Casting Your Net--The Silver Lining of Electives

        Many students view their high school electives as some burdensome demand from their schools to just fill a portion of their day. I’ll concede just an ounce of truth here. Electives are generally required at the high school level. No school has every conceivable elective and all the ones they do offer might not find their way onto a student’s schedule for a variety of reasons. As a result, some students take a pessimistic view of the electives they do land in.

There isn’t always only a downside though. I believe any student can find a silver lining in any elective. Electives can be beneficial in a number of ways. Perhaps they can help a student hone a particular skill or talent. They might introduce a student to a new hobby or interest. They could teach new habits or lifestyles that increase the quality of life. They may prepare young people for a life lived well and effectively as an independent adult. Or, they might introduce and prepare a student for a vocation. All of these can serve a beneficial purpose and students would benefit from considering these upsides rather than zeroing in on what they hate most about a class.

With that in mind, what is often overlooked in electives is the opportunity for students to cast their net. Merriam-Webster defines that term as the act of trying many different things so that one will have the best chance of finding what one wants. Electives can do just that. They can be a way for students to try out several different skills that they might find have useful applications in their lives.

 I’ll give an example of how this can work. My school teaches a class called Digital Media/Multimedia Design. The emphasis of what is taught in the class is mastery of Adobe Software including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. There’s a little bit of photography and video production that’s taught along with that. It’s true that few students who take that class will spend their careers making significant use of this software. However, it is likely that many of those students will occasionally interact with digital images in their careers. If they ever have to make a flyer to promote something, or even post an image on the internet there could be skills from this course they make use of. They might need to do those things at some point in just about any conceivable career. What's more, we all walk around with a camera in our pocket and snap pictures regularly of what's happening in our lives. Surely, a class like this can have application there and maybe introduce a student to an additional level of photography that goes beyond taking quick selfies at your pool day. 

Students might not use Photoshop to manipulate every photo they take or use all their photographs in an impressive display in InDesign. They might need to at some point though and reaching back to that little bit of information they learned in the Digital Media class might make a difference in whatever they are trying to do. Such is the power of electives. Cast your net and appreciate the opportunity to try and learn something new. 

The Disadvantages of 529 Plans

  Most people are familiar with 529 plans. These are investment vehicles used specifically to save for educational expenses like college. They’re great because families won’t pay taxes on the earnings made within their 529 investments. They are the most common way American families save for college and it’s how I’ve chosen to save for my own children. 529 plans are not perfect though and there are some disadvantages that savers should be aware of.

One of a 529’s biggest disadvantages is that funds can only be used for what the federal government calls qualified expenses. These categories include tuition, room and board, and some educational supplies. These are the most expensive costs related to attending college, but in reality, they probably don’t cover the full cost of keeping a young person who is away at college afloat and content. Further, the amount that you are able to withdraw from a 529 for each category is capped by the college or post-secondary institution the student attends. This can be a problem in some scenarios. For example, if the college you attend sets their off-campus living expense at $500 a month, that’s the most you can withdraw from your 529 plan to pay for an apartment you might rent. If you find an apartment that costs $600 a month to rent, you can still choose to live there, but that extra $100 for rent is going to have to come out of your pocket and not your 529 savings.

Another disadvantage is that the money a family has stashed away in a 529 plan is considered an asset when a college calculates financial need. This can work to reduce or eliminate a student’s financial aid eligibility for things like Federal Pell Grants, need-based scholarships, and subsidized student loans.

Both of these points conspire to create somewhat of a disincentive to save in a 529 plan or at least to over-save. To be sure, having too much money saved for college is a good problem to have, but it can be problematic nonetheless. A family who found themselves with a surplus of 529 funds they were unable to find another use for could withdraw and pocket the surplus, but they’d be forced to pay taxes on the earnings that were leftover in addition to a 10% penalty. That could be a costly sum. Those other uses I mentioned could be redirecting the 529 funds to a student’s sibling or sitting on it a little longer in case the student decided to go back to school for a master's or doctorate program down the road. 

To get around these drawbacks to 529 plans, some savvy parents have chosen some other savings vehicles that might not be truly intended for educational savings but get the job done. These might include taxable brokerage accounts, IRAs, Uniform Gift to Minor Accounts (UGMAs), or even whole life insurance policies. Families can speak to financial advisors if they are interested in these as a 529 plan alternative.

Why you Should Probably Take Statistics in High School

  Mark Twain once famously said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Perhaps the sentiment he is implying there wouldn’t be quite so true if probability and statistics were taught to more students.

Statistics is the practice of collecting and analyzing data and using that information to infer proportions in a whole from a representative sample. That practice is quite different from what happens in other kinds of math, but it is no less important. Most American students will touch on statistics early on in school. They might encounter some basic problems like, “if I have ten marbles in a box and six of them are red and four of the blue what is the chance I pull out a blue one?” However, as they get deeper into grade school and into high school they are very likely to skew away from statistical instruction. Indeed, no state currently requires that high school students take a course in statistics but many do require credits in other courses like algebra and geometry. As a result, students are far more likely to encounter geometry and algebra in middle school. 

