AI in Education

      It’s no secret that AI is the next technological wave we’ll all be riding. I’m personally convinced it will be just as transformative to our daily lives as the advent of the internet was 25-30 years ago. Of course, it will be impactful to education as well so let’s take a look at what it can mean to high school students.

Indeed, there are benefits. It’s no secret that individualizing education can be crucial to a student’s success. This task takes time and resources from teachers though. Al has the potential to examine a student’s problems and provide immediate feedback to students and create lessons that are tailored to a student’s specific needs. This can have a powerful impact on a student’s growth. Further, it can enrich a student’s education by providing more in-depth instruction in areas that appeal to individual students or to students who may be working ahead of their peers. Teachers who are saddled with hundreds of students or the “canned” curriculums of other educational programs can struggle with these things. It’s hard to blame them as previous educational efforts had to be able to deliver to the masses. AI has the potential to save much of the time it would otherwise take to make these educational adaptations. 

Regardless, there are some potential drawbacks to AI in education. These include privacy concerns, algorithm biases, reduced human interaction, and the potential for inaccurate information. AI is still in its infancy, and I don’t think we’re at a point yet where we can take whatever AI tells us to the bank. That brings us to what most people might see as the biggest AI concern, and that is academic integrity. 

Schools are already battling students who use AI to cheat. Why take the time to write an essay or solve a math problem when you can have AI do it for you? Schools are taking measures to combat these things (sometimes with the help of AI, ironically), but it’s one more thing to guard against that didn’t used to be there. Again, I think AI is destined to be a mainstay of our lives going forward, but I think it’s important for students to still learn how to do things the old-fashioned way. We’re a long way away from AI being able to do everything for us and if students don’t take the time to learn how to do things without AI, they’re not really learning. I’m afraid this could result in a population that has difficulties discerning what is accurate and what is not–what is real and what is not and that could have just as many negative implications for our future as not knowing how to do stuff to begin with.

So, AI is here to stay, and it will be influential in education. Schools have the potential to harness it for good and should work to teach students how to do that. Students, on the other hand, will be better off if they don’t allow themselves to become overly reliant on this new tool.

Finding Who You Are For College Essays

  As we head into summer, the time is now for rising high school seniors to get serious about their college admissions strategy. One thing they might want to put thought to is what pieces of their self do they most want to convey to colleges through their college application essays and personal statements, so let’s examine some points to consider on this topic.

To begin, let’s consider that college admission essays are seeing a smaller and smaller word count. The Common App, now the way most students apply to college, has already announced a 250-word cap on responses to their prompts for next year. 250 words does not give young writers much time to establish whatever they want to convey and expound, so being concise is critical. 

Still, some conventional writing wisdom applies. Students would do well to start their statement off with some sort of attention-grabber. However, they have to walk a thin line here. The admission reps who read these things are reading thousands of them. A good author should know their intended readers, and if every student is trying to write the zaniest thing they can think of, those things can quickly wear thin with readers. It’s better to think of something interesting, but not over the top.

Perhaps the most important thing a student should aim for in their essay is to be authentic. Students should aim to tell colleges something genuine about themselves. The last thing they should do is try to contrive something that isn’t representative of who they are or try to say something they think colleges want to hear. 

And so this is what my goal might be for my seniors as they head into summer, and it circles back to my first paragraph above. What is that unique aspect of who you are as an individual that can add to your application? Most of the application is just data–test scores and grades. Essays and statements are the elements that show the human side. So, who are you, and how did you become that person? 

Many students overcame significant challenges early in life. Maybe a parent died, their house burned down, or they overcame childhood cancer. Those students might have an obvious choice as to what they’ll write about. Many more students, though, have had pretty typical upbringings without significant obstacles. For these, finding something compelling and unique to say can be difficult.

However, we all have interests and things we are passionate about. Just tell the colleges this. Not every student has an amazing story, so if life is pretty good and you just really love pickleball, that’s okay. Tell the colleges you love pickleball, tell them why, and what it means to you. Find an interesting (but not over the top) way to say it and do it with good writing.  You can spend some time this summer deciding what approach you might want to take in your essay and what might be the best way to convey it when it comes time to write.

