Horizon Point Consulting

Category: College Prep

Beyond Ready is resources for students preparing for college and/or career. This category archive specifically features blogs about College Prep.

  • What you need to complete a college application

    What you need to complete a college application

    Every college application is different, and before you begin your college applications, you need to make sure you understand the ins and outs of applications. Once you understand the basics, you can gather information that will most likely be standard on most applications, to save you time and effort in completing all the materials.

    Here is list of what you most likely will need:

     

    *Some schools require that this information be filled in on the application, others request a resume that contains this type of information.

    Save yourself some time and energy by gathering this information before you sit down to complete your applications.

    What do you think is the biggest headache of completing college apps?

  • Goal Setting for Students

    Goal Setting for Students

    I’ve always been a list maker. I love to make a list at the end of each work day, so I can draw a red line through item after time the following work day. And, by the way, I don’t just do this for work. I do it for everything: grocery list, kid’s activities for the week, Christmas shopping list, cleaning for the week and the list goes on and on. I’m the queen of lists.

    That being said, even though I’m a list maker, I’m still not as organized as I would like to be. But, when I began the process of quarterly goal setting and implemented a weekly tracking process, organization and my life ran much smoother.

    I believe this process can not only be valuable in a person’s career, but is a great tool to help students become more organized and, long term, be ready for college or career. What a great habit to begin as a high school student?

    First things first words written on the chalkboard
    First things first words written on the chalkboard

    To quote Stephen Covey, first things first, developing a mission statement is a great way to get on the right track. Check out Developing a Personal Mission Statement to prevent stress and burnout  and Power of 3 – Mission and Purpose to help you develop a mission statement. Then, you are in a great position to begin your quarterly goal setting. You can begin this most any time of year, but I suggest beginning on January 1 or in the summer before the upcoming school year. Develop 3 or 4 goals for the quarter. Then, document how you will achieve those goals. This will help you as you begin entering action items into you weekly tracking spreadsheet.

    Even if you are very disciplined, it is great to have an accountability partner. So, grab a friend and begin the process together. How great will it be to be entering your senior year of high school and already be on the right track for college or career? You could have your portfolio complete, applications completed to your top college choice, job shadowing experience and even taken the ACT for the fourth time. You will be leaps and bounds ahead of some of your classmates.

    Check out our Goal Setting Worksheet to help you get started.

  • 3 Ways to Keep Your Adult Kids from Moving Back in with You

    The statistics are startling.  In 2009, 80% of college graduates moved back in with their parents according to CNN Money.  That’s just because the economy was so bad then you say.

    Probably not.

    Market Watch reported that a Pew Research Center Analysis determined that in 2012, 36% of adults ages 18-36 live at home with their parents.   That’s more than 1/3 of young adults in America not out on their own.  If you consider someone over 30 a “young adult”.  And Tim Elmore reports in his new book, 12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid, that in 2013 85% of college students planned to move back home after graduating.

    Many parents ask me what they can do to help their student be successful in college.  I think the better question is how can we help college prepare them to be successful as independent adults?

    In order to enable flight into the real world instead of a retreat back home, there are three things we need to focus on:

    1. Help them find a career path where their skills and talents are needed in the market place.  Not having a job or not having a job that pays enough to afford to live independently causes students to move home.  If we help them determine career direction and set them up to pursue that direction through their college experiences, then they will be more likely to find quality employment.
    2. Make them work.  With the above being said, just having an educational credential that is linked to a marketable field is not enough.   I recently had a parent of a college graduate call us to ask for help in getting his son’s resume in order to help him to pursue a job.  He had graduated from a top program in a marketable field, but had no job prospects.  He had moved back home with his parents.   When we got an initial draft of his resume from him, it was obvious why he wasn’t having any luck.   At age 24, the kid hadn’t worked a day in his life. On top of that, he didn’t have much involvement in student or leadership activities while in college.   We couldn’t make up experience for him to put on his resume. Simply pursuing an internship in the field of his major at the very least (where I know for a fact there are firms all over the campus he attended clamoring for interns and full-time employees) would have given him opportunities in his field and potential job prospects post graduation, not to mention the opportunity to learn skills and garner experience that can’t be developed only in the classroom.  As Dr. Elmore says in his book, “Work shapes us. Being productive is innately good for human beings.” In addition, working and being responsible for some of their own finances teaches valuable skills and can help with one of the reasons students can’t afford to go out on their own- student loan debt.
    3. Don’t do it for them.   The kid that couldn’t get a job in his field wasn’t calling me about his resume. His dad was.  After talking to his dad two or three times to try to arrange things, I finally asked him to tell his son to call me directly.   If his son had been given responsibility for his future without the crutch of his parents couch and his dad calling to get his resume drafted and pay for it, he might be out on his own now.  It’s just an example of a larger pattern in promoting lack of motivation and drive by doing and fixing everything for our kids.  We enable a can’t do instead a can-do attitude.

