Jenn Curtis: Optimize for College Admission, Steps for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grades

Hey there everybody, we've got a great conversation coming at you today. A step-by-step plan by 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade to optimize the college admissions process. I hope this conversation leaves you better prepared to guide your students through this college admissions process. Or if there are students watching, listening, I hope that you are better prepared for this process as a result of this show. Jin is the co-author of the best-selling, the parent compass, navigating your teen's wellness and academic journey in today's competitive world. She's been the owner of Future-wise Consulting for 15 years and she's guided students all across the United States through the college admissions process.

And I would add, making them better people along the way. She is a professional member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association and the Western Association for College Admissions Counseling. As am I. Jin has been featured on a wide variety of television shows and podcasts, print and digital media, including NBC News, Good Housekeeping Magazine and US World News and Report. And today, she's on the Nick Standlea Show. Thank you so much, I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, let's talk about 9th grade. Okay. What steps do parents of 9th graders need to take to prepare for that point in the future when they're going to be applying to college?

So if I could choose one word for 9th grade, it would be exploration 100%. I tell that to all my students. And I think it really defines what students need to be doing that year. So as a parent, we can really be urging our kids to explore that year. So where exploration comes out, I would say in the biggest way is activities. So that's the year where students get to try on activities, see what works, see what doesn't work, challenge themselves, dive in, get scared and do things that maybe they've always wanted to do, but never had the opportunity to do or maybe did not the courage to do. So I would say that that would be the number one biggest thing.

The other thing that I want all of my 9th graders to be doing is to be developing specific habits. Let's talk about some of those habits. What habits are you hoping 9th graders develop? And I have a 9th grade daughter myself. Oh, do you? Yes. Okay. So yeah, let's talk about some of those habits. Okay. So the first habit that I think is really important, not only for 9th grade through 12th grade, but into college and then I think it translates into the workplace is developing those teacher relationships. It's important to understand that your letters of record, and we'll talk about this in detail later, but your letters of record not coming from your freshman year teachers unless of course you have that teacher again later on.

But it's important to start to understand how do you talk to adults? How do you converse? How do you let them know about what's important to you inside the classroom and outside the classroom? And I think it starts with something as simple as hello before a class because I think a lot of students actually don't do that. That doesn't cross their mind. But I think it can also be in terms of getting comfortable with participating in class. That's something that does come naturally to some students, but it certainly doesn't come naturally to other students. So I like to tell my students, all right, what's realistic for you?

Can you set a goal for yourself? Maybe you can have a goal of raising your hand one time in a class period. So that's one habit. Another habit is getting used to evaluating yourself. So I know this may sound like a weird one, but so hear me out on this one. I have all of my students about halfway through their freshman year. The reason that this is a habit is that I have them continue to do it each year throughout high school. And I want them to start to assess where they've come and where they're going. So what have they done well during the first half of the year? And what's something that they can improve or do differently for the second half of the year?

I think that that really cultivates intention in teens. And it really helps them to take control of their academic life. Right. And just to go back to the interacting with teachers. And so the idea of forming the habit there is building relationships with your teachers. You want to be in that habit so that when it comes around a junior year, you're comfortable with establishing relationships with adults. And then it's not too hard to build that relationship with your junior year teachers or senior year teachers. And then when you're asking them for a letter, it's somebody who knows you well because you've built that habit.

Is that accurate? Exactly. But I think it also goes to something even bigger than that. So of course letters of record are important. And we talk about that and students need to be very aware that that is a part of the process and that will come not only from their teachers, but also from their counselors, which a lot of students end up being surprised to hear. But beyond that, I think that it really helps them to develop really important self advocacy skills that they're not only going to use in high school, but they're going to use in college when they're much smaller fish and they need to go seek out their professors, which can be really intimidating or then into the workplace when they need to go ask for time off or even before that, just simply interview for a job.

So I think that developing that skill early on is something that will pay off tenfold down the road. I love that because we've all heard these stories about students whose parents do all the advocacy for them in high school, and then they get to college and lo and behold, parents are doing it again, calling professors, emailing professors. And that, I think we can all agree, is not the way. dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean, this is actually a large part of my book, The Parent Compass. The idea really came from seeing kids where all these things were done for them and they got to their college life and they didn't know how to function.

And so it was kind of reeling that back a little bit and giving parents the tools and the knowledge to help their teens develop responsibility and grit and resilience during their high school years so that when they got to college and beyond, they were functioning adults that could, you know, we were hearing stories of parents who were calling their adult children. This actually happened to one of our adult friends when we were not long out of college, you know, calling at five o'clock in the morning. Oh, you have an important appointment today. Wake up, you know. Right. That should not be happening.

Right. You're not raising a full functioning adult at that point. No. No. What are your feelings on allowing kids to fail? Because that seems to be where all this comes from. Parents are so worried that any sort of setback for their kid will be a setback for life. Right. And it's freshman year, a good time to allow some failure to happen. Absolutely. I think so. It's hard as, you know, we're both parents. Yeah. It's really hard to watch that. I just watched something last week with one of my daughters, and it's hard not to step in and fix the problem. But you've got to keep that mindset that this is what's going to build their resilience.

This is what's going to teach them. And it's going to make the victory all the sweeter when they finally get there. And they don't see that in the moment. Right. And it's hard even as a parent to see that in the moment. But that's really where we need to zip our lips, sit next to them, feel the pain alongside them, and not try to jump in and take away that pain. Because that's really where they're going to learn to thrive. Right. And that growth as a person is only going to happen with some failures. It has to happen at some point. Yeah. And it will be a much bigger setback if we wait until it's in their professional life rather than in their academic life.

Absolutely. And I don't know about you, but some of my biggest triumphs in life have come after deep failures where I was just, you know, horrified at what I did. What I'd done. And then, and then, like I said earlier, it just makes the victory all the sweeter when it does finally happen. Yeah. Yeah. Along those lines. So you're a parent of a, of a ninth grader, let's say. And let's say one of those setbacks is in a class. You can see that your son or daughter does not have great study habits at this point. And oh, God forbid they might get a B minus in this class. Or even a B plus. I see people freaking out about today.

What advice do you have for parents in that situation at that point in the process? One is not to circumvent the student and go straight to the teacher because I do see that happen. You know, parents emailing the teacher, well, what's going on? And that one, that only makes the teacher not so happy with the student and of course with the parent. But I think it would be empowering the student to self advocate, go to the teacher. I'm a big fan of before you go to subject matter tutoring. Try to just try to check where you're at with the teacher first. Can you go in before each test? Can you go in also after each test?

So before to find out what are you looking for? Make sure you're clear on exactly what's going to be on the exam. And then after the test, going back in or this can pertain to essay writing as well. So going back when you get the essay back or when you get the test back. All right, what did I do wrong? What would you have wanted to see to make this an A paper? And I think that those skills when the student starts to develop them and do them regularly can go a long way. So that's my biggest advice to parents is to let the team, they are old enough now to be able to do these things. And they should be doing these things.

You stepping in and calling out the teacher is not helpful to anybody, primarily your team. And we're trying to develop habits, like you said, so that by junior year, senior year, they're really comfortable with handling this stuff themselves. Before we move on to 10th grade, tell me a little bit about the book. So the book actually was born out of the college admissions scandal. It is not about the college admissions scandal, but when the college admissions scandal broke, Operation Varsity Blues, my co-author and I called one another and we were just horrified with the news that was coming out.

