Answering the Discipline Question on College Applications

          A school resource officer once told me, “my job isn’t to get kids in trouble, it’s to keep them out of trouble.” Indeed, teenagers make a lot of decisions that can easily land them in trouble and sometimes those decisions can have lasting effects. Every college application I have ever see asks a question along the lines of, “have you ever been subject to any disciplinary action?” This is where those long-lasting effects from some poor decisions can come into play and it can be a tricky question to answer. 

Maybe the trickiest part of the question though is deciding if you should even answer it truthfully in the first place. You might say, “Who would ever find out and if I answer in the negative here, I’m definitely not getting into this school.” Those both might be valid points, but it doesn’t matter. The answer to the question is, yes, you should respond truthfully. If some information got back to the college that you worked to deceive them--maybe through a transcript, a rec letter, a future incident--repercussions could be far worse.

However, the question itself can often be worded awkwardly. Sometimes, the question specifically asks about infractions at school, sometimes it doesn’t. This can be complicated when something a student did cross the boundary between what happens at school and at home. Also, I think colleges are looking for serious stuff here. I don’t think they are too concerned about the one time in the 10th grade that a student pulled out his phone to check the time and fell victim to his high school’s draconian cell phone policy. But, I think a college would be very interested to know that a student broke into the concession stand at the baseball field one night and stole all the candy. 

There are a lot of things that could happen in terms of severity between those two examples and those gray areas are where this question can be especially hard to answer. From the school perspective, a single detention here or there is usually meant to serve as a reminder, “Hey, don’t do that. You know better.” A multi-day detention, or a suspension of some sort, or even an arrest are intended to make the lesson much more palatable and let a student know that what they did is far from acceptable (and often illegal). Those are the types of things I think colleges do want to know about and you should be honest about them on applications.

Reporting these lapses in judgment doesn’t mean your ship is sunk. We all make mistakes in life, but hopefully we learn from them. If a student does have some dark marks in their past, they would be well served to address how they have grown and learned from their missteps. This can be done through an essay, a separate letter included with the application, or maybe even asking for a recommendation written by someone who was familiar with the situation and asking them to specifically address it. I think you’ll find that colleges understand they are dealing with very young adults and they can be forgiving of past indiscretions if you’re honest about them.

When should you take the SAT and ACT

 One question I often hear from parents and students is “When is the right time to take the SAT and ACT?” There are a lot of factors that can influence a proper answer to this, but I do have a general prescription I’ll offer below. First though, there’s some important things to keep in mind regarding these tests.

The first is that the SAT and ACT are two different brands of the same thing. Most colleges will accept them interchangeably and I often refer to them that way. I also think it is important to take these tests multiple times. Experience with the test seems to have an impact on scores. Scores usually rise, to a point, with multiple tests so to some degree more tests can equate to better scores. Lastly, many, but not all, colleges and universities will super score the SAT and ACT. That means they will take the highest sub-tests taken on different dates and combine those for your best score. So, for example if you took an SAT in October and got a 600 in reading and a 550 in math and then took it again in March and got a 590 in reading and a 610 in math, your SAT super score would be 1210--that’s the 600 in reading from October and the 610 in math from March. The ACT super score would be the average of the best subscores across multiple tests.

So when do you take the test? Both the SAT and ACT are only offered a few times a year on national test dates which are always Saturdays except for some individual circumstances. The tests are administered at testing centers, often high schools, and anyone is eligible to test at any test center. In other words, you don’t have to attend a given high school to take a test there. Most test centers do not offer every test date so the exact dates you test might be impacted by when your preferred test center offers the test and that’s okay. 

Junior year is the time to start testing and I like to see a student take their first test (SAT or ACT) in the fall, perhaps October. Then in late winter or early spring (February or March), juniors should take the other test as well as a second sitting of the test they took in the fall. Now, students should have some idea of what each test is like and be starting to develop a preference and some familiarity. The ACT and SAT are both offered in early June and I think this test at the end of junior year has the most potential. Students have learned everything they can through 3 years of high school, and as school winds down hopefully they have a little more time in the days prior to the test to cram in some standardized test prep. Students can choose which test they prefer for this June test, or they may consider taking both. 

If there is a particular target score a student is trying to hit, perhaps to reach the minimum threshold for a scholarship or if they are close to a number that seems to fit a certain range of scores their favorite university might be interested in, students can take one or two more swings at a test as early as possible in the fall of their senior year. After that, college applications will be due and more tests will miss the cutoffs for college admission purposes.

So, that’s my prescribed testing timeline. Maybe the best thing I can say is don’t procrastinate in getting the ball rolling early in junior year. Take a fall test, allow yourself to get a sense of what the tests are like, and work to improve your score from there.

Consider Stay at Home College

       In the wake of COVID-19, many colleges and universities have sent their students home and fully transitioned to an online format. At the very least, others have expanded their online curriculum. Many high school students have grown accustomed to taking some or even all of their courses online, even as every community has a local high school. However, colleges and universities have traditionally been “destinations” despite having dabbled in online classes for years. So, in a sense, this expansion of online classes presents a new outlook on college. 

