College Transition Tips for Students and Parents

This morning, College Connectors consultant, Valerie Broughton, and Tim McNiff, KARE11, discussed what parents of freshmen can do to help their teens successfully move from home to college and what freshmen can do to help themselves successfully move from high school student to college student.

Tim asks great questions, and brings a parent's eye to the issue.

You can watch and listen to the interview here.

Based on your experience, what advice do you have for Parents and for Freshmen?

Got Tests?

There's a recent article in the New York Times discussing whether students should take/retake the ACT/SAT. There's lots of information available about this issue. The college admissions consultants at College Connectors consider the testing piece of the admissions puzzle very carefully. Here's our answers to the questions:

ACT or SAT?

How many times should you retake it?

First of all, we live in the Midwest - what some people describe as the Fly-Over part of the US. Of course, that's where the ACT people live too. So, we've never thought the ACT was inferior.

We let people know off the bat that colleges will consider the results of either the ACT or SAT in their admissions decision and to reinforce what others have said, test scores aren't the most important part of the admissions decision anyway.

We advise students and parents that the goal of the either test is to get a score that accurately reflects a student's ability. We sincerely suggest to parents: "The goal is NOT for your teen to have a score you can brag about at a cocktail party".

With this guidance, we suggest students pick one test, a test date that's convenient for them, prepare for the test starting about 6/8 weeks ahead of time, and plan on taking the test once.

Preparation can take lots of forms: buy a book and go through it on your own, take a class, hire a tutor, create a study group with your friends. Whatever, just prepare. We don't think that taking the test officially one time 'just for practice' counts.

Of course, there are times when even we suggest a retake. For example, if the student was ill and couldn't concentrate and scored lower than we'd predict based on their PSAT, PLAN and/or grades, he should retake it. Or, if one of her scores was way out of range compared to the others(ACT sub scores that is), she can think about retaking it.

Most importantly, however, if the student is applying to a college that offers merit scholarships, a retake might be necessary. Consider the case of a student with a 27 ACT score. If the college awards $5000/year to a student with a 27, and $10,000/year to a student with a 28, another stab at the test, another Saturday morning, and the $$ cost of retaking the test could have a great financial payoff and is warranted. The ROI potential in this case is $20,000. Not bad for an 18 year old and a few hours of work. Remembering all the time that it's just as easy to score one point lower as it is to score one point higher.

According to our research, the classes a student takes and the grades they get in high school are more important to colleges than test scores. The pieces of the college search puzzle need to fit together. An over-sized testing piece won't help the solution.

Advice to Help Parents Help their College Freshmen

Labor Day - the day when summer vacation officially ends and the school year begins. No matter if school started 3 weeks ago, or two weeks from now, transitions surround Labor Day.

Seniors are making final decisions about where to apply to college and maybe working on essays.
Juniors are starting what some describe as 'the hardest year in high school' and maybe preparing for their upcoming PSAT test.
Sophomores are starting the year as an experienced high school student and maybe taking their first AP class.
Freshman might be described as resembling 'deer in the headlights' as they navigate a new school and maybe develop confidence as they survive.

What about those kids who excitedly walked across the stage last June tossing their mortar boards in the air, proud that they accomplished their high school requirements? Transitions abound for them too. Some are heading for work, some are taking a year off as a 'gap year' traveling or studying, and most are likely heading for a new educational experience - COLLEGE.

I was motivated to post this blog because of an interesting week we had. We help high school students and their families through the college search and application process, looking for the right match college for each student. Last week, we heard from lots of parents who had just dropped off their new college freshman child. Some parents were sad, some were happy, most were relieved, one or two were hysterical. Letting go brings on a variety of reactions. Some parental reactions are related to the child's needs, some to college life in general, and some to a specific characteristic of the college. Lots of reactions can be directly traced to parent concerns or insecurities.

Those new college freshman have lots of challenges, and maybe, some fun facing them. I was impressed by some advice for parents I read recently, advice about how to help kids make the switch from high school student to college freshman and how to make the change from living at home to living away. The advice is for how to help students, but I like the message it sends to parents. I consider this a great article that Helps Parents Help their College Freshman. That's the title I would have given it. The Washington Post newspaper gave it a different title. If you have a college freshman or know someone who does - this one's for you.

Fostering Adoption Law and College Expenses

Most people don't know about Public Law 110-84: The Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act. This act became law as an amendment to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

With all the talk about affordability of higher education - or lack of affordability to be more precise, I want people to know about this opportunity to help families with adopted children. It might be your family, or the family of a friend. The more people who know about this, the better.

Providing adoptive homes for children is tough enough, providing homes for teens is nearly impossible. One of several reasons cited for difficulty placing teens is that parents realize that the cost of providing a necessary college education for their children will be a challenge to the family budget. It's hard enough for families to save, even when they have 18 years lead time. Consider that families adopting a 13 year old teen only have 5 years to plan.

In order to eliminate this hurdle or impediment facing families who wanted to welcome teens needing families into their homes, the Fostering Adoption Act was introduced, debated and passed. It may not affect millions of families, but if it helps even tens or hundreds of students, it will be well worth the effort.

The nugget of gold in this bill provides opportunities for college aged students, who were adopted as teens, to apply for financial aid as independent students. This means that their families won't be expected to contribute to their college education which makes the student eligible for significant amounts of need based financial aid.

