If You Want to be Accepted, Show Colleges You Care!

Today, colleges can use using data mining techniques to track every interaction a student has with their institution.*  That makes it more important than ever to show them that you want to attend their school. When asked why you are applying to XYZ University, you must be able to show that you know who they are and what makes them different from ABC University, their prime competitor.

Colleges track each time you visit their web site and how long you stay there, how quickly you open email from them, whether you click links imbedded in these emails, and how often you initiate contact with a member of the school community whether admissions, students or professors.

The Catholic University is one of the
the hundreds of campuses Charlotte Klaar has visited.

Visiting Colleges is also Crucial to Acceptance

Here’s a cautionary tale from the class of 2013: I always explain the need to demonstrate interest and visit colleges when possible. Last year, one student family decided that this wasn’t necessary, and they chose to wait until acceptance letters were in before they visited the colleges. 

This was in spite of the fact that most colleges on the list were within driving distance. They felt that since their student had a stellar GPA and test scores, the visits weren’t necessary.

The student received mostly “Wait Lists” and only two acceptances from colleges that would have taken her no matter what. The Target and Reach colleges on the list believed she would not attend, since they saw little or no interest in them beyond the application. So, in order to maintain their ranking on U. S. News and World Report listings, they didn’t ‘waste’ an acceptance on a student they felt was not likely to actually attend.

The lesson is: Invest the time and effort necessary to show them that you are a serious student of their college or you likely won’t be accepted.

 For more valuable information on selecting and gaining acceptance into the college of your choice, contact Charlotte Klaar, PhD, Charlotte@cklaar.com, 301-834-6888.

*See Big Data http://huff.to/11pLovC 

Summer Jobs Give You a Head Start on the Real Thing!

Ice cream cones, swimming, going to the beach; there is no question that students love summertime!  But, even as you look forward to summer’s slower pace, it’s time to get moving on finding a summer job or internship!

A job or internship can teach you much needed employment and job searching skills, along with the responsibilities of being part of the adult world. Future employers – even those offering internships – will look for students who took the initiative to hold jobs and internships in high school and college.  A job or internship can also help you determine what types of work or fields interest you.

What kind of job/internship should I apply for?

Think about fields or jobs that you’ve always dreamed of doing.  Are you artistic?  Perhaps a job at a design studio – even as a receptionist –  would give you the opportunity to interact with designers and learn more about the type of work they do, and what skills are needed. Also consider what jobs could help build your resume.  

While at your job or internship, try to get the most out of it. Ask lots of questions; if you don’t understand how to do something, this is the time to learn.  Take advantage of every opportunity, such as attending staff meetings to learn how business works!

Also start to develop more financial independence; budget the money you earn and save a portion for college.  

Where to look:

·         Online job sites, such as Indeed.com, as well as listing sites such as Craig’s List.

·         Ask  your school counselor

·         Use social network sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

For more guidance on high school courses and activities, finding a college that’s a good fit, financing, deadlines and more, call Klaar College Consulting, 301-834-6888. Charlotte@cklaar.com.

 

From Freedom of Expression to Fitting into a Box; Changes in the Common Application

Students planning to apply for school in the Fall of 2014 may get an unpleasant surprise. While previous students have uploaded long and creative essays, the class of 2014 will be held to a 500 word limit in their personal statements which are cut and pasted into a box on the Common Application.

The new changes will limit the amount of creativity students are able to show a prospective school.  In previous years, students could exhibit their personalities through longer stories and additional elements such as photos and math equations using the .doc or .pdf format in uploaded essays.

Additionally, the “topic of your choice” question will be removed from the common application, so students who once demonstrated their uniqueness in that question will have to find another way to think outside the box.

Charlotte Klaar, PhD, founder of Klaar College Consulting, recommends that you:

·         Find new ways to be creative in your application. Use an interesting quote, make a bold statement, start your essay with a question and/or have a memorable ending to your essay by using emotion to capture the reader’s attention!

·         Include activities that showcase your best you!

·         To avoid spelling mistakes, write all essays on a Word document, then copy and paste it into the application. Don’t depend on spell check!

·         Always review your applications before sending them in.

For more guidance on high school courses and activities, finding a college that’s a good fit, financing, deadlines and more, call Klaar College Consulting, 301-834-6888. Charlotte@cklaar.com.

Doing What I Love to Do!

Once again this year, I will spend an exhausting and rewarding week teaching at the IECA Summer Institute held at Swarthmore College. It never ceases to amaze me that I learn from my colleagues and students at least as much as I teach. In addition to feeling that I am helping to safeguard the profession by teaching would-be consultants the best practices that IECA holds dear, I find the time spent with knowledgeable colleagues, who love being IECs as much as I do, to reaffirm my commitment to my students and their families. It is a wonderful commentary on life when one can earn a living doing what she loves to do.