“Going away to college,” has been a right of passage for many young people for generations, and so the living expenses associated with that setting up of a new life in a new place has usually been a significant part of the “cost of college”, much of which has been made. In fact, at many colleges around the country the room and board portion of a college’s cost of attendance far outpaces the tuition.

So, if everything is online now anyway, why are we continuing to pay that? I know, in a lot of situations it’s just time for the little bird to leave the nest. The student is ready to get out of the house and the parent is ready for them to move on also. That’s a biological normalcy and very understandable. However, in some households, it sure makes a lot of financial sense for the student to stay at home and go to college from their bedroom. They might still be able to go to the college of their dreams and save all that money. They can have their cake and eat it too. 

This doesn’t have to be all or nothing either. In the first two years of college, a lot of the courses a student will take are general education courses. These are often the classes that take place in humongous lecture halls where there is limited interaction with professors anyway. General education courses tend to be less technical meaning there might be less hands-on classroom activities that a student really needs to be in an in-person format for. Therefore, perhaps a student can plan to spend their first two years of college at home taking online classes, then move to campus for their junior and senior year when the level of importance of more tangible in-class experiences will probably increase. In this way, students can receive the best of both worlds and make a drastic cut to the room and board portion of their entire college tab.

Indeed, there are some programs that will allow a student to earn a degree without ever leaving home. As college expenses continue to spiral upwards and the proliferation of the online curriculums presented by colleges increases, especially as fueled by the necessary changes colleges have implemented due to COVID-19, this is something families ought to at least consider as they make their college plans. I agree there are many situations where moving a young person out of a house is the right move for a family, but money is always a consideration when it comes to college so this is at least worth a thought. 

Thinking About Junior Year

  I have two goals for all the 11th graders I counsel. The first of those is to begin taking standardized tests, their SAT and ACT if college is the goal for them. My second goal is to think. By that, I mean I want them to begin the mental homework and emotional preparation that is needed to support the biggest decision most of them will make in their young lives. That is, what do I want to do after graduation.

I don’t mean “what do you want to be when you grow up” here. I mean students just need to determine what the next step is for them. Generally that means enlist in the military, immediately join the workforce, or pursue a skill through college or trade school or whatever. That decision is pretty weighty in its own right but truthfully, many students arrive at their junior year with this basic decision already made. However, there is more thinking to do.

If a student chooses the workforce, they are likely to continue working in their high school job. If they choose the military they need to decide which branch they want to join and perhaps think about the timing of enlistment, but if they choose college there is a lot to think about.

This means students really need to put some deep thought into where they might want to go to college. Perhaps they’ve always wanted to go to a given school, but now is the time to consider whether they can actually get into or afford that college. If their dream school isn’t feasible, what is? Where can they really see themselves? 

This line of thought is going to lead to a million more questions. Do I want to stay close to home or go far away? How does college affordability work into my decision? What colleges excel or even offer the degrees I am interested in? How do my grades and test scores stack up to other students admitted to this college? Students and their families need to do some legitimate research to answer these questions and others. 

Once students have done some thinking and some research, it’s time to start taking some college tours. There’s a huge difference in seeing a campus in person and just doing that research. There’s also a difference in taking a formal tour of a campus and just going to some football games on Saturday afternoons. Campus tours are critical parts of the research and thinking students need to do before they are in position to make their final decision during their senior year.

Skipping ahead to senior year, students will apply in the fall, wait for their decisions, then commit to their schools in the winter or spring of their senior year. It all starts with the mental preparation that should happen during junior year. Junior year is the research, senior year is when you’re at the dealership and buying the car.

Don't Waste Important Years of Productivity

 I ran into a former student not long ago who was working at a restaurant. We chatted, and the student informed me that finally, eight years after high school graduation, he was in his last semester of college and was going to graduate in a couple of months with a degree in accounting. I congratulated the student and am proud of him for sticking it out and reaching the finish line, but I was also struck by the lost opportunity and time this young person might have let slip through his fingers.

To be fair, I’m not sure what, if any, significant challenges this person had faced in the past eight years that might have delayed him. However, I do know there are many young people in a similar situation and many don’t have the best reasons or excuses for a drawn out college experience. Extending college in this way presents several inefficiencies and some of those aren’t immediately visible.

What I mean by this is lost earning years. One of the reasons people retire is that as we get on in years, our health might not support our ability to work any longer. So, a person who languishes in college and gets a late start on their career is missing out on their earning potential in those first few years. Let’s say that this student is making $25,000 a year at his restaurant job, but could start out making $50,000 a year as an accountant. Well, that’s a net of $100,000 this person has let slip his fingers. And, this is before we talk about additional student loans he might have taken in those additional college years or other “hidden” financial boons that extra $100,000 could have brought through things like compounding interest, buying a home instead of renting, etc. It probably translates to a lot more than $100,000 in the long run.