And in our discussions around what was going on on our TV screens, we started to talk about what we were seeing in our offices. And it was clear that we were seeing students who were coming in, burned out, stressed out, had no vibrancy and were really somewhat robotic. And we were noticing patterns in those kids and noticing parenting patterns. We were also seeing another group of kids that were coming in vibrant and motivated and excited and, you know, who really had that spark, those X-factors. And we were noticing patterns in those kids and in those parents and how they were letting their kids fail.

And they were really cultivating grit and resilience. Even before I had kids, I would really sit my students down and ask them questions like, so what did your parents do? Help me understand this. And their answers were amazing. I remember one girl saying, without skipping a beat, I sat her down one day and I said this girl was so fantastic, so impressive. And her first, without skipping a beat, she responded, they let me do hard things or they made me do hard things. And I'll never forget that conversation. And it's really colored my own parenting. So the Parent Compass was really intended to be a resource, a guide, a support for parents going through the hyper-competitive, between and teen years and to help them take a step back and really develop these skills in their teens so that they could maintain their relationship with their teens during these challenging years and then launch kids who were ready to tackle the real world.

What are some other things that you found in doing research for the book that parents could put into place habits they could form to help their kids thrive? Because as parents, we all want our kids to feel vibrant and alive and not burnt out and not stressed and not overwhelmed by life. So what are some things parents can do to help move that needle in the right direction? Yeah, so a few that we talked about in the book were one, actually it's one of the first chapters in the book, but interestingly, it was one of the last ones that we wrote. And it's about looking first at yourself and realizing why you parent the way that you parent.

And if you're a parent who puts a lot of pressure on your teen, well, why do you do that? What was it about you're at bringing that's maybe making you do that? So it was kind of taking a really deep hard look at that and dealing with that first and sort of kind of that idea of physician heal that I saw. So before we can parent our teens or before we can heal somebody else, we need to be healed on our own. So that was one of the things and then communication. So asking the right questions so that your teen does continue to share with you and talk to you, not jumping in to fix everything that comes your way.

And really when they come to you with a problem instead of giving your advice immediately, asking what it is that they actually need from you because they'll tell you. Right. We talked a lot about sports, athletics, you know, quitting, when to quit, when not to quit. Goal setting was a big theme of the book. And that's actually another habit that I like all of my students to develop from ninth grade. How do you set goals for yourself? How are you intentional about what it is that you want to achieve and how you're going to get there so we can set goals? But do we know how we're actually going to achieve those goals?

So we talk about that and a lot about the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset and letting our kids fail. Okay. Now we're going to get to 10th grade. Okay. I promise we will. We're going to keep it moving along. But I did where I think we're touching on some important stuff here and sports. I want to touch on that one real quick since you brought it up. Okay. And I remember when we first met, it was at a speaking event down in Newport Beach for the Newport Beach Foundation. I believe is what they're called. And there was a another counselor there who spoke and he mentioned that you want to be careful with sports.

With sports in high school because unless you are an absolute superstar and you're going to have serious recruitment offers. You are adding something that takes up a ton of time and yet you're expected as a student to do all the same things succeed on the same level as everybody that's not spending all that time in that sport. I don't know if that's correct or not. I just wanted to get your two cents on that. I love that you're asking this because as I was kind of thinking through what we were maybe going to talk about today, I was like, I hope athletics comes up. I am in agreement. I think that there are a lot of families that have this have several misconceptions.

So one major misconception is my kid is going to get a scholarship to college. Right. And yes, it does happen. Right. To such a small number of students that it's nothing you can plan on. Right. Another misconception is well, my kid has to even just play a sport for colleges to be interested in them. And in my opinion and in my experience, and I've been doing this for over 15 years, that is absolutely not the case. I have many students who are rock stars who just blow the socks off of me every time I think about what they have accomplished. And many of them never played a sport. And the thing is, is that it opens up, yes, sports, I'm not saying there's necessarily anything wrong with sports.

They teach great, great lessons, teamwork, obviously, and responsibility and communicating with your coach. There are so many wonderful things, but they take up so much time. Right. And in my opinion, students can be doing some really cool things without having all of that time taken up. This literally happened last week. Okay. If I can tell a quick story, I had a student who had played volleyball for several years and he's a junior this year and he had anticipated making varsity and he didn't. Okay. And he was not so happy that he made JV. And at the same time, he has this job at Starbucks. Okay.

This kid loves his job at Starbucks, but volleyball, Starbucks, and a difficult curriculum at his school was really beginning to weigh on him. And so he asked me the question that everybody asks, well, what do colleges want to say? See. And I said, all right, I'm going to answer this first, the way that a counselor should answer this to you to that question, which is, you're a teen. You need to do what's going to make you happy. If that's playing a sport, great. Go play the sport. If it's your job, great. Go do your job. You only get to be a junior in high school once in your life. And if the only thing that you're ever thinking about is, well, what do colleges want to see?

You're going to miss out and you're not going to see a lot in these years. Now, he ended up deciding his joy is his job, which secretly I was hoping that he would see and he did. I talked to his mom actually a couple days ago, she told me that he quit the job and that I'm sorry that he quit volleyball and that he stuck with his job at Starbucks. And he's so happy that he did it. And she even went so far as to say that he felt empowered in hearing that. And I think more teens do need to hear, go with your gut. You know, there is no, you should do this or you should do that. There's no cookie cutter version of what a college is looking for.

They're looking for what are you excited about? What gets you out of bed in the morning? So that's my feeling on sports. I just think that they can take up a ton of time and in that time, students can be doing some really rad things on the side. I had Darren Finx. He was my first interview for the show and he was the Dean of Admissions at Harvey Mudd and then started a consulting practice where he consulted to college admissions departments and then worked with some families on the side. And I asked him what the biggest mistake students make when they apply to college. And he said, trying to be something for the college rather than what you are.

And I thought he really hit the nail on the head with that one. Because somehow when you're reading a student's essay and looking at their activities and their transcripts somehow, you can tell as a human. Yeah, you just sniff it out. This doesn't feel like a real person. It doesn't feel authentic. You know that it's forced. Yeah. Because I think even in those essays that excitement shines through. Yeah. And it doesn't. Well, I mean, let's go to the very foundational level of sports. I don't allow students to write about sports anyway. Right. You know, that's the worst thing to write about. Because it is this cliche topic and everyone goes down the same lanes with it.

I learned about teamwork. I learned to cooperate. I won the big game or I lost the big game. Yes. Yes. So I just think that there's so many other wonderful things that can bring so much color to teens lives. And he's the student that works at Starbucks is going to have the greatest stories and he's going to have. He's going to make some awesome friends that hopefully will be lifelong friends, you know, that he met at Starbucks. Right. And isn't that cool. So. Yeah. Well, one just we're on the topic of college admissions. And one of the stories Darren shared that I thought was great. And his many people who are tuned in now to the show may have not heard that first episode with Darren.