Negotiating a Better Grade

         We know that GPA is a crucial factor in college admissions. As a quick summary of all of a student’s grades, we can argue that it is the most efficient insight into a student’s academic work ethic. Sometimes, its margins can be quite thin though. For example, in most grading systems an 89 would represent a B in GPA, while a 90 is an A. That one point difference there is huge while the difference between a 90 and 100 is negligible–at least in terms of GPA.

So, for a student who is looking to finish a grading period just short of the mark needed for that extra bump in GPA, it might be worthwhile for them to turn on the charm and negotiate that extra point with the teacher. Here is some advice on how to best do that.

To begin, you have to understand that you are not entitled to the better grade. If you earned an 89, well then you earned an 89. If the 90 comes along, it’s a gift you should be thankful for. Saying something along the lines of, “You have to give me an A because I don’t make Bs” or “I can’t get a B, I’ve never had one before” is one of the worst things you can say to a teacher. It’s extremely arrogant and will not be an effective strategy for you. Further, you have to be really close to the next grade to attempt this. If you earned an 86, don’t go begging for the A. Also, keep in mind that GPA is generally what matters the most and if there is not a difference in a 96 and 97, don’t split those hairs. If you have an A, don’t beg for a higher A. Lastly, this is a tactic you can only use sparingly. You can’t try this with every teacher (they do talk to each other), every grading period. Save your opportunities for the right situations.

A friendly teacher might be willing to just “give” you the better grade if you’re really close and/or ask nicely. However, you will do best here if you offer to give the teacher something in return. No, I’m not talking about bribes here. I’m talking about an offer to do extra academic work. So try something like this, “Hi. I calculated my grade and it looks like I’m going to land at an 89.1. I’m really trying to keep my GPA up so I have a shot at State U. and having an A would make a big difference in my GPA. Is there something extra I can do for you to get those three tenths of a point? You’re an experienced teacher, so you probably have some old assignment on this last unit you didn’t give us that I can do, I can have a 500 word essay on that topic we covered last month on your desk by tomorrow morning, or I’ll show you how I went back and mastered that problem on that test I screwed up.”

Basically, you’ve got to show the teacher you are willing to work and want to learn something. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can say is no. If they do, be ready to respect the teacher’s decision and work a little harder the next time.

Accommodations in College

                Students who receive accommodations in high school are sometimes surprised to find that they are eligible to receive accommodations at the college level as well. However, those accommodations and the process to receive them vary so it's important to understand them before leaving high school and heading off to the next level. 

            Students may receive accommodations through either an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 plan due to a documented disability the student possesses. Which one of these a student may be eligible for depends on a variety of factors that are too complex to cover here. Nevertheless, they both work to “level the playing field” for a student who has a disability and provide educational supports. These protections stem from federal law that also binds to post-secondary institutions that receive federal funding. 

            IEP and 504 plans require an annual review.  Parents of students who hope to carry their plan into college will want to look out for this annual review in senior year. That last plan will be important to the student.

            In general, a grade school will keep track of a student’s accommodations and when they are up for a review. Students should understand their accommodations and there are times when they may need to advocate for themselves regarding those. Their teachers should also be aware of them and partner with the student to implement them.

            It’s a little different at the college level though. Colleges don’t automatically receive plans from high schools. Students must self report their plans and accommodations to a college and that is why that last review meeting is so important. Families should be sure to take a copy of their plan away from that meeting and keep it in a safe place.

            Once they arrive on a college campus, it will be up to the student to take a copy of the plan to the appropriate place. That place can vary from one institution to the next, but it's generally called the “Office of Students with Disabilities”, or something like that.

            That office will review the plan and the needs of the student. What they offer could be different than the accommodations a student was used to receiving in high school. They usually do, actually, and college accommodations are often less robust than high school ones. Students with less severe accommodations might not receive much more than an opportunity for extended time on exams. This could involve the student reporting to the Office of Students with Disabilities (or whatever it's called) for their exams instead of taking them with their classmates. There are scenarios where students may feel put off by these differences. In that case, they may choose not to employ their accommodations which is always an option.   

