collegepreppodcast's podcast

Every student wants to stand out on their college applications, but how do you choose activities that are aligned with your passions and not just trying to impress the colleges?

Megan walks listeners through six tips for choosing high school activities that look great on your college resume and also help you live a vibrant, well-rounded life that sets you up for a great career.

Tune in as Megan and Gretchen discuss how to:

* find things you’re passionate about, and choose activities accordingly

* to save yourself from activity burnout

* take action on your interests, rather than just fantasizing about what you’d like to do in the future

* move beyond formal, organized activities and get creative about getting experience in your fields of interest, and

* create a balanced sense of who you are and what you’re capable of.

 

Teenagers are not the savviest of communicators when it comes to interacting with teachers.

Gretchen shares about some blunders her clients have made recently and provides suggestions about what to do instead to sustain strong relationships with your teachers and get better grades, too.

Tune in as Gretchen and Megan discuss how to:

* how to construct an email that inspires a teacher to reply,

* how decide when to email and when to talk to the teacher in person,

* communicate when you’ve double-booked meetings with more than one teacher at once,

* prep for tutoring sessions with your teacher so that you spend less time but get more help,

and more

To get some more step by step guidance from Megan about choosing the right activities, visit www.collegeprepresults.com.

How does a kid who loves (but doesn’t excel at) baseball get recruited to play on college teams? How does a student who wants to save money on college find better scholarships?

In this engaging interview with guest Expert Michelle Kretschmar, she shares her love of number crunching to help you cut college costs. 

Specifically, Michelle shares with Gretchen and Megan:

* Where can you apply for the best/most scholarships

* Why athletic ability isn’t likely to pay for college, but how to become a sought after player anyway

* How useful college rankings are, and how to use them to compile a valuable list of schools perfect for you

* Why people should care about each college’s graduation rates, and

* What parents should do if you think think you won’t qualify for financial aid.

If you’d like Michelle’s help creating the perfect college list for you (one which almost guarantees you’ll get offered scholarships AND get a great education), please join Michelle’s upcoming online class Roadmap to Cutting College Costs. Enter the coupon code “CollegePrep75” and get a $75 discount. If the class is over, but you’d like a free introduction to college funding sources, check this out.

 

Michelle Kretzschmar blogs at DIY College Rankings on how to find a college with a focus on using data to make the best choices possible. After helping her son through the college search and baseball recruiting process, she created the DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet which contains information on over 1,500 colleges that families can use to identify schools best for them.

 

 

 

 

 

What does ETS do if they think they catch you cheating on the SAT?

Megan tells stories from two of her clients whose scores improved so much on the SAT that the testing service sent them an unfortunate letter.

That letter stated that the extreme improvement between their PSAT and SAT scores were a sign that there was possible cheating on the test, and their scores were being withheld while it was being investigated.

Tune in to find out how Megan and her clients worked with this shocking news, as well as find out what to do in the future so you or your student doesn’t have to worry about the same problem.

Is it really possible to graduate debt-free?

Financial Expert Rachel Cruze explains the dangers of debt in teen-friendly terms, and offers up to 40K in college scholarships to which listeners can apply. Join the us as we discuss:

* some surprising facts about the lack of financial literacy that teens have when they go to college,

* some devastating mistakes teens make with their money,

* how to start early to find as many scholarships as possible for college,

* how to choose which schools to go to so that you eliminate needless spending,

* and more!

Plus, don’t miss out on this FINANCIAL LITERACY CHALLENGE for High School Students:

* Grand prize is a $40,000 scholarship for a senior

* Go to daveramsey.com/challenge

* Take a 15 question personal finance quiz and a brief money survey

* Students who score 100% on the quiz will be entered to win prizes

* 3 Seniors will win scholarships  — $40,000, $3,500 or $1,000

* 3 underclassmen will win Chromebook 2 laptops

The contest runs today through April 25, 2016.