With this legislation, everyone wins:
- students find homes and educational opportunities
- families share their homes and hearts
- colleges provide opportunities for achievement oriented students
- society benefits from a better educated populace

Recently I had a chance to share this information with a colleague. Read the full article for a first hand example of the impact of this law.

College Visit - Montana State University

The fourth and last stop of the Montana College tour is Montana State University located in the wonderful town of Bozeman.

Most impressive academically at MSU was the Academic Advising Center. Freshmen, undecided about their majors, are designated as ‘exploring students’ and assigned advisors in the center. These great advisers help students enroll in freshman classes that not only will fulfill requirements in most majors, but also, provide options for career exploration. I was so impressed with this program, I’d encourage all students enrolling at MSU to consider declaring themselves ‘undecided’.

A unique program at MSU, Champ Change, is designed to encourage students to get involved in on campus activities. The lure of the mountains is so strong that many students succumb to leaving campus for their non-academic activities. That’s ok, but on-campus involvement is more highly correlated with student success. So, the Champ Change program awards points for students attending lectures, concerts, sporting events and participating in intramural games or residence hall activities. Earn enough points and you can earn a $1000 scholarship.

We met the impressive Career Center Director who has a research based, developmental program, which if students took advantage of, would be very beneficial. The students on the panel we met with weren’t familiar with the Career Center.

I knew Montana State had a well-known and well-respected Engineering program. I was less familiar with the Photography and Film school. We met with a faculty member from the Film program who told us about the ‘Montana Mafia’ currently influencing the film industry in Los Angeles! Students can enroll in the fill program as freshmen, about 200 do. However, there’s room for only 48 students in the junior level courses. Very selective.

The tour ended at MSU. The week provided me with knowledge of Montana Colleges and lots of new friends.

College Visit - Montana Tech

Third stop on the Montana College Tour was Montana Tech in Butte, MT. Butte is an old mining town with a claim to fame of being one mile high and one mile deep. Digger, the Tech mascot, attests to the mining history of the community and the college.

The most impressive feature of Montana Tech is the fact that they admit students from a variety of ability levels and those students are successful in their engineering fields. It appears that Montana Tech could be considered as a college that ‘changes lives’. The school provides opportunities and support for students interested in engineering who might not have opportunities elsewhere.

The admissions presentation focused on five themes, all of which were evidenced during our visit.

Tech is Quality Focused. They offer 21 degrees which includes study options in nine engineering fields. With only 2700 students, each student has plenty of opportunity to interact with faculty in classes and labs.

The second theme is Driven Students. The average ACT score of freshmen is 23, and yet 72% of them graduate. Students are active in their high schools and even more active on campus. The Admissions Office assigns an activity score to each applicant. The average high school activity score for enrolled freshmen is 5.2. The activity score is calculated for each student at graduation and the average is 6.7.

In addition to focusing on quality and driving themselves to succeed, Montana Tech students like real life experiences. They describe themselves as wanting to “do” science rather than “study” science. Students have either internships or jobs with engineering or other technical companies and also spend time on community projects helping the town of Butte. They compete in engineering competitions like mining, environmental engineering, human powered machines, bridge building, concrete canoe races and software engineering contests. Montana Tech bests teams from much larger, more selective colleges in these competitions.

The fourth feature of Montana Tech is the personal nature of the experience. The TLC(Tech Learning Center) supports all students with tutoring and other academic support easing the transition to college. Admissions representatives who establish relationships with students during their college search process follow Tech students through graduation, maintaining that relationship. All professors have agreed to measure student performance after 20 days into the semester so that students know if they’re in trouble and the faculty help students get the assistance they need. They joked that Tech students don’t need ‘helicopter parents’ because they have ‘helicopter advisers.’ Lastly, Tech is proud of their affordability. They offer scholarships to most of their students, from a $2800 scholarship for students with ACT scores between 20 and 24, to a $6000 scholarship to top students with ACT scores above 29.

Advice from the student panelists to incoming students is to retake the last math class you took in high school your first semester in college. For example, if a student took Calculus 1 as a senior in high schools and did well, their advice was to enroll in Calculus 1 in college. Getting a strong foundation in math increases the likelihood of success in all classes.

In summary, Montana Tech is a challenging institution for hand's on, success-oriented students.

College Visit - Carroll College

Carroll College is a Diocesan Catholic College, in the capital of Montana, Helena. As a diocesan college they are independent of any religious order. The college is an important part of the Helena community.

The College requires all freshmen to enroll in their Alpha Seminar, a course devoted to maintain and build the culture on campus. The goals of this program are to connect students to the campus, connect students to each other and to introduce students to the skills required to be successful in college. They include understanding and acting on the values of a Catholic College, respecting each individual and the community, as important skills.

Most impressive was that the college community seemed to embrace the values they espoused. All of the students, Catholic, non-Christian and even students who described themselves as non-religious, participate in community building activities whether that be attending mass or devoting time to improving the campus, city or world communities.

Each residence hall area has three advisors. First is the traditional residence hall advisor responsible for community building and rule enforcement. Next is a Kirchen Advisor, who is responsible for helping students with their spiritual development. Lastly, there is a Technology Advisor in each hall available to help with computer issues on the spot.

They are very proud of their championship Forensic and Football teams!

Also, Ralph Esposito, an art faculty member, is constructing a fascinating brick sculpture outside the library.