Senior Course Selection's role in College Admissions

       By the time a student reaches their senior year of high school, they should have acquired most of the data that will be decisive in their college admissions. They’ll apply to college in the fall, so the GPA colleges will see will likely be the one they have at the end of their junior year. Hopefully, they’ve been taking standardized tests and should be nearing their peak score there. And, they should be well down the road of building a resume that includes their extracurricular activities. So, among the significant cards they have left to play as they head into their senior year is the strength or rigor of their 12th grade curriculum.

In many cases, a senior might have met the majority of graduation requirements following their junior year. They may be able to enjoy their senior year with a relatively easy schedule. However, this is often not a smart move for a college-bound student.  The appearance of a rigorous senior curriculum can be crucial to a student’s chance of admissions. Colleges want to see a senior who is continuing to challenge themselves and pursue a robust education. They are looking for students who want to reach higher and higher each year and are dedicated to their studies. Taking a bare-minimum schedule does not accomplish this.

College bound seniors should take courses that continue to move their education forward and make a positive impression on the colleges they hope to attend. I think there is a bit of a sliding scale here too. Students who are already well-positioned for the colleges they want to attend might have a little more leeway in their senior course selection. Students who really want to attend a reach school, maybe don’t. So, let’s say you really want to attend a given state university. You do some research and find that last year, that school’s middle range of SAT scores from students who were accepted was 1180-1300 and weighted GPAs ranged from 3.7-4.2. Your SAT score is 1390 and your GPA is 4.4. You should already have a pretty good chance of getting in and thus might be able to take some liberties with your senior schedule. If your friend also really wants to go to that school but has an 1150 SAT and 3.4 GPA, they don’t have that same luxury. 

Thus, maybe you and your friend have debated taking Spanish 4. You both are in Spanish 3 and are doing okay, but feel like you are reaching your ceiling in the subject area and are losing interest. You’re trying to decide between Spanish 4 and a health class you’ve heard is pretty easy. You might be able to take the health class and have a little “break” in your senior schedule. Not your friend though. They are playing the admissions game at this college from behind and might not be able to afford to take such a chance. I would advise them to take Spanish 4 in this scenario in an effort to “max out” their senior curriculum. To say it succinctly, the lower your chance of getting into the schools you want to attend, the more impressive your senior courses need to be. Well, to a point at least. You’ve still got to “live” that schedule and you want to be somewhat successful in it. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. 

Executing Demonstrated Interest in the College Admissions Process

         This college admissions cycle, I had the pleasure of watching a good friend deftly exercise a seldom-discussed element of college admissions strategy. That is “demonstrated interest.” This is the concept of conveying to a college that you REALLY want to go there. To be impactful in this area, one really needs to go beyond simply applying as an early action candidate and/or writing your personal statement about how you’ve wanted to go to this college since you were a little kid and both your parents went there and their legendary quarterback is your idol, or whatever. To fully actuate this element, a student really needs to DEMONSTRATE their interest in the school.

So, my friend’s son, a senior who we’ll call Brian, really wanted to go to this large university. Admission to this school is very competitive and Brian’s test scores and GPA were a level below the range we typically see admitted to the school. Honestly, his numbers were far enough away that I didn’t think he had much of a chance of getting in. I think Dad understood this, but was determined to give it his all. 

The first thing Dad and Brian did was to go and tour the campus and meet with an admissions rep. I can’t overstate the importance of an official tour here, especially in cases such as this where no one in the family has a tie to the university. How can you say that going to a given school is the most important thing in the world to you if you’ve never even been there? Colleges absolutely track who signs up for their official tours and align that data with the applications they receive. If you don’t bother going to see the college, you’re not really making an effort to demonstrate your interest.

The other key thing they did here was meet with an admissions rep. Indeed, Brian has a great personality. He’s magnetic. Dad understood he had a kid with traits that can make him successful well beyond his high school numbers. Admissions reps are the same individuals who read applications and make decisions about students. This meeting established a relationship and made Brian a face and personality that went along with his application.

So, the relationship was established and Brian was on the radar. Between that meeting and the time admissions were released, Dad and Brian worked to foster the relationship they had with the admissions rep simply by staying in touch. They sent an email every so often with a question or just to check in and reiterate how much they felt the school’s program of study in Brian’s intended field was perfect for him. Conveying an alignment between what a school offers and what a student wants to do in their career path is also a crucial piece of effective demonstrated interest.