So I'm going to reshare it here. He had an athlete star rugby player female and she wanted to write her essay about sports and and every draft. He said, I'm going to let you do this. Even though he warned her, he said, they all sound the same often. And he said, you know, I've done this for 30 years. And he's like, my eyes glaze over when I see these topics that are repeats of stuff I've read for 30 years. And he said, I don't want that to happen when you submit this essay and some off admissions officers looking at it. I want his or her eyes to glaze over. But she kept to really want to say, okay, I'm going to let you do that.

And draft after draft just seemed kind of stale. And he said, okay, we tried it. That didn't work. Now I want to talk about other stuff that you're interested in. Like what's something you don't tell everybody that you're secretly interested in. And she said, well, there's one thing, but it's stupid. And he's like, that's what I want to hear about. That's the thing. But let's hear about that. And she said, I really like, I know I'm older now and I'm a rugby player, but I really like Disney Princess movies. And he goes, well, now that's interesting. He said, because you are this strong force of nature athlete.

And then you've got this opposite thing where you're into Disney Princess movies. Tell me more about that. And through this process, then she writes this essay about all the lessons people can learn from Disney Princess movies, all the hardships they overcome. And she almost ended up talking about some of the stuff she was trying to discuss through athletics. But now is with this whole new lens. And she became suddenly an interesting person. She pops off the page with this dichotomy of these two opposites intersecting. And she got in all over the place when she applied. So right to your point there.

So now let's talk about 10th grade. Okay. What do we need to do? What do students need to do? And then what as parents, what do we need to do to help them to do the right things as we enter into 10th grade to help prepare them for their college admissions in the future? Okay. So my word for 10th grade is preparation. So this is the year where I like to say that in 9th grade and 10th grade, you're kind of laying the groundwork or paving the path and then in 11th and 12th grade, you're on that path and you're running. So in 10th grade, you're really preparing for what's ahead. So this is the year where you really start to dive in more deeply to those activities that you explored in 9th grade.

So you're really starting to tighten up and figure out, okay, you know, this was really what lit me up. This is what got me up in the morning. This is kind of what I wanted to develop a bit more. So we're really diving deeply into those activities that bring us joy. So maybe that's an I encourage students in 10th grade and beyond to really start to take initiative, make opportunities for yourself. If there is some, if there's a need in your community that you see and there's no solution that exists, go be that solution or create a club that speaks to whatever your interest is if you, if there isn't one or if they're, you know, if you're interested in creative writing, maybe go.

I've had students who have started their own curriculum or course or workshop to teach younger kids creative writing because that really didn't exist in their neighborhood. So this is when I like students to really dive in deeply to those things. I do want to make a note about clubs though because I talked about clubs. Clubs can be great. That's actually what I just made a note about too. Okay. Okay. Clubs can be awesome if you do something with them. Yeah. If you make something, if you bring in speakers and inspire people and really get an opportunity to lead and grow the club, they can also be a complete waste of time.

We are not putting the pizza eating club on your application. Right. So if you start a club, for an example is this, I was a student who came in from day one. I want to be an orthodontist. I want to be an orthodontist. Okay. Yeah. There was no Operation Smile Club on her campus. Okay. I think that's a great use of her time. Yeah. Otherwise, like I said, the pizza eating club or the unicorn counting club, like that's just not worth your time. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What if you're interested in something but the club already exists? Great. Go be a part of it. Help it grow. Okay. See if you can rise up in leadership.

Another thing that I do like sophomores to do is to kind of survey like where are leadership opportunities around me and can I grow? Or a lot of students think you have to be the student body president to have leadership. I hear this a lot. Like, why don't have any leadership on my application? What do I do? Leadership can take so many different forms. I think leadership can be you going out into your community and starting a voter drive because there isn't one for teens or you going out in your community and let's go with my creative writing example, going to the local library. See if you can put on a creative writing workshop.

Awesome. That's leadership. Maybe you weren't elected to it. That doesn't mean that that's not leadership. Right. Okay. So if the club doesn't exist, create it, make it happen. That's obvious leadership. And then what I'm hearing is really be involved in it. It's not just a matter of putting it on your resume. I created the creative writing club that didn't exist, but having something to talk about that you did while you were there. I mean, that's going to make you a more interesting person in general and then possibly give you something, some real substance to talk about. Yeah. And how did you structure that?

What did that look like? What was the growth process involved in yourself in figuring out how to make this something? Yeah. Student, I know, sophomore, and this question came up along the line of clubs. So she really wants to be a veterinarian is moving down that path strong. And I don't know that she's going to venture from that path. Just like you said with the. Orthodontist. Orthodontist. The young orthodontist. And so we've got the young veterinarian, but she is an idea for a club that doesn't exist like a mentorship club where she would bring in different speakers. So everybody in the club would go out and find somebody else and who is an exciting person in that field they're interested in.

Bring that person in, probably do some sort of interview than everybody's being exposed to all these different interesting speakers, all these different interesting ideas, and is a little bit more of an exploration. She asked if is that a good idea or not? Because it doesn't directly align with what I want to do as a veterinarian, right? The obvious one would be to set up some sort of club that works with animal shelters in the area, but she's more excited about this other one. And my inkling is usually, hey, go with what you're excited about. You only live once. Everything doesn't have to be building the college resume that if you're doing interesting things that will take care of itself.

But I don't want to get your perspective on that as well. 100% I agree. Yeah, without a doubt. That's going to shine through on your application that you were excited about that. Also, you're probably going to be doing other things that have to do with veterinary work. So you're probably volunteering at animal shelters anyway. You're probably going to go maybe to do some sort of shadowing at a vet office or whatever the case may be. So go ahead and give your application some depth and do something that you're excited about. And who knows where that's going to lead. Right. Right. Excellent. Other things we need to be doing.

10th grade year. Your wheelhouse testing timeline. So I like students to be very intentional about thinking through when am I going to test, pulling that back. When does that mean I need to prep? When they don't do that, testing just keeps getting pushed off and then we're looking at fall of senior year, which is way too late. Right. So I like students to be thinking through that testing timeline during sophomore year. That doesn't mean they need to prep during sophomore year. Agree. Just needs to be thinking through it. And I want to say to in case there's any confusion, I love your take on this.

I am absolutely 100% not a fan of anybody doing any sort of test prep at all during freshman year. Oh, yeah. I get that question. I get families who come in. I've already got my child reading through the one of the prep books and it's too early they get to burned out. And during sophomore year, I'm simply talking testing timeline. I'm not talking starting test prep. Right. So what's your thought on that? Sure. I agree with everything you just said. So I think freshman year, what I recommend to any family, even if they're never going to take a standardized test, this just also happens to help them if they do take a standardized test in the future, is to encourage their kids, however they can to read for pleasure.

I think it will make them a more interesting, fully realized person. They will be a better adult for having read stuff. And I really don't care what they read. It could be Harry Potter novels. It could be, I mean, if they really wanted to get technical, it could be articles in the economist, which are just like critical reading passages, but that's not necessary. It could be comic books. I mean, it really could be anything as long as they're reading. Because I think it has all these great benefits outside of standardized testing. And then this was a couple years ago, I think it was 2019, but we did an exhaustive study of more than a thousand students we had worked with that we had survey information on.

And tested for all these variables, which would lead to improvement down the line. And I wasn't even going to test for reading for pleasure. It hadn't even occurred to me, but there was a really bright teacher that was working for us at the time who said, you know, I just have a hunch that maybe that's something. Could we just include that in the survey? So we did. And lo and behold, it popped out of the regression analysis just for the statisticians that are watching. It popped out as a variable that led to the outcome we were testing for, which was not just high scores, but improvement in scores.

