Yep. Scholarships can be taken away. And it happens more often than people know. There are several reasons this can happen.:

*.  The one you are likely familiar with is when your teen doesn't live up to their end of the bargain. There are always "strings attached" to the merit scholarship offered by the college, especially when it is recurring for 8 semesters, such as maintaining a minimum GPA and passing a minimum number of credit hours each semester. So read the details carefully when that award letter arrives. But also know the "what if" scenario. (I'll save that for another note.)

But THAT is the easy one. You know it. (Or should.) And hopefully, you will see it coming before the hammer falls, maybe even in time to do something about it.

HOWEVER,

There are other reasons why your teen can lose scholarships, and many come before they step foot in their first college class.

Several possible scenarios can trigger the possible loss of scholarship...

Writing the college or scholarship essay doesn’t have to be scary.

(For parents of seniors who have not hit the “submit” button yet, and parents of sophomores and juniors who don’t want to screw this up 365 days from now.)

Writing the personal essay for college apps, or a scholarship, doesn’t have to be scary. Your teen is writing about themselves. The topic is true to your teen, an experience they have had.

I don’t usually review essays that are not from my Cracking the Code to Free College (CCFC) clients. (My CCFC clients have training on winning essays and they know what a winning essay reads like.) But I’ve done a few reviews for non-clients this year, and unfortunately, it was not pretty.

This is hard to say but, for the vast majority, what was initially submitted to me, sucked.

As a parent, it’s difficult to help your teen with this aspect of the application process because what they choose to write about should be personal to...

How to compare colleges? 

A mom asked how to get organized when comparing colleges? 

Literally just use  an Excel/Numbers spreadsheet that is free on your computer.

I list in the first column, the things that are important to our family (location, cost of attendance, does it have the activity my teen wants, whatever else).

The other columns are the names of the schools and then you check the boxes down in each column for each school.

I also used it to add

Deadlines

date my kid applied,

Date of response,

Other things that needed to get sent either by us or but he high school,

Scholarship or financial aid offered

Etc.

-Once my teen had the list narrowed down to the “few”, the others were deleted from the page.

-Then once the ONE was decided on, that was the only college on the page and

The new columns are added for each semester of that college,

The rows (now instead of location and if they offered the college major) now we’re “amount of...

College applications can be pricey when you add it all up.
Here is a list of states that offer free college applications during a certain week. 

Alabama Oct. 17–21

Colorado Oct. 17–19

Delaware hosts a variety of College Application Month events

In Idaho, contact your student's high school to see if they have a "Next Steps" Month event planned.

In Illinois, contact your student's high school to see if they have a College Changes Everything Month event planned

Indiana's College Application Week took place Sept. 26–30, but some Indiana schools offer free applications to in-state students year-round, and free FAFSA virtual workshops will be held throughout the fall. Visit Learn More Indiana.

Maryland's virtual College Application Campaign runs from Oct. 1–Nov. 12.

The Minnesota State system of colleges and universities is hosting special visits (including virtual) in October, and students can apply for free at any time during October.

The University...

A recent Newsweek article said millennials are in record-setting levels of debt. The question now is why? What keeps them in debt?

-More than anything else it’s a lack of financial knowledge.

-For many their initial financial troubles began with student loan debt when the bulk of it could have been avoided. For example, attending a college with a $260,000 price tag for a degree whose entry-level salary is $35,000 was a bad financial decision. A local regional college, while living at home, would have been much more economical. Unfortunately, neither their parents nor their high school counselor understood the math well enough to counsel them beforehand. That was their first error.

-Secondary to student loan debt is the idea that someone else will eventually pay for it, rather than taking responsibility for the contract they signed. There are plenty of opportunities to legitimately pay their debt down and get it off of their backs, but that requires dedication to getting out of...

Seriously, that’s exactly what my Aunt said. No pause. No holding back. Being in your 80’s gives you the right to speak your mind. You’ve seen more of life than most people and the consequences that go along with it. She talks with people all of the time. Neighbors, relatives, the person at the grocery store checkout, the barista at the local coffee shop. She has seen the result of “stupid degrees” for decades.

So this is my effort to honor that request.

(Although for my clients, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.  I tend to attract families whose kids are high achievers headed for engineering or business, and such.)

Three decades ago, only 30% of the population attended college. Today that statistic has flipped. 70% attend college.  

The following is my opinion. You don’t have to agree with it.

The statistic flopped because society was told, “You must have a college degree to be successful in life.” (Which we know is...

"I've told my kids to not bother applying for scholarships that are under $10,000."

Really? $500 is more than you had in the bank yesterday!

A lot of families are looking for high-dollar scholarships. I understand. It seems like a waste of time to apply for $500 or $1000 scholarships when there are $20,000 to $100,000 or more $ available. And as cute as that sounds, it's a very poor scholarship strategy.

I hear it often enough though so I thought I should at least address it.

Jenn asked:

This should go without saying, and the quote doesn’t end there. But let’s talk about how this quote applies to your teens.

It applies in several ways.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”~Steve Jobs

This is the key to college acceptance and winning scholarships. I talk about it in more
Detail at homeschool and financial conferences.

Career choice.
Although the many teens feel they “know” their college major and career path, statistically they don’t. This one misstep costs them their future happiness. You CAN get it right the first time! I have a team of experts who can direct your teen to their perfect career for them. (DM me “career life coaches for teens for my contacts.)

College acceptance-Where do you fit into the campus community? Who are you?
Colleges are Not looking for the Jack of all trades. They’re looking for “focus”, what light you up? What you love to do that is integral to who you are....

If you haven’t heard about ChatGPT by now it’s evident that you’re not on the internet. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important for you to understand, because the kids and young adults in your family either do or will know and will use it, or something similar. Our job as parents is to protect them from the repercussions of their naive actions, or even better, prevent them from taking those actions in the first place. 

So here’s a little to get up to date and what your kids NEED to know going forward so that they don’t get into serious legal trouble by using it.

What is Chat GPT?

The short version, it’s an artificial intelligence language learning tool. It responds to the user by taking information from the input it was given by its developers and responds back with what usually sounds like a coherent string of words. 

How people are using it

It’s being used in multiple ways as a tool for research, to write...

It drives me insane when I read a post/question where 99% of parents answering the question are misinformed. Many are making assumptions. Others are quoting their high school counselor or some admissions meeting they attended.

(NOTE: This is not to be confused with the Early Action (EA) applications! EA is a specific type of application selection for colleges that offer an early look and an earlier than regular decision notification of acceptance. EA is literally a checkbox on the application. For some colleges with EA applications they have a set period of time that they review those applications, thus even if it were an option to submit, let’s say during the summer, they won’t review it until that period of time comes.)

Most believe college applications open August 1.
Not exactly. 
The “common app” opens on August 1, but it only covers 1/3 of colleges, and those colleges also have their own applications. The common app is a convenience, not...