Webinar: 5 Key Steps for Navigating the Path to College Success

Outstanding. So let's go ahead and get started. Thank you all for being here this evening. I have been battling a little laryngitis, so forgive me if I have to take a mint, but let's dive in. So can you see everything okay, Carrie? We're good. All right, we're good. So this presentation that I'm gonna share with you is super exciting because I'm getting ready to write my second book, and all of this information is gonna be in it. So you guys are getting the cutting edge to my next book. My first book is How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money, and What You Don't Know Is Costing You. I haven't thought of my new title yet. If you have a good idea, please go ahead and put it in the chat. But that is happening soon. So here's my why. These two young adults now are— ah, it's so hard to say, right? My son in the middle is now 30, and his path was Harvard, debt-free, UC San Diego Medical School, and now he's an orthopedic surgeon at UCLA. And he goes into his final year of fellowship surgery, and then finally he gets to start enjoying all of that education. My second, um, graduated from University of Alabama, CBU, debt-free, and she is now a pediatric registered nurse in an ER in a children's hospital. I have to add my third since he just graduated last weekend. And he graduated from college in 3 years, major, minor, completely debt-free. So when I talk about my why, it's my own family, right? The same reason you got on this call. You're like, how do I help them be successful young adults? We just got our 2023 scholarship numbers and we just hit over $9 million. In scholarships. So we just keep clicking that number a little bit higher. So we're super excited. There's so much money out there. There is a ton of colleges who are waiting for your child. So tonight we're going to talk about the 5 key steps for navigating the path to college. That is the email that you received and the thing you signed up for. So putty, please put in the chat which one of the these is the most important to you, because if everybody says, I just need to know how to find the best fit, I'm gonna make sure this presentation dives deep into that. So this is about you and your time. So, Carrie, can you tell me in the chat? I can't see the chat. What are some of the things people would like to Learn more about— let me see here.

Um, number 3, navigate financial aid.

Okay.

And scholarship opportunities to minimize college debt.

Awesome.

Someone just put 1 through 4. Okay. 3 and 4.

3 and 4.

Okay. Developing a standout resume.

Awesome. Anything else? It's okay if you want them all. I just wanted to know if there's any of them that I didn't need to talk about that nobody was interested in. So while you're thinking about it, feel free to drop that in at any point. I want to give you a little bit of highlight to each one, and you might be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I need that one. So the first thing that we could talk about is identifying the best college fit for your teen's unique strengths and interests. So the college list is the first and most important way to minimize college debt. You're like, wait, that's number 3. Yes, the college list equals no college debt. There are colleges that will blow your mind who are incredibly generous that students we've gotten full rides in that you're like, I had no idea that school was generous. It's a private school. So I want you to know some of the things you're going to learn tonight, you're going to be like, I had no idea. For those of you who haven't met me, my name is Shellee Howard, and I am the founder and owner of College Ready. I have been helping families get into college and graduate debt-free for the last 17 application seasons. Tonight I am so excited, Carrie Anderson is joining me. She is my right-hand woman to help you and your family navigate this process. So please know, if you want to send her a private message, you don't want to post it, go ahead and do so. She'll get right back to you. She'll be helping me navigate this and support you as well. So thank you, Carrie, for being on the call and all you do for our families.

Thank you for having me.