This continued contact kept Brian in front of the admissions rep, likely brought him familiarity in the whole admissions office, and he was eventually accepted. Brian plans to start school there this summer. As the school released data from their admitted students, Brian’s numbers remained well short, but he got in anyway. It all goes to show the important role demonstrated interest plays in the process.

What is an IEP Plan

         An IEP plan is an educational document that provides support and certain school-based services to students who have a disability. IEP stands for Individual Educational Plan and today stems from the Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA), but has its roots in several other educational acts that go back farther than IDEA. IEP plans are usually associated with special education or exceptional education. Basically, the IEP is the paperwork that directs special education for an individual student and describes what the services look like for them as well as some other things. In a broader sense the terms IEP, special education, and exceptional education mean very nearly the same thing.

There is a lot that can happen within an IEP plan. Of course, there is a very wide array of disabilities and thus the support a student might need at school due to their disability can vary greatly. All the disabilities an IEP plan might cover fall into one of 13 categories. In order of how common they are, those categories are specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, other health impaired (such as ADHD), autism, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, developmental delay, multiple disabilities, hearing impairment, orthopedic impairment, visual impairment, traumatic brain injury, and deaf/blindness. 

As you can imagine, what a student might require is entirely dependent on their disability and its severity. There are some disabilities that are plain to see but most are not. It is important to understand that a parent cannot just walk into a school, say, “I want an IEP plan for my child”, and walk out with that in hand. It is always a parent’s right to request an evaluation for special education services from a school but those evaluations take time. That evaluation might move along faster for a student with an obvious disability, but the process can be lengthy for many students.

Actually, much of the goal of the evaluation for many students is to see if they can be supported at school without an IEP. This process is called MTSS which stands for multi-tiered systems of supports. In it, researched-based strategies are implemented to help struggling students and if those interventions prove effective, a school would like to continue those rather than provide an IEP. 

Further, there is not one individual who decides whether a student requires an IEP or what that IEP directs a school to do. IEP decisions are made by a whole team of people which always includes a parent but can also include teachers, counselors, school administrators, related service personnel like physical, occupational, and speech therapists, and even the student themself. These people meet and work in concert to identify what should go into an IEP that can best assist a student. The IEP is reviewed at least once a year to make adjustments as needed.

Schools will often initiate an evaluation themselves for students who they suspect might have a disability but, again, it is always the right of the parent to request an evaluation for a struggling student.

The Downside of Earning College Credit in High School

        When students reach high school, they are bombarded with ways to earn college credit. There are different modes of this acceleration including AP, IB, AICE, and Dual Enrollment. Within these, it is possible for students to earn many college credits, some students may even be able to wipe out two full years of college before they graduate high school. These programs are usually at no cost to students. Many parents clamor for opportunities for their children to take advantage of these programs–after all, college is expensive and who wouldn’t want to get as much college out of the way that they didn’t have to pay for? But, there is a fundamental problem with these opportunities.

Let's say a student does earn enough college credit while in high school to earn an AA degree. Then they graduate, leave home, and attend a university that is four hours away. Well, that university is going to treat that eighteen-year-old who has never been away from home before and has never been on a college campus as a college junior. A junior in a university setting has usually had two years to acquiesce to college life and the rigor and pace of a university classroom. They have had time to waiver on their intended major and make adjustments. (Statistically, most high school graduates change their major at some point after they enter college from the time when they applied during high school. However, a university junior is expected to be committed to their major and ready to excel in those major-specific classes. Very little grace is given to the over-achieving, newly graduated eighteen-year-old )

In my experience, most students face a steep learning curve when they head off to college. Even though your high school tells you they are teaching their courses at a college level, they are seldom a true replication of what happens in a university classroom. What's more, the adjustment to a new lifestyle, away from parents for the first time, is also challenging to a student. All of this can conspire to create a situation akin to throwing a new swimmer into the deep end of a pool and that can spell disaster.

