Guest Post by Candice Sunseri of College Path Consulting

Candice Sunseri, Certified Educational Planner and founder of College Path Consulting, helping a student navigate the college search process.

If you’re like most of the families I’ve worked with over the years, the cost of college is never far from your mind. I’m delighted to introduce The College Prep Corner, a series covering topics that I hope will be helpful and informative for anyone navigating the road to college.

For our first post, I’m featuring Candice Sunseri, a Certified Educational Planner based in Moorpark, California, who specializes in helping families find great colleges that fit their budget. I think you’ll find her article both reassuring and eye-opening. She shares some specific schools and scholarship amounts that may surprise you.

— Rick

As a Certified Educational Planner, I help high school students find and apply to great-fit colleges. What’s a great fit college? One that has the atmosphere, location, level of support, and academic programs the student desires, but that’s also affordable. Paying for college is like buying a new car every year! It can feel overwhelming to think about. But “we’ll figure something out after she gets in,” is not the solution. Determining a budget and finding colleges in that price range is.

The biggest piece of the puzzle is saving. Start saving for college as early as possible. Talk to a financial planner about your best options. Once your student gets to high school, kick up your savings as much as possible by cutting back any way you can. If one parent is working part-time (or not working), this might be the time to look for a full-time job, and put the extra money toward college. 

Are You Making Too Much for Financial Aid?

But even after saving, you may find yourself in the place many families in high-cost-of-living areas do: you make too much money for financial aid, but you haven’t been able to save enough to pay for a private or out-of-state college. You need in-state tuition, but the state college your student wants is getting more competitive every year. UCLA–9% acceptance, UC Berkeley–10%, University of Michigan–17%, University of Virginia–16%. So, where can you get help finding an affordable college where your student can get in?

Merit Scholarships from Out-of-State Colleges Are the Answer

I encourage the students and families I work with to broaden their search, both in terms of geography and “prestige.” I tour 20–30 colleges a year to find out what they offer students, both academically and financially, and I’ve yet to find one that wouldn’t be a fit for the right student. Be on the lookout for colleges that offer automatic merit scholarships (based on grades, not financial need) that can bring the cost down to about the same as (or even lower than) your in-state college. Think of it as a coupon! In the scholarship universe, merit scholarships directly from the college, designed to entice your good student to choose their college, are where the big money is.

The key to finding these affordable college gems is to know which ones offer your student the things they want—whether it’s big sports, a city location perfect for internships, or a particular major—and the merit aid they need. Here are three of my favorite merit scholarship schools:

The University of Alabama offers the school spirit and athletic fandom many students want. They’re also tops in affordability. A 3.5 weighted GPA and a 1200 SAT/25 ACT will earn an out-of-state student a scholarship worth $24,000 over four years, bringing tuition + room/board to around $40,000/yr. Get that score up to 1420/32, you’re bringing yearly tuition + room/board to under $30,000. That may be less than your in-state public university! A student with a 4.0 weighted GPA and a perfect ACT or SAT score will qualify for FREE tuition!

The University of Dayton is proof that a private university can cost less than a public. The business school at UD is tops, and the local area is home to plenty of corporations for internships opportunities. On campus, Flyer Enterprises operates 13 student-run businesses for hands-on experience. A Top 25 campus for best food and best dorms, and a supportive environment give the UD community of 8400 students plenty of reasons to be happy. Merit scholarships of $17,000-$31,000/yr. are offered, and with high grades, tuition + room/board could be around $35,000.

Texas Tech University has become a popular choice among my students. They love seeing the Red Rider on horseback leading the football team onto the field and appreciate the hands-on learning focus. Students with a minimum 3.0 and 1100/22 test score get at least a $1000 scholarship, PLUS in-state tuition (a savings of about $12K!). Test optional 3.5 GPA students get the same deal. Students with very high grades and test scores can qualify for $9000/year, making out of state tuition + room/board around $20,000/year! 

Also, check into tuition reciprocity programs, like WUE in the Western States, The Academic Common Market in the South, the MSEP in the Midwest, and the NEBHE in the New England states. Going to a neighboring state’s public university may be within reach if they participate. A location a little farther from home may be the ticket to affording a college education. The higher the GPA and test scores, the more scholarship opportunities there are. But even B-students can pull in some major scholarship money if they know where to apply. 

—Candice Sunseri owns College Path Consulting, LLC in Moorpark CA and specializes in finding colleges that will fit the family budget. She’s an expert on the UC and CSU applications. A former book editor, she also offers professional college essay feedback. You can reach Candice on her cell at 805-990-3965, or check her out on Facebook and Instagram.

I’m often asked by my middle and upper school students how best to prepare for a math test. There is only one way, actually, which is similar to how you prepare for a sports event—you practice.

