Category Archives: C2 Tips

Last Minute Advanced Placement Preparation

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The College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) exams begin next week – is your child ready?

Each may, hundreds of thousands of students sit for one or more AP exams covering over thirty subject areas. These exams are grueling, taking several hours to complete a single subject test. Depending on the subject area, they can include in-depth essay questions, lengthy reading passages, challenging mathematical problems, and complex charts or graphs. These tests are not easy.

Most AP students spend many weeks, if not months, preparing for the end of year exams. After all, these exams cover up to a full year worth of material, and that quantity of information cannot be mastered in mere days. But with the tests just days away, many students and parents wonder what last minute preparation they can undertake.

Whether your child is already well prepared or not, here are some tips to be ready for the big tests: Continue reading →

The SAT’s Lesser Known Cousins: SAT Subject Tests

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Every high school student knows the importance of the main college admissions tests, the SAT and the ACT. Students understand how vital these tests are to the college admissions process, and they prepare accordingly. But many students do not know about the SAT’s lesser known cousin, the SAT Subject Tests. These tests are less popular, but can provide an essential boost to college applications, especially for students enrolled in alternative academic programs, such as homeschooled students or International Baccalaureate (IB) students.

What are SAT Subject Tests?

SAT Subject Tests, also known as SAT IIs, are hour-long multiple choice tests offered in 21 subject areas. The subjects include English, math, science, history, and languages. Unlike Advanced Placement exams and IB exams, SAT Subject Tests are offered throughout the year on the same testing dates as the SAT Reasoning Test. Continue reading →

Why A Messy Bedroom Might Do Lasting Harm

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You walk into your teen’s room and wonder if perhaps a dirty laundry bomb has gone off. The floor is practically invisible beneath piles of laundry, books, papers, and dishes. The bed is unmade and the desk is covered in clutter. The closet doors won’t even close all the way because the clothes have begun to migrate out into the room.

“It’s MY room – if you don’t like how it looks, then close the door,” your teen shouts.

“It’s MY house – as long as you live under my roof, you follow my rules,” you reply.

And thus the endless cycle begins.

“Mess is a stubborn problem for teens,” writes Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal. “They are old enough that parents expect them to exercise good hygiene habits and take responsibility for daily routines. But teens’ brains are still developing some of the cognitive skills needed to stick to a clean-up routine, such as controlling impulsivity, seeing others perspectives and understanding how current actions have future consequences.” Continue reading →

Tax Season

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It’s tax season. Accountants are losing sleep and the IRS is gearing up. Tax season isn’t exactly a joyful time for most people, but as the saying goes, there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes.

Taxation is not merely a tool for generating revenue and closing budget gaps, but a means of creating incentives and disincentives in the best interests of the nation as a whole. Perhaps if fiscal policy were utilized in such a commonsense manner, we could finally address some of the most important issues facing this country, including our education woes. Continue reading →

Is Failure the Secret to College Admissions?

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In a recent post in Education Week, a dean of admission for Pitzer College ruminates on the benefits of failure in the college admissions race. The author correctly notes that there is no such thing as a “perfect” student, drawing the conclusion that applicants shouldn’t strive for perfection when seeking college admissions. In fact, the author says that he and his peers are often skeptical of students who present themselves as flawless. Instead of encouraging students to present perfection in their applications, he suggests that students should embrace their flaws: Continue reading →

College and University Scandals

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In the past week, two interesting news stories have broken regarding lies and errors on the part of two prestigious schools.

In the first, Vassar College, an elite private school in New York, dashed the hopes of some 76 students by mistakenly issuing false acceptance letters. The admissions office had placed “test letters” as placeholders for the read admissions decisions in the files of its early application candidates. 122 students signed on to check their application status and saw the “test letter”, which informed the students that they had been accepted. Sadly, 76 of these students were notified hours later that they were actually not accepted. In response, Vassar has issued an apology, agreed to refund the affected students’ application fees, and offered to contact schools to explain the situation in the event that students had already withdrawn their other applications.

Cold comfort for students who have just fallen off the emotional roller coaster of a lifetime. What sounds like a minor technical error is in fact a devastating event for the 76 duped students. Imagine learning that you’ve been accepted at your dream college. Proud of your accomplishment, you tell everyone you know. Your parents call every distant relative in existence. And just as you finish notifying everyone about your miraculous good fortune, you find out that you have to call everyone back to tell them that you didn’t really get in. Just kidding. Whoops. Continue reading →

State of the Union: Reducing College Costs

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Can Obama lower the cost of college?