I don’t mean to imply that no student should take advantage of opportunities to earn college credit in high school. After all, rigorous work in high school is the best thing to prepare students for college. However, I do think that preparation might be a more important goal for such work rather than the aggressive pursuit of as many college credits as possible in high school simply because they are free. The latter is seldom done with much concerted planning and even when it is, there is a very high probability the intended outcome of that plan (a major) is likely to change. Perhaps what is the most compelling here is one of the best kept secrets in the high-school-to-college-transition universe: At least ten states and many individual institutions impose a surcharge on tuition when students reach an excessive number of credit hours that usually include what they earned in high school. So, those savings upfront may well cost you on the back end.

Paying Taxes on Scholarships

  They say no good deed goes unpunished and students who do very well and earn lots of scholarships might have to take this adage to heart. That’s because the scholarships those students earn could be taxed by the IRS as income.

            There are some caveats to this though and it’s important to note that not all of the scholarships a student receives will be taxed. The IRS does not tax scholarships for degree-seeking students as long as the money is used for tuition and/or required fees, books, supplies, and equipment. Further, it’s worth pointing out that this definition is different and a little bit more restrictive than what we consider “qualified educational expenses” when we are discussing 529 plans. 529 funds can be used for things like housing, meals, and transportation. Those would all fall outside of the scope of tax-free expenses when it comes to scholarships and taxes.

            So, really, you could argue that paying taxes on scholarships is a good problem to have. It is only going to happen if a student earns more scholarship money than their tuition and other required expenses. So, let’s imagine a student is attending a school and is facing a $8,000 tuition bill for the semester. Let’s also imagine they received a total of $10,000 in scholarships. The first $8,000 of those scholarships will be tax free as they wipe out the tuition. The remaining $2000 will count as income for the student and will be taxed. However, what is leftover after the taxes can be used by the student for housing expenses, or perhaps anything they want. The difference in the $2000 and taxes paid on it is going to be more money than the student would have had if they hadn’t earned all those scholarships in the first place. As a friend once told me, “anytime you pay income taxes, you made money.”

            Most scholarship money is going to flow through a student’s college or university. If they earn a state scholarship, maybe one from the school, and perhaps others from somewhere else, all of that will end up going through the financial aid office. The people there should do all the math for you, pay your tuition, and calculate any excess scholarships you’ll need to pay taxes on. When a student earns more money than they owe a college, the college will typically issue the student a check for the difference and 1098-T that is used to report the excess scholarships to the IRS. In instances where the student earns a scholarship that doesn’t flow through a university, as is the case with many “local scholarships” that might originate from an area civic club, foundation, group, etc., the money won’t be reflected in the 1098-T they receive from the school. In those cases, students would likely be responsible for self-reporting those scholarships to the IRS.

How Many Is Too Many Times to Take the SAT

  I was discussing the SAT recently with one of my students and she told me that she didn’t want to take the SAT too many times because she believed that would “look bad” to colleges. This is a rumor I hear from time to time, and I always work to set the record straight as I did with this student.

I’ve heard several versions of this. If you take the test too many times, colleges will average your score. Taking too many tests makes you look desperate. Colleges will penalize you if you take it over X amount of times. I’ve heard them all, but I’ve never had any indication from any college that they care at all how many times a student takes the SAT or ACT. I believe those rumors simply aren’t true. Admission test frequency doesn’t matter, but there are some points to consider that just make sense when deciding how many times to test.

When colleges receive multiple test scores they do one of two things. They either find the highest overall score, even it wasn’t the most recent, and make their decision based on that. Or they combine a student’s best sub-scores from multiple tests to produce what we call a “super score”. Not every school super scores and whether or not they do is a matter of institutional policy that varies from one school to the next.

In both cases, there is an advantage to taking a test more than once. You can’t super score a single test, and a college can’t choose your best score to evaluate you with if there is only one test. What’s more, students who sit for multiple tests almost always improve their scores eventually from their initial attempt. There is pretty clear data that indicates taking the test more than once is beneficial.

However, that data only reflects that benefit to a point. Students do plateau and seem to hit a ceiling at some point. Also, the tests require a fee ($68 for the SAT and as much as $88 for the ACT). They usually begin at 8 am on a Saturday, and it’s just not really what most would call a fun experience. So, there is just kind of a number that’s probably too many, though that can be different from one person to the next. 