Now, what’s important is to practice the right thing in the right way. The right thing is your homework, quizzes and in-class notes. Homework needs to be complete and correct with all steps shown. The same goes for your in-class notes and quizzes. If your test will also cover material that was on a previous test, then add it to your practice list. Make sure you have the corrections for each problem you missed.

Next comes the right way to practice. Take out a separate sheet of paper, write down each type of problem, and do it without looking at your homework, notes, quizzes and previous tests. You’ll know you’re practicing in the right way if you discover that you can’t do many of the problems. Those problems, the one’s you don’t remember how to do, you must redo until you can do them correctly without looking at your homework and notes.

The above process must be on-going, meaning you must practice every day, even if your teacher has not assigned homework for that day. Practicing every day has the added benefit of improving your grades on any pop quizzes that might come before the test. Waiting to study until the day before the test is called cramming, which usually yields poor results.

In addition to doing the above, you must also meet with your teacher whenever you discover you don’t know how to do a particular problem. From my experience, I can guarantee that you’ll see that problem on the test.

Remember, the secret to doing well is consistency. Work every day and you’ll reap the rewards.

It’s no secret that if you want to do well on a standardized test, such as the ACT, SAT, or ISEE, you’ve got to prepare for it. Standard procedure is to keep doing practice tests and problems until you’ve maximized your score. Then, when you take the real test, the hope is that you’ll match or exceed this score. But there’s one additional factor that needs to be taken into account–the test environment. 

When you take practice tests, the environment is usually quite friendly. It might be your kitchen table or your desk or a classroom at a test prep company. But when you take the real test, it’s obviously different. Test anxiety, illness, distractions and other unforeseen events come into play that might cause your real score to be less than your practice score. This means that to do your very best on the day of the test, you’ve got to be mentally prepared–or, as some people say, you got to be in the zone. 

Fortunately, there’s a way to mentally prepare, one that might surprise you. The secret is to draw upon the concentration skills you use while engaging in some of your favorite activities. You might compete in sports or play a musical instrument or take part in dance or theater performances. You might like to solve rubik's cubes or play chess or win at video games. You might love to climb rocks or to surf or to fish for trout in a swift-flowing mountain stream. Whatever the activity, if you want to do well at it, then you’ve got to give it your full concentration. 

Take acting, for example. Once the play begins, you can’t allow anything to break your concentration. If a sound cue fails, you keep going. If your fellow actor forgets a line, you cover for him. If someone in the audience has a sneezing fit, you put it out of your mind. Whatever happens, you don’t allow it to affect your performance. 

Or soccer. If someone trips you or elbows you in the ribs, you shake it off and keep on going. If you try for a goal and miss, you keep on trying. If some of the spectators are heckling you, you completely ignore them. Whatever happens, you won’t let it affect your game. 

What can I say about rock climbing? You’ve got to stay completely focused on what you’re doing or the consequences might be painful. 

You can see where I’m going with this. If you stay completely focused during the test, in the same way that you stay focused while you’re doing the things you love, you’ll maximize your score. The trick is to think of a way to shift this focus to the test. This will require some creativity on your part. For instance, if you play sports, you might see each question as part of the game. If it’s baseball, then transform each question into a pitch. If it’s soccer, the question is the opposing player, the one you want to beat. If you’re a performer, you might imagine yourself as a participant in a quiz show or in a movie about a math genius (as in the Academy Award winning movie Good Will Hunting). If you’re a video gamer, then you might imagine the questions as obstacles you’ve got to overcome. Yes, it will take a bit of creativity on your part to make the connection–but make it. Only you can do it. 

I can’t stress enough the importance of this technique. I know that it works because I’ve seen the results. I can’t tell you what’s going on in the students’ minds when they use it, but their scores go up, sometimes dramatically. They’re in the zone, and nothing’s going to take them out of it, including, but not limited to, some of the annoyances they’ve reported popping up during the test. Just for fun, I’ll list a few. 

• A car alarm that keeps going off in the parking lot.

• A nearby street crew fixing the street with a jackhammer.

• A room that’s freezing cold.

• A room that’s boiling hot.

• A desk with a top that keeps rocking back and forth.

• A proctor who keeps clicking away on her computer keyboard.

• A test taker who keeps clicking away on his pencil.

• A test taker that keeps sneezing and coughing,

• A golden retriever that wanders into the room (just kidding–I made this one up).

• And on and on . . .

As one student said, it’s all about attitude. If you bring a winning attitude with you to the test, then you’ll do your best.

by Rick Nau

First, a little perspective. The average teacher has to keep track of 60 to 120 students. This means that a teacher’s day goes by so fast that it often seems like a blur. It’s a little like the famous I Love Lucy episode where she works on the assembly line in a chocolate factory. As the conveyor belt goes faster and faster, she gets farther and farther behind. Pretty soon lots of chocolates never make it into the boxes, but into Lucy’s mouth, hat, dress and onto the floor. This means that you’ve got to go the extra mile in helping your teacher help you. Being organized and ready with the right questions is absolutely essential.