And we've since dug into it a little deeper. And what we think is that it's just kids that read for more read for pleasure more. They are better able to internalize the skills that are applied on a critical reading section. And those the critical reading on the SAT or on the ACT, those are the toughest sections to improve your score on. If those kids that don't read for pleasure, it's hard to teach them how to read faster for a higher level of retention. Because ultimately our job is to help them develop those skills. And it's a lot easier if the kid has read for pleasure for a number of years.

And so I think it's just a win-win across the board. So that's ninth grade. I think they do not need to do anything with test prep specifically in ninth grade. The only exception to that is when kids are in eighth grade, if they are applying to a independent high school that has the Catholic school entrance exam or a number of other independent schools use the IC or some boarding schools still use the SSAT, but the IC is really taken over. But those are exceptions to the rule. And then tenth grade, I'm with you 100%. Take the PSAT, then take a mock ACT exam, because I don't think the pre-ACT is accurate enough.

So I just say take a full-length mock ACT and we do that for free. A test prep guru is because it's a way to just help as many kids as possible. And then put a just discuss a plan. And again, just like you said, they don't have to start prepping sophomore year. But if they take both those tests in a close period of time, it's easy to compare the scores, figure out which one they're a little bit better at, and then just let's mark some dates on the calendar, talk to your independent counselor, talk to your school counselor, talk to somebody that works with us, and just mark those dates out when you're going to take official tests.

And that really helps parents and kids to get on the same wavelength. And then it's not suddenly in junior year, you're not bugging your kid like, oh, it's time to get going on this. It's like, oh, yeah, I did agree nine months ago that we were going to start taking these steps at this point. And then it just makes for a much smoother, easier process for the family. So on your radar, you're all in agreement, you're ready for it when you're not scrambling, because that's when you see kids start to freak out. Yes. And I would add to that. I mean, some people are reticent to take that mock ACT in the middle of sophomore year because they haven't, usually it's the math that they haven't had enough of in school.

And I was like, well, how are we even going to know that first test is not to figure out where you're going to eventually score is just to compare the SAT to the ACT because nobody wants both. So we just need to figure out which one they're better at and identify that. So we just know it for the future. So that's my that's my two cents on 10th grade testing. Okay, nice. So the other thing I like students to do in 10th grade is if they didn't already do this in ninth grade to come up with the with obviously they're going to be choosing their courses for next year, but I like them to play it out till senior year.

I do like my freshman to do that. If that's not something they're ready to do during freshman year, definitely do that during sophomore year, because I think it can really inform your class choices. And yes, it is likely to change that you know you'll find that you thought you were going to take AP chem, but you ended up hating chem and so that's okay. But it does really help you to make intelligent choices as you're going through those course plans actually, particularly as it has to do with science, in my opinion. So absolutely want to think through that for your course plan and then start to visit college campuses.

This is something I think the value of visits cannot be underscored enough. I think it can be as simple as okay you're going on a family vacation, even if you have no intention of going to whatever school is nearby, go see what it looks like to be at a rural campus or see what it looks like to be at a campus in the city. Understand what characteristics of colleges are out there so you can start to get a concept of what you're looking for. I think visits are one of my favorite parts of this whole process. So I could probably talk for a whole hour just on them, but I also think students need to be remembering to take notes on those visits.

You know, it's you're a sophomore if that's when you start to do them. So by the time you get to senior year and you're having to write these very detailed essays about exactly why you want to go to every campus that you're applying to, those notes are what's going to help you stand out to colleges amongst your peers. Who are writing very bland and not detailed and just copying and pasting across all the different campuses. Yeah, should students, let's say I'm a parent. I want to take 10th grade. I want to take my son or daughter to visit a local school. Should I just show up? No, never. Okay. No, you need to be scheduling an information session and a campus tour for every campus that you go to.

Chief reason is because you want to show that you were there. You want them to have a record of you being there for those colleges that do care about demonstrated interest. Right. Because the majority of schools track all of that and can, as they, and demonstrated interest just to help make that make sense of that term for everybody. Why don't you just let everybody know what that is? Demonstrated interest is when a student shows a college that they're interested in attending and that can be done in a variety of ways. It can be done going on campus tours. It can be done attending college fairs or attending admission events from colleges or having communication with your admission rep.

It's showing that you really are serious about learning about that school and ultimately attending. They care about their yield. They want to know that if they're accepting, they're going to offer you an offer of admission that you're going to say yes to them. Right. They use statistical analysis to identify kids who have basically demonstrated interest in that campus. And they're going, oh, well, we know if Johnny has talked to our rep at two different college fairs, visited the campus, did an interview. If we offer Johnny a spot, he's three times as more likely to say yes as that kid that's just sending in an application.

And maybe the other kid has visited. Maybe he did talk to a rep at some point, but if it wasn't recorded, it's not working in his favor for that demonstrated interest. So get your barcode scanned at the college fair as well so it clicks into their system. All that good stuff. Quick question about the classes in 10th grade. And you mentioned the sciences and so the young veterinarian. So one of our other questions was, is it a good idea to take a extra science class during the summer, whether it's at the high school or at a community college in order to try to get to a higher science by senior year because she really does love math and science.

And so is excited about that thoughts on that. So there's a couple ways that my students will do it. So sometimes they will take a course over summer in order to maybe get to a higher or different more sciences. Occasionally they may have a spot in their schedule to where they can just double up on sciences. I'm a huge fan. This is this is probably going too off into the weeds here, but I'm a huge fan of taking community college classes simply for enrichment. So not necessarily dual enrollment, but just so that you can learn something that you couldn't learn on your campus. I think personally, I think that they're preferable to these big, fancy, fancy, fancy enrichment programs that frankly I'm not a big fan of that are very, very expensive.

You can get the same information at a community college and maybe have time to do some other really cool stuff while you're taking that class. Let's touch on that real quick because that comes up a lot because it sounds, if you're not in this line of work, it sounds awesome. So I can pay $8,000 and my kid will be at Johns Hopkins this summer and do this summer enrichment program there. That sounds a lot better than just going down to the community college where anybody can do that. I already know the answer. But what are you telling me what the real deal is with that just in a little bit more detail?

So the community college, you know, you're taking a course, you're learning the same material. Like I said, you may have time to do other really cool things because you're likely at home and maybe you can get a really cool internship in the rest of your time. With these summer enrichment programs, they're very expensive. Like you just said, $8,000. I mean, they're very expensive and you go and yes, you get to visit a college campus and live in the dorm and you get to see what college life is like. And you take this class there for a few weeks, but colleges know that they're very, very expensive.

Right. And then it's a pay to play model. And then it's a pay to play model. And so they'll look at you and say, well, that's good for you that your parents could afford that, you know, but Jimmy over here, he went out and he got his hands dirty. He got he did this community college class and he set up an internship for himself. And he networked in the field and you sat in a classroom because your parents could afford it. Right. So I think they're very alluring and they're very popular. And I have to get educate all of my families about this, but I'm not a big fan. Yeah. Yeah. Neither of mine. So we're we're in agreement on that one.