You got it. So again, if you like number 3, I want you to know that number 1 is critical, so very important. Then number 2, how to craft a standout application that captures the attention of admissions officers. So back in the day, my kids call it the caveman days, when I applied for college, I simply typed my application, searched the house for a couple of stamps, and sent them off, and hopefully they were going to arrive. Now that process is so incredibly different. It is no longer a GPA and a test score that's going to get you accepted. That's the minimum standard. So if you're not concerned how they're going to stand out, you might want to be a little concerned because colleges look at things such as national or international, then national, then regional, then local, then school, then school club. So if your student's doing all school clubs and they have no international or national, they're not going to stand out. That is what I'm talking about. Number 3, Navigate financial aid and scholarship opportunities. I am definitely going to speak on this because I want every one of you to get what my family got, and that is college without debt. I will definitely touch on that. Number 4, develop a personalized plan that sets your child up for academic and extracurricular success. What I'm talking about here is many students are doing this and this and this and this, and they're exhausted and they are just struggling to keep up. But they shouldn't be doing some of it. Some of it makes absolutely no difference to a college. If it's a simple thing like sign up and show up, colleges are not impressed. Are you impressed? If everybody can do it, how is that going to help them stand out? So really, creating a personal plan is a very important piece. Of success. So I'm going to talk about that. Number 5, understanding the key milestones and timelines from 8th grade to 11th grade. So today I met with a 7th grader who was so mature. Wow. I was so impressed that I would consider her to be in our program. It's not an age timeline. Let me explain. I have a student, and she, um, is an exceptional student, and she had completed everything she needed to take the SAT and the ACT by her freshman year. So the timeline says the average student should take their test, their SAT, ACT, in their junior year because that's when most students are ready. But she was ready her freshman year. So we prepped her, she took her ACT and got a perfect 36 on her first test. If we would have waited until her 11th grade year, she would have forgot or been rusty on all the things she learned a few years back. So please note, when we talk about a timeline, it has to be specific and personal to your student. So I am really excited to dive in and help and support your family. Please know that we're here because our mission is to help a million families get into college and graduate debt-free. And it's a lot easier to have a lot of people listening than doing this one-to-one. But we will have an opportunity. If you would like to meet with Carrie and I, we're happy to do so because we realize every family situation is unique., and we're happy to give that to you. Thank you so much for spending your time. It really shows about your commitment to helping your child in their future. Let's dive in. Imagine what it would be like to see your teen— to see your teen's face when they get accepted into their perfect college. I remember my son when he received his USC full-ride scholarship. He was shocked. He didn't believe he could possibly be the one. And I was super excited because I'm like, he's gonna live near home. Like, we like, woo, we were done. And then Harvard sent this beautiful package in this beautiful box. It even had like confetti. And I remember my son opening and go, Mom. Where's America's Funniest Home Videos? Somebody is setting me up. There's no way I got accepted to Harvard. He says, will you call them? I'm embarrassed. So like a good parent, I called and I said, is this Harvard? And did you accept my son? And they said, absolutely. And we'd like to send you here for a tour. And it got real fast. So what I'm talking about is really opening up your eyes to what are the possibilities. You want to have reach schools, right? You want to have comfort schools, and you want to have safety schools. It's very important, that college list. It is possible, you know, to rest easy knowing you and your student are prepared for the application process that's ahead of you. Our rising seniors have already started writing their essays. They've already picked their colleges. They are already making an impact on what's ahead. Just a little heads up, if your student applies to at least 12 colleges, it's about 20 hours of work a week. It's like a part-time job. So it really needs to be planned, and it really needs to be prepared. Let's dive in for the reason you were here. I'm gonna give you the answers to all the questions you have asked. So you said the problem is, how do I find the best college fit for my child? Shellee, I'm Carrie. I would like an academic fit, a social fit, an athletic fit, a visual and performing arts fit, and a financial fit. Can you do that? And I smile, of course, and I look at the child and I say, which one is most important to you? And I hope your child's there because now you're looking at them and you're like, which one would you say? And then I ask the parent. Unfortunately, not very often are they prioritized in the same way. So the solution is prioritize them as a family. As a family, decide, are we going to pick colleges academic first, social, athletic, VAPA, financial, or financial, social, VAPA. Whichever your family strategy is, you want to get really clear with your child before they apply to college and spend $100 to $150 per application. We'll talk about that in a bit. The next solution, you can find colleges that align with your family's priorities. So if you're looking for an academic fit and your student has a 5.0 GPA and a perfect SAT or ACT, and you're like, great, my child has perfect, they should get into an Ivy— just to be clear, that is not all they need. So when looking for your priorities, make sure they're in alignment with what colleges are looking for. If your hope is that your child will graduate without debt, then you need to have them apply to the most generous colleges. There's a strategy to it, and align your family to what you want. Number 3, you can do it yourself or get help from a professional, just like you can get help for your taxes or selling real estate. Whatever that is, just decide as a family, we're gonna do this on our own. But be very careful because your 17 or 18-year-old has no idea how to do this and nobody's gonna teach them how. Google is a very deep, dark, scary place, as you all know, and for them just to start digging and