In his State of the Union speech last Tuesday, President Obama spent a great deal of time discussing education in America. Recognizing the importance of an affordable higher education, Obama highlighted his administration’s goal of reducing college costs in order to make college more accessible.

Anyone who doubts the need for such changes surely has not dealt with college financial aid recently. It is a widely accepted fact that a college education is necessary for higher earnings; in an age in which employability is determined by education, students from every walk of life must be able to access higher education. Unfortunately, the costs of tuition at the nation’s colleges and universities has increased four times faster than the rate of inflation, pricing out many middle- and lower-class families. As a result, student loan debt now outpaces credit card debt, leaving young adults to face years of indentured servitude in order to pay off their education debts.

College costs and rising student loan debt have become a rallying point in the Occupy movements, something that the Obama administration is very aware of. Many believe that this newfound attention to college costs is simply a political move to bring young voters back into the Obama fold. But regardless of Obama’s possible motivations, his proposals have great merit and ought to be seriously considered by legislators from both sides of the aisle. Continue reading →

Penny Pinching in College: Because You Aren’t Mitt Romney

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Both FAFSA season and tax season are upon us, and so it is time to turn our minds to financial matters. Even the world of politics is seeing 1040s and W-2s in the midst of the Mitt Romney tax return fiasco. Since you aren’t Mitt Romney, it is likely that your child either already has or soon will qualify for financial aid in college (for more on financial aid, see C2’s financial aid primer), but college financial concerns don’t end with tuition.

Many families breathe a sigh of relief after the financial aid headaches are past, certain that the worst is over. But what many parents and students fail to consider in their financial calculations are the day-to-day expenses of attending college. Between that daily coffee run, the new CD he just had to have, and the parking fees for that car he just couldn’t live without, the seemingly small expenses of life in college can really add up. It is important to discuss financial responsibility with your child before he heads off to college – not only will the discussion save you money, it will also (hopefully) set your child off on the right financial footing. We’ve compiled a list of tips to help your child (and you!) save money in college: Continue reading →

Do Standardized Tests Kill Reading Skills?

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As the number of students that take standardized tests rises, the number of parents criticizing these tests is also rising…

Nearly every standardized test includes a reading component. On the typical test, students are asked to read a small selection or excerpt and then answer a short series of multiple choice questions about the material. On the surface, this methodology makes sense: By having students read a selection and answer questions about it, we can determine their reading comprehension abilities in order to measure improvement.

But what if this method is killing the art of reading?

In a recent New York Times article, two parents argue that our standardized testing methods are disastrous to students. Their anger with standardized testing came on New Year’s Eve when they and some friends of theirs decided to take the practice English test that their son had been assigned for homework. Since 3 of the 4 parents were PhDs, they were pretty confident that they’d be able to pass the test with flying colors. Instead, they never made it past the first question: Continue reading →

You’re Never Too Young to Be an Entrepreneur

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Enterprising young children set up lemonade stands in the front yard, take up paper routes, and offer to rake leaves or shovel snow for pocket money, but by the time these kids reach high school their entrepreneurial spirit has largely dissipated only to be replaced by the burning desire to craft a unique resume for their college applications. But in a time when competition for college admissions is at an all time high, perhaps one of the best ways to make an application stand out might be to rediscover the entrepreneurial spirit and start a business. By starting a business, students can demonstrate amazing qualities to colleges, including dedication, innovation, initiative, a strong work ethic, creativity, and leadership.

Now, we aren’t talking about starting the next Microsoft, Google, or Facebook – odds are that your teen’s business isn’t going to net millions, or even pay for college tuition. Instead, think small. Here are some ideas to start with:

  • Start a summer day camp for neighborhood kids
  • Start a lawn care service
  • Offer to clean and organize people’s garages – make even more money by offering to run their garage sales for a cut of the profits
  • For the tech savvy teen, offer social media consulting services to local small businesses
  • Utilize sites like etsy.com or ebay.com and sell handmade items like jewelry, candles, or other crafts

There are a millions ways in which teens can turn a mere hobby (which is nice to have, but not overly helpful in the college admissions world) into a small business (also nice to have and a lot more helpful with college applications). A teen interested in photography needs little more than a decent camera and some photoshopping skills to offer services as a photographer; teens who like to write could start blogs, some of which turn a healthy profit each month; and aspiring artists could ask to display artwork for sale in local coffee shops or art galleries or post them on a site like ebay. Regardless of the type of business, any teen who demonstrates the initiative and creative thinking necessary to start a business will already have a leg up in the college admissions race.