Other things 10th grade year as we're in this planning preparation phase. Preparation phase, I would say to start keeping track of a resume. Okay. Yeah. It can take any form. It doesn't necessarily unless you need a formal resume, then obviously make that, but it can take any form. It can be a list. It can be, you know, jotted notes and details about what your specific duties were for different activities, but you just don't want to get to a point in senior year where you're actually filling out your applications and you forgot this really cool award that you won during a sophomore year. So if you didn't start a resume during freshman year, definitely started software year.

Okay. So Google Doc, Google Sheet, something like that. Whatever works for you. We're just now the not the notes so that by senior year when I have to list all this stuff out, I don't forget stuff. Yeah. Okay. Anything else on during 10th grade? Are we ready for 11th grade? I think we're ready for 11th grade. Okay. This is the big one. This is when we're getting to go time. Okay. So 11th grade, I would split into fall tasks and spring tasks. So the other two years, obviously, we're kind of, this is what you need to be thinking about throughout the year. This is where you're in go time. This is what I call implementation.

So this is when you're really putting this stuff to use. And this is when those real true college tasks happen. Yeah. So in the beginning of your 11th grade year, I want students to be taking that rigorous course load and remembering that this is the final set of grades that many colleges are going to see. So it's certainly the final full year that they're going to see, but it actually may be the final set of grades that colleges are going to see at all because a lot of colleges, if you're applying early action or early decision, will not see your fall semester grades. Of senior year. Of senior year.

Thank you. Of senior year. I also like students from the very start of the year to be thinking about their letters of rec. So as we talked about earlier, letters of rec are not coming from your freshman or sophomore year teachers. They're coming by and large, ideally from your junior year teachers. So that is not something that you can start thinking about in May of your junior year. That is something you need to be thinking about from the beginning of your junior year use what you've learned in freshman and sophomore years from developing those habits to really cultivate meaningful relationships with your teachers so that they can talk to me.

You got to think about the amount that they have to write about you. It's an entire page, single space that they're saying what you've brought to the classroom, what you've brought to your high school campus, what you're going to be able to contribute to a college campus, who you are inside the classroom, who you are outside the classroom. So you need to give them the material to be able to speak to who you are. Right. And since we're on the topic of letters of rec, how strategic should a student be in who they're asking for those letters from based on what they want to study in college? If they know at this point.

Yeah. Ideally, you're asking at least one teacher in your field. You definitely don't want to ask like a junior year math teacher and a senior year math teacher. That's not great. I like it if possible. So you want to look at the five core courses. You want to ask a teacher in one of those five core courses. So I don't want you to be asking your wood shop teacher or your band instructor. You need to be asking someone from those five core courses. And what are those five core courses just to get them out there? Science, math, social science and foreign language. I like students if possible to ask actually from two different sides, I guess.

So maybe a stem and a humanity slash social social science, if possible. Sometimes it's not possible. And that's okay. As long as maybe you doubled up on sciences during junior year, ideally you're not asking both of those science teachers. Okay. If I was say applying to an engineering program and I had one science and one math. That's fine. Yeah. Okay. Any other thoughts on letters of recommendation and we're just looking to establish that relationship and then you're asking by the end of your junior year. I personally have all of my students ask right after AP exams in their junior year. I don't think it's safe to wait until senior year.

You risk particularly out of public school. Some teachers will cap the number of letters of rec that they will write. And so you run the risk of not getting the teacher that you wanted. And that was a teacher that you put some stock into during your junior year. And oh my gosh, now you have nobody to ask. Right. Well, since we're on letters, how many do I need or how many does a student need? And then maybe touch on a little bit about the how the counselor at their school figures into that process. Okay. I like students to make sure that they have two letters of rec. Sometimes colleges will allow more than two, but frankly, it can start to get excessive if you do submit more than two teacher letters of rec.

So usually we're sticking that sometimes there's outliers, but usually we're sticking to those two core course letters of rec from your teachers. Colleges do allow what's called on the common app and other letter of rec. But all colleges allow this, but for those that do, you can ask a pastor or rabbi or religious official, you can ask an arts teacher, you can ask an employer or a coach. If that person is going to provide a perspective that your teachers were not able to provide, then you might consider offering or asking an other letter of rec. If that person doesn't know you very well or is just going to be saying the exact same thing that your teacher said, my recommendation is actually maybe not to ask that person.

And then your counselor letter. So a lot of students don't know that they will eventually be asking their counselor for a letter of recommendation. Many students don't know their counselor. This is a challenge for some students, but it many colleges, though, certainly not all. Many colleges do require that letter of rec from your counselor. So over time, try to get to know your counselor, pop in, ask a question, be polite. Be right them for not putting you in a class that you wanted because they will have to write you a letter of rec at some point. Right. And if I don't know my counselor very well, let's say it is the end of junior year.

And I just realized, oh my goodness, the counselor is going to need to write me a letter and I've never even met with this person. Are there any steps they can take to make that easier to help that counselor write that letter? You can write some counselors have a form that you can fill out. If they don't have a form, you can write kind of a thoughtful sort of business letter to them, talking about who you are, what's important to you, why you want to go to college, what your goals are, what you think you've contributed to your campus and give them the information that they need to write a thoughtful letter about you.

Perfect. Other things we need to do in the first half of 11th grade. See, yes, the biggest thing, which would be to start to really think about those characteristics of colleges that are going to allow you to thrive. So I want all my students to be thinking through all of the many things that contribute to college life that might be opportunities for research. It might be a sports going culture. It might be large, medium versus small. It might be the academic calendar. It might be rural versus suburban versus urban. There's so many different things. I actually give a free webinar on this every couple of months to help families to really think through all of those characteristics and finding that right fit school.

But I do like students to start. If anybody wants to attend one of those webinars, how do they find it? They can follow me on Instagram at my FutureWise or check my website. Okay. Yeah. Or sign up for actually better than that. My website, sign up for my mailing list and I announce it on my mailing list. So really start to think through those characteristics because starting about midway through junior year, I'm having students start to kind of cultivate that and develop that list. And that list development and refining period happens throughout the rest of junior year. It's not something that happens overnight.

The more research they do, the more they realize they were actually wrong about what they wanted in the first place. So that list does morph over and over again. So be willing to be open, consider colleges that you've never heard of because you may be super surprised at what amazing opportunities you might find there. And like I said, that process is going to continue throughout your junior year. I also want- So you're saying, if I want to go to USC because I like to watch their football team on TV, that might change. Probably not a good reason to go to US. I see if that's your singular reason for wanting to go to USC.

Yeah. And yeah, that might change. And there's a lot of schools out there that'll allow you to go to really fun, cool football game. Right. Right. Yeah, that popped into my head because it was a number of years ago, but I had a student and I and we see that a lot here in Orange County. We do. Yeah. And what was funny though is I said, this is a very fluid process. It's going to change. Just keep digging. And he did. He put in the work. He was at a really one of the best private schools in the country, really. And his counselor at the school, I mean, really had him walk through the stuff and nothing could change his mind.

And by the time he got there, he was like, I just want to go there to watch the football games. And the kid was like 95 pounds soaking wet. Like he was he was not a football player. But we and we were just working with him on the on the test prep to get him ready for the test. But he didn't get into USC. I earned a great score, got in and and we heard from him years later, he went to every football game there and it was he realized his dream. He took advantage of it. That's awesome. But to your point, yeah, in a normal case, it is a very fluid process. And I like that you said through junior year, it's always changing.