I generally recommend that a student take their first college admissions test in the fall of their junior year. Follow that with another in the winter or spring, and another in the summer at the end of the 11th grade. A student might be able to roll with what they have at that point, but if there is a specific target they are trying to reach like a cutoff for a scholarship, or into a middle range of accepted scores at a given school, they can test one or two more times early in the fall of senior year. They might employ this strategy for the SAT and ACT or use those early tests to figure out which one they like more and focus on that test as they try to increase their score. So, that might be as many five attempts at one test, and not including a couple of attempts at the other. Anything more than that, and you’re probably at a point that kind of seems excessive to me. But who cares? Not the colleges, for sure. 

Teach Your Teen the Mundane

            It is back-to-school time, and that means parents have lots of paperwork to fill out for their students. Or do they? A teacher-colleague of mine told me a story this week of how one student in her class asked what “MI” meant in the box between “first name” and “last name” on a form the student was given to fill out. I have to assume that this student probably has not filled out a lot of forms at school, or doctor’s office, or government offices, or whatever. That’s kind of a mundane adult task, but it’s one parents would do well to let their teens practice.

I’m a parent too and I probably do way too much for my kids. It’s so much easier and faster for me to just do something rather than ask them to do it (and then ask again, because they didn’t do it the first time), have to answer a thousand questions (like what “MI” stands for), or risk messing up the task. Most parents do things for their teens because it’s just the easy way to get the job done. Sometimes you’ve got to let your teen try (and maybe fail) at these mundane adult tasks though. After all, wouldn’t you really rather they ask you what “MI” stands for when they are 16, than ask some receptionist at the dentist when they are 20?

There are a million of these things you can let your teen do…return an item at the store, order an Uber, address an envelope, shop for a better car insurance rate, change the air conditioning filter, make a dinner reservation, tip the bellhop at a hotel, write a check, buy a mutual fund, renew their car registration, change a light bulb, DocuSign something, figure out where those ants keep coming from, order cold cuts, check the balance on a gift card, book a flight, get the mustard stain out, vote…I can do this all day, readers. 

We all figured out how to do this stuff at some point. Your child can probably figure it out on their own if they have to, but that experience will probably be smoother for them if you make them do it under your guidance. After all, isn’t that kind of why parents are so prone to do things for their kids in the first place? You want things done well and done right for them. Intentionally teaching them and giving them opportunities to practice these things with your help will mean they are done well and done right when your children has to do them by themselves when you’re not around.

It’s important to wait until your child is age-appropriate to do these things. It’s only awkward if you make your 7-year-old call to make their own dentist appointment. There will be time for that in their teen years. The next time you’re about to do one of these simple things, take the extra few minutes to let your teen try it and show them how. It can be a valuable lifelong lesson for them.

Junior Year is Time to Think

         As I woke the other day, I found myself thinking about what I might write about this month. I started thinking about juniors and what I feel is most important for them to consider and that led me to think about thinking. Indeed, I tell my juniors I have two main objectives for them during the 11th grade. One is to start taking the SAT and ACT, and the second is to think. So, I’ll expound on that second part. 

When I tell juniors that I want them to think, I intentionally use that word to cover a wide swath of intellectual activity. For most young people, the decision about what to do in the few months after they graduate is the biggest decision they’ll make up to this point in their lives. The lifelong influence of the choices they make about what skills or educational opportunities they might pursue and where those pursuits will happen can’t be overstated. It is the first step in the journey down their path of adulthood and the rest of their lives and that first step will lead them in one direction as opposed to another. With so much riding on what direction that first step takes, its decision cannot be taken lightly. 

This is what I mean by thinking. Young people need to invest time and good thought in considering what they might want to do after high school. For many, college is the foregone answer to that question, and, if that is the case, they must next answer the question of where they might want to go to college. Many students will probably have some pre-conceived ideas about this, perhaps from early childhood, but they are now in position where they can begin to consider whether they will have the credentials to actually get into the colleges they’ve long set their sights on, whether its really a viable option due to other factors like finances, or whether it offers the course of study is interested in. Quite often, college-bound students will need to expand the scope of colleges they should consider attending and put some serious thought into many facets of the institutions they might not have considered before. Other students will need to consider whether traditional college is right for them in the first place, and/or what career paths might be of interest to them.