The profession of Independent Educational Consulting is a young one, a bit more than 30 years old, and I have been privileged to be part of it for the last 17 years. Those years have been ones of growth, organization, and acknowledgement by other groups that IECA is the premier representative of IECs who are ethical, trained, and professional. Members of this wonderful organization take great pains to keep their skills up-to-date, continue their professional development, do pro-bono work, and keep the good of the client foremost in their minds. I am privileged to be part of this wonderful group.

Why Should You Consider Hiring an Independent Educational Consultant?

Independent Educational Consultants bring a wealth of in-depth information to the college choice and application process that families often forget about as they begin to  make decisions for their students. We are professionals who spend a great deal of time actually walking college campuses and speaking with admissions counselors so that we can keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry. A good college consultant can help separate what is marketing on the part of a college and what is truly important to the choice your student will make. A college consultant will conduct an in-depth review of the student’s academic record, standardized test scores, activities involvement, and special talents that the student brings to the table. In addition, the consultant will spend the time necessary to get a real handle on what both the parents and the student want from the college experience. 

To choose the right college consultant for your family you should look carefully at the credentials that the individual offers. First and foremost, the consultant should be a professional member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), a member of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) and be actively involved in the work of one or both organizations. If you can find someone who is also a Certified Educational Planner (CEP), you have hit the jackpot of professional accreditation and a person who subscribes to ethical standards of conduct that place your student at the center of the process. Choosing a college is about fit and match; it is not trophy hunting. An ethical and reliable consultant will know what schools are a good fit and will help the student develop self-awareness and to be empowered in the process. More and more colleges, both public and private, are beginning to understand that students who use a consultant are more likely to complete a degree at the college where they started than are those who conducted the process on their own. Therefore, using a consultant can result in parents spending a lot less overall to educate their student. If you don’t transfer, you don’t lose either time or credits, both of which cost a great deal of money.

The investment in a well-credentialed consultant offers protection for your academic dollar. While consultants are not inexpensive, neither is the amount you spend on tuition, room and board, and peripheral expenses for the student. You would not think of buying or selling a house without a good realtor to protect you. Why would you spend between $100,000 and $200,000 on a college education without having professional  help that is focused on your student?

 

New Educational Consultants

I just spent a week teaching for the IECA Summer Institute. I have volunteered to do this for the last 12 years and continue to find it one of the most gratifying weeks of the year. Not only does IECA provide a comprehensive and informative curriculum to the new or soon-to-be educational consultants who come each year, but my colleagues on the faculty bring consistently new perspectives from which I continue to learn even after having spent 15 years in this business.

The one thing that I come away with each year is the knowledge that this profession is going to be in good hands when those of us who have practiced for a long time are gone. Those seeking to follow in our footsteps are ethical, eager to learn professionals who understand that what we do is about the best we can provide to the students we serve. For college consultants, like me, that is all about fit and match and not at all about trophy hunting. At times, it is educating parents about how to subjugate their own needs and desires to what is best for their child. It is always about helping students develop self-awareness and self-advocacy skills which they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.  As my own practice has grown and changed over the years, those two facets of my work remain unchanged.

After all these years of working only with students and their families, I now have branched out to providing consulting support to other educational consultants. I have garnered great satisfaction teaching new consultants through my work with IECA, UCLA Extension, and UC-Irvine Extension and am now responding to the requests of many over the years to give more hands-on assistance for a fee to those newly in practice. Will I ever stop my volunteer efforts to educate those new to the profession? Not as long as I am given the opportunity to do so. This newer venture will allow me to give more time to those who feel that they need more.

I am confident about the future of our profession and am thrilled to be able to help shape this future by working with those who will follow me when I am no longer practicing.

Planning for College: It's never too early!

Today's announcement by the Princeton Review that they are entering the educational consulting field is a terrific addition to the college planning landscape. I know that this view from an educational consultant like me may seem odd, but let me explain. I believe that the more information available to students and their families, the better prepared they are to make wise choices in the process.

What are the different ways in which families can get information about the process and how do they differ? Keep in mind that this process is primarily the student's but it is important to teach the student  how to do the proper research. It is not just looking through college guides or making random visits to colleges whose names everyone knows. The college landscape is broad and there are many wonderful schools which might provide a better social, emotional, and academic fit for the student than the more well-known institutions. In some ways, this is comparable to randomly reading the multiple listing service lists of houses for sale and focusing only on one neighborhood in a city thereby losing the better deal on a more suitable home that is just around the corner. This is where independent educational consultants can provide more individualized services than can the more impersonal class that focuses on process which are offered by large firms.