Even if you simply say, “Well he can just work an extra four years,” we don’t know if that will be possible 30 or 40 years down the road. Or, he just might not want to. Either way, I think you can certainly at least make the argument that he might have squandered four productive years in his twenties at the expense of facets of his life in his 60s or 70s.

I guess what this really boils down to is the following question; Is it better to move slowly through college, perhaps working and earning enough to keep you afloat along the way, or is better to try to move through college quickly and efficiently even if that means borrowing some money to get you through? To me, there is a clean answer to this question. 

Of course, it must be feasible for a student to do this.  It’s never wise for a college student to live beyond their means and borrow to do that. Life brings about differences in circumstances or throws us curve balls. Those things could understandably slow down a college experience. However, all things being equal, a young person’s twenties or the early part of their career can be an important and productive part of their career as a whole.

The Advantages of Online Learning

      Right now is an unprecedented time for parents as they struggle to make decisions about the educational future of their children in a way they never have before. Parents must choose whether sending their child to school is a safe choice and the alternative is online schooling that is new to many families. So, let's take a moment to dispel some rumors and discuss the advantages online school can have.

First, online learning is not an autonomous process for the student. They don’t just turn on a computer and read in silence all day long, intermittently answering questions that are graded by a machine. It’s anything but that. Online learning is a robust process that includes collaboration with other students, teachers, and a broader digital community. There is content there to read (there most certainly should be) and there are opportunities for students to check their level of understanding by answering questions their teacher might not ever see, but online learning includes so much more.

The teacher of an online course is a person who might not even live in the same town as the student, but they are no less available to assist a student and provide structured learning. Depending on the teacher, the school, and the age of the student, they might be able to call, text, email, or video chat with the teacher as well as watch videos the teacher produced or other videos supplied by the teacher that feature other educators. 

Collaboration with other students is also easier than ever. All educational formats including brick and mortar have moved away from students working quietly by themselves in desks. In fact, if you walk in any brick and mortar classroom today you’ll see students trying to mimic what happens in a digital classroom naturally. Students with computers can instantly share work, comments, and ideas (in a good way) with fellow students and work in a collaborative manner that is more efficient than it used to be. 

The information they are working with might also be more current and relevant. Textbooks, for example, are never any more current than the day they were printed. However, In a digital classroom, information is much more likely to be fluid and constantly changing. Students can easily link to current events in printed or video formats and learn with a sense of immediate relevance that can be difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom.

Lastly, scheduling and timing is a big advantage of online learning. Instead of having to sit through English every day at exactly 10:05 and only until 10:55, students can choose when and for how long a class lasts. This empowers students and families to be more efficient with the time they spend learning. They can also have more flexibility in the school to better adapt to busy lifestyles including travel.

Of course in these times, online learning can be a means of staying safe from illness, and perhaps today that is its biggest advantage.

Enrollment and Moving Over the Summer

Even though class is not in session, there is a

lot happening at schools over the summer. One of those activities is the

enrollment of new students. When possible, families often make their moves

during the summer months. This is logical for obvious reasons and is something

I recommend for reasons I’ll explain below. Of course, moving schools

inevitably comes with some hardships that you should be prepared for.

         The social piece is one that needs consideration.

I don’t encounter many students who are excited to leave their old friends

behind and start at a new school. Then again, there are cases in which social

reasons are a motivating factor behind a move. Especially, if the student is

moving to a school-based on a digital platform. Regardless, encourage your

student to look at their move as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to start

with a clean slate and rebuild who they want to be. There is tremendous

potential in that and it’s not an opportunity everyone has. 

         The academics are also crucial here. Summer really

is the best time to move. Schools operate in a very cyclical way and starting

at the beginning of a new school year allows a student to start at the

beginning of that cycle. I know moves are often caused by a change in a

parent’s employment and I have worked with many families where one parent gets

a new job in the middle of the school year and moves on to the new place while

the other parent stays behind with the kids and lets them finish the school

year at their old school. This isn’t always feasible but if it is, it’s worth

considering. 

         Anytime you change schools, especially when you

move across state lines, there are likely to be speed bumps. What I mean is

that policies and requirements can vary. So, a student might be required to

take four sciences at their new school whereas their old school only required

three. Or freshman take US government at the new school but it’s usually a

senior-level course at the out school. Little hiccups like these generally are

nothing major but they are issues that have to be rectified. It’s usually the

job of a counselor, enrollment officer, or administrator to make a plan for

this, but families should understand these possibilities.

         Lastly, if college is in the plan, families need

to familiarize themselves with state colleges and scholarships right away.

These institutions may not make concessions for students who move late in high

school so there might be some catching up to do. If you have a pre-paid plan in

your previous state, you’ll need to investigate what happens in the case of a

move right away. 

         One last point here is that communication is

always key. Reach out to the school you’ll be moving to and your current school

to make sure everything is in place and there are no surprises. Doing this can

save you a lot of headaches and put you in the best position to make the

transfer from one school to the next seamless.