    I say this just as much as reminder to myself as a parent than anything. As I listen to my three-and-a-half year old scream that he can’t put his shoes and socks on by himself when I know his is fully capable of doing it on his own my mind flashes to him as a 30 year old at home on our couch.   I calmly tell him he can do it himself and walk away, hoping this doesn’t make us late. I haven’t always chosen this route.

    If your student is headed to college, who is filling out their college applications, writing their scholarship essays, asking for recommendations from teachers and scheduling college visits?  If we are doing all this for them as 17 and 18 year olds, what makes us think they are going to take ownership of things when they graduate from college (if they are even able to graduate by their own efforts) at 22 or 23?

    It’s sometimes easier said than done, but if we all want our kids to be successful in life, not just in college, we need to remind ourselves to think long term by helping them:

    • Discover who they are and help them match that to a need in the marketplace
    • Make them work to help them learn the value of being productive early on
    • Provide them with opportunities to do things on their own, without us constantly rescuing. This includes allowing them to fail when they don’t take responsibility for doing things on their own.

    Interested in more related topics? You may also like:

    Help Your Child Discover

    College Prep Checklist

    Help Your Child Create a Pros and Cons List not a Good or Bad List

    Be a Coach to Your Child

    What are you doing today to prepare your child for tomorrow?

  • Mollie’s List of Must Haves For Dorm Living

    Mollie’s List of Must Haves For Dorm Living

    My roommate and I do not live in the same town so we decided to meet up and shop together. As soon as we started in Bed, Bath, and Beyond we became overwhelmed. We finally decided on the colors we both liked and then everything fell into place. I have always been excited about decorating my dorm room! I knew how I wanted to decorate it but I didn’t realize that I had to plan to get everything I would need for the next year! The bedding and decretive things were fun to find, but then I had to start thinking about how many lightbulbs I needed and how big does our trash can need to be. To make this whole process easier, I have come up with a list of must haves for your dorm room.

    Dorm Must Haves: The Basics

    Bedding 

      -Comforter 

      -2 Sets of XL twin sheets

      -Mattress Topper (It is very important to get one that is thick and comfortable, this is what will make your dorm bed comfortable)

      -Pillows

    Bathroom

      -Bathroom rug

      -Trashcan

      -Shower shelf

      -Towels ( if you have not already recieved plenty from graduation gifts)

    Other Dorm Items

      -Area Rug

      -Futon

      -Stool (I plan on raising my bed to have more storage room)

      -Storage Bins ( great for packing everything and storage!)

      -Trashcan

      -Laundry bag

    Cleaning Supplies

      -Detergent

      -Clorox wipes

      -Dryer sheets

      -Hand soap

      -Room spray

    Dorm Must Haves: For Decorating

      -String Lights!!

      -String and paper clips to hang up pictures! 

      -Headboard

         – This is the one my dad made for me!

    131121_0001

    I have less than a week until I leave for school and I almost everything planned out and packed. Earlier this week I even made a life size layout of where I wanted everything to go in the dorm room.

    140724_0006

    For more dorm decorating ideas, check out the Horizon Point Pinterest board!

  • 6 Places to Go to Tap into Job Shadowing Opportunities

    6 Places to Go to Tap into Job Shadowing Opportunities

    In a conversation with a university professor today, I was struck by his comment that his high achieving students know what general field they want to go into (finance, engineering, nursing) but they actually have no clue what different career options are available in the fields of study they have chosen and they don’t have a clue what working in these fields would involve on a day-to-day basis.  

    If this is the case, most of us, even the high achievers out there are making careers decisions based on hope and prayer, on what just sounds good, not actually on what we know to be good.  

    Practical learning is the best way to remedy this situation, but most people don’t get practical experience until they get a job in the field.  Once you’ve got a mortgage to pay and mouths to feed, it’s hard to change your mind and switch fields, especially when you’ve invested heavily in your education towards the field.

    As a way to encourage learning about career fields before actually embarking on them, we encourage students to job shadow, Co-Op and or intern. It’s like getting your feet wet before you dive in and realize you don’t like the pool you’re in. 

    To get an opportunity for practical experience, tap into: 

    Family and friends

    Your College Career Center or High School Guidance Office

    Teachers and Professors 

    Community and church groups you are involved in

    Your Community’s Chamber of Commerce or Business Organization

    Junior Achievement

    Bottom line, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone if you can learn more about what they do or to see if there is a program already set up in your area or at your school to coordinate a practical experience for you. Most people are willing to share their expertise and experience to help others make wise decisions and there are a lot of good organizations out there trying to foster this interaction. 

    Once you get an opportunity set up to learn more about a job, our job shadowing questionnaire can help you know what questions to ask to make sure you are getting the info you need to make wise choices about your career.