Geometry is kind of a one-off and many high school students will study it for a year. High School students who do well in math tend to eventually be fast-tracked to Algebra 2 and from there, trigonometry and calculus are natural progressions. Probability and statistics are kind of like the town that gets bypassed by the railroad tracks and not enough students are taking a detour to get there.

The problem with this is that statistics is an extremely practical math. The American Statistical Association lists about 150 broad college majors that are likely to require a college-level course in statistics. Far less require calculus or trigonometry and those that do may well also require statistics. Anyone who might have to read a study or report that speaks to some collection of data will likely benefit from some understanding of statistics and that happens in countless careers that require a college degree. Actually, I might be hard-pressed to think of one career that would never require someone such a report. 

Still, outside of colored marbles in bags, the first time the majority of American students study probability and statistics deeply is at the college level. Encountering a new kind of math for the first time in college does not likely lend itself to the best possible outcome. Even getting into college could be an issue. Here is a stat for you, about 30% of the math questions on the SAT relate to statistics or data analysis.

The good news is that while no high school requires statistics, many do offer it. So, the simple solution to all of this is to take the statistics class your high school offers. You have to take some math anyway and this should count for that. You’ll be better prepared when you likely have to take a statistics class in college and even if you don’t, you’ll be a more well-rounded mathematics student for the rest of your life. Probably.

Walking Away from Childhood Sports and Activities

            Across America, most children participate in some activity outside of school. Youth sports, where American families spend about $40 billion a year, is an example but musical lessons, dance lessons, and other activities are also included in the kinds of things parents use to fill their children’s time. Some families throw their lives into these things as they coordinate their careers around driving children to practices every day after school and spending whole weekends traveling hours away from home to competitions and showcases. Those travels can come at great expense and there are additional costs related to training and equipment. With that being said, it’s no surprise that these activities can become intertwined with the very fabric of a young person’s identity.

This can be especially true for a student who excels locally at a sport or other talent. Perhaps early on there are hopes of grandeur, but the truth is that very few of us can make a living off of the activities that we invest so much of our childhood in. Often this truth slowly becomes increasingly apparent as childhood wanes and high school graduation approaches. Navigating the emotional toll of that requires a special touch.

This realization can be tough on parents as well. That can be especially true for parents who felt like the investments they made in their children’s activities would pay off in the form of college scholarships. However, few are the gross number of scholarships available at all colleges and universities nationwide in “non-revenue” activities such as diving, gymnastics, or playing the violin to name a few examples. Even in big revenue sports like football, only Division 1 colleges and universities award true athletic scholarships and those are reserved for very elite athletes. Ultimately, the number of people who are able to leverage their childhood activity into paying for all or most of their college expenses is very small compared to the number of people who participate in those activities.

By junior year, many students and parents will start to figure out that they’re probably not going to participate in the Olympics or be signing with an agent. After all that hard work, maybe they’re just a pretty decent high school soccer player and that’s the end of it. Still, there might be little soccer balls or something on everything in a young person’s room and everything they seem to know about who they are is somehow stamped with soccer. A family might find themselves asking how can this person exist without that personal brand. Therefore, they might convince themselves that they need to move twelve states away to some town they’ve never heard of and play for a tiny college that offers them a glorified coupon in the form of an $8,000 academic scholarship even though tuition is $65,000 a year. 

No, you don’t have to do that. It’s okay for you to lay these dreams down. You can still be a worthwhile person if your childhood activity is no longer a leading part of your everyday life. Whatever that activity was, it can still be a hobby for you. You can find outlets to dabble in it. It just doesn’t have to define you anymore. The time, money, and effort you spent on it wasn’t a waste if you don’t go all-pro. It will always be an important part of your childhood, and certainly there were good lessons and discipline that came from it. However, those activities don’t have to be central to your adulthood. Parents and new young adults, it’s okay to think about college and a life beyond that doesn’t include your childhood activities.

The FAFSA Simplification Act Explained

           A couple of years ago, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act (FSA) with an effective date of July 1, 2023. That date is now upon us, so let’s take a look at the changes in FAFSA we can expect to see.

For starters, as the act’s name implies, it’s just going to be easier to fill out. The application itself will be reduced from over 100 questions to around 40. Hopefully, that change alone can significantly increase the number of students who complete the FAFSA. 

Many changes probably affect a small number of applicants but are nonetheless important. Students will now find more access to complete the FAFSA as independent students. Those who are orphaned, homeless, or in other special circumstances will find it simpler to complete the FAFSA without parental involvement. This doesn’t affect many people, but the process was very burdensome for those who it did–a group that needed financial aid as much as anyone. 

One of the biggest changes FAFSA will make is to the Expected Family Contribution or EFC. This was the amount of money the FAFSA determined families were expected to pay out of pocket for their child’s educational expenses before financial aid kicked in. The EFC is being replaced by the Student Aid Index or SAI. The SAI still provides a number that indicates a family’s share of the financial burden it takes to send their children to college, but the components used to derive that number have been modified. Simply put, these modifications within the SAI should have the effect of providing more aid to more students. One benefit that stood out to me here is that “money paid on a student’s behalf” no longer counts as income in the SAI as it did in the EFC. This would include money paid by a grandparent, for example, for the student to continue their education.

