There are many paths to a debt-free college education even without using parents' money. Here are a few keys talked about in this video.:

1-Talk with your kids early, in or before freshman year, about the financial expectation of college. 

2-Have a strategy

3-Living at home saves tens of thousands of dollars

4-Working and saving for college from an early age. Working during college.  

5-Winning scholarships begets more scholarships. Both college admissions and scholarship committees like 'winners'. Having won even one scholarship is 'proof of concept' not only to you, that you can do it and it's worth your time but committees tend to look with more enthusiasm when you already have a win on your resume.

(Image credit: pexels-buro-millennial-1438072)

The first rule, "Work Like Hell." I'm not going to sugar coat it. I want you to succeed as I did. A debt-free college education can change your life and the lives of your kids. It's worth it. Hands down. You'll never hear someone say, they wish they had college loans instead of going through the effort to gain a debt-free degree. But you will hear, 'It wasn't worth it' when they've graduated with tens or hundreds of thousands in student loan debt. 

There are a lot of takeaways and 'gold nuggets' when you have the opportunity to listen to Elon Musk in this video. But his first 'rule for success' in this interview is 'Work Like Hell".  I have to agree.

Very little comes from a silver platter in life and when the goal is to achieve a debt-free college education, there is work involved. A lot of work. Someone has to look for scholarships. Someone has to complete the application (your kid.) I've known National Merit Scholar parents expected scholarship offers to show...

Colleges expect to see some number of community service hours. It really doesn’t matter how many hours exactly. They will also know how many hours of service is required for graduation from your high school. So if your high school requires 50 hours of community service and you have exactly 50 hours, they will know it. Keep that in mind.

What is more important than the number of hours to college admissions is the impact you are making on your community, what you have done, why you are doing it, and what you are getting out of it (how participating in this service activity has affected you.) You should be able to answer these questions. Community service that showcases the best vision of who you are will include commitment, passion, and leadership.

Commitment to one organization or type of service. Most admissions officers would rather see something long term over the course of time rather than a quick one-week volunteering in another country. That’s not to...

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...