You're always researching. And usually when you have an idea of what you want, it changes over time. It can even change right up in the senior year when you've got letters coming in. Oh, for sure. It always does. Yeah. And I think one other thing in this list creation process is that during fall of junior year, I think parents need to start having that financial conversation with their teens. So really exploring what does that look like? What does our budget allow running those net price calculators? And that price calculators are required to be on the websites of every college according to law.

And so I would really don't wait for that financial conversation until you've already received your letters. Make sure you're having that alongside the list creation process. That is a great point. And I did a great episode early on. It was audio only, but it was with Jody Oaken. You know her. She's wonderful. And she said the same thing. Start that financial conversation earlier. Do you have any kickoff questions or ideas for parents to introduce that conversation or ways to ease into that with their student? If it's, let's say it's during junior year, it doesn't feel pressing at that point. But if they're taking your advice and they say, well, I do, I should start talking about it.

How do we ease into that conversation? I think parents can sit down and just say, look, you know, we have, maybe they saved, maybe they haven't saved. And just be honest and say, you know, college is an investment and maybe come at it from a values perspective of whatever the values of that family are. Maybe it's a family that's like, we don't believe in loans. And so, you know, we want to work through this process together and keep the lines of communication open. So as long as you can help your teen feel that you're all in this together and all on the same page, I think if you come at it from this sort of more scary, like, well, we're never going to be able to afford, you know, the teen is going to shut down.

So I think as long as you can cut out, come at it from a place of we're in this together, let's have these open lines of communication. Do you want to be involved as we go through these net price calculators? Do you not want to be involved? Yeah. I think that's great. I would also throw in there. One of the things that we are really seeing since we're on the test prep side of things, and there are a number of families right now that in the test optional environment when they go, it's just one more thing. If they're saying optional, that means we don't have to do it. But man, the kids who are doing it and submitting scores are winning such better financial aid packages and scholarships.

It is there even at schools that, I mean, I'll give one example, Texas Christian University. This was last year and these two young women who I mean, they even looked like they were twins, but they were best friends. They live in next door to each other, grew up together. Same preschool, elementary school, all the way up through high school. Same varsity soccer team, same interest. They took all the same classes in high school. They were actually not funny. Same GPA. Yeah. It's like a twin study. It really was. It really truly was. It was so overjoyed when, because I thought both of them were going to do test prep and then one of them said they weren't.

And at first I was like, oh no, you should. And I thought, wait a minute, you guys, you're going to apply to the same colleges. We're going to learn so much if one of you has a score and one doesn't. So they both had a 25 on the ACT. The one kid does the prep ends up with a 31. And Texas Christian University was the top school for both of them. So they both apply and they both get in. But the student without a score had to pay full sticker price. And the one with the 31 received $112,000 scholarship right out of the gate. And I just want to share that stuff because it has such a massive financial impact on the entire family for so many years when we're talking such large sums of money.

And both of these families could afford it, but $100,000 is $100,000. And I think that needs to be a part of the college list creation process. Like when we're talking about characteristics, talking through the schools and trying to do research on the schools that are more merit aid friendly. I think merit aid, you know, I have a lot of families who are like, oh, we need to apply for this private scholarship and that private scholarship. And I try to tell them, merid aid is the biggest bang for your buck. Yes. Sure. Go apply for the private scholarships, but you're going to get maybe $500 here, $500 there.

Merid aid is really where you're going to find your biggest bang for your buck. And so if you can, you know, do things like testing, if that's in your, in your plan, and if you can really maximize meridide by choosing the right type of schools and the, the schools where you're more likely to receive merid aid than others, if that's also going to be part of your plan, I think that's certainly something that needs to be a part of the conversation. And you just explain a little bit more what merit aid is and how that's given out by individual colleges, whereas the private scholarships are usually open to anyone that applies, but it's, is different than the scholarships that come from the individual colleges, which is what merit aid essentially is.

But if just to explain that further for anybody that doesn't understand how that works. So merid aid is free money that's given to a student because a college really wants them to attend. Yeah. That's the easiest way to describe it. So it is a college saying, you know, we love you. We think you're amazing and we will do what we can to entice you to come to our school. So it is completely independent of the finance, family's financial need. It could be offered to a very wealthy family. It could be offered to a low income family, generally speaking, you know, almost all the time it is completely independent of demonstrated financial need and is to entice you.

Okay. Other things we need to do. So starting spring, that's when we're starting to brainstorm the personal statement. So the brainstorming process is a long one and it is one not to be underestimated. So I have my students start that process during spring of junior year. That's when I want, as I mentioned earlier to first students to be asking for letters of rec. This is again, as I said earlier, you want to be kind of developing that college list, refining and starting to think about early action, early decision. So there's strategy involved there. And so let's define those real quick for the strategy.

So early action is so both of them, you're applying at an earlier deadline. So often that earlier deadline is November 1st, not always, but you're applying earlier and you hear back earlier. So generally speaking, you're hearing back before the 1st of the year, the 1st January 1st. Early action is non-binding. So you're simply applying earlier, but your mermaid actually may be better if you apply during the early action round. Early decision on the other hand is binding. So what that means is you can only apply to one school early decision and you're literally signing a contract that if admitted to that school, you will attend.

And it's a big deal. It's nothing to be underestimated. There's a lot of consideration that needs to be put into applying to a school early decision, but the benefit is that statistically it can potentially increase your chances of being admitted. Yes. Yes. And the reason people apply early action early decision is the uplift in admission percentages when you apply early. I mean, you're showing much stronger interest. The colleges know you're more likely to accept and offer with early action, with early decision. You got to go. Yeah, you're accepting it. You got to go. Yeah. Whether you change your mind or not, you sign the contract.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And now let's talk about the strategy with those. Yeah. So because of that, it may be a good strategy to apply early action or early decision. Most of my students, if there is an option to apply early action, do apply early action. Now there are a few schools where maybe that's not a good idea and we don't need to get into the nitty gritty of that. But by and large, if a student has the opportunity to apply early action, we've been working on it for so long that they are able to apply it for that early action. Early action isn't necessarily a great choice for a student who maybe didn't do so hot during junior year and needs to show a college some strong senior year grades.

Early decision, again, because you have that statistical advantage, if you have a strong first choice school, applying early decision can be a great option. If you have a lot of financial considerations and if you feel that you really need to be comparing financial aid offers among your various schools, then early decision might not be a good decision for you. Right. Right. Okay. What else do we need to do in the back half of junior year at the very end of the year? And I'm talking usually June, ish, May, June, I like my students to create a common app account, jump on the common app, start filling it out.

There are certainly parts of it that you can fill out at that point. And then there are parts of it that you cannot fill out quite yet. But I do like them to kind of start filling out at the very least kind of that biographical information and getting a feel for what the application looks like and just kind of making sure they're they're slowly moving along. And then they become a senior to me starting kind of June, July. So that's when we get started on those senior year tasks. Okay. Well, then sounds like we've arrived. And we arrived at senior year. All right. So senior year, my word is application.