Maybe the changes aren’t all great though. One negative I see is the way the redesigned FAFSA treats families with multiple students in college. Previously, when a second child entered college the EFC was essentially divided by two (or by however many children were in college). That provision is being eliminated which will negatively impact some families and essentially remove a discount those who had their children close together used to receive. 

Overall though, these changes are good. FAFSA projects about 15% more students will receive Pell Grants than they did previously, other students will receive more aid than before, more students still (like those who are incarcerated) will be eligible for aid to begin with, and the whole application process is just more transparent and simpler for all applicants.

Lastly, there is one more significant change that hopefully is only temporary. For the past several years, FAFSA has opened on October 1st to apply for aid for the following school year. FAFSA has signaled they are running behind on implementing all these changes. Thus, it is very likely FAFSA will open a little later than usual.

How to decide to submit scores to test-optional schools

  When the pandemic hit, national test centers closed which meant high school students were unable to take SAT and ACT. This significantly accelerated a trend in college admissions that had been gaining ground over the years. Without test scores for many applicants, many college admissions made the submission of SAT and/or ACT scores an optional part of a complete application. Even though test centers are back open, many schools have remained test-optional, so how is a student to know if they should submit their score or not?

For starters, I think a lot of students (but not all of them) undervalue their test scores. Maybe their friend has a better score, but that doesn’t mean their own is worthless. The truth is what constitutes a “good” score is entirely relative to what you are trying to do. Therefore, the first step in evaluating your own score and deciding if you should submit it or not is to pinpoint what it is you are trying to do. So, let’s say your main goal is to be accepted to State University. Colleges and universities typically publish a middle range of scores that their previous freshmen class had. Google around and you should be able to find this pretty easily for your desired school. So, let’s say that State U’s middle range of SAT scores last year was 1100-1270. This means that 25%-75% of admitted freshmen on campus had an SAT score in this range. Another way to say this is one in four freshmen had numbers better than this range, but one in four had a lower score than the range. 

If your score is in the range of the school you want to go to–in this example let’s say you have an 1150–I think you have a good score. Perhaps the middle range of the State U in a neighboring state is 1380-1440. Well, suddenly your 1150 is kind of weak. Again, a “good” score is relative to what you’re trying to do. You have to figure this out before you decide whether to submit your score to a test-optional college. 

I believe that if your score is in a given school’s middle range (or above it), then you have a “good” score, and submitting it can support your application. If your score is below that range, it might be best to withhold your score and attempt to highlight your other strengths on your application. You can make this decision individually for each college or university you are applying to. So, your score might be “good” for that school in your own state in which case I think you should submit it, but if the school in the next state over has stricter admission standards it might be best to hold back your score there. 

Whatever the case, as a university admission rep once told me, “Once we see something, we can’t unsee it.” So, do your research on what kind of score a given school is looking for and make your test submission decision accordingly.

Getting Caught Up For Students Who Are Behind

       It is inevitable that some students will take a few missteps along the way as they move through high school. They might fail a class or do very poorly in one. This can set them off course for graduation and increase the work they need to do going forward to get back on track. Here’s a look at some steps to take to do that.

A wise person once told me, “the first rule of digging holes is to stop digging”. Indeed, if a student finds themself off course for graduation, the very first they should do is avoid doing anything else that will set them further off course. Examine the circumstances that lead to your downfall. If you didn’t do much work for a few weeks, double down on your efforts. If your test grades were your downfall, focus on studying for those. If attendance was the culprit, be on time every time.

If you’re able to clear that hurdle, and the hole isn’t getting any deeper, you can begin working to get out of the one you’re in. If a student fails a course here or there and it is one that is required for graduation, they will likely need to retake that course. This usually isn't comfortable. A student who failed freshmen English, for example, might need to retake that class at the same time they are taking sophomore English. That’s usually not preferred for someone who probably doesn’t like English in the first place, but our failures seldom come without consequences. 

Age is usually a consideration here as well. Few people will be excited to still be working in a high school curriculum much beyond their 18th or 19th birthday. In some settings, they may even be prohibited from staying enrolled beyond a certain age. So, there just may not be time for a young person to get too far off course, and still have time to get back on track. For example, Algebra 1 is the first step in the math sequence for many high schools with four required math credits. If a student is expected to graduate in four years, there may not be time for them to take and fail algebra 1, retake it, and then move on, especially more than once. So, there are scenarios where a school is going to ask a student to retake algebra 1 and move them on to algebra 2 at the same time. 

Lastly, students should keep an eye on GPAs. Schools often have required minimum GPAs to graduate. Poor GPAs can be harder to mend because that process often takes time. GPAs are cumulative across a student's full high school career. Thus, a student who spent 3 years building an awful GPA, might not be able to fix that in a year. Again, the first rule of digging holes is to stop digging and students must be careful to not take out more dirt than they can put back in.

If a student does find themself behind, it’s important to speak to a school counselor or administrator quickly who can help create a specific plan to get a student back on track. However, It will ultimately be up to the student to do the work that makes that plan successful.