The independent educational consultant takes the time to get to know the student and the family. S/he really listens to what both the parents and student want included in the consideration of a college. It is usual for consultants to have the student take one or more career assessments and to explain the results in an effort to increase the student's self-awareness which will lead to the ability to make better choices in the long term. Even if you, as a parent, are having difficulty recognizing that your student has the ability to develop self-awareness, I am sure you can see the benefit of exposing him or her to doing so.

Managing the process is also a part of what the educational consultant does with the student. It is often easier to have an adult other than the parent do this because the relationship is less emotionally laden than the parent/child relationship at this stage in the family's life. Most educational consultants have at least some background in family psychology and, although we are not therapists, we do know how to see all sides of an issue and to maximize the relationship.

Finally, and this is the most valuable part of the process which the independent educational consultant offers, knowledge of a wide range of colleges which might provide a good fit or match for the student. We get this knowledge by visiting colleges, attending professional conferences, and keeping our fingers on the pulse of the changes in higher education. All this comes at a price and it is this expertise for which you pay when you hire an educational consultant. In much the same way as a concierge doctor caters to the needs of individual patients, the educational consultant caters to the needs of a small group of clients at any one time. In the former scenario, the patient pays more for this service than does the patient who has an HMO; in the educational consulting world, individual service comes at a higher price than that offered by anonymous large companies. In the past, the high school counselor had the time to do some college counseling but that is becoming more difficult as counselor caseloads become increasingly more unmanageable as school districts continue to cut budgets. In addition, it is a rare Masters in School Counseling program that offers even one course in college counseling. The independent educational consultant has a variety of ways to learn how to effectively deliver services to families and the motivation to do so.

The bottom line is that you should find the help you need at whatever price point you can afford to help your student make informed choices. There is no need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to do this. Most independent educational consultants charge relatively modest fees and do a great deal of pro bono or sliding scale work in their practices. You never know until you ask.

PSAT is in: Now What

Many families have received or are about to receive the PSAT results for their 11th grade student . Most high schools present the results to students in their English classes and ask that the score report and booklet be taken home to parents. Unfortunately, most families will have no idea what to do with it. Read on for some suggestions.

1. Consider the score: Over my 15 years of practice with high school students, the most consistent response I get to "How did you do on your PSAT?" is "Awful!" No one explains to students that they still have almost two full years to go before the end of high school and that the number score is much less important than the percentile into which they fall.  For example, if a student sees a 58 on the Math section, he or she assumes that this is not a good harbinger for the SAT. If the student looked at the percentile for this score, 76%, she or he would have realized that this percentile puts him or her in the top 24% of the country. Further analysis of the section would show that the student completed all questions without using the strategy of leaving out questions for which at least one answer could not be eliminated. This lack of strategic approach to the PSAT made the student lose points for incorrect guesses.

2. Understand what to do with the booklet: The booklet is the actual test and the student can compare it to the right and wrong answers on the score report. By doing this, what was answered incorrectly can be examined to determine if it was a careless mistake or if the student does not understand a concept that is necessary to do better on the SAT. Once this analysis is done, the student should make a list of the missed questions that s/he does not understand and go to the appropriate teacher for an explanation of the concept so that there is an understanding of the concept or how to do the calculation.

3. Know that the PSAT is not identical to the SAT: The discrepancy between the two tests lies in the Writing section. There is no essay on the PSAT. The PSAT Writing section is simply a grammar test. Therefore, students who do not understand grammar will do quite poorly on this section of the PSAT. On the other hand, the student may have respectable essay writing skills in the sense that s/he can make a point and support it in a written argument, which will raise the Writing score on the SAT. This is not to say that grammar is unimportant; it is very important. Unfortunately, we have not stressed grammar in schools for many years and students are bearing the brunt of this decision. I advise students who want to do well to get a basic grammar book and study. Ask your English teacher to help you if you don't understand. Practice writing a standard five paragraph persuasive essay and apply this skill to the SAT.

4. Realize that if you don't read regularly, you will not do well on the Critical Reading section: Reading is a skill that must be developed over time. When students proudly announce to me that they "Hate reading" or "Never read," I suggest that they do 20 minutes of reading each night before bed and build up to at least 45 minutes of sustained reading in order to build the skill. I really don't care what is being read, just that the student is reading. Just as muscles will be weak without working out, reading will be weak without practice. Unless the student reads regularly, s/he will not be able to read quickly or with understanding and this will have a profound effect not only on the SAT score, but also on the likelihood of success in college where there is so much reading to be done often without feedback except for the test on the material.

The PSAT is a great tool but, like many tools, few understand how to properly use it for maximum effect. I hope that you will use it correctly and enhance your skills before the SAT.