So obviously that's the number, the number one thing that you're doing during senior year. And this is go time. This is where we're really moving forward, revising that personal statement, making sure that it's your story. It's a reflection of where your priorities and your values. So we're working on that throughout the summer. We're moving forward with since we're based here in California. Most of my students are applying to at least one, if not more of the UCs. So we're working on those UC essays, kind of trudging forward on those applications, filling them out. Come August 1st is when that any given classes common app goes live.

And so that's when they can really really start to fill out the whole common app. And that's when those supplemental essays are being released. So for anyone who doesn't know what supplemental essays are, there's their essays that colleges ask specifically pertaining to them, what they want to know about you. And maybe that's why do you want to major in what you want to major in? Or maybe that's why do you want to attend our school? Or maybe that's tell us about the color purple. It can be anything under the sun. But I tell families that that those supplemental essays are the number one most underestimated part of this entire process.

Every student is shocked at how much time and detail and research and revision. Those supplemental essays take. And that is what really colors our senior year is trudging through those supplemental essays, making sure that they very clearly articulate the students perfect fit for every single college that they apply to. Right. How many schools ask for supplemental essays? I would say most of the schools that my students apply to ask for supplemental essays. Not all. There are certainly some schools out there that don't, whether that's strategy for them to get more applicants, or maybe it's just not a part of their process.

But I would say the majority of schools ask students for a supplemental essays. And that's why I tell families you really need to be considering the number of schools that you're applying to because I'll see families who will come in and say, oh, we just want to throw caution to the wind and apply to as many schools as possible. And so, you know, if you're looking at the very least one essay per school on the top end, maybe four or five, and you're applying to 30 schools, that is an astronomical number of essays to not only write, but then revise and make perfect. And so I think that it's much better to have a very solid list of schools that really reflect where you are going to thrive and then to put everything you have into knocking it out of the park with those essays.

Yeah. Let's talk about that college list a little bit. So what's the range? I don't know. There's no magic number, but the range, the number, a range of numbers of colleges that I should apply to. Okay. So this has been creeping up in the wake of COVID significantly. I don't know if you're seeing that here, but I'm certainly seeing that in a lot of my education consultant colleagues are seeing that as well to astronomical numbers. So I'm not a fan of that. Yeah. But it used to be prior to COVID, I would say most people applied to maybe eight to 10. Now we're definitely seeing 10 is on the low side, I would say.

So I would say average, I'm seeing about 10 to 15. Yeah. Yeah. And what would you like to see that number come back down to eight to 12? Well, I think that the I think that the 10 to 15 is okay. Ten to 12 is more ideal to me. Yeah. When we get up to 20, 15 to 20 and beyond, it's just it's impossible. Not only to manage the number of essays, which is a task in itself, but to manage, they're all asking you to turn in different things. And so to keep track of all the application, deadlines and requirements and everything that's involved is just a phenomenal task. So I think you're good with maybe, you know, 10 to 15, 10 to 12, maybe ideally.

And then usually we're splitting that into different buckets. Safety target and reach. I like to see the majority as target schools with a couple of reach schools, not mostly reach schools, a couple of reach schools and several safe schools. They private accounts are up in Pasadena. He was really excited at the beginning when schools were going, test, optional. And he said, no, this is just one less thing that kids are going to have to do for as long as this lasts. And I just spoke to him the other day. Because the issue that he's seeing now is that so many kids that are coming through his practice will think that if those scores aren't required, I can apply 80% of my schools to be reach schools.

Because now it's just a crap shoot, right? And he said, yeah, the top schools are starting to bring back requirements for it is helpful because and then if they just don't have the score, it's easier to say, hey, we need some more target schools because I want you to get yeses and have options in this process. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that so many students are not prepared for, that they, they say, oh, you know, I want to apply to a bunch of these reach schools. I know I'm probably not going to get in, but it's okay. I'm going to be fine. I know I'm prepared. Right. Well, they're not because they wouldn't be applying to them unless they were holding out hope.

So then they spend six months holding out hope for these schools that they have no chance of getting into and then they get a no after a no after a no after a no after a no and it's devastating. Yeah. And meanwhile, all their friends are getting yeses and yeses and yeses. It's just nothing that anybody wants to go through. Right. Right. Well, and one thing that we have seen in a lot of this data that's either being published or leaking out of different schools is that I mean, the more selective the college as a general trend, I know there are exceptions and all of that. But as a general trend, the more selective the school, the less likely you are to be admitted on that test optional path.

I mean, ma'am, we did analysis of Dartmouth and what they were doing last year. I mean, they've said for next year they're going to require everybody to have scores. It makes perfect sense when we started to, we went, okay. So if we know the number of kids applying with scores and we can see that what the middle 50% are and the top 25% are, we were able to imply what the admission rate was for the test optional kids. And it is significantly, significantly lower. And I'm sure the internal conversation was, we're not admitting these kids anyways, except in very special circumstances. Why don't we just put the requirement back in place?

Because all we're doing is overloading our admissions office. Sure. And Dartmouth has enough money to where they can make that call. It was the University of Missouri came out and said that they have recognized the evidence behind standardized test scores, but they think it would be disadventagious financially. I believe was the quote. I'll have to look it up to the university to start requiring scores. And I think all of this is really useful for families to know, because at a hundred bucks an application, if a university gets an extra 10,000 test optional applications, because kids go, oh, well, now I've got a shot.

I as well throw it in. Right. That's a million dollars for a university now in revenue that they would lose by going back to requiring them. And it's so much easier for them to just go, you know what, we're just going to stay test optional, keep this revenue and we can admit whoever we decide to admit. Sure. And I think that's a real insight for families right now that are thinking test optional means test unimportant and all the data is telling a very different story. Sure. Yeah. And I would say, I don't know, I would imagine you might agree, but we kind of knew that the whole time we, the advice was, all right, yes, it's an option.

If you can test test, I mean, from from COVID. Right. It was now, certainly there were those kids who truly could not get a test site and they couldn't sit for a test and that was extremely aggravating. But beyond that, it was pretty clear. Despite what, you know, we may have been hearing, it was advantageous to test. I think absolutely. It was always there in between, if you read in between lines, like they were always secretly revealing their intentions. But on the other side of it, I think. So families that had a counselor like you, families that attend a high end independent high school received that information.

What I have seen in this test optional round, it's a lot of the families that attend a huge public high school that can't afford the independent educational consultant that didn't get that information. Sure. And they said, well, it says on the website, yeah, doesn't matter. Yeah. And I have been worried about those families over the last year or two where it's like, well, you're making it. You're just hurting yourself by doing this. You're taking AP classes to try to make yourself more competitive to show them your college ready. That's what these tests do too, except even more so. Right. I just think that's good information to get out there because most kids attend a big public university and don't always have the best sources of information.

Or sorry, at public high school and don't always have sources of information that are telling them what's really going on. So I just want to get that out there to folks. What else do we need to do? I would say the final thing for a senior year that I think is probably really important to think about is that those now, this was not the case this year and that there's a whole other podcast episode is financial aid. So usually in a given year, your FAFSA and your CSS profile are going to come out on October 1st. And it's really important to be aware of the fact that that is when they go live and to try to fill them out as soon as possible after that live date.