Here are some suggestions that will help you get the most out of these meetings:

• Schedule a meeting. Tell the teacher you want to go over a problem or two that you’re struggling with. It’s best not to do this on the day of a quiz or test.
• Before the meeting look for 2 problems that you missed on your homework. I’ll talk about this in more detail in another post.
• Show up for your appointment on time. Bring your book, paper, pencil and the 2 problems you selected.
• Ask the teacher to show you IN WRITING how to do the 1st problem that you brought along. Have the teacher do this on your own sheet of paper, not on the whiteboard or blackboard.
• Be sure that the solution to the problem shows every step.

HERE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: Ask the teacher to give you a similar problem to do. You’ve got to see whether you can solo on the problem; i.e., do it without any help. If you can’t, have the teacher give you another to try that's just like it. Don’t stop until you can get the problem correct without any help whatsoever.

If the teacher has time, do the 2nd problem you brought along in the same way that you did the first.

Thank your teacher for helping you and leave. The whole meeting shouldn't last for more than 5 or 10 minutes.

Meet with your teacher on a regular basis. Don’t let problems go by that you can't do. If you can’t do them, then you’re guaranteed to miss them on the exam.

If you do the above, you’ll find that your teacher will become more and more like a personal coach. Any fear that you have about being able to do math or science will begin to disappear. Soon you'll realize that ordinary mortals can do the problems that you once thought to be impossible.

Also, remember that teachers dedicate their lives to teaching. They want their students to learn from them. If they know that they've succeeded, then they’re happy. Your success means their success.

Here are a few things not to do during your meeting:

Don’t go over old material that won't be on the next test or quiz. This includes correcting old tests and quizzes. Save this for the final exam or midterm. 

Be sure to have the teacher SHOW you how to do each problem (IN WRITING), not tell you how to do it. (I know that I've said this before, but I can emphasize it enough.)

Don’t leave the meeting before you are able to do a problem without help. (I know, I've also said this before.)
Whatever happens, don't give up. If the teacher is busy (this is normal), go out of your way to help the teacher find a time, even if this means sacrificing a few minutes of your lunch period or staying a few minutes after school. Remember, our success often depends on being able to do well the things we don't especially like to do. 

SAT versus ACT

How To Decide Which Test Is The Best For You

That’s an excellent question, which needs to be answered before you commit to either test. The questions on the ACT math test cover a wider area than those on the SAT math test and tend to go into less depth. The SAT math questions go deeper, the difficult questions tending to be similar to the “challenge,” or “extra credit” problems you might have seen on your math tests. The time constraints on the math section of the ACT are tighter than the SAT. On the math section of the ACT you have 50 minutes to answer 45 questions. On the SAT you have 70 minutes to answer 44 questions, which are split into 2 modules of 22 questions each. Unlike the ACT, the SAT math test is adaptive, meaning that the difficulty level of subsequent questions depends on how well you are performing on the test. The ACT has an optional science section (the SAT does not) consisting of 40 questions that must be answered in 40 minutes. The science test is not an achievement test, but rather tests your reasoning skills in sciene. The best way to understand this is to take a look at an actual ACT science test that was given in the past. Here’s a link to a full ACT test that you can review. The science section is the last one—Section 4.

Now to the nitty-gritty. If you don’t have a College Board Account, you’ll want to set one up, take a Blue Book test under timed conditions, and score it. You may also have taken the PSAT once or twice, so look up those scores and compare them to your SAT score. Next, you’ll want to take a full ACT practice test under timed conditions, and score it. Here’s a link to a full ACT practice test. It’s important to be totally serious when you’re taking these practice tests. Take them all at once, not in parts, and with no interruptions. Now that you have the two scores, you’ll need to see how they compare. To do this, you’ll need to use the ACT/SAT Concordance Chart.

Once you’ve compared the scores, you’re in a position to make an informed decision. To help you a bit with the process, I’ll give you a few real world examples. A student of mine scored a 610 on her SAT math practice test. On her ACT, she scored a 35 in science and a 27 in math, which is about equivalent to an SAT score of 710—100 points higher. Since then she’s raised her math to a 31, and she’s only just begun. Choice: ACT. Another student scored a 23 on ACT science, and a 22 on ACT math. When he took the SAT math practice test, he scored a 580. Since this was slightly better, and since he absolutely hated the ACT, he decided to stick with the SAT, on which he eventually scored a 740. Choice: SAT. A third student had ACT and SAT scores that were about equivalent. After talking strategy with him, he decided to go with the SAT, as he would only have to focus on math, since there’s no science section on the SAT. He ended up with a 760. Choice: SAT. His sister decided to do the same and is scoring in the high 700s on practice tests. Choice: SAT

If you’ve done the above and you’re still struggling with your decision, feel free to give me a shout. I’ll be more than happy to help.

by Rick Nau

A recent article in The New York Times had scary words for some parents who are trying to help their children with their math homework. Seems that if these parents suffer from “math anxiety” their children may end up doing worse in math than before. Or so a study of first and second graders published in Psychological Science indicates.

