Preparing

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8 Steps to Filing your FAFSA

Our newest guide on filling out the FAFSA, updated in 2023 by student financial aid expert Max Fees.
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Helping Your Child Transition to College

As you settle into your new role as a College Parent , take a few minutes to read the article Helping Your Child Transition to College . The Article originally appeared on Jody Michael Associate’s blog. It is very rare that we re- print an entire article but we felt the article was perfect reading […]
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Four Easy Steps To College Application Sanity

One peek in your son's room confirms that he's in the midst of the college application process. His floor is littered with school viewbooks, post-it notes obscure his computer screen, and his test score summary has gone AWOL. One thing is certain: if colleges are looking for well-organized students, he'll be getting mostly thin envelopes. You wonder how he'll ever pull it all together!
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Do increases in federal student loan limits cause college price increases?

Keeping Tuition Costs Low
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Eight Points For Parents Speaking With Students About Alcohol

Alcohol Talking Points for Families
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What I Read Over my Winter Vacation

While many of you were catching up on your pleasure reading over the recent holidays, I took a different route.Call me a martyr, but one of the many higher-ed-related tomes I tackled by the fire on those dark late December nights was Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much , published by Harvard University Press and written by Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at Cornell University. I really welcomed the nearby fire, because Prof. Ehrenreich's conclusions were rather chilling.
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Words to Know

Academic Probation – A student can receive this if they fail to keep up with their school’s academic minimums. Those who are unable to improve their grades after receiving this warning can possibly face dismissal.Beer Pong / Beirut – A drinking game with numerous cups of beer arranged in a particular pattern on each side of a table. The goal is to get a ping pong ball into one of the opponent’s cups by throwing the ball or hitting it with a paddle. If the ball lands in a cup, the opponent is required to drink the beer.
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Four Easy Steps To Application Sanity

One peek in your son's room confirms that he's in the midst of the college application process. His floor is littered with school viewbooks, post-it notes obscure his computer screen, and his test score summary has gone AWOL. One thing is certain: if colleges are looking for well-organized students, he'll be getting mostly thin envelopes. You wonder how he'll ever pull it all together!
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Is the SAT Obsolete?

Until recently, it would have been heresy, and just plain bad practical advice, to tell a high school junior or senior with college aspirations not to take the SAT, especially if he or she lived on either coast of the United States.This ritual college admissions test, owned and operated by The College Board and administered by Pearsons, has hit some rocky times though, and now, more than ever, families of college-bound students may want to consider the SAT alternative or not take an admissions test at all.What happened to cause the mighty SAT to wobble?
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Teens Reap Many Benefits from Mentor Relationships

Teens who identify at least one influential, "natural" mentor in their life - a person not assigned by a formal mentoring program - report that they have a higher sense of self and are more likely to take risks that affect their lives positively, according to data recently released by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and Liberty Mutual.
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Administrator Promoting Parental Involvement

The times they are a changin may be a song from the baby-boom era, but it is also a phrase that aptly describes how colleges are beginning to treat parents.Until the beginning of the 1990s, it was rare for any college or university to think of parents as anything other than good targets for fundraising. A typical pattern for schools was mail tuition bill, receive tuition payment, and send solicitation for annual fund.
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THE GROUND RULES FOR NEED-BASED AID? AT LEAST THERE ARE SOME

The provision of need-based financial aid, at a need-blind school, may be frustrating sometimes in its outcome, but at least it is fairly easy to understand for parents and straightforward to administer for the college or university.
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Understanding University Success

At College Parents of America, we strive to provide valuable resource information to our members, as well as vigorous advocacy. While many of my recent columns have centered around some of the key advocacy issues that we are focusing on – to serve you – here in Washington, DC, we also work to benefit you […]
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Financial Literacy for Parents and Students

Dear Parents:When your children leave home for college, they will face a host of new experiences and responsibilities. As a parent, you recognize that now they will be "on their own" to tackle life's basic functions - at the same time that they are adjusting to a new environment and new freedoms. To help your student in this transition, he/she should know the "financial facts of life" before opening that first checking account or making that first purchase on credit.
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2019 College Humor – Helicopter Parents Are Useful After All

The tenth comic in the College Parents of America Humor series is now available on collegeparents.org. This comic, made in a collaborative act between College Parents of America and Hector Curriel, is a nod to helicopter parents everywhere. 
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5 Things To Know Before Getting An Education Major

Top 5 Things You Should Know Before Getting An Education Major There are so many different types of fields that you can major in. Some fields aren’t too popular, while others will be booming for some time then die out, and then there are some that are always needed and are consistent. One of the […]
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A Guide To Living For Empty Nesters

By the time we reach a little beyond middle age in our lives, chances are all of our kids have grown up and gotten out of the house, and this means that the feeling of having an empty nest may settle in and make you emotional. It is incredibly emotional to watch your children who […]
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Basic Life Skills Your Student Needs Before Going To College

College is a time where young adults go off into the “real world” and begin to become adults. There are many skills that we assume these young adults have, but they may not know how to apply them in their own environment. These skills may seem obvious to us, but in order to set our […]
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FAFSA Tips – Do it Early & Honestly

FAFSA can equal money for college parents. However it is best if you file early and take care to answer honestly. Those are always topics we aim to discuss in a clear and transparent way for college parents.
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Gearing Up For The Road Ahead

Gearing Up for the Road Ahead As you take steps towards college, work, consider what you value and design a process with few steps on how to get there. It is best to be ready for failures, for rejections, and to keep moving forward. In order to find the programs that will benefit you and […]
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Thirty percent of freshmen won’t return for their sophomore year

William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, are the authors of “The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives and report in their New York Times article that "thirty percent of freshmen won’t return for their sophomore year, and the wheels can start to fall off as early as Thanksgiving." They suggest that what your college student needs most is practice running his or her own life — and college is a risky place to do that for the first time."

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College Parents of America, Weekend Reading Room (5/23/14)

  Harvard College Library inscription. Image from flickr user Houghton Modern (cc license) Looking for an early jump on your Sunday paper? College Parents of America recommends that you try these recent stories about higher education.
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Campus Visits Dos and Don’ts

Spring is a great time for high school juniors to visit college campuses. Here are some "Dos & Don'ts" that students and their parents need to know before visiting universities.
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The Case for The Public University – Honors College

For college bound families evaluating schools it is useful to consider the case for the public university Honors College that is asserted by The New York Times – Frank Bruni. Bruni is well known for his best selling book – Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, 2015 […]
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College Students Speak: a study from National Alliance on Mental Illness

 (photo from flickr user marsmet481) One of the most important studies on college students and mental health came out in late 2012 form the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Unlike past studies (like this one from the Gates Foundation and Public Agenda) that focused on the fact that many students leave college to work, NAMI's College Students Speak clearly establishes that a) for those who drop out of college, that mental health plays a big factor in that decision, and b) that certain services are deemed more important to student retention and graduation than others.