Again, these consequential decisions can’t be made haphazardly. They should be made after careful consideration, research, and consultation with friends, family, and mentors in the young person's life. All of this is exactly what I mean when I use that broad word, “think”. Junior year is the time when the decision about life after high school is close enough to be tangible, yet still far enough away that students can spend their senior year executing a plan to reach whatever goal that decision leads them to. That good thought MUST happen though and students need to commit themselves to time spent researching their next steps and having conversations with the stakeholders in their lives. Including themselves–perhaps when they’re lying in bed after they wake up.

The College Board's Big Future Scholarship

      As the school year draws to a close, it’s time to consider what to do with your final transcript. For most high school graduates, this will mean sending it off to the college or university they plan to attend the following year. This is an important step and you could say, the last step in the college admissions process.

Your final transcript indicates all of your grades from high school. That‘s important because you can make the argument that colleges admit you on a provisional basis. Students typically complete college applications in the fall of senior year, when they are really only three quarters of the way through high school. The final transcript can assure the colleges that you’ve remained the student you appeared to be during your freshmen, sophomore, and junior year. Seniors who have the worst cases of senioritis could receive a letter of rescission when their final transcript shows a terrible senior year. That’s when a college rescinds your admission after you’ve already made plans to attend. That happens rarely, but it does happen.

The final transcript can serve some other purposes. It can show final eligibility for certain programs or scholarship opportunities in a school, It can indicate college-credit baring course work such as dual enrollment credits, and at some institutions, it might even be used for placement. Students would do well to check their final transcript for accuracy.

To procure your final transcript or to send it along, you’ll need to communicate with your high school. Most schools have a firm system in place to notify them of where to send your final transcript, so there’s no need to hound your counselor. However, you do need to be certain you’ve done something formal to tell them what your plans are. If your mom bumped into your counselor at the grocery store back in February and shared that you finally settled on a particular college, that doesn’t count. There’s probably a simple form to fill out close to graduation.

Colleges will usually require receipt of your final transcript before they will let you register for class or activate the classes you are scheduled for. It’s important to have some patience though. Your high school has many to send out, usually with a skeleton summer crew. They might not get them sent out in the five minutes that follow graduation. (Note: This year, I returned to work on Monday morning following a Saturday graduation to find two emails wondering why final transcripts had not yet been sent). Colleges also must review and process all the final transcripts they receive and this also takes time. Don’t be alarmed if your high school is telling you that final transcripts have been sent, but your college is not yet reflecting that. Give both sides a little time to get the job done as both understand the magnitude of the process. 

All About Final Transcripts

  As the school year draws to a close, it’s time to consider what to do with your final transcript. For most high school graduates, this will mean sending it off to the college or university they plan to attend the following year. This is an important step and you could say, the last step in the college admissions process.

Your final transcript indicates all of your grades from high school. That‘s important because you can make the argument that colleges admit you on a provisional basis. Students typically complete college applications in the fall of senior year, when they are really only three quarters of the way through high school. The final transcript can assure the colleges that you’ve remained the student you appeared to be during your freshmen, sophomore, and junior year. Seniors who have the worst cases of senioritis could receive a letter of rescission when their final transcript shows a terrible senior year. That’s when a college rescinds your admission after you’ve already made plans to attend. That happens rarely, but it does happen.

The final transcript can serve some other purposes. It can show final eligibility for certain programs or scholarship opportunities in a school, It can indicate college-credit baring course work such as dual enrollment credits, and at some institutions, it might even be used for placement. Students would do well to check their final transcript for accuracy.

To procure your final transcript or to send it along, you’ll need to communicate with your high school. Most schools have a firm system in place to notify them of where to send your final transcript, so there’s no need to hound your counselor. However, you do need to be certain you’ve done something formal to tell them what your plans are. If your mom bumped into your counselor at the grocery store back in February and shared that you finally settled on a particular college, that doesn’t count. There’s probably a simple form to fill out close to graduation.

Colleges will usually require receipt of your final transcript before they will let you register for class or activate the classes you are scheduled for. It’s important to have some patience though. Your high school has many to send out, usually with a skeleton summer crew. They might not get them sent out in the five minutes that follow graduation. (Note: This year, I returned to work on Monday morning following a Saturday graduation to find two emails wondering why final transcripts had not yet been sent). Colleges also must review and process all the final transcripts they receive and this also takes time. Don’t be alarmed if your high school is telling you that final transcripts have been sent, but your college is not yet reflecting that. Give both sides a little time to get the job done as both understand the magnitude of the process. 