This year's a crazy year, but I think it's really important to be putting that on the timeline and making sure that you're not forgetting that and really paying a close attention to college's financial aid deadline. So you're not missing anything important. Yes. And for those that don't know, the profiles went off the rails a little bit this year with the changes to the FAFSA. And so people couldn't get access to it. Right. And so a lot of decisions are going to be coming in a lot later this year because. Yeah. And a lot of schools have pushed back their decision dates to. Yes. Yes. They're when we are required, when students are required to give them their decision, that may first date is pushed back for a lot of schools.

But it is going to work out for those current kids who are in the middle of that process. Colleges are aware it's all going to still get figured out. Just to allow a little bit of a head. Yes. Yeah, exactly. OK. Other things for senior year. Prepping for interviews. I'm seeing fewer in school, fewer and fewer schools allow interviews, but making sure that you are prepped for those interviews and doing those interviews and scheduling them early if it is available to you. And then I would also say to put yourself on, you know, we're talking about timeline time. Maybe this is a great place to end.

We're talking about timeline. Put yourself on a timeline senior year. Make sure that you are planning out, you know, incremental deadlines for yourself. And when you want to finish, you know, this supplemental essay, that supplemental essay, when is your personal statement going to be done? When are you going to release your test scores? I like to have students done in my practice by Thanksgiving with a drop dead deadline of December 15th that may work for some families. It might not work for other families out there, but, you know, making sure that you have thought through, what is that angle and kind of working your way back from there and having a plan for yourself?

Because I will say I've found in my years of doing this that there is clearly, we wouldn't be talking about this if there wasn't clearly so much stress that can be wrapped up in this process. Right. But when you have a plan and when you have gathered knowledge about it, that is exactly when we see that stress to diminish, start to diminish. So if you sit down, you come, you come up with a strategy and a plan, then I guarantee that your stress over the process will start to decrease. Yeah, absolutely. Because the planning, it optimizes the process, optimizes your odds of getting into some of these tougher schools and winning scholarships when you get there.

But you're hitting on something really important, which is when there isn't planning, this process can be really stressful and push families further apart. And when the planning is there and it doesn't feel crazy, I find it can bring them together. If you got the time and space to talk about who are you as a student, where do you want to go? Who do you want to become? What changes do you want to make in the world? That can be a wonderful family conversation. And then one other thing I want to throw in there, which I really like, I love this idea just for the parents that in that intervening period between when kids submit all their applications and then they're waiting to hear back from schools.

When parents write their own acceptance letter to their student, I think it is just a wonderful idea. And then that's something for that kid to hold on to that. I, I've been recommending this for, I don't know, more than a decade now. I'm going to steal that. Oh, steal, steal away. I want as many people to do it as possible, especially now that it's been all these years later because students will talk about how they still have it years and years later. What a beautiful thing. Yeah. I love that. I, I like parents. I like your idea better. But I like parents to have open conversations with their teen that helped to prepare them for the fact that they're not going to get in everywhere.

Right. And that the parents don't expect them to and that no matter what happens, kind of, you know, during that intervening time, no matter what happens when you get your decisions back, we know that you put your everything into the last four years. And we know that you've put everything into this process and we're just excited for you and we will support you in no matter where you get in and what your choice is. I think that those conversations are really important to happen. And I don't think that they happen very much. Yeah. And so all of a sudden a student will receive a no and then another no and then it's, you know, the world is ending and the parents don't know what to do.

So if they can really set the groundwork for the fact that there will be joy and then there will be sorrow and both of them can coexist and that's okay. Right. Right. And that you're worth as a person. It's not determined to do with the college admission decision. Yes. Yes. And he had all that good stuff. The happier you are with the choices these colleges make, the happier we will be. But we love you. We're here to support you. And if it doesn't go your way at XYZ school, you'll find another way to get where you want to go. Yeah. And all that stuff really, I mean, it's such a delicate time for teenagers.

Oh, yeah. They're being judged by this outside body often for the first time. And I think that's a big one for parents. Yeah. Yeah. You're wearing a Cleobella shirt today. My favorite. Yep. I love to hear that because Jim and Angela who own Cleobella, good really somewhere closest friends and it's amazing to me how often now I just see people wearing. I mean, then that it has exploded and I couldn't be more happier for them. I mean, I don't know them, but I would love to meet them and I couldn't be more happy for them as well. Yeah. They just hit it out of the park with everything they create. I think everything that I wear either on my Instagram or in I have a online subscription group for students that they can join.

And I think every meeting that we have, I'm wearing a Cleobella shirt. Every vacation I go on, Cleobella dresses are the only thing in my in my suitcase. So yeah. Yeah. My favorite. Yeah. And I am I'm so blown away because Angela is is just a person to me. But man, when when people love her work, I mean, she is a full on celebrity to all of them. Yeah. And Jim is not as as well known through the brand, her husband, Jim. But Jim's been on the show and is this just brilliant, a conoclastic guy who I mean, I just I love talking to him. And whether it's about the business or it can be any subject, he's a he's a special person.

So that warmed my heart to you in a Cleobella today. And who knows maybe well, maybe we'll figure out how you can meet them at some point in the future. Fantastic. And Jen, you've got a new online group counseling program. We all know you do one on one with families with individual families, but I'd like to hear about this new group program you have. Yeah. So it's called the FutureWise Collective and there's two different groups. One of them is for sophomores and juniors. And then one of the groups is for rising seniors. So the juniors transition spring of junior year into the senior year group.

And for a long time, I have been searching for a way to demystify the college admission process and make it so much less opaque for so many families. It can feel like all of this information is behind a brick wall. Where do they start? Where do they go? Who do they turn to to find information that they can trust and also support that's going to help them be successful in this process and really kind of calm that anxiety and give them confidence instead. So in the FutureWise Collective, we meet over Zoom with the sophomore junior group we meet once a month and the other group we meet, the senior group we meet twice a month.

And we go over all the timely knowledge that you need to know to really crush the college admission process and make sure that you are getting the answers that you need and the support that you need to do it well. So we have those live Zoom sessions and then Q&A sessions with me after every meeting. And we have a private Facebook group for each group where we can take it offline. Well I guess it's still online, but we can take it out of that Zoom meeting and you ask, you can ask any questions of me in between meetings. Families can sign up for add-on meetings with me or essay editing sessions or course selection sessions and I'll meet one on one and really kind of work through all those questions in a personalized way.

All meetings are on demand so if they ever miss a meeting it's all in our library and they can catch up whenever they have time. And we also have a comprehensive resource library where all of my materials are housed and they have complete access to all of that. So it's just a monthly subscription, very low cost so that it's accessible to all families and they can cancel at any time. I'm thrilled, I'm having so much. Like you in your podcast, it's kind of your new joy. This is my joy, this is what I'm really loving to do right now. Yeah, that's great because in general the private college counseling which is very, very valuable is not always accessible and it sounds like you found a way to make it accessible to a whole lot more people and that's fantastic.

Yeah, thank you. Well, okay and anybody that wants to learn more about you, let's just get the name of the book again. Oh, the parent compass, navigating your teens wellness and academic journey in today's competitive world. There we go, great and then where can they find you online and the name of the website? Website is FutureWise Consulting.com and you can find me on Instagram at my FutureWise. Well, Jen, this was such a pleasure. Thank you. This was so fun. I loved diving into all this stuff with you, so thank you for having me. Okay, everybody, until next time, ask questions. Don't accept the status quo and be curious.