What’s math anxiety? It begins with this: You look over one of your children’s math homework problems, thinking you may be able to help, but you don’t have a clue about how to solve it. Then: Memories of your school days flood your mind. You’re sitting in math class, without the slightest idea of what’s going on, staring at a math test written in a bizarre language from an alien planet. Finally, the nightmare: You’re standing onstage in a play and don’t know your lines (which are also written in that bizarre, alien language). Except this isn’t a dream; and what’s worse, the audience is your son or daughter.

What now? Run screaming from the stage? Certainly not. Then what’s the answer? You know it already. You knew it when you helped your children learn to walk, to talk, to read, to spell, to tie their shoelaces, to throw a baseball, to swim, to plié, to play the trombone, to do a backflip, and a thousand other things. Never did you tell them it couldn’t be done. Never did you discourage them. You nurtured your children with a patient, loving, uncritical spirit that encouraged them to succeed, the same spirit you’re going to call upon to inspire them to succeed in math.

Good. Now that you’re in the spirit, it’s time for some basic instructions (which apply to all levels of math) on how to attack those pesky math problems. In order to avoid the irritating “his/her” problem, I’ll be using the word “children” throughout these instructions, though I’m obviously talking about working with one child at a time.

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN SOLVE MATH PROBLEMS

• Locate The Target Assignment: This will be the latest math assignment.
• Set The Goal: The goal is to teach your children how to do a target problem in this assignment.
• Select The Target Problem: This will be one of the examples you’ll find in the text or in the teacher’s notes for the assignment, one that is meant to guide you through the problem in a step-by-step fashion until you arrive at the solution.
• Teach Yourself: Do this alone, not while your children are watching. You’ll have to practice (in writing) until you can do the problem without looking at the solution guide (no peeking).
• Prepare Yourself Mentally: Like the last step, do this alone. Remind yourself that you’ll need to be patient. It may take your children three or four tries before they can do a problem. It may take even more. However long it takes, assume that each time they redo the problem, it’s the first time. Never say anything about how long it’s taking. Also, be ready for questions such as “when will I ever use this?” or statements such as “I hate math”  or “that’s not how my teacher does it.” This is normal. When it happens, remember to react with your own good sense of humor and keep moving forward.
• Demonstrate: Write the target problem on a clean sheet of paper and walk your children through it, answering their questions along the way. Use a step-by-step method. Never skip a step. 
• Guide: Have your children recopy the problem and do it on their own (in writing). If they don’t understand a step, help them along until they can make it to the next step. Keep working on the problem until you get to the end. Do this again and again until it looks like they can solve the question without your help. Remember, this usually takes three or four tries.
• Test: Recopy the problem and have your children do it one more time (no help from you; no looking at their previous work). If they get it right, you’re finished with this problem. If they don’t, practice some more and then test them on the problem again. Keep doing this until they pass the test.
• Retest: Make up a similar problem (one with different numbers) and have them do it. Do this two or three times until you’re convinced they’ve got this type of problem down pat.
• Counsel: Tell your children to meet with their teachers one-on-one, to do more problems with them (in writing), and to bring their written work home. Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t happen. You’ll have to keep the pressure on—not too much, but just enough to make it happen.
• Contact: Get in touch with your children’s teachers (email is perfect for this) and ask them what you can do to help your children improve. Tell them you’d love them to spend some one-on-one time with your children and to let you know how the meetings went.
• Network: If your children are at higher grade levels, it may be that you’ll want to bring in a tutor to help. Speak with the teacher and/or with other parents to see whom they recommend. Remember, you’re adding the tutor’s help to yours.
• Encourage: Convey a positive attitude to your children. If progress seems to be slow, be patient. Eventually, everything will fall into place.

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There you have it. Once you’ve begun the process, you’ll find you already know it. You use it every day to overcome life’s hurdles. When they arise, you work hard until you find ways to overcome them. Doing nothing is not an option. Such is the lesson you want to teach your children. This will require an investment of time on your part, but in the long run the reward will be tremendous.

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If you’ve got questions or comments about helping your kids do well in math (or any other subject), feel free to drop me a line. I’ll be glad to help.

Contact Rick

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About The Author: Rick has been working with students for over 20 years, helping  them achieve their highest potential in math, science and standardized tests (SAT, ACT & ISEE).