About Rachel

As a seasoned communicator and Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruze has been speaking to groups as large as 10,000 for more than a decade. The daughter of Dave Ramsey, she joined Ramsey Solutions in 2010 and uses the knowledge and experiences from growing up in the Ramsey household to educate others on the proper way to handle their money wisely and stay out of debt. Rachel co-authored the #1 New York Times best-selling book Smart Money Smart Kids with her dad. You can follow Rachel on Twitter at @RachelCruze and online at rachelcruze.com or at facebook.com/rachelramseycruze.

 

Everyone is exhausted at this point in the semester. Many students (and educators!) start to wonder how they’ll ever make it to the end of the semester.

However, here are 5 tips to help you get a last burst of energy, so that instead of tanking you can triumph as make it through the rest of the school year.

* how to notice when you need to rest

* the best and worst ways to try to rest

* how to get organized when you’re feeling overwhelmed

* the importance of shifting your study methods when they’re no longer working

* how to keep perfectionism from getting in your way,

* how to engage the right tools, team, and routines to keep you going

* how to notice what thoughts are getting in your way, and shifting them

Does email-writing intimated you? It certainly seems to befuddle many of Gretchen and Megan’s young adult clients. Even Gretchen’s coaching trainees struggle with their confidence when writing introductory emails to potential collaborators and clients.

Guest expert Danny Rubin breaks down how to communicate in ways that will impress people and attract opportunities, including internships and jobs. He shares:

* How to make a networking or job/internship email authentic and memorable

* How to rely on our experiences to tell great stories in job and college applications

* How to ask interview questions that will impress college faculty and employers

* Why it’s so important for college students too have a blog or online portfolio

Danny Rubin is a communications expert and author of the new book, Wait, How Do I Write This Email?, a collection of 100+ templates for networking, the job search and LinkedIn. Read more ofDanny‘s insights on his blog, News To Live By (news-to-live-by-dot-net if you’re reading it aloud), which highlights the career advice “hidden” in the latest headlines. You can also follow him on Twitter at @DannyHRubin.

Summer is a great time to relax, but also to learn and grow in ways that aren’t always possible during the school year.

Gretchen and Megan each share their top 5 lists of things students should do over the summer to grow as people, and also get themselves ready for college. 

Megan’s list includes:

* Build independence

* Work

* Learn

* Travel, and

* Serve

Gretchen’s list includes:

* Learn a practical skill,

* Get an internship,

* Do something hard, scary, challenging, or surprising,

* Plan part or all of a family vacation,

* Read both fiction and nonfiction

Although their lists were slightly different, one common element is that students should be STRATEGIC about how their summer activities help set them up to be thriving adults with amazing lives.

Students waste much of their study time reviewing the information in non-productive ways.

To inspire them to study strategically, Gretchen walks listeners through the 3 steps of her new model “The Study Cycle,” which she is currently teaching to educators in a course called The Art of Inspiring Students to Study Strategically.

Listen in as Gretchen walks Megan through the three steps in the Study Cycle, including the following:

* how to get information into your head in new and creative ways,

* a big mistake students make when testing themselves that causes them to lose points even when they’ve spent lots of time reviewing the information,

* how to ensure that you are actually learning the information correctly,

* and more!

If you’d like more detailed information about how to save time and study more effectively, check this out.

 

More employers are looking for students fresh out of college who have work experience.

Internships are the best way to gain this experience, and there are plenty to be found, if you know where to look.

Guest expert Sharice Kent, who is a millenial career coach, knows first hand how to get great internships. Listen in as she shares :

* why graduating in four years (rather than staying in for six) saves you $40K a year

* why internships are so important for the college experience (and for setting you up to get great jobs later)

* where to find the best internships, for both college and high school students

* how to make sure you’re getting the most out of your internships

* how many internships is the right amount to set you up for career success after college,

* and more!

Sharise Kent has been motivating, guiding and coaching students to academic and career success for nearly 15 years. She works with high school and college students as well as recent college graduates to land internships and plan their careers. She spent over a decade in college admissions and 5 years managing a national internship program where she placed over 400 interns with major media companies. She is currently a freelance writer and blogger who talks about all things internship. You can find out more about her at www.theinternshipmanual.com. You can also find her on twitter as @skentcoach, Facebook as sharisekent and Instagram as skent007.