As a homeschooled student, your trek to college has taken you off the beaten path. But even if you don't have the "typical" credentials colleges are looking for, you can still impress admissions counselors with a dazzling—and unique—application. Keep a Portfolio and a Logbook Without a transcript, it's hard for colleges to know about your academic background. So prepare a portfolio—a ...

Question: What part should my parents play in my college application? Parental involvement in the college admissions process varies from family to family, and is sometimes a point of conflict. At the very least, your parents will have to fill out financial aid forms so that your application process can be completed. Parents can perform other valuable tasks for your application ...

Q: How many schools should my junior apply to? Is there really such thing as a “safety” school? What does that mean? A: Trying to decide how many and which colleges to apply to can be one of the most challenging aspects of the admissions process. Fortunately, by beginning this process in the junior year, your son or daughter has more ...

How colleges make decisions and what they look for when they read applications remains a great mystery to many families. Whether it's the fear of being a number or the competitiveness of the institution, many students and families feel as if they've lost control of their fate once their applications are dropped in the mail. Nobody can guarantee your admission. I ...

Over the last decade, colleges enjoyed double-digit increases in their endowments. A college’s endowment is not only a sign of an institution’s financial strength, but it also allows the institution to fund new projects. With alumni donations, many colleges expanded academic programs, refurbished campus facilities, and improved financial aid awards. College endowments, however, are not immune to the drastic downturn in ...

When Nancy Rodriguez began planning for college, she quickly noticed that her parents’ involvement in the process was limited. “They just knew about where I wanted to go,” says Rodriguez, a senior at the University of Southern California who grew up in Los Angeles’s inner-city community of Southgate. With two parents who worked constantly and viewed education differently than other parents ...

1. Start the academic year with a bang! If you don’t know what courses they’re taking this year, you should. If you get excited about learning they will too. Find out what is on their reading lists for English and history. Engage your child in conversations about the material he is studying at the dinner table. 2. Prepare for standardized tests. ...

You envision a college degree as part of your child's future. So choosing a college where they're comfortable, happy and can be successful is important. But you're also curious if that school's party reputation is deserved, and if your child really understands what it'll mean to be six states away in a town with no major airport. As you accompany your ...

As I relax during my deeply cherished winter break, I watched one of my favorite films, Gladiator. Not only do I love the film for its superb action sequences, but I also find the semi-accurate story of a power struggle quite compelling. At the beginning of the film, Emperor Marcus Aurelius chooses between a courageous general and his son, the legacy ...

Not to oversimplify the matter, but PEACE is the process during which your child starts the college search and application process. While one may take this aptly-named acronym literally, we have a few more tips that should serve as a guide while navigating your son or daughter through today’s tricky college admissions process. *P for Participate:* Be involved in your child’s ...

[widget:1577] In 2005, studies showed that while only six percent of non-Hispanic students were likely to drop out of high school, that number was nearly 23% for Hispanic students. According to the ERIC Digest, “That third generation Latino youth perform not significantly better than their second generation Latino peers is very disconcerting. Since they have U.S. born parents, a much larger ...

We realize it is tough being a teenager today. Far tougher than when we were that age. We didn’t have the same pressures, decisions or competition. So what are we, as parents to do? We can’t live their lives or make their decisions. It is their time now and we have to step back and allow them to experience and work ...