researching on their own is going to freak them out. Their high school counselor, no matter what high school, has no idea what the financial fit for your family is. So please, they need you. That is very important. Number 4, I will show you how we do it so you can decide, can I do this? Or man, that vault thing, that's pretty legit. So I'm gonna now share how we do it with you. So you now will have a much better understanding of what does that look like? Can I do this? And do I want to do this? So with that said, I'm gonna share. This is called the vault, and this is my 17 years of intellectual property. I'm not gonna dive into every detail because let me tell you, this is a massive amount of information. After writing my first book, I realized that the biggest problem is the lack of knowledge. Even with the internet, people just don't know because there's so many different ways of, of saying it. So this is a place where our students get to spend time So we bring to them versus them going out and seeking. That is really critical. When I did this with my firstborn, it was 33 Google Spreadsheets, and he was not happy. Now I have it set up for a proactive, supportive place. I'm going to dive in here now so you can see. This is what you'll need to do if you do this on your own. All right. First thing is the student needs to understand how are they going to stand out. We bring it to them. The next thing is how often will they get support? We bring it to them. The next thing is how do I know how to find a research opportunity, an internship? How should I spend my summer? How do I test prep? What are the resources? We bring it all to them. And this resource list is based on our past students who've been successful, because there is no better way to prove success than setting it up with people who have been successful. The next thing we do is we help them to put together a testing strategy— when to take it, where to take it, how many times to take it, and which test to take. Then we dive into how do we find the perfect college list, right? That was one of the things we are looking for. This is how we do it. We can pull up any college in the world. We then have the opportunity to show you what it takes to get into college. So instead of a student saying, "I don't know what test score I need," I can show them. "I don't know what GPA I need." I can show them. This is very important to the student as they're navigating this process. So I'm just going to use Harvard because it was the top of my list. But this school obviously is a REAP school. It's important to look at 4-year graduation rate. Every year that a student doesn't graduate, you have to add a whole nother year of tuition. So if this number is here, you're looking at several more years, and that's opportunity costs, right? They're missing out on the career, on the retirement, on living on their own. Those are all opportunities. You want to know this to see, is this a good fit school for them? You then want to know real numbers. So U.S. News and World Report is an opportunity for colleges to toot their own horn. What they do when your student takes the PSAT is they bombard your student and say, apply here, apply here, we want you, we want you. Why? Because that drives up the numbers of students who apply there, which makes less students get in, right? It's a total numbers game. This is who actually applied last year, who got admitted last year, and who enrolled last year. I am part of an ethics organization called HECA, and I have to, um, test and, and provide ethics of my company, and they support us with documentation we then get to provide to our families. So here is the average GPA on a 4.0 scale. If this was a 5.0 scale and Harvard looked at the 5.0 scale, it would be a 5.0. That doesn't mean that nobody gets into Harvard. Quite interesting, right? 1,600 146 students got into Harvard last year, but you can see that they need a strong GPA. The dark purple is the average test score, so if they're on the left side of average, it's a far reach. If they're in the middle, it's a comfort. If they're on the right, it's a safety. Just saying, Harvard's not safe for anybody, but that is how we know Is this a good fit? Now you look at cost of attendance. When my son attended Harvard here, it would have cost us $63,000 a year back in 2012. It's already at $83,000. So the cost of college continues to climb. Getting in continues to be more challenging, but don't despair. Remember, students got in there. Then you look at, is Harvard generous? It's not generous and it's not stingy. I mean, Harvard was very gracious when they matched the scholarship of USC. I am grateful for that opportunity, but the student must earn it. Then we can show the students what major is a good fit, because students don't realize that not every college has— does not have every major. So if a student wanted to go into business at Harvard, it is not known for its business school. So if they wanted to go into accounting, this is a terrible undergrad school for a student who wants to go into accounting. They don't offer it. So that's the next piece to find out. Wow, dodged that. Then we can show them the essays they're going to need to write. So if they were applied to Harvard, there are 13 essays that they would need to write. They would also need to know all of the supplements. So at this school, they use the Common App or the Coalition App, and that means they're going to have to list 10 activities, honors, and awards. They're going to have to rank them, and they're going to have to explain when did they do it, how did they do it, how often did they do it, how many hours per weekend did they lead it. For a student who just wants to get this done and is not very excited about selling themself, it doesn't always bode well. And then we can show the students the big institutional scholarships because we know that there are a lot, 97 things that need to be done. We do not tell students that. We simply show them a few at a time. We then work on 3 at a time and help the student understand what they need to do, when they need to do it, and why they need to do it. They work on it and then they move it to completed. That way everybody knows that the student is making progress. It simplifies and takes away the overwhelm. Then the most important piece of this is picking the college list, right? So the second most important piece is deciding when you will apply. So restrictive early action is very critical. The same with early decision. The same with priority decision. You can see that every college has different things that they need from the student. If we are not the one doing it, they will need you to do this, which means finding out everything they need to provide, when they need to provide it by, and how they're going to do that with essay