Use Academic Advisors in College

         I recall several years ago hearing a college representative discuss the dangers of “self-advisement”. This talk was brought back to mind recently when I was meeting with a senior I counsel who was discussing her college plan. She had a whole master plan for the courses she would take in college and her pursuit of a double major and was running it all past me for approval. A high school counselor should be an expert in their own school’s curriculum and should be generally knowledgeable about the curriculum and programs of the post-secondary schools they send students to regularly, but they are not experts there. Nor, is any eighteen or nineteen-year-old who has just recently been admitted.

However, many of these young people believe they are. After all, they might be straight-A students who are big academic fish in their little high school ponds. They might have googled information related to their major, visited the program page for their major on their university’s website, and even talked to their friend’s older brother who is majoring in the same thing. This is all a great start, and I encourage it, but it doesn’t make you an expert.

That moniker is reserved for an academic advisor assigned to a college or major within a university. A young college student would be wise to get to know this person well. An academic advisor essentially serves the same capacity as a counselor does in high school. They can help you smooth out issues with a professor, figure out what classes are a good fit for you in your college, and most importantly, chart the course of study you’ll take in your college career. Calculating the timing of when to take specific courses and scheduling them can be a key part of this. 

College programs can be nuanced. Paying close attention to prerequisites that might not be offered every term can be crucial to timing your college experience right. Failing to do so can be an expensive mistake if it delays your graduation. An academic advisor knows all of these things and can help you avoid pitfalls. Advisors can also be particularly helpful for a student who has a specific or multi-faceted goal. Want to double major? Get a minor from a program in a separate college? Spend your summer studying abroad in Southeast Asia? Land an internship with the New York Yankees? Become an engineer who designs roller coasters exclusively? An academic advisor has the experience, knowledgebase, and access to information and resources that can best put you in position to meet whatever your goals are. They are likely to hold some little nuggets of information that might be hard to find on Google or might not be on your friend’s brother’s radar. Form a relationship early on with an academic advisor at your college and let them help you plan your college experience. Accept that you’re not the expert and utilize the person who is.

What is a Technical Certificate?

  We spend a lot of time talking about college in high school. This term usually connotes continued education at a university or perhaps a community college. Here, we probably envision students working toward a bachelor's or associate's degree. However, I explain to the students I counsel that if they hear me use the word “college”, I might be referring to any continued education beyond high school, for simplicity’s sake. I do this, really, because I don’t want to exclude a student’s pursuit of a technical certificate which can be a very lucrative endeavor, so let’s discuss exactly what that is.

A technical certificate is not a traditional college degree. It likely doesn’t require that students take general education courses in classes that won’t directly relate to their program of study. Students in these types of programs often are not earning traditional credits either. Sure, they may need to take specific classes that meet at certain times like a traditional student but the takeaway from those is more geared towards experience, clock hours, or seat time than it is college credits.

This concept is really at the heart of what a technical certificate is. Instead of accumulating credits that build towards a degree or diploma, these students are cutting to the chase, so to speak. They are working towards gaining the know-how and experience that will lead them to being fully prepared for work in a given industry.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to what this means though. The “certificate” a student walks away with can be very different from one program to another and from one institution to another. Students in one place might be studying to take a written exam that certifies them at a state level to work in a particular field. Some students might end up needing to perform in front of some sort of review board that deems them qualified for a particular career. Other students will be seeking certification in a very specific area of study like an individual computer programming language. Or, some students will leave their program with something from their institution that implies that they completed a comprehensive program lasting a minimum time frame where they learned the ins and outs of a certain career field or industry.

Whatever the case, these programs are usually a lot shorter and often cheaper than traditional college (though traditional college financial aid should be available). Technical certificate programs usually provide training in areas where there is a high demand for workers, so program completers usually have little problem finding work. With that demand, comes competitive pay and these people can make a very comfortable life for themselves. They might not always have the same opportunities to improve their earnings and advance over the course of their lifetimes as traditional college graduates (though they might), but the format of traditional college just isn’t for everyone and technical certificates can be a great alternative.