Tufts’ new strategy for encouraging students to take a gap year
Approximately 55,000 students took a gap year before their freshman college year to volunteer, intern, travel and work. For those who would like to supplement their collegiate academic experience with a cross-cultural experience, this is a welcome statistic. And gap years seem to pay off in the long run, as gap years seem to correlate with increased employability, higher GPA, higher wages, higher motivation and much more (see the American Gap Association's list here). For some families, though, the reaction to a gap year is likely to be: that sounds great, but who has the extra money for that? And that’s what makes what Tufts has recently announced so appealing.
A Reminder to Celebrate Student Success
Many of these weekly columns are about how you, as loving parents, can play a valuable role in your student’s development. We’ve encouraged you to help your son or daughter to:
Calculating your college savings needs
At least once a year, an article about target numbers for college savings are published on major media websites. Recent articles include this one on NYtimes.com, this one on usatoday.com, and this one on reuters.com. A new one came out just this week on Foxbusiness.com. As one can see, this is common territory. But, here at College Parents of America, we think that such articles serve as helpful reminder of how difficult it can be to project out college costs and figuring out your needed amount of savings.
Internships.com and College Parents of America Partner to Launch College Internship Solution
February 15, 2011 -- Internships.com, the world's largest internship marketplace, has partnered with College Parents of America, the nation's only membership organization of current and future college parents, to inform college students and parents about the benefits of experiential education.