editors, application editors. What is that process? From there, we help the student focus on their gifts, their talents, and their advocacy to help them find their top 3 majors, because at one school they may apply as one major, At another school, they may apply at another major. And then finally, the writing tab, which is probably our students' favorite. It has a, a built-in system that takes all of their activities, honors, and awards and helps them to match up with what essay would be the right topic to write about. So as you can see, this is what it takes to get in and prepare for college admissions. Now I'm gonna jump back into, um, what I wanted to share with you, because I think there is still so many more questions, right? That was just the first question you wanted answered. So I am going to jump back in, share screen, and we will continue on. All right. So we just covered That one. Let's jump to the next problem. How do we know how to craft a standout application that captures the attention of admissions officers? So the first thing you want to do is decide what your student's positioning will be. The second thing is decide how will the application, activities, honors and awards, and essays all work together. And third, I recommend asking a non-family member Why would you pick my child over another child if you were choosing for admission? That will help them either be like, uh, I don't know, I'm confused, some things are out of order here, I'm not sure why they did that activity and they're applying to this major. It will really help you to see that their positioning or their standout strategy is off. Here's the next problem. How do we navigate financial aid and scholarship opportunities to maximize college debt? That was what you wanted to know. The very first thing you want to do is to calculate your SAI. The second thing is decide if your assets and your financial strategy set you up to receive the big scholarships. The third thing is decide if a college is generous and learn how to receive the big institutional scholarships. And number 4, decide if the student's resume is going to get them the big scholarships. That's it. That's how you get the big money. I want you all to know it is available. There is so much, so much money goes on. So much money is still available and students don't even know where to get it. So just know 91% of families complete the FAFSA incorrectly. That is a big piece to the missing puzzle. All right, next question you wanted to know: I do not know how to create a plan that sets my child up for academic and extracurricular success. This is what I recommend: look at their past success. 2, decide if your child can handle a more challenging class schedule. 3, decide if your child can continue what they are doing or do they need to pivot. 4. Decide if your student's resume is strong enough. Again, this is an opportunity for you to do some assessments. Next question: I have no idea when is the best time to start this process and the timeline for success. So I'm going to show you the timeline for success, but this is what I recommend for a solution. 1. Decide if your child is mature enough to have a conversation about their future. I've had people call me when their child— when they are just find out they're pregnant and they want to know what is the plan. Some people will call me in elementary school, others will call me in middle school, and others will call me their senior year. Just know our plan is really we help 7th graders all the way through 11th grade and halfway into the senior year, because getting off the waitlist has become a bigger problem than it's ever been before. So if you wait to see how this all pans out and then you get yourself into a problem, there are times when we cannot help. If you pick a college and then try to figure out how you're going to pay for it, our hands are tied. So we recommend really thinking about when you want to do— when you need to do what you need to do. Number 2, when they are picking classes, do your research and see what their school is telling them is in their best interest, right? Many schools only have one or two AP this or AP that, and if your child did not proactively plan that out, they may not have room for them, and they just will put them in a regular class, and that's that. And they tell your child, "I'm sorry, there's no room," and they say, "Okay." Don't ever Never let that happen because the student, they don't know, and they don't know how to advocate for themselves yet. Some do, but most don't. They need you. They need you to be involved in advocating for them. Number 3, consider what are your child's gifts and strengths. And 4, create a timeline to help the child. There are 97 things that must be completed over the 4 years in high school. They have no idea how to start, and they get overwhelmed very quickly. All right, now we're going to dive in and we're going to talk a little bit about what you can do. You want to put together an academic plan, a standout strategy, an essay strategy, get test prep help, application submission— they need you— and the passion project. All of these are so critical to not only getting into college, but to getting the big scholarships. It's not about filling out a bunch of forms. That'll never get you the big money. It's about setting your student up for success. That's how you get the big money. Your child's GPA and test scores no longer the key to getting into college. Here is what they need. They need a strong GPA, test scores, dual enrollment, AP classes. They need to look for college with strong merit scholarships, choose colleges where they'll graduate in 4 years, and look for out-of-state public colleges or international schools with special pricing. Look for private schools that meet 100% of need. There are so many strategies that are available. Here are some charts, simple ones that I created with my firstborn, that you can create for your family. I'm just trying to help you get the knowledge that you need. Learn what they need to do to get accepted into the college they want. I'll talk about that for a minute because let's think, if your student has a huge passion for— I just got off the phone with A student who wants to be a ballerina. She's a gifted ballerina, but she won't talk to her parents about what she wants to do after college, um, and so there's a big disconnect. She wants to go to college to be a ballerina without any forethought to what she will do if she gets injured or if she doesn't get chosen to be a paid ballerina. All of these need to have discussions way before they leave for school. All right, so think about— teach your student the love of reading. That is number one for the younger students. Talk to them, take them on a college tour, visit colleges, explore it like you would a museum. What does the