Exceptional Students Take “Specialist” Approach

The highly acclaimed book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, famously proclaims that it takes 10,000 hours to gain mastery of a skill.  While children don’t have that kind of time to devote to a favorite activity, the premise is certainly thought-provoking.

When parents choose activities for young children, they often seek a well-rounded schedule balanced by sports, music lessons, and an academic activity such as coding or math club.  Early exposure to a wide range of activities is ideal in order for children to identify their natural talents and areas of interest.  But once that’s been determined, a popular school of thought recommends specialization. 

Specialization means choosing an activity where one is committed to putting in the effort required to becoming as proficient as possible. It’s a concept strongly recommended by Dr. Kuman Mehta, author of The Exceptionals: How the Best Become the Best & How You Can Too.

Role of Parents in the College Application Process

Parents walk a fine line when it comes to their children and college applications.  Getting too involved will earn the title of “helicopter parent.” Leaving everything to the student and hoping for the best – well that’s quite risky! There is a healthy middle ground. The ideal role for parents is to help with research, provide informational opportunities, and handle the financials.

Often students feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start the college process, so parents should help identify colleges that may be an ideal match.  The best way to start is by discussing what major might be of interest. Many students don’t know exactly what career they want to pursue, but they will likely know whether or not they are interested in science, business, engineering, education, or the arts, for example.  This knowledge alone will help to narrow down the research process. Together, parents and students can look up potential majors in College Board’s Book of Majors. Or they can visit collegescorecard.ed.gov which will identify every college that offers each major, as well as the average cost of attending the school and the average salary of its graduates in each particular field.

College Decision Day Is Fast Approaching

April 1st has passed. That’s the deadline for most colleges to let students know whether or not they’ve been accepted. Even the few colleges who postponed their response date, due to their overwhelming increase in applications, have now let students know the good or bad news.  The Ivy League schools gave themselves until April 6th to notify applicants, and Stanford pushed back their date to April 9th.Now the ball is in the student’s court!  Many students find themselves with a pile of acceptance letters (or emails).  How should students make this pivotal decision?

First of all, remember the purpose of college.  It’s certainly intended to make students more educated, in general, and more aware of the world and the issues surrounding them.  But, more pragmatically, most students attend college with the goal of preparing for a career that will support them for the rest of their lives.  So the best choice college is often the one with the strongest program in a student’s intended field of study.  A little research will reveal both the early and mid-career salary of alumni from all of the colleges under consideration, as well as the acceptance rate at medical and dental schools, law schools and graduate programs.

Five Key Strategies to Save Thousands on College

When talking about college debt, the statistics are never encouraging. In fact, the story gets sadder each year.  Statistics for 2021 indicate that 44.7 million Americans have student loans that collectively total $1.71 trillion in education debt. The key to avoid being part of this grim statistic is to consider some highly effective strategies.

1) When choosing potential colleges, students should not necessarily reach for the stars – unless it’s to a college with an impressive endowment. When students apply to colleges a tier below the level where they would likely get accepted, the scholarship money is almost always much greater.  Students planning to major in business, for example, often identify NYU’s Stern School of Business where the cost hovers around $75,000 a year. These same students could reasonably expect to be welcomed at St. John’s University in New York, Drexel and St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and a host of other institutions with impressive business schools, substantially lower costs of attendance, and generous merit money (to attract strong students) which does not get paid back.

New Jersey College Education Now Affordable to All

New Jersey college-bound students in households with adjusted gross incomes of $65,000 or less will have many options, starting this fall, to receive their higher education tuition free.

Rutgers, New Jersey City, Saint Peter’s and Stockton universities have all pledged to cover tuition and fees for students with family incomes below $65,000 or $60,000. These universities are providing new options to the “Community College Opportunity Grant Program,” which was signed into law just weeks ago, offering free tuition at all of New Jersey’s two-year community colleges for up to five semesters. This program, as well, is open to families with adjusted gross incomes of $65,000 or less. Full time undergraduates receive grants to cover 100% of their tuition and fees after other scholarships and federal and state grants are applied.

Cut Time, Money and Stress on the Road to Success

College bound students who know what they want to do with their life can often cut years of education, a great deal of stress, and a substantial amount of money from their higher education experience.

Many colleges offer dual degree programs whereby students move right into a Masters or Doctorate degree program upon completing their undergraduate education.  They often do not have to take entrance exams, eliminating the need to repeat the stressful process of preparing for, and taking, standardized tests.  Basically, as long as they meet certain requirements during their undergraduate years, they move right into the advanced degree program in their chosen field.

End of SAT II Means Greater Emphasis on AP Exams

Students eyeing the most competitive colleges and universities, until now, had to post impressive scores on two SAT II exams as well as on the crucial SAT. But College Board’s recent announcement that SAT II exams will no longer be offered has shifted the focus to Advanced Placement (AP) courses and the culminating exams.  

There are currently 38 AP courses in the Arts, English, History & Social Science, Math & Computer Science, Science, and World Languages & Cultures, although not all are offered at every high school. The curriculum for each of these courses is written by The College Board – the same folks who bring you the SAT – and there is an exam for each course in May.  Students who score 3 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5) are offered college credits at many of the nation’s colleges and universities. The popularity of AP exams has steadily increased from 2010, when 3.2 million tests were administered, to 2019, when 5.1 million tests were taken. (The number decreased slightly in 2020, to 4.8 million tests, as Covid moved the exam online, in a condensed version, throughout most of the country.)