Guest Post: Parent to Parent Advice about College Applications

Norman’s daughter will be starting her Freshman year at the University of Washington in Fall 2012.    He offers the following perspective, having just completing the college application process: _________________________ Applying for college is an exciting time for every family.  It represents all the hopes and dreams that your student has had since he or she…

Continue Reading

You Can Dish It. Can You Take It?

Opening up to outside review of one’s work, including college essays, can create a wincing-eyes-jaw-clenching-fidgeting reaction to the surely unfounded criticism anticipated to be unleashed.  While the ultimate reward of such perspective can be a sharper argument and greater understanding, the human tendency to prevent humiliation can get the best of us.  (Incidentally, as humans…

Continue Reading

Make Money from Doing Your Homework

“Hands on learning”–somehow these eduspeak words have invaded Seniors’ vocabulary to describe the classroom environment they desire in college. (Incidentally, their next sentence usually includes something to the effect, “You know, the opposite of high school.”) Well, how about taking “hands on learning” to another level and actually making money with the knowledge one gains…

Continue Reading

Study Abroad: Necessity or Privilege?

Study abroad isn’t simply an opportunity to travel and live in another country.  The immersion in a second (or third) culture and/or language can change a person’s views, values, and confidence–as the individual is literally transplanting themselves in a foreign location and learning to thrive.   Is study abroad or some international experience becoming necessary to…

Continue Reading

To Transfer or Not to Transfer: The Community College Dilemma

Parents (and increasingly students) are asking us about transferring from a community college to a 4 year university from early in their high school careers and making transfer a primary option, rather than a Plan B.  Community college transfer became a more serious option when families were uncertain about admissions chances.  Now, younger students and…

Continue Reading

CA Budget Affects Cal Grants for Private, Non Profit Colleges

Proposed reductions in funding for the Cal Grant program, in the current 2013 Fiscal budget plan, would reduce private, non-profit university student’s grants by 17% by 2014 to $8,056 per year.    (Examples of  private non-profit colleges are the University of Pacific or University of Southern California.)    Current Cal Grants for private, non-profit university students are…

Continue Reading

Will the $10 Billion Deficit in Pension Obligations Affect the Quality of UC Education?

The perfect storm:  increasing numbers of qualified high school graduates for UC admissions, baby boomers maturing to retirement, who were promised generous pensions–which UC administrators did not fund for 20 years starting in the early 1990’s–and current reductions in state funding for higher education–all put pressure to increase tuition–while at the same time real wages…

Continue Reading