to review material right before going to sleep at night. Research has shown that information studied this way is better remembered. Any other task that is performed after reviewing and prior to sleeping (such as getting a snack, brushing teeth, listening to music) interferes with consolidation of information in memory.