perfect 4-year academic plan look like? It looks like a very well-thought-out plan for your individual child. So if you have many children, every one of them should have a different Perfect 4-Year Plan, and that is going to be important for their success. The GPA will help the student get into college and get the big scholarships. What most families don't understand is every college looks at a different GPA. Some will look at unweighted, some will look at weighted, some will only look at STEM. So it's very important that you're looking at the right GPA. Is rigor important for your student to be successful? If they want scholarships, they do need to challenge themselves. And are standardized test scores important? Yes, yes, yes. Yes, Stanford just came off the no need for a test, and they're— every day we're getting news that schools are getting back on the test bandwagon. Did you know that different colleges require different classes to qualify for acceptance? If your student wants to go pre-med, they need a different set of classes than a student Who wants to go liberal arts? Very important that you know all of that. The essay has become the third most important factor in the process, and it is super important that you do not write their essay because colleges know it is so important. Do not have another person write their essay. Their essay needs to match their application. It is so important. We do have essay editors for our students to help them formulate, um, their ideas and do their brainstorming and polish, but that is all there is to it. We are definitely not writing their essays. The importance of what order the core high school classes need to be in. This goes back to if your student wants to go into a certain major. If they want to go into engineering, They have to take all of the right classes. If they want to go into a University of California school, they need to meet all their A through G requirements. High schools don't get paid if your child goes to college. They don't get evaluated. We do. We've been in business 17 years because we care about doing all of this right. Decisions. What if your child gets put on the waitlist? What will you do? You need to have a plan and strategy for that. Do you know how much it will cost your family if you pick the wrong college? Say, ah, I'm just going to leave it up to my kid. They want to go to this school and, ah, seems like a good idea. Well, if they get there and they decide now it's not a good idea, you're looking at about an extra $100,000 you can add on to the total cost of college. So here are some really important things to consider. You want to make sure that your child has the perfect college list. They want— we want them to— we want to assure the student that this can be done debt-free. Sorry, that this can be done stress-free. All it is is planning. Our students plan and complete. It's the unknown that freaks out these students. We simplify, and that is important for these students' success. Process and steps equal success. There are a ton of misconceptions. Just know, don't believe everything you read. Here's the timeline for success. So freshman year, teach your student how to prioritize, teach them study— how to study, help them understand the PSAT is coming. All of this stuff, summertime is critical. Their sophomore year, they don't have to wait to test prep. They don't have to wait for community service, leadership, extracurriculars. They need a summer plan. Their junior year, they need to take the PSAT. They need to have letters of recommendation. They need to get good grades. Everything has a timeline and a strategy, and then you put it all together. So when you think about every class counting, and it does matter in which order your student takes each class, making the final college decision is super important. Oh, I just realized there's a typo. Sorry about that. The, the first thing is focus on the student. What is the best fit for them academically, socially, financially, athletically, VAPA? Focus on the reality of the school. Does it match? Are they picking because of the location of the dorm room or the D1 football team? Is it a good academic fit or will they get there and panic? Is it a good fit socially? Will they find their significant best friend, significant other? Is it a good fit financially? Consider your return on investment. All of those need to be there. Here are my favorite secrets to finding scholarships, and it's important that you think of these now. Your student, as young as 8th grade, can start applying to college scholarships. They do not need to wait until their senior year, and they will need to completely apply again for more scholarships when they're in college. I have written, like I mentioned, my best-selling book, and this is the foundation, right? And so if you meet with Carrie and I, we are happy to gift you the book. Otherwise, you can go on Amazon and purchase it for, I think, I don't know, just over $10. But the advantages is you, you understand what needs to be focused on, how to create and build that strategy. The admissions process is complicated. It's— I promise I'm just the messenger. I did not create it to be that way. 1 in 3 students now get help. It's not just for the, the wealthy kids. Parental support is important, but I understand you can't do everything. So whomever you can get to support your child is going to be incredibly important for their success. Remember that you don't get a second chance. This is about you and your child, and we want them to be successful. If you still need help, just know Carrie and I are available. You can scan the QR code, you can type in this, go directly to our calendar, schedule And what you'll find is we're transparent. We're gonna tell you what colleges are looking for in 2025 and beyond. Do you need help with positioning? We're gonna give you some strategy. There is no need to go into debt, and we can help. So as far as cost, I want you to know we are totally transparent. We have 7 different opportunities. We start from $495 and go up to $11,997, depending on how many years, what you need, how much time and attention that student wants, right? Are you gonna do it with them? Are they gonna do it on their own? Do they need support? Our students meet weekly on their passion projects. They meet monthly and focus on one area. They meet quarterly on essays and the boot camp to match the essays, as young as they want. That is on top of one-to-ones with our certified college consultants. So please know we are here to support you. We didn't charge anything for your time. We want you to know that this is something that's important to our company and we want to continue to support your family. So with that, Kari, can you go ahead and go through the chat and let's see if we can get some questions answered?

Sure. So I— this is a great question and I answered it, but I think we should talk about it. How does volunteering weigh in college applications? If so, is there any minimum hours that need to be done?

Super important. And first, let me make the caveat. If your child wants to go into a service industry— doctor, lawyer, um, nurse, uh, physical therapy, um, any of those things— guess what? Colleges want proof. Yes, community service is critical. Our students on average do 200 service hours before they apply to college, but they're not just sign up and show up. That is not impressive. So if a student just signs up to give out water at Race for the Cure, yes, that's a good cause, and if they're excited about doing it, go for it. But colleges know how much effort that was. We offer an incredible program. Kerry, if you wanna put in the chat, because you're on the call, we have gifted you an opportunity to see what our students are doing, and they are working together. They are— I think we're close to 40 students all over the world where they have in the last year built 3 schools in Uganda. They are sending passion projects over there. They are helping the orphans in Oaxaca. They are making an impact. So if our students are doing that and other students are not, it is definitely going to hurt them. Next question. That's actually it.

I'm a little surprised you guys have no other questions while we're on.

That is wild. So, I'll do my best to answer them all. Um, outstanding. And like I mentioned, Carrie and I are available for you if you don't have any further questions. Thank you all for your time. Reach out and let us know how we can be of service. Thank you so much.

Thanks, everyone.