Course Rigor vs GPA - What’s Really Important?

There’s a lot of pressure in choosing the right courses for high school. Should your teen take regular classes, honors, or AP? Is it better to have a higher GPA in regular classes or a slightly lower GPA in AP or honors courses? Is GPA more important for college admissions? And what about stress and burn out? Don’t they need time to have after school activities and some ‘downtime?’

Keep in mind, AP, Honors and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses only look good when the grades are A’s and B’s. This is because schools offering theses classes usually bump up the grade points for those classes (meaning your teen gets credit 5 points for an A, 4 for a B, 3 for a C instead of the typical 4,3 and 2 credit points respectively) it inflates your teens GPA. Therefore almost EVERY college recalculates the GPA WITHOUT those extra points. (A few colleges use the extra points when nearly every student is...

Missed Parts 1 & 2? Start here: 

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/blog/What-your-teen-should-know-before-leaving-the-nest-Part-1

If your teen is going to college or venturing out immediately after high school your young adult is probably missing several very Important skills for adulting. Take a quick look at this series of videos for suggestions of things you can include in preparing your teen for the real world.

Here's the link to the 12 Scholarship Hacks: 

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/12-Winning-Scholarship-Hacks-Opt-In-Download

Missed part 1? https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/blog/What-your-teen-should-know-before-leaving-the-nest-Part-1)

If your teen is going to college or venturing out immediately after high school your young adult is probably missing several very Important skills for adulting. Take a quick look at this series of videos for suggestions of things you can include in preparing your teen for the real world. 

Here's the link to the 12 Scholarship Hacks! 

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/12-Winning-Scholarship-Hacks-Opt-In-Download

 If your teen is going to college or venturing out immediately after high school your young adult is probably missing several very Important skills for adulting. Take a quick look at this series of videos for suggestions of things you can include in preparing your teen for the real world. 

Go here to part 2: 

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/blog/what-your-teen-should-know-before-leaving-the-nest-part-2

 Here's the link to the 12 Scholarship Hacks! 

https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/12-Winning-Scholarship-Hacks-Opt-In-Download

Just because there is the very real potential of a large income, does not mean you should blindly take on excessive college loan debt. This gentleman has $1Million in student loan debt. Yes, he has a high income, but he will have to live like a broke college student to get through it. (Think of it as a $100,000 debt on a $25,000 income!) 
It won't be pretty.
Do the math. After taxes, an extremely huge chunk will go toward those loans. And he has more than one!

Download the Checklist, "12 Scholarship Hacks: Tips from Prestigious Scholarship Judges" and help your teen get on the path to a debt-free degree. (Link in the sidebar.)

Yes, I know your kids need downtime, but they should take a little time to do these few things that will ensure their success!

After watching the video be sure to check this list before sending in any scholarship applications!
 https://www.getaheadoftheclass.com/12-Winning-Scholarship-Hacks-Opt-In-Download 

PSAT Scores are released December 9-11, 2019 but what does it mean for your teen? And what's the next step? 

Find out here!

TRANSCRIPT:

The PSAT scores are in! What’s a good score?. If your teen took the PSAT exam in October this year, congratulations you should be getting their scores either today or in the next two days. Scores are released based on the state you live in.

If you have a high school Freshmen or sophomore who took the test, don’t be at all concerned with their score Good or Bad for this year. It literally means nothing. If they did great this year, they could totally bomb next year, If they bombed it this year, they have time to work on next year. For freshmen and sophomores, the point of taking the exam is to get used to the test and the tasing environment. Now if they took the PSAT 8/9 or the PSAT 10, totally and completely blow off those scores because those tests are specifically designed for 8th, 9th and 10th graders and are easier than...

Transcript:

Mmmmm. I’m sitting in a hotel room drinking a hot mocha.

But don’t get excited, this is a poor man’s mocha. It’s just hotel coffee blended with hot cocoa mix. It’ll do in a pinch.

But today I want to talk about the PSAT exam which is coming up in just a couple days for most High School juniors.

If you have a junior, listen up. If you have an 8th, 9th or 10th grader, this is for you too.

I believe there is more Misinformation, and assumptions on this topic by well-meaning individuals AND well-meaning professionals, than anything else related to the high school to college process.

Here are a few of the often-repeated MYTHS surrounding the PSAT exam.

(1) It’s just a practice SAT test. So my kid doesn’t have to take it seriously, or my kid is only taking the ACT so there’s no reason to take the PSAT since its only to practice for the SAT.

WRONG: The PSAT is NOT a practice test. It has been used as a practice SAT, and the...

Your 'EFC' is your Expected Family Contribution. It's a number that represents just how much the federal government thinks your family can contribute toward your teen's college expenses...every year! It is not only used by the federal government to determine if your family qualifies for need-based aid (the Pell Grant, for example) but colleges also use the EFC in determining need-based aid (and sometimes scholarships). However, most private colleges also use another set of calculations, called the CSS Profile. 
But here it is. How the government calculates your EFC. 

https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/2